Chapter IV: , VII (66)

When Napoleon, in March, entered upon his campaign against the
Archduke Charles, "the animosity existing between France and
Venice had ... attained a height that threatened an open
rupture between the two republics, and was, therefore, of some
advantage to Austria. The Signoria saw plainly what its fate
would be should the French prove victorious; but though they
had 12,000 or 15,000 Slavonian troops ready at hand, and
mostly assembled in the capital, they never ventured to use
them till the moment for acting was past. On the Terra Firma,
the citizens of Brescia and Bergamo had openly renounced the
authority of St. Mark, and espoused the cause of France; the
country people, on the other hand, were bitterly hostile to
the new Republicans. Oppressed by requisitions, plundered and
insulted by the troops, the peasants had slain straggling and
marauding French soldiers; the comrades of the sufferers had
retaliated, and an open revolt was more than once expected.
General Battaglia, the Venetian providatore, remonstrated
against the open violence practised on the subjects of Venice;
Buonaparte replied by accusing the government of partiality
for Austria, and went so far as to employ General Andrieux to
instigate the people to rise against the senate. The
Directory, however, desired him to pause, and not to 'drive
the Venetians to extremity, till the opportunity, should have
arrived for carrying into effect the future projects
entertained against that state.'
{1318}
Both parties were watching their time, but the craven watches
in vain, for he is struck down long before his time to strike
arrives." A month later, when Napoleon was believed to be
involved in difficulties in Carinthia and the Tyrol, Venice
"had thrown off the mask of neutrality; the tocsin had sounded
through the communes of the Terra Firma, and a body of troops
had joined the insurgents in the attack on the citadel of
Verona. Not only were the French assailed wherever they were
found in arms, but the very sick were inhumanly slain in the
hospitals by the infuriated peasantry; the principal massacre
took place at Verona on Easter Monday [April 17], and cast a
deep stain on the Venetian cause and character." But even
while these sinister events were in progress, Bonaparte had
made peace with the humiliated Austrians, and had signed the
preliminary treaty of Leoben, which promised to give Venice to
them in exchange for the Netherlands. And now, with all his
forces set free, he was prepared to crush the venerable
Republic, and make it subservient to his ambitious schemes. He
"refused to hear of any accommodation: and, unfortunately, the
base massacre of Verona blackened the Venetian cause so much
as almost to gloss over the unprincipled violence of their
adversaries. 'If you could offer me the treasures of Peru,'
said Napoleon to the terrified deputies who came to sue for
pardon and offer reparation, 'if you could cover your whole
dominions with gold, the atonement would be insufficient.
French blood has been treacherously shed, and the Lion of St.
Mark must bite the dust.' On the 3d of May he declared war
against the republic, and French troops immediately advanced
to the shores of the lagunes. Here, however, the waves of the
Adriatic arrested their progress, for they had not a single
boat at command, whereas the Venetians had a good fleet in the
harbour, and an army of 10,000 or 15,000 soldiers in the
capital: they only wanted the courage to use them. Instead of
fighting, however, they deliberated; and tried to purchase
safety by gold, instead of maintaining it by arms. Finding the
enemy relentless, the Great Council proposed to modify their
government,--to render it more democratic, in order to please
the French commander,--to lay their very institutions at the
feet of the conqueror; and, strange to say, only 21 patricians
out of 690 dissented from this act of national degradation.
The democratic party, supported by the intrigues of Vittelan,
the French secretary of legation, exerted themselves to the
utmost. The Slavonian troops were disbanded, or embarked for
Dalmatia; the fleet was dismantled, and the Senate were
rapidly divesting themselves of every privilege, when, on the
31st of May, a popular tumult broke out in the capital. The
Great Council were in deliberation when shots were fired
beneath the windows of the ducal palace. The trembling
senators thought that the rising was directed against them,
and that their lives were in danger, and hastened to divest
themselves of every remnant of power and authority at the very
moment when the populace were taking arms in their favour.
'Long live St. Mark, and down with foreign dominion!' was the
cry of the insurgents, but nothing could communicate one spark
of gallant fire to the Venetian aristocracy. In the midst of
the general confusion, while the adverse parties were firing
on each other, and the disbanded Slavonians threatening to
plunder the city, these unhappy legislators could only
delegate their power to a hastily assembled provisional
government, and then separate in shame and for ever. The
democratic government commenced their career in a manner as
dishonourable as that of the aristocracy had been closed."
They "immediately despatched the flotilla to bring over the
French troops. A brigade under Baraguai d'Hilliers soon landed
[May 15] at the place of St. Mark; and Venice, which had
braved the thunders of the Vatican, the power of the emperors,
and the arms of the Othmans, ... now sunk for ever, and
without striking one manly blow or firing one single shot for
honour and fame! Venice counted 1300 years of independence,
centuries of power and renown, and many also of greatness and
glory, but ended in a manner more dishonourable than any state
of which history makes mention. The French went through the
form of acknowledging the new democratic government, but
retained the power in their own hands. Heavy contributions
were levied, all the naval and military stores were taken
possession of, and the fleet, having conveyed French troops to
the Ionian islands, was sent to Toulon."

