attraction-killing and gorgeous as ever! But I was most amused at the Lieutenant. His wife who was really a very pretty woman-seemed to be perfectly victimized by the transcendant attractions of Davis; while the poor husband stood gloomily in a corner-a just impersonation of the green-eyed monster," watching their billing and cooing with a despairing, vindictive look. I was astonished to hear such fine music-for the Mexicans have some stirring and fantastic airs among their national music. Their dances are singularly mazy and complicated-some that I witnessed were very graceful, but the favorite Fandango is a most listless, monotonous, thrump-ete-thrump of the feet of a single couple placed opposite to each other, while the rest of the company are mere "lookerson in Verona." It is associated with old Mexican superstitions. The women were costumed in a style in which antiquated American fashions and semi-barbarous Mexican tastes were oddly blended. The Mexican dandies were all of them arrayed with the same bastard whimsicality.

On the whole, it was a curious, gro

tesque scene. Attracted by a sudden commotion in the crowd outside, I turned my head. Standing close to me, in the faint light, were two men wrapped in dark cloaks; the silver gleam of the stiletto and pistols showing through the darkness, and a dangerous light of sharp fierce eyes glistening beneath the broad shade of their "sombreros." I felt instantly that there was fear in this sudden apparition. They looked like the two horsemen of the morning before. I stepped to the Colonel and whispered my suspicions.

"I thought so," said he.

And almost prostrating the old dame in his hurry, he rushed out, six-shooter in hand! But the two strangers had taken the hint, and were already swinging open the great gate. He followed them, prostrating everything in his way. I attempted to follow, but the multitude of Péons outside interfered, until the gleam of my long knife above their heads made them give way. I got through just in time to see the Colonel fire through the darkness after two men on horseback, clattering away down the hill.

BONAPARTE always chose his Marshals on the eclectic principle. Whereever he found one great quality, he laid it under contribution. The great error, even with sensible men, is, they bring every one to a single standard, and judge him by a single rule. Forgetting the variety everywhere visible in nature, and that the beauty and harmony of the whole depend on the difference of each part, they want to find in every man that proportion and balance of all his qualities which would make him perfect. Disappointed in this, they seek the nearest approximation to it, and hence prefer an ordinary intellect if well balanced, to a great one if great only in some particular direction. Forgetting that such a character is unbalanced only because it has at least one striking quality, they reject its aid, or content themselves with more prudent mediocre minds. This may do for a merchant, but not for a government or mili

tary leader. The collection of twenty thousand common minds furnishes no addition of strength, while the union of one-twentieth of that number of men, each of which possesses force in only one direction, gives immense power. It is true one well balanced intellect is needed to control these conflicting energies, and force them to act in harmony on one great plan, or they will only waste themselves on each other. Bonaparte was such a controlling mind, and he cared not how one-sided the spirits were he gathered about him, if they only had force: he was after power, acting in whatever direction. A combination of men, each of whom could do one thing well, must do all things well. Acting on this principle, he never allowed a man of any striking quality to escape him. Whether it was the cool and intrepid Ney, or the chivalric Muratthe rock-fast Macdonald, or the tempestuous Junot-the bold and careful Soult,

or the impetuous Lannes, it mattered not. He needed them all, and he thus concentrated around him the greatest elements of strength that man can wield. It is fearful to see the spirits Napoleon moulded into his ambitious plans, and the combined energy he let loose on the armies of Europe. Knowing the moral power of great and striking qualities, he would have no leader without them. In this he showed his consummate knowledge of human nature, especially of Frenchmen. Enthusiasm and the reliance on one they never trusted in vain, in battle, will carry an army farther than the severest discipline. A company of conscripts would follow Ney as far as a body of veterans a common leader. So would a column charge with Lannes at their head, when with a less daring and resolute man they would break and fly. Moral power is great as physical, even where everything depends on hard blows. Mind and will give to the body all its force-so do they also to an army. The truth of this was witnessed and proved in our struggle with the parent country.

