HISTORY OF EUROPE. [1S7 



to general Suchet, and to the 

 first consul, with an account of 

 his situation, were taken by the 

 enemy. In the mean time, Mas- 

 sena became acquainted with the 

 march of the army of reserve, 

 under Buonaparte. He was not 

 less encouraged by the courage of 

 his troops. There was not a day 

 that passed without skirmishing 

 between advanced posts, in forced 

 reconnoitrings, and efforts to pene- 

 trate within the positions of the 

 besieging army. 



On the thirtieth of April, the 

 Austrians, who by this time had 

 carried the post of Deux-Freres, 

 and fort Quczzi, blockaded Fort 

 Diamant, and commanded the 

 works of Fort Eperon. In this pos- 

 ture of affairs, Massena, perceiving 

 that they had in view to take the 

 post of la Madona del Monte, from 

 whence they might drive the French 

 from Alboro, the only point from 

 which they would be able to bom- 

 bard Genoa, he formed a resolu- 

 tion to make a last effort with his 

 corps of reserve, which had not yet 

 been brought into serious action, 

 and to force the enemy to abandon 

 their most advanced positions. In 

 this he succeeded, but it was at 

 the expense of a series of bloody 

 actions, desperate and obstinate, 

 and loss on both sides : insomuch, 

 that the combatants being too near 

 each other to makeuse of musketrj', 

 had recourse to their bayonets, the 

 butt ends of their muskets, and 

 even to stones. The loss in killed, 

 on both sides, was great. The 

 French made agreat number of pri- 

 ■oncrs, even to tlie amount of seve- 

 ral thousands, and took all the 

 scaling-lmlders destined for the esca- 

 lade of Genoa, and the forts adja- 

 cent. The scaling-ladders were so 



formed as to admit of three men 

 abreast . They were burned by the 

 French in the night. General 

 Soult carried the post of Deux- 

 Freres, and the rout of the Aus- 

 trians was complete. The situation 

 of the Austrian prisoners in Genoa 

 was dreadful. The French suffered 

 extreme privations themselves : 

 their prisoners, after attempting to 

 prolong life by eating their shoes 

 and knapsacks, died of hunger. 



This day, the most memorable in 

 the siege, the victory, which was so 

 decidedly on the side of the French, 

 only served to hasten its conclusion. 

 Such combats, so destructive to both 

 parties, added to the miseries of the 

 French and Genoese, by the in- 

 crease of prisoners without an in- 

 crease of provisions. The army of 

 Buonaparte was yet at too great a 

 distance to come to the relief of 

 Massena before the last of his sol- 

 diers should have perished with 

 hunger. In the sorties, which he 

 made in the course of the month of 

 May, he lost a great many of his 

 officers, and among these some of 

 the generals of his staff, in killed 

 and severely wounded. 



The city of Savona had surren- 

 dered to the Austrians on the fif- 

 teenth of May. The English fleet 

 began now to bombard Genoa 

 every night. The populace, par- 

 ticularly the women, running about 

 the streets, set up frightful cries for 

 peace. And a general insurrection 

 of the people of Genoa against the 

 French, wouldhave ensued, if the ef- 

 fortsoftheFrenchsoldiersto restrain 

 it had not been seconded by a num- 

 ber of individualsamong the inhabi- 

 tants. The illusions of hope at last 

 vanished. There was no longer the 

 smallest expectation that the suc- 

 cours so long looked for would come 