_T. Mitchell,
Principal Campaigns in the Rise of Napoleon,
chapter 6 (Fraser's Magazine, April, 1846)._

ALSO IN:
_E. Flagg,
Venice: The City of the Sea,
part 1, chapters 1-4 (volume 1)._

_Memoirs of Napoleon dictated at St. Helena,
volume 4, chapter 5._

FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (May-October).
Napoleon's political work in Italy.
Creation of the Ligurian and Cisalpine Republics.
Dismemberment of the Graubunden.
The Peace of Campo-Formio.
Venice given over to Austria, and Lombardy and the Netherlands
taken away.

"The revolution in Venice was soon followed by another in
Genoa, also organised by the plots of the French minister
there, Faypoult. The Genoese had in general shown themselves
favourable to France; but there existed among the nobles an
anti-French party; the Senate, like that of Venice, was too
aristocratic to suit Bonaparte's or the Directory's notions;
and it was considered that Genoa, under a democratic
constitution, would be more subservient to French interests.
An insurrection, prepared by Faypoult, of some 700 or 800 of
the lowest class of Genoese, aided by Frenchmen and Lombards,
broke out on May 22nd, but was put down by the great mass of
the real Genoese people. Bonaparte, however, was determined to
effect his object. He directed a force of 12,000 men on Genoa,
and despatched Lavalette with a letter to the Doge. ...
Bonaparte's threats were attended by the same magical effects
at Genoa as had followed them at Venice. The Senate
immediately despatched three nobles to treat with him, and on
June 6th was concluded the Treaty of Montebello. The
Government of Genoa recognised by this treaty the sovereignty
of the people, confided the legislative power to two Councils,
one of 300, the other of 500 members, the executive power to a
Senate of twelve, presided over by the Doge. Meanwhile a
provisional government was to be established. By a secret
article a contribution of four millions, disguised under the
name of a loan, was imposed upon Genoa.
{1319}
Her obedience was recompensed with a considerable augmentation
of territory, and the incorporation of the districts known as
the 'imperial fiefs.' Such was the origin of the Ligurian
Republic. Austrian Lombardy, after its conquest, had also been
formed into the 'Lombard Republic'; but the Directory had not
recognised it, awaiting a final settlement of Italy through a
peace with Austria. Bonaparte, after taking possession of the
Duchy of Modena and the Legations, had, at first, thought of
erecting them into an independent state under the name of the
'Cispadane Republic'; but he afterwards changed his mind and
united these states with Lombardy under the title of the
Cisalpine Republic. He declared, in the name of the Directory,
the independence of this new republic, June 29th 1797;
reserving, however, the right of nominating, for the first
time, the members of the Government and of the legislative
body. The districts of the Valteline, Chiavenna, and Bormio,
subject to the Grison League, in which discontent and
disturbance had been excited by French agents, were united in
October to the new state; whose constitution was modelled on
that of the French Republic. Bonaparte was commissioned by the
Directory to negociate a definitive peace with Austria, and
conferences were opened for that purpose at Montebello,
Bonaparte's residence near Milan. The negociations were
chiefly managed by himself, and on the part of Austria by the
Marquis di Gallo, the Neapolitan ambassador at Vienna, and
Count Meerfeld. ... The negociations were protracted six
months, partly through Bonaparte's engagements in arranging
the affairs of the new Italian republics, but more especially
by divisions and feuds in the French Directory." The Peace of
Campo Formio was concluded October 17. "It derived this name
from its having been signed in a ruined castle situated in a
small village of that name near Udine; a place selected on
grounds of etiquette in preference to the residence of either
of the negociators. By this treaty the Emperor ceded the
Austrian Netherlands to France; abandoned to the Cisalpine
Republic, which he recognised, Bergamo, Brescia, Crema,
Peschiera, the town and fortress of Mantua with their
territories, and all that part of the former Venetian
possessions to the south and west of a line which, commencing
in the Tyrol, traversed the Lago di Garda, the left bank of
the Adige, but including Porto Legnago on the right bank, and
thence along the left bank of the Po to its mouth. France was
to possess the Ionian Islands, and all the Venetian
settlements in Albania below the Gulf of Lodrino; the French
Republic agreeing on its side that the Emperor should have
Istria, Dalmatia, the Venetian isles in the Adriatic, the
mouths of the Cattaro, the city of Venice, the Lagoons, and
all the former Venetian terra firma to the line before
described. The Emperor ceded the Breisgau to the Duke of
Modena, to be held on the same conditions as he had held the
Modenese. A congress composed of the plenipotentiaries of the
German Federation was to assemble immediately, to treat of a
peace between France and the Empire. To this patent treaty was
added another secret one, by the principal article of which
the Emperor consented that France should have the frontier of
the Rhine, except the Prussian possessions, and stipulated
that the Imperial troops should enter Venice on the same day
that the French entered Mentz. He also promised to use his
influence to obtain the accession of the Empire to this
arrangement; and if that body withheld its consent, to give it
no more assistance than his contingent. The navigation of the
Rhine to be declared free. If, at the peace with the Empire,
the French Republic should make any acquisitions in Germany,
the Emperor was to obtain an equivalent there, and vice versa.
The Dutch Stadtholder to have a territorial indemnity. To the
King of Prussia were to be restored his possessions on the
left bank of the Rhine, and he was consequently to have no new
acquisitions in Germany. Princes and States of the Empire,
damnified by this treaty, to obtain a suitable indemnity. ...
By the Treaty of Campo Formio was terminated not only the
Italian campaign, but also the first continental war of the
Revolution. The establishment of Bonaparte's prestige and
power by the former was a result still more momentous in its
consequences for Europe than the fall of Venice and the
revolutionising of Northern Italy."

