The Washington herald., 1914-01-11
Mantua, Italy.

" Path of Napoleon" which led
him from the arms Of Josephine
two days after his marriage in the
month of March, 1896, to the command
of the army of Italy, 1 could have
traced it by the shower of lovelorn
letters he scattered along its 760 miles.
fAt nearly every change of horses the
young general-in-chief hurried to a
tavern table and sought to relieve the
Inflammation from Cupids wound
which was consuming his breast by
writing a fiery message of love to the
bride he had left behind him.
At the same time his orders were
flying on ahead of him and falling like
snowfakes on his army. whose veter-
an generals were shocked when the
frowzy-headed little commander pre-
scented himself at headquarters and
with Juvenile ardor showed them the
portrait of his bride. But a moment
afterward,'' said Massena, who had
been a soldier seventeen years, -the
boy put on a generals hat and seemed
to have grown two feet. He ques-
toned US as to the position Of our
divisions and as to the effective force
of each corps, told us the course which
we were to take. announced that he
would hold an inspection the next day.
and attack the epemy the day after"
..FIt for an Asylum"
The Path of Napoleon" along which
he sped from his wild dreams of con-
jugal happiness to his suddenly awak-
ened ambition for martial glory was
cut not by his sword but by the keen
edge of his wits. His commission as
seneral-in-chief of the army Of Italy
had been won not by his whit of
grapeshot on the Thirteenth Vendemai-
ire, nor yet by his cannonading at
TouIon. but with pen and paper at his
desk in Paris. where he drew up
brilliant scheme of war and statecraft
combined.
An Austrian army was ready for the
Invasion of France, and, operating with
the army of the most martial of the
Italian states, the Kingdom Of Sar-
dinia. whose territory stretched from
the Lake of Geneva over the Alps and !
down into the Plain of Piedmont, Ma
poieon proposed that the French forces |
which held only the narrow strip OF
Mediterranean coast known as the Ri |
viera, should proceed through pass
in the mountains that lay between
them and the enemy, divide the allied |
armies. compel the Sardinians sepa-
rately to make peace, and then drive
the Austrians out of Lombardy. which |
they had held for eighty years.
He had developed this plan Of cam
paign with no thought of carrying 1t out
himself, but for the consideration of
older and more experienced soldiers. The
veteran Gen. Kellerman returned it to
the government with the blunt retort
that its author was a fit subject for
Scherer, rejecting it with biting irony,
said that lit was for him who had drawn
it up to come and carry 1t out"
Carnot, the director in charge of
military affairs, determined to accept
rthis challenge and send the youthful au-
tnOr Ol lnt plS-Oh-hoieu pidH put I
in execution
Best of all. in the eyes of the inn
poyerished directory. il was to cost moth
ing, for Napoleon promised to make the
Italian dukes who were in alliance with
Austria support the army. The directors,
therefore, gave him only $4,000 with
which to get him over the mountains
and within reach of the ducal treasures
of Italy.
TIE Riviera Today.
7 followed 'The Path of Napoleon to
the headquarters of the Army of Italy
along the exquisitely beautiful and fra
grant Rivieran shore. its graceful head
lands crowned with villas and its steep
mountain sides covered with fields Of
flowers grown to make the famous per-
fumes OF France. But when he passed
that way there were neither villas nor
howers; Cannes, Monaco. Mentone, and ]
Nice were but poor fishing villages, and
the whited sepulchre of Monte Carlo had Z
not risen in its outward beauty on the |;
barren rocks of the Monagesque shore.
NEXT SUNDAY-"Whippias Fsu