A-J. Gros, Napoleon op de brug van Arcole (nov. 1796): “Augereau tried to incite his men to move along the right bank [of the Alpone] and make a supporting assault on the bridge. He took a colour, and advancing fifteen paces beyond his skirmishers, stood in the open on the road to the bridge, and shouted ‘Grenadiers! Come an seek your colour.’ This produced no great effect, but Bonaparte decided to try the same thing. [The Polish officer Joseph Sulkowski, soon to be appointed as Napoleon’s ADC] recounts: “We suddenly saw him appear on the dike, surrounded by his staff anf followed by his guides [cavalry escort], he dismounted, drew his sabre, took a colour and sprang towards the bridge in the midst of a rain of fire.” [André Estienne, a drummer with the 51st’s grenadiers] related that Bonaparte took the colour ten paces beyond where Augereau had been, to a distance about 55 paces from the bridge. Sulkowski continued: “The soldiers saw him, and none of them imitated him. I was witness to this extraordinary cowardice, and I cannot conceive it.” … ‘The General-in-Chief, as they told me later, seeing that his efforts were useless, retired, and this time the grenadiers hastened to follow his example.’… ‘Some soldiers fell in the marsh while trying to escape as the Austrians launched an attack over the bridge. Bonaparte’s horse also lost its footing, slid down the bank, and the two of them tumbled into the marsh, from where they were rescued, covered in mud, by a number of men.” (M. Boycott-Brown, The Road to Rivoli [London 2001], p. 464-465)