_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 7, chapter 8 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 4, pages 214-225._

_Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon Buonaparte,
chapter 28._

_Memoirs of Napoleon dictated at St. Helena,
chapters 6-8._

FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (September).
Conflict of the Directory and the two Councils.
The Revolutionary Coup d'État of the 18th of Fructidor.
Suppression of the Royalists and Moderates.
Practical overthrow of the Constitution.

"The inevitable dissension between the executive power and the
electoral power had already displayed itself at the conclusion
of the elections of the Year V. The elections were made for
the most part under the influence of the reactionary party,
which, whilst it refrained from conspiring for the overthrow
of the new Constitution, saw with terror that the executive
power was in the hands of men who had taken part in the
excesses and crimes of the Convention. Pichegru, whose
intrigues with the princes of the House of Bourbon were not
yet known, was enthusiastically made President of the Council
of Five Hundred, and Barbé-Marbois was made President of the
Ancients. Le Tourneur having become, by lot, the retiring
member of the Directory, Barthélemy, an upright and moderate
man, was chosen in his place. He, as well as his colleague,
Carnot, were opposed to violent measures; but they only formed
in the Directorate a minority which was powerless against the
Triumvirs Barras, Rewbel, and La Réveillère, who soon entered
upon a struggle with the two Councils. ... There were,
doubtless, amongst [their opponents] in the two Councils, some
Royalists, and ardent reactionists, who desired with all their
hearts the restoration of the Bourbons; but, according to the
very best testimony, the majority of the names which were
drawn from the electoral urn since the promulgation of the
Constitution of the Year III. were strangers to the Royalist
party. 'They did not desire,' to use the words of an eminent
and impartial historian of our own day [De Barante, 'Life of
Royer-Collard'], 'a counter-revolution, but the abolition of
the revolutionary laws which were still in force. They wished
for peace and true liberty, and the successive purification of
a Directorate which was the direct heir of the Convention. ...
But the Directorate was as much opposed to the Moderates as to
the Royalists.'
{1320}
It pretended to regard these two parties as one, and falsely
represented them as conspiring in common for the overthrow of
the Republic and the re-establishment of monarchy. ... If
there were few Royalists in the two Councils, there were also
few men determined to provoke on the part of the Directors a
recourse to violence against their colleagues. But as a great
number of their members had sat in the Convention, they
naturally feared a too complete reaction, and, affecting a
great zeal for the Constitution, they founded at the Hotel
Salm, under the name of the Constitutional Club, an
association which was widely opposed in its spirit and
tendency to that of the Hotel Clichy, in which were assembled
the most ardent members of the reactionary party [and hence
called Clichyans]. ... The Council of Five Hundred, on the
motion of a member of the Clichy Club, energetically demanded
that the Legislative power should have a share in determining
questions of peace or war. No general had exercised, in this
respect, a more arbitrary power than had Bonaparte, who had
negotiated of his own mere authority several treaties, and the
preliminaries of the peace of Campo Formio. He was offended at
these pretensions on the part of the Council of Five Hundred,
and entreated the Government to look to the army for support
against the Councils and the reactionary press. He even sent
to Paris, as a support to the policy of the Directors, General
Augereau, one of the bravest men of his army, but by no means
scrupulous as to the employment of violent means, and disposed
to regard the sword as the supreme argument in politics,
whether at home or abroad. The Directory gave him the command
of the military division of Paris. ... Henceforth a coup
d'état appeared inevitable. The Directors now marched some
regiments upon the capital, in defiance of a clause of the
Constitution which prohibited the presence of troops within a
distance of twelve leagues of Paris, unless in accordance with
a special law passed in or near Paris itself. The Councils
burst forth into reproaches and threats against the Directors,
to which the latter replied by fiery addresses to the armies,
and to the Councils themselves. It was in vain that the
Directors Carnot and Barthélemy endeavoured to quell the
rising storm; their three colleagues refused to listen to
them, and fixed the 18th Fructidor [September 4] for the
execution of their criminal projects. During the night
preceding that day, Augereau marched 12,000 men into Paris,
and in the morning these troops, under his own command,
supported by 40 pieces of cannon, surrounded the Tuileries, in
which the Councils held their sittings. The grenadiers of the
Councils' guard joined Augereau, who arrested with his own
hand the brave Ramel, who commanded that guard, and General
Pichegru, the President of the Council of Five Hundred. ...
The Directors ... published a letter written by Moreau, which
revealed Pichegru's treason; and at the same time nominated a
Committee for the purpose of watching over the public safety.
... Forty-two members of the Council of Five Hundred, eleven
members of that of the Ancients, and two of the Directors,
Carnot [who escaped, however, into Switzerland] and
Barthélemy, were condemned to be transported to the fatal
district of Sinnamari. ... The Directors also made the editors
of 35 journals the victims of their resentment. They had the
laws passed in favour of the priests and emigrants reversed,
and annulled the elections of 48 departments. Merlin de Douai
and François de Neufchâteau were chosen as successors to
Carnot and Barthélemy, who had been banished and proscribed by
their colleagues. That which took place on the 18th Fructidor
ruined the Constitutional and Moderate party, whilst it
resuscitated that of the Revolution."

_E. de Bonnechose,
History of France, 4th period,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

