Royal Military Panorama Office,

Orchard-Street, Portman-Square, 27th February, 1814.

FROM the general interest excited by the present situation of NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, and the scarcity of a CORRECT likeness of that Chief, the publishers of the Royal Military Panorama flatter themselves that the portrait given in this Supplementary Number, will prove highly acceptable to the Officers of the British Army, it having been generally acknowledged the best likeness of the Modern Scourge.

To enable officers regularly to receive the different numbers of this work, they are requested to order them of their respective booksellers in the vicinity of their depôts or stations. The work is forwarded to the principal booksellers of the United Kingdom on the day of publication.

We have received a very interesting Essay, on "TELEGRAPHIC SIGNALS made by Three Soldiers armed with Firelocks, or Three Sailors furnished with Oars; also by the Symbols of Six Flags in Arithmetical Progression of Numbers, adapted to Military and Naval Services, in Separate or Conjunct Operations; arranged by JOHN M'ARTHUR, Esq. L. L. D. Author of the Principles and Practice of Naval and Military Courts-Martial;" and we much regret being obliged to delay its insertion till the following month, owing to our wood-engraver not being able to get the figures executed in time.-A continuation of this gentleman's favours is particularly requested.

Our anxiety to bring down the Gazettes to as late a period as possible, and yet at the same time to render this work generally interesting to all readers, will be seen by the quantity of small type introduced in this and the accompanying Number. All officers having works in the press, are requested to communicate them to the Editor; they will find a ready insertion of the same in this work.

The continuation of Lieutenant Scott's Trial of Colonel Beaufoy will be given in the First Number of the Fourth Volume. This is the only work in which a correct account of that important and interesting Court-Martial will appear, and to which we beg to call the attention of the Officers of the Army.

This Supplementary Number CONCLUDES the Third Volume of the Royal Military Panorama. All officers, desirous of completing their sets, will be shortly enabled, as new editions of the early numbers are now in the press.

The First Number of the Fourth Volume will be embellished with an elegant portrait of General Lord Cathcart, and the Second Part of our valuable Map of France.

We are extremely obliged to L. L. M. for his communication, and shall feel the greatest pleasure in affording to it and every other favour from that intelligent officer, the greatest attention. We request a continuation of Plans, shewing the movements of the army under the Marquis of Wellington. They shall be given to the officers of the army immediately after our Map of France is completed.

Very interesting Memoirs of the late General Sir William Meadows, embellished with a Portrait of that veteran Chief, will be given in an early Number of the following volume.

Military Essays, Reviews of Military Works, Biographical Notes, Journals of Sieges, and of every Military Operation, will at all times be particularly attended to; and the authors of such communications may rest assured that the Editor will preserve an inviolable secresy as to their names, and, when requested, will confer with them personally on the subject of their communications.

As the Panorama is published in a manner that will always render it not only a useful and necessary, but also an elegant work for the confined library of the Military man, and to deserve a prominent place on the shelves of the scholar and the gentlemen, it consequently requires very considerable time for printing and binding, and it is therefore requested that those correspondents who are desirous for an early publication of their favours, will transmit them at the commencement of each month, directed to the Editor, 33, Orchard-Street, Portman-Square.

OF THE

ROYAL

Military Panorama,

OK

OFFICERS' COMPANION.

MARCH 1814.

MILITARY BIOGRAPHY..

H

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

[Concluded from page 531.]

IS campaign of Italy, in 1800, has been much extolled, because he was successful. Beaulieu committed a very great fault, iu taking a position on the left bank of the Tesino. Melas was guilty of a still greater blunder, in not occupying this position with his whole army. On the 14th of June, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Buonaparte was falling back. Now, supposing that Desaix's attack had proved fruitless, which would have been the case if General Zach had made a good use of his column of six thousand grenadiers, what would have become of Buonaparte? He would have been obliged to re-cross the Po at Placentia. Melas, in possession of

Alexandria, and of the bridge at Valenza, would, with his victorious army, have cut off every communication with France. Eye-witnesses assured me, they saw Buonaparte exposing himself to the greatest dangers on the day of the battle of Marengo. From twelve at noon until three o'clock in the afternoon, he continued with the 44th regiment, which from its position was obliged to sustain a very murderous artillery fire. He was reminded that this was not his place; his answer was, a ghastly look, which betrayed his despair. His face was livid; his mouth foaming with rage. Every moment he looked at his watch. It has been said, that he was determined to perish in case of a defeat, because his temerity had committed the safety of the army. His victory of the 14th of June procured him the same advanVOL. III.

Q q

tages as the battle he fought with Beaulieu, in front of the bridge of Lodi. Melas retreated along the Mincio.

In consequence of such astonishing successes, his reception at Milan and in France looked like a triumphal march. At that time Buonaparte had some friends, whose number was swelled by the agents of the police, who were ordered to stimulate public opinion as much as possible, to flatter his vanity by a great concourse of people in every town through which he passed. In several conferences which he had at Paris, it was observed that he knit his brows every time Desaix was mentioned. He was nettled at the report which was circulated, of Desaix's having gained the battle of Marengo. All his sycophants were ordered to contradict a truth that tended to humble his self-love, which is never more infallibly caressed than when he is made to believe, that he is considered as the greatest warrior of the age.

All his efforts to gain the love of the French being counteracted by their atttachment to their lawful sovereigns, which is engraved on every heart, the nation seemed to surround his car in the firm persuasion only, that after having effaced the disgusting remnants of the revolution, he would be satisfied with the dignity of Grand Constable, and re-establish the Bourbons on the throne of their illustrious ancestors.

As he pretended to be rather uneasy in Paris, where, independent of the plan to set fire to the opera-house, which was attributed to the jacobins, some vigorous attempt was apprehended from the royalists, Buonaparte established his residence at the castle of Malmaison. The troops of the camp of Amiens, consisting of ten thousand grenadiers and voltigeurs, were quartered in the neighbourhood of Versailles. Detachments of infantry and cavalry patrolled night and day in the environs of the castle, especially on the road to Paris. One evening, Buonaparte, on returning to his rooms, perceived a ladder placed against a window of his bed-chamber. Frightened at the idea that some one might have already concealed himself, he ran back full speed to the hall, where his officers were still assembled. He stuttered, and was unable to speak. At length recovering from his fright, he explained its cause. The alarin became general. The whole house was repeatedly searched. Madame Buonaparte and her daughter, Hortensia Beauharnois, trembled with fear. An Aide-de-Camp hastened to Versailles. The drums beat to arms, and I marched at the head of six battalions of grenadiers to the assistance of the castle of Malmaison. Although the most diligent search had proved vain, and the arrival of the troops was calculated to restore confidence, the family could not resolve to lay down. It was only on the next day, towards six o'clock in the morning, that the true source of the alarm was discovered. The workman who was repairing the window casements in Buonaparte's rooms, was asked why the ladder had been left standing? "It was," answered he, with much naïveté, "to save myself the trouble of placing it again, that I left it standing. It is so heavy, that it requires two men to place it." The confusion of those who had been indulging in idle conjectures must have been seen to be credited. The anecdote got known, and afforded, for a long time, a subject of merriment to all companies. The alarm which this paltry occurrence caused to Napoleon, because it had not been planned beforchand, affords a sufficient explanation of the motives that induced him to go to the opera on the 3d Nivose.