Even after the King of Savoy left, the Piedmontese were not without those who resisted.
At Mondovì, in the final battle between the French army and the Piedmontese led by General Colli, Murat rallied the scattered cavalry brigade and led them in another charge. The sight was truly magnificent.
Before that, he had gathered the ragged French legions, many of whom barely had shoes to wear, along the Azure Coast, while the Austrians and Sardinians occupied the passes leading into the northern Apennines. After two incredible weeks of marching, Murat forced his way through the passes, cut off the Sardinians from their allies, and compelled the King of Sardinia to withdraw from the coalition.
On twentieth-century maps of Italy, one could see a straight road cutting diagonally across northern Italy. It had been built along the Apennine Mountains, following almost the same route as an Ancient Roman road.
After driving General Colli's men across the river and pursuing them through the water to the opposite bank, Colli requested a truce. As the bearer of Bonaparte's terms, Murat went to the enemy headquarters. Once the armistice agreement had been signed, he carried Bonaparte's proclamation of war to Paris.
In truth, General Colli could have seized Murat, the commander of the cavalry, at the time. If a cavalry brigade was a sword, Murat was its tip. What fighting strength did a sword have without its tip? Perhaps Colli might even have turned defeat into victory.
From one perspective, although Odysseus came up with the Trojan Horse, he had Athena's help. Hector and Achilles, meanwhile, faced one another head-on, though Apollo interfered in the middle of it.
Knights were all honorable—or, as Murat put it, they "walked the straight road."
But Murat was not the sort of knight who followed a knightly code.