He thought the advance not fast enough.
Wishing to hasten it, he spoke to an artilleryman in a tone of command.
"You are not in command here," replied the man; "I am.

I am responsible for the gun; I direct its march.

Pass on." The general approached the artilleryman as if to take him by the throat.
But the man stepped back, saying: "General, don't touch me, or I will send you to the bottom of that precipice with a blow of this tiller." After unheard-of toil they reached the foot of the last rise, at the summit of which stands the convent.

There they found traces of Lannes' division.

As the slope was very steep, the soldiers had cut a sort of stairway in the ice.