Jean Lannes was born in Lectoure, a small town in Normandy, in April, 1769, His father was an humble mechanic, and never dreaming his son would be anything more, bound him an apprentice to one in his own sphere of life. In ordinary times young Lannes would probably have remained in the humble station in which his birth had placed him, and become in time, perhaps, a passable shoemaker or carpenter. But France was awaking from a long sleep, and the terrible elements that were to change the whole order of things began already to move. A mighty future seemed beckoning the martial talent of France towards it, and a field was opening where genius and daring could win for themselves honor and renown. Young Lannes ran away from his master, and enlisted for a common soldier in the army. Soon after the Revolution was ushered in, he was sent with the army that operated on the Pyrenean frontier. He soon exhibited the two striking traits of his character-traits which eminently fitted him for the scenes in which his life was to pass-viz., reckless daring and unconquerable resolution. These qualities shining out in the heat of battle and in the most desperate straits, soon won for him the regard of his officers, and he was made chief of brigade. In this rank he fought under Lefebvre, but soon after, for some cause known only to

The

the Convention, which yet scarcely knew the cause of anything it did, he was deprived of his commission and returned to Paris. Amid the conflicting elements that surrounded the young soldier in the French capital, he soon found work to do. An ardent republican, his bold politics and bolder manner could not long escape the notice of government, and he was sent to the army in Italy. As chief of a battalion at Milisimo, he conducted himself so gallantly and fought with such desperate impetuosity, that he arrested Napoleon's attention in the hottest of the engagement, and he made him colonel on the spot. Crossing the Po, soon after, under the enemy's fire, he was the first to reach the opposite bank; and finally crowned his brilliant exploits at Lodi, where he was made general of brigade, and soon after of division. After the successive victories of Montenotte, Milisimo and Dego, Napoleon resolved to push on to Milan. In his progress he was forced to cross the Adda, at Lodi. Twelve thousand Austrian infantry, and four thousand cavalry, with a battery of thirty cannon, stood at the farther extremity of the bridge he was to pass, to dispute its passage. On the first of May, Napoleon arrived at Lodi with his army. Austrian cannon and musketry began immediately to play on the bridge, so that it seemed impossible to reconnoitre the ground. But Napoleon, sheltering his men behind the houses of the town, sallied out into the midst of the deadly storm, and immediately arranged his plan. Forming a column of seven thousand picked men, he placed himself at their head and rushed on the bridge; but the cannon balls and grape-shot and the bullets of the infantry swept every inch of the narrow defile, and rattled like an incessant shower of hail-stones against its stony sides. So incessant and furious was the discharge, that a cloud of smoke lay like a dense fog round the bridge; yet into its very bosom moved the intrepid column. The awful volley that smote their breasts made these bold men stop and stagger like a strong ship smitten by the wave. For a moment the column wavered and balanced on the pass, for a thousand had already fallen, and it was marching straight into a volcano of fire; but the next moment, seeing themselves supported by the tiralleurs that were fording the stream beneath the arches, they shouted, " Vive la Republique" and, receiving the awful storm of cannon-balls and grape-shot on their un

shrinking bosoms, rushed forward and bayoneted the artillery-men at their guns. Lannes was the first man across, and Bonaparte the second. Spurring his excited steed on the Austrian ranks, he snatched a banner from the enemy, and just as he was about to seize another his brave horse sunk under him. In a moment the swords of half a dozen cuirassiers glittered above him, and his destruction seemed inevitable. But extricating himself with incredible exertion from his dying steed, he arose amid the sabre strokes that fell like lightning around him, and leaping on the horse of an Austrian officer behind him, slew him with a single stroke, and hurling him from his saddle, seated himself in his place, and then, wheeling on the enemy, charged the cuirassiers like a thunderbolt, and fought his way through them singlehanded, back to his followers. It is said that Napoleon never forgot the bearing of Lannes on that occasion. The fury of a demon seemed to possess him, and the strength of ten men appeared to be concentrated in his single arm. No wonder Bonaparte promoted him on the spot. His own daring was reckless enough, but Lannes' was still more so, and it seems almost a miracle that he escaped death.

Napoleon, whom his soldiers here, for the first time, gave the title of "the little corporal," in honor of his courage, was, ever after, accustomed to speak of this sanguinary struggle as "the terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi." It was by such acts of heroic valor that Lannes acquired the sobriquet among the army of "Orlando" and "Ajax." A few months after, he exhibited the same fearlessness of character and headlong courage, at the passage of the bridge of Arcola. After the battle had raged for some time, the Austrian general, Mitronski, advanced across the bridge, and charged the division under Augereau. The French, repulsing the assault, followed hard after the fugitives, and pressed on the bridge. The slaughter then became terrific. The Austrian artillery opened in their very faces, and they were driven back almost by the concussion of the discharge, and reeling a moment in their footsteps, broke and fled. At this critical juncture, Napoleon seized a standard, and, with his generals around him, advanced through a perfect hurricane of grape-shot, to the centre of the bridge, and planted it there. The brave grenadiers pressed, with lev

