Chapon and Thureau threatened Turin by two different routes; and Melas, at last roused to a sense of his imminent danger, abandoned the open country of Piedmont, took up his headquarters at Alessandria, and began to draw together his widely separated columns, and concentrate them for the inevitable battle which must decide the fate of Italy.
Buonaparte, meanwhile, was ignorant of the fall of Genoa.

He supposed, therefore, that the army of Ott was still at a wide distance from that of the Austrian commander-in-chief, and meditated to pass the Po suddenly, and either attack Ott and relieve Genoa, ere Melas knew that he was in that neighbourhood, or, if he should find this more practicable, force Melas himself to accept battle unsupported by Ott.
Lannes and the van, accordingly, pushed on as far as Montebello, where, to their surprise, they found the Austrians in strength.

Early in the morning of the 9th of June, Lannes was attacked by a force which he had much difficulty in resisting.

The Austrians were greatly superior in cavalry, and the ground was favourable for that arm.

But at length Victor's division came up, and, after a severe struggle, turned the tide.