He had another motive for closing with the propositions of General Melas.

It was of urgent importance to regain Genoa, ere an English army, which he knew was on its voyage to that port, could reach its destination.
On the 17th of June Napoleon returned in triumph to Milan, where he formally re-established the Cisalpine Republic, and was present at a festival of high state and magnificence.

He then gave the command of the army of Italy to Massena; and appointed Jourdan French minister in Piedmont--in other words, governor of that dominion; and set out on his journey to Paris.

He halted at Lyons to lay the first stone of the new _Place de Bellecour_, erected on the ruins of a great square destroyed by the Jacobins during the revolutionary madness; and reached the Tuileries on the 2nd of July.

He had set out for Switzerland on the 6th of May.