eled bayonets and leaning forms, close after their intrepid leader; but unable to withstand the tempest of fire and of lead which the hotly-worked battery hurled in their faces, seized Bonaparte in their arms, and trampling over the dead and dying, hurried him back through the smoke of battle. But the Austrians pressed close after the disordered columns, and driving them into the marsh in the rear, Bonaparte was left to the middle in the water, and surrounded by the enemy. But the next moment, finding their beloved chieftain gone, the soldiers cried out over the roar of battle, "Forward, to save your general!" Pausing in their flight, they wheeled and charged the advancing enemy, and driving them back over the morass, bore off in triumph the helpless Napoleon. During all this bloody struggle, Lannes never left him; but advancing when he advanced, charging like fire by his side, and covering his person with his own body from the bullets that mowed everything down around them, he received three wounds, which well nigh relieved him of his life. He was suffering from a wound when he entered the battle, but it did not prevent him from doing deeds of incredible daring. Nothing shows the personal exposure and personal daring of the generals, who, one after another, rose to be marshals and dukes, more than the frequency with which they were wounded in their earlier career. Here, after three pitched battles, we find Murat, Ney, Macdonald, Berthier, and Lannes, all wounded.

We cannot follow him through all his after career, but must select out those particulars in which he exhibited his most striking qualities. Lannes was frank, even to bluntness, and so impatient of restraint that he sometimes became insubordinate, but was always brave and firm as a rock in the hour of battle. Indeed, his very impatience of control, and frequent outbursts of passion, when crossed in his purpose, made him rise in excitement and increase in daring, the greater the obstacles that opposed him. Always heading his columns in the desperate onset, and exposing his person where death reaped down the brave fastest, he so fastened himself in the affections of his soldiers, that they would follow him into any extremity. By the openness of his character and brilliancy of his exploits, he fixed himself deeply also in the heart of Napoleon, who always wished him by his side, and leaned

on him in battle as he did on Ney. But the impetuosity of his character demanded constant action, and he grew irritable and unmanly when compelled to suffer without resistance. He could encounter any obstacle against which he was allowed to dash, and would enter any danger where he could swing the arm of defiance; but he had none of the martyrspirit in him. Pinion him, and he would become frantic under suffering. He needed self-control and the discipline of calm and collected thought. Trained in the camp, and educated in the roar of battle, he was all action and excitement. Yet his excitement made him steady. In the midst of falling thousands and the shock of mighty armies, his mind worked with singular clearness and power. It needed the roar of cannon and the tumult of a battle-field, to balance the inward excitement which drove him on. Hence, in his earlier career, he could not be trusted alone with an army, and Bonaparte knew it best. But he learned the duties of a great leader fast, and Napoleon says himself of him, "I found him a dwarf, I lost him a giant."

In the campaign of Egypt, he appears the same great general, and fought at Aboukir and Acre as he had done before at Lodi and Arcola. At Acre, he nearly lost his life, and was carried from the field of battle desperately wounded. In the march from Alexandria to Cairo, across the desert, Lannes exhibited that impatience and irritability we have before mentioned. In the midst of a boundless plain of sand, without water, parched by the sun, and surrounded by troops of Bedouins, the army gave way to despair, and Murat and Lannes among the rest. Wherever there was a battery to be stormed, or an army of eighty thousand men to be annihilated, none spurred more joyously into the battle than they. But to bear up against the solitude and silence of the desert-against hunger and thirst, and a burning sun-foes that could not be routed or even assailed, required more self-control than either possessed. They became dispirited and desperate, and dashed their plumed hats to the ground and trampled them in the sand; and it is said, even conspired to return to Alexandria with the army. Ney and Macdonald

never would have acted thus.

Selected by Bonaparte as one of the eight officers to return with him to Paris, he played an important part in that conspiracy by which the government of

France was overthrown, and the commander-in-chief of the army became the First Consul of the Empire.

Bonaparte having resolved to overthrow the imbecile Directory, and take the power into his own hands, assembled around him the most determined spirits the army could furnish. On the morning that he mounted his steed and rode towards the Tuilleries, resolved to stake everything on one bold move, and pass the power of France into his own hands, seven men, as yet only partially known to fame, were assembled in the palace, sworn to his interests and bound to his destiny. Those seven names afterward made Europe tremble. They were Moreau, Murat, Marmont, Macdonald, Berthier, Lefebvre, and Lannes. Only one was wanting the intrepid Ney. Napoleon felt the loss of him, and when about to present himself before the bar of the ancients, said, "I would give, at this moment, two hundred millions to have Ney by my side."