"During these two days, Paris continued perfectly quiet. The
patriots of the fauxbourgs deemed the punishment of
transportation too mild. ... These groups, however, which were
far from numerous, disturbed not in the least the peace of
Paris. The sectionaries of Vendemiaire ... had no longer
sufficient energy to take up arms spontaneously. They suffered
the stroke of policy to be carried into effect without
opposition. For the rest, public opinion continued uncertain.
The sincere republicans clearly perceived that the royalist
faction had rendered an energetic measure inevitable, but they
deplored the violation of the laws and the intervention of the
military power. They almost doubted the culpability of the
conspirators on seeing such a man as Carnot mingled in their
ranks. They apprehended that hatred had too strongly
influenced the determinations of the Directory. Lastly, even,
though considering its determinations as necessary, they were
sad, and not without reason: for it became evident that that
constitution, on which they had placed all their hope, was not
the termination of our troubles and our discord. The mass of
the population submitted and detached itself much on that day
from political events. ... From that day, political zeal began
to cool. Such were the consequences of the stroke of policy
accomplished on the 18th of Fructidor. It has been asserted
that it had become useless at the moment when it was executed;
that the Directory, in frightening the royalist faction, had
already succeeded in overawing it; that, by persisting in this
stretch of power, it paved the way to military usurpation. ...
But ... the royalist faction ... on the junction of the new
third ... would infallibly have overturned everything, and
mastered the Directory. Civil war would then have ensued
between it and the armies. The Directory, in foreseeing this
movement and timely repressing it, prevented a civil war; and,
if it placed itself under the protection of the military, it
submitted to a melancholy but inevitable necessity."

_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 4, pages 205-206._

FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1798 (December-May).
Revolutionary intrigues in Rome.
French troops in possession of the city.
Formation of the Roman Republic.
Removal of the Pope.

"At Rome a permanent conspiracy was established at the French
Embassy, where Joseph Bonaparte, as the ambassador of the
Republic, was the centre of a knot of conspirators. On the
28th of December, 1797, came the first open attempt at
insurrection. General Duphot, a hot-headed young man, one of
the military attaches of the French Embassy, put himself at
the head of a handful of the disaffected, and led them to the
attack of one of the posts of the pontifical troops. In the
ensuing skirmish a chance shot struck down the French general,
and the rabble which followed him dispersed in all directions.
It was just the opportunity for which the Directory had been
waiting in order to break the treaty of Tolentino and seize
upon Rome.
{1321}
Joseph Bonaparte left the city the morning after the émeute,
and a column of troops was immediately detached from his
brother's army in the north of Italy and ordered to march on
Rome. It consisted of General Berthier's division and 6,000
Poles under Dombrowski, and it received the ominous title of
l'armée vengeresse--the avenging army. As they advanced
through the Papal territory they met with no sympathy, no
assistance, from the inhabitants, who looked upon them as
invaders rather than deliverers. 'The army,' Berthier wrote to
Bonaparte, 'has met with nothing but the most profound
consternation in this country, without seeing one glimpse of
the spirit of independence; only one single patriot came to
me, and offered to set at liberty 2,000 convicts.' This
liberal offer of a re-inforcement of 2,000 scoundrels the
French general thought it better to decline. ... At length, on
the 10th of February, Berthier appeared before Rome. ...
Wishing to avoid a useless effusion of blood, Pius VI. ordered
the gates to be thrown open, contenting himself with
addressing, through the commandant of St. Angelo, a protest to
the French general, in which he declared that he yielded only
to overwhelming force. A few days after, a self-elected
deputation of Romans waited upon Berthier, to request him to
proclaim Rome a republic, under the protection of France. As
Berthier had been one of the most active agents in getting up
this deputation, he, of course, immediately yielded to their
request. The French general then demanded of the Pope that he
should formally resign his temporal power, and accept the new
order of things. His reply was the same as that of every Pope
of whom such a demand has been made: 'We cannot--we will not!'
In the midst of a violent thunder-storm he was torn from his
palace, forced into a carriage, and carried away to Viterbo,
and thence to Siena, where he was kept a prisoner for three
months. Rome was ruled by the iron hand of a military
governor. ... Meanwhile, alarmed at the rising in Italy, the
Directory were conveying the Pope to a French prison. ...
After a short stay at Grenoble he was transferred to the
fortress of Valence, where, broken down by the fatigues of his
journey, he died on August 19th, 1799, praying for his enemies
with his last breath."

_Chevalier O'Clery.
History of the Italian Revolution,
chapter 2, section 1._

ALSO IN:
_C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 1, chapter 4._

_J. Miley,
History of the Papal States,
book 8, chapter 3 (volume 3)._

_J. E. Darras,
History of the Catholic Church, 8th period,
chapter 6 (volume 4)._

_T. Roscoe,
Memoirs of Scipio de Ricci.
volume 2, chapter 4._

FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1798 (December-September).
Invasion and subjugation of Switzerland.
Creation of the Helvetic Republic.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1792-1798.

FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1799.
Hostile attitude toward the United States.
The X, Y, Z correspondence.
Nearness of war.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1797-1799.

FRANCE: A. D. 1798 (May-August).
Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt.
His seizure of Malta.
Pursuit by the English fleet under Nelson.
The Battle of the Nile.

"The treaty of Campo Formio, by which Austria obtained terms
highly advantageous to her interests, dissolved the offensive
and defensive alliance of the continental powers, and left
England alone in arms. The humiliation of this country was to
be the last and the greatest achievement of French ambition.
... During the autumn and winter of this year [1797-8],
preparations for a great armament were proceeding at Toulon,
and other harbours in possession of the French. The army of
Italy, clamorous for a promised donation of 1,000,000,000
francs, which the Directory were unable to pay, had been
flattered by the title of the army of England, and appeased by
the prospect of the plunder of this country. But whatever
might be the view of the Directory, or the expectation of the
army, Bonaparte had no intention of undertaking an enterprise
so rash as a descent upon the coast of England, while the
fleets of England kept possession of the seas. There was
another quarter from which the British Empire might be menaced
with a better chance of success. India could never be secure
while Egypt and the great eastern port of the Mediterranean
were in the possession of one of the great maritime powers.
Egypt had been an object of French ambition since the time of
Louis XIV. ... It was for Egypt, therefore, that the great
armament of Toulon was destined. The project was not indeed
considered a very hopeful one at Paris; but such was the dread
and hatred of the ruling faction for the great military genius
which had sprung out of the anarchy of France, and of the
30,000 creditors whom they were unable to satisfy, that the
issue of the expedition which they most desired was, that it
might never return from the banks of the Nile. ... The fleet,
consisting of thirteen ships of the line, with several
frigates, smaller vessels, and transports conveying 28,000
picked troops, with the full equipment for every kind of
military service, set sail on the 14th of May. Attached to
this singular expedition, destined for the invasion of a
friendly country, and the destruction of an unoffending
people, was a staff of professors, furnished with books, maps,
and philosophical instruments for prosecuting scientific
researches in a land which, to a Christian and a philosopher,
was the most interesting portion of the globe. The great
armament commenced its career of rapine by seizing on the
important island of Malta. Under the shallow pretence of
taking in water for a squadron which had left its anchorage
only two days, a portion of the troops were landed, and, after
a show of resistance, the degenerate knights, who had already
been corrupted, surrendered Malta, Gozo, and Cumino, to the
French Republic. A great amount of treasure and of munitions
of war, besides the possession of the strongest place in the
Mediterranean, were thus acquired without loss or delay. A
conquest of such importance would have amply repaid and
justified the expedition, if no ulterior object had been
pursued. But Bonaparte suffered himself to be detained no more
than twenty-four hours by this achievement; and having left a
garrison of 4,000 men in the island, and established a form of
civil government, after the French pattern, he shaped his
course direct for Alexandria. On the 1st of July, the first
division of the French troops were landed at Marabou, a few
miles from the city. Aboukir and Rosetta, which commanded the
mouths of the Nile, were occupied without difficulty.
Alexandria itself was incapable of any effectual defence, and,
