Napoleon seized the advantage at once, urging Masséna’s columns forward in pursuit of the enemy, while Augereau and Serurier fell on the Piedmontese army and drove them from one town after another over the next ten days, until on the evening of 23 April the French army was on the road to Turin. A farmhouse had been found for the general’s headquarters and as Napoleon sat hunched over a quick meal of cold chicken and bread it began to rain, the drops rattling on the roof tiles overhead. The door opened and Junot was briefly outlined against the steel glint of a curtain of rain as he ducked under the lintel and closed the door behind him. He stood dripping on the stone floor and smiled at his commander.

Napoleon set down the hunk of bread in his hand, and quickly swallowed. ‘What’s the matter, Junot?’

‘There’s a Piedmontese colonel standing outside. He carries a message from General Colli.’

‘And?’

‘General Colli is requesting an armistice.’

‘An armistice?’ Napoleon pushed his plate aside and folded his hands together, his mind racing as he considered the implications of the offer. He nodded at a spare chair on the other side of the plain country table and Junot sat down.

‘What have you said to him, Junot?’

‘As we were walking up to headquarters he asked me if I thought you would accept. I said nothing.’

‘You didn’t speak to him?’

‘Not a word.’ Junot shrugged. ‘I thought it was presumptuous of him even to ask.’

‘And so it was!’ Napoleon laughed. ‘Well then, Colli wants to break off the fighting, does he?’

‘It’s not difficult to see why, sir. We’ve been snapping at their heels since we turned on them after Montenotte.They’re hungry and exhausted and need a breathing space. Same as our men. We could use the time to regroup.’

‘Yes, but they don’t know that.’ Napoleon looked up sharply. ‘This colonel, was he blindfolded as he passed through our lines?’

‘Of course, sir.’

‘Very well then, you’d better tell him that I reject the offer.’

Junot looked surprised, and hesitated a moment before he spoke. ‘May I ask why, sir?’

‘Junot, the fact that they have approached us for an armistice means they must think they have more to gain from it than we do. Turin is two days’ march away. Why give them a chance to fortify it? Let’s push on, and then offer them an armistice on our terms. Now, go and tell him.’

Over the next two days the French threw themselves after the retreating Piedmontese, driving them back from one village to the next and cutting them off from the Austrian army. Now it was Napoleon’s turn to offer an armistice. General Colli reluctantly conceded the key fortress towns of Cuneo, Ceva and Tortona and signed the documents that Junot had drawn up.