_Ronco, September 12, 1796_, 10 A.M.

_My dear Josephine_,--I have been here two days, badly lodged, badly fed, and very cross at being so far from you.

Wurmser is hemmed in, he has with him 3000 cavalry and 5000 infantry.

He is at Porto-Legnago; he is trying to get back into Mantua, but for him that has now become impossible. The moment this matter shall be finished I will be in your arms.

I embrace you a million times.

BONAPARTE.

_September 13th.--Wurmser, brushing aside the few French who oppose him, gains the suburbs of Mantua._

_September 14th.--Ma.s.sena attempts a surprise, but is repulsed._

_September 15th.--Wurmser makes a sortie from St. Georges, but is driven back._

_September 16th.--And at La Favorite, with like result._

No. 12.

TO JOSEPHINE, AT MILAN.

_Verona, September 17, 1796._

_My Dear_,--I write very often and you seldom. You are naughty, and undutiful; very undutiful, as well as thoughtless. It is disloyal to deceive a poor husband, an affectionate lover. Ought he to lose his rights because he is far away, up to the neck in business, worries and anxiety. Without his Josephine, without the a.s.surance of her love, what in the wide world remains for him. What will he do?

Yesterday we had a very sanguinary conflict; the enemy has lost heavily, and been completely beaten. We have taken from him the suburbs of Mantua.

Adieu, charming Josephine; one of these nights the door will be burst open with a bang, as if by a jealous husband, and in a moment I shall be in your arms.

A thousand affectionate kisses.

BONAPARTE.

_October 2nd._--(Moreau defeats Latour at Biberach, but then continues his retreat.)

_October 8th._--Spain declares war against England.

_October 10th.--Peace with Naples signed._

No. 13.

TO JOSEPHINE, AT MILAN.

_Modena, October 17, 1796_, 9 P.M.

The day before yesterday I was out the whole day. Yesterday I kept my bed. Fever and a racking headache both prevented me writing to my beloved; but I got your letters. I have pressed them to my heart and lips, and the grief of a hundred miles of separation has disappeared.

At the present moment I can see you by my side, not capricious and out of humour, but gentle, affectionate, with that mellifluent kindness of which my Josephine is the sole proprietor. It was a dream, judge if it has cured my fever. Your letters are as cold as if you were fifty; we might have been married fifteen years. One finds in them the friendship and feelings of that winter of life. Fie! Josephine. It is very naughty, very unkind, very undutiful of you. What more can you do to make me indeed an object for compa.s.sion? Love me no longer? Eh, that is already accomplished! Hate me? Well, I prefer that!

Everything grows stale except ill-will; but indifference, with its marble pulse, its rigid stare, its monotonous demeanour!...

A thousand thousand very heartfelt kisses.

I am rather better. I start to-morrow. The English evacuate the Mediterranean. Corsica is ours. Good news for France, and for the army.

BONAPARTE.

_October 25th._--(Moreau recrosses the Rhine.)

_November 1st.--Advance of Marshal Alvinzi. Vaubois defeated by Davidovich on November 5th, after two days' fight._

_November 6th.--Napoleon successful, but Vaubois' defeat compels the French army to return to Verona._

No. 14.

TO JOSEPHINE, AT MILAN.

_Verona, November 9, 1796._

_My Dear_,--I have been at Verona since the day before yesterday.

Although tired, I am very well, very busy; and I love you pa.s.sionately at all times. I am just off on horseback.

I embrace you a thousand times.

BONAPARTE.

_November 12th.--Combat of Caldiero: Napoleon fails to turn the Austrian position, owing to heavy rains. His position desperate._

_November 15th.--First battle of Arcola. French gain partial victory._

_November 16th and 17th.--Second battle of Arcola. French completely victorious "Lodi was nothing to Arcola" (Bourrienne)._

_November 17th._--Death of Czarina Catherine II. of Russia.

_November 18th.--Napoleon victoriously re-enters Verona by the Venice gate, having left it, apparently in full retreat, on the night of the 14th by the Milan gate._

No. 15.