These preparations had been made during the week that elapsed between Buonaparte's arrival at Geneva and the commencement of Lannes's march.

He himself travelled sometimes on a mule, but mostly on foot, cheering on the soldiers who had the burden of the great guns.

The fatigue undergone is not to be described.

The men in front durst not halt to breathe, because the least stoppage there might have thrown the column behind into confusion, on the brink of deadly precipices; and those in the rear had to flounder knee deep, through snow and ice trampled into sludge by the feet and hoofs of the preceding divisions.
Happily the march of Napoleon was not harassed, like that of Hannibal, by the assaults of living enemies.

The mountaineers, on the contrary, flocked in to reap the liberal rewards which he offered to all who were willing to lighten the drudgery of his troops.
On the 16th of May Napoleon slept at the convent of St.Maurice; and, in the course of the four following days, the whole army passed the Great St.Bernard.It was on the 20th that Buonaparte himself halted an hour at the convent of the Hospitallers, which stands on the summit of this mighty mountain.