after a few skirmishes with the handful of Janissaries which
constituted the garrison, the French entered the place; and
for several hours the inhabitants were given up to an
indiscriminate massacre.
{1322}
Bonaparte pushed forward with his usual rapidity, undeterred
by the horrors of the sandy desert, and the sufferings of his
troops. After two victories over the Mamelukes, one of which
was obtained within sight of the Pyramids [and called the
Battle of the Pyramids], the French advanced to Cairo; and
such was the terror which they had inspired, that the capital
of Egypt was surrendered without a blow. Thus in three weeks
the country had been overrun. The invaders had nothing to fear
from the hostility of the people; a rich and fertile country,
the frontier of Asia, was in their possession; but, in order
to hold the possession secure, it was necessary to retain the
command of the sea. The English Government, on their side,
considered the capture of the Toulon armament an object of
paramount importance; and Earl St. Vincent, who was still
blockading the Spanish ports, was ordered to leave Cadiz, if
necessary, with his whole fleet, in search of the French; but
at all events, to detach a squadron, under Sir Horatio Nelson,
on that service. ... Nelson left Gibraltar on the 8th of May,
with three ships of the line, four frigates, and a sloop. ...
He was reinforced, on the 5th of June, with ten sail of the
line. His frigates had parted company with him on the 20th of
May, and never returned." Suspecting that Egypt was
Bonaparte's destination, he made sail for Alexandria, but
passed the French expedition, at night, on the way, arrived in
advance of it, and, thinking his surmise mistaken, steered
away for the Morea and thence to Naples. It was not until the
1st of August that he reached the Egyptian coast a second
time, and found the French fleet, of sixteen sail, "at anchor
in line of battle, in the Bay of Aboukir. Nelson, having
determined to fight whenever he came up with the enemy,
whether by day or by night, immediately made the signal for
action. Although the French fleet lay in an open roadstead,
they had taken up a position so strong as to justify their
belief that they could not be successfully attacked by a force
less than double their own. They lay close in shore, with a
large shoal in their rear; in the advance of their line was an
island, on which a formidable battery had been erected; and
their flanks were covered by numerous gun-boats. ... The
general action commenced at sunset, and continued throughout
the night until six o'clock the following morning, a period of
nearly twelve hours. But in less than two hours, five of the
enemy's ships had struck; and, soon after nine o'clock, the
sea and shore, for miles around, were illuminated by a fire
which burst from the decks of the 'Orient,' the French
flag-ship, of 120 guns. In about half an hour she blew up,
with an explosion so appalling that for some minutes the
action was suspended, as if by tacit consent. At this time the
French Admiral Brueys was dead, ... killed by a chain-shot
before the ship took fire. Nelson also had been carried below,
with a wound which was, at first, supposed to be mortal. He
had been struck in the head with a fragment of langridge shot,
which tore away a part of the scalp. ... At three o'clock in
the morning four more of the French ships were destroyed or
taken. There was then an interval of two hours, during which
hardly a shot was fired on either side. At ten minutes to
seven another ship of the line, after a feeble attempt at
resistance, hauled down her colours. The action was now over.
Of the thirteen French ships of the line, nine had been taken,
and two had been burnt." Two ships of the line and two
frigates escaped. "The British killed and wounded were 895.
The loss of the French, including prisoners, was 5,225. Such
was the great battle of the Nile."

