After accepting the hospitality of the monks, and spending a short time in the library and chapel, he resumed his journey; and on the southern slopes he and his staff now and again amused themselves by sliding down the tracks which the passage of thousands of men had rendered slippery.

After halting at Aosta, he proceeded down the valley to the fort of Bard.
Meanwhile some of his foot-soldiers had worked their way round this obstacle by a goat-track among the hills and had already reached Ivrea lower down the valley.

Still the fort held out against the cannonade of the French.

Its commanding position seemed to preclude all hope of getting the artillery past it; and without artillery the First Consul could not hope for success in the plains of Piedmont.

Unable to capture the fort, he bethought him of hurrying by night the now remounted guns under the cover of the houses of the village.