began his campaign in earnest. Had he done so two days earlier,
Napoleon would again have been severely defeated. As it was, Davido
vitch himself came within an ace of being encircled by Napoleon's
victorious army. Another three days of French successes followed around
Ronco, in which Davidovitch took heavy casualties. Both he and Alvinzi
retreated northward; once again the Austrians had failed to relieve
Mantua. The French army, which had quit Verona by the Milan gate
when Alvinzi approached, re-entered it three days later in triumph by the
Venice gate.
Napoleon won the Arcole campaign by the narrowest of margins. He
made a grave mistake in getting bogged down around Arcole and should
have found the Albaredo crossing much earlier. Alvinzi should have
destroyed him in the swamps and Davidovitch should have struck earlier.
Louis Bonaparte reported that French morale was near cracking point:
'the troops are no longer the same, and shout loudly for peace.' Even
Bonaparte's admirers concede that Arcole was a near-run thing. The
great German military theorist Karl von Clausewitz thought that
Napoleon won because of superior tactics, greater boldness, mastery of
the strategic defensive and, ultimately, because of his superior mind. Yet
the crucial factor was his nerve: in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation
Alvinzi blinked first. Even though Napoleon did not achieve encirclement
and decisive victory, his protean abilities depressed the Austrian
government, who began to sue for peace at the end of November. But
talks broke down over Austrian insistence that they be allowed to
reprovision Mantua.
Napoleon wrote to Josephine in euphoria about his latest victory. But
two days later his thoughts had turned to erotica. 'How happy I would be
if I could be present at your undressing, the little firm white breast, the
adorable face, the hair tied up in a scarf a Ia Creole. You know that I
never forget the little visits, you know, the little black forest ... I kiss it a
thousand times and wait impatiently for the moment I will be in it.'
Six days later, on 27 November, he arrived at the Serbelloni Palace,
eager for another encounter with the 'black forest'. But Josephine had
used the pretext of her husband's preoccupation with the military
campaign to go to Genoa, where she found solace in the arms of
Hippolyte Charles. So devastated was Napoleon to find Josephine absent
that he almost fainted with shock on the spot. Later that day, as he got
out of his hot bath, he suffered something akin to an epileptic fit. In the
nine days he waited for her to return, he sent her three letters that
oscillated between rage and lust. 'I left everything to see you, to hold you
in my arms ... The pain I feel is incalculable. I don't want you to change
marcin
(Marcin)
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