Being employed awhile in France, he afterwards joined the army destined to Italy, and shared largely in the glory of that brilliant campaign. He accompanied Napoleon over the Saint Bernard, or rather he went over five days before him. The van-guard,composed of six regiments, was placed under his command, and he set out at midnight for the top of the pass. While Bonaparte was still at Martigny, Lannes was rushing down into Italy and had already opened his musketry on the Austrians. When the whole army was stopped by the fort of Bard, Lannes was still sent on with the advance guard by another path to take possession of the valley of Ivrea.

But one of the most remarkable actions of his life, illustrating best the iron will and almost unparalleled bravery of the man, was his battle with the Austrians at Montebello, which gave him the title of Duke. Still leading the van-guard he had carried over the Saint Bernard, he came upon the Po and upon nearly eighteen thousand Austrians, admirably posted with their right wing resting on the Appenines, and their left reaching off into the plain, while the whole field was swept by batteries that lined the hill-sides. When Lannes came upon this strong array and discovered their position, he saw at once that he must retreat or fight with no hope, except to maintain his ground till Victor,five or six miles in the rear, could come up. Independent of the superior

position of the Austrians, they had between seventeen and eighteen thousand men, while Lannes could muster only about eight thousand, or less than half the number of his enemy. But his rear rested on the Po, and fearing the effect of a retreat in such a disastrous position he immediately resolved to withstand the shock of the whole army with his little band. The cheerfulness with which the soldiers advanced to this unequal combat shows the wonderful power he wielded over them. They were not only ready to march on the enemy, but advanced to the charge with shouts of enthusiasm. We scarcely know of a more striking instance of valor than the behaviour of Lannes on this occasion. There was no concealment of the danger-no chance of sudden surprise, and no waiting the effect of some other movement on which his own would depend. It was to be downright hard fighting, and he knew it; fighting, too, against hopeless odds for the first few hours. But all the heroic in him was aroused, and his chivalric bearing before his army inspired them with the highest ardor. Especially after the battle was fairly set, and it was necessary to make one man equal to three, he seemed endowed with the spirit of ten men. He was everywhere present, now heading column in a charge-now rallying a shattered division-and now fighting desperately, hand to hand, with the enemy. Without waiting the attack of the Austrians, he formed his troops en échelon, and advanced to the charge. Two battalions marched straight on the murderous artillery, which, stationed in the road, swept it as the cannon did the bridge of Lodi. The third battalion endeavored to carry the heights, while Watrin with the remainder, marched full on the centre. The battle at once became terrific. Before the furious onset of the French, the Austrians were driven back, and seemed about to break and fly, when a reserve of the Imperialists came up, and six fresh regiments were hurled on the exhausted ranks of the French. The heights of Revetta had been carried, but the fresh onset was too heavy for the victorious troops, and they were driven in confusion down the hill. The centre staggered back

a

before superior numbers and the awful fire of the artillery; but still Lannes rallied them to another and another effort. Under one of the most destructive fires to which a regiment was perhaps ever exposed, he supported his men by almost superhuman efforts. Standing himself where the shot ploughed up the ground in furrows about him, he not only coolly surveyed the danger, but by his commands and presence held his men for a long time in the very face of death. But it was impossible for any column, unless all composed of such men as Lannes, long to withstand such a fire; and they were on the point of turning and fleeing, when one of the divisions of Victor's corps arrived on the field and rushed with a shout into the combat. This restored for a time the fight. The Austrians were again repulsed, when, bringing up a fresh reserve, the French were forced to retire. Now advancing and now retreating, the two armies wavered to and fro, like mist when it first meets the rising blast. As division after division of Victor's corps came up, the French rallied, till at length, when they had all arrived, and the two armies stood twelve to eighteen thousand

the whole French force and the whole Austrian reserve in the field-the combat became dreadful. Though pressed by such superior numbers, and wasted by such commanding and hotly-worked batteries, Lannes refused to yield one inch of the ensanguined field. It is said that his appearance in this battle was absolutely terrific. Besmeared with powder and blood and smoke, he rode from division to division, inspiring courage and daring in the exhausted ranks, rallying again and again the wasted columns to the desperate charge, and holding them by his personal daring and reckless exposure of his life, hour after hour, to the murderous fire. General Rivaud, battling for the heights, and the brave Statrin, charging like fire on the centre, cheered at every repulse by the calm, stern voice of Lannes, fought as Frenchmen had not fought before during the war. The moral power which one man may wield, was never more visible than on this occasion. Lannes stood the rock of that battle field, around which his men clung with a te