_W. Massey,
History of England during the Reign of George III.,
chapter 39 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:
_E. J. De La Gravière,
Sketches of the Last Naval War,
volume 1, part 3._

_R. Southey,
Life of Nelson,
chapter 5._

_Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson,
volume 3._

_Bonaparte,
Memoirs Dictated at St. Helena,
volume 2._

_A. T. Mahan,
Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and
Empire,
chapter 9 (volume 1)._

FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (August-April).
Arming against the Second European Coalition.
The conscription.
Overthrow of the Neapolitan kingdom.
Seizure of Piedmont.
Campaigns in Switzerland, Italy, and on the upper Danube.
Early successes and final reverses.

"The Porte declared war against the French, and, entered into
an alliance with Russia and England (12th August). A Russian
fleet sailed from Sebastopol, and blockaded the Ionian
Islands; the English vessels found every Turkish port open to
them, and gained possession of the Levant trade, to the
detriment of France. Thus the failure of the Egyptian
expedition delivered the Ottoman Empire into the hands of two
Powers, the one intent upon its dismemberment, the other eager
to make itself master of its commerce; it gave England the
supremacy in the Mediterranean; it inaugurated the appearance
of Russia in southern Europe; it was the signal for a second
coalition." Russia, "under Catherine, had but taken a nominal
part in the first coalition, being too much occupied with the
annihilation of Poland. ... But now Catherine was dead, Paul
I., her son and successor, took the émigrés in his pay,
offered the Pretender an asylum at Mittau, promised his
protection to the Congress at Rastadt, and fitted out 100,000
troops. Naples had been in a great ferment since the creation
of the Roman Republic. The nobles and middle classes, imbued
with French ideas, detested a Court sold to the English, and
presided over by the imbecile Ferdinand, who left the cares of
his government to his dissolute Queen. She hated the French,
and now solicited Tuscany and Piedmont to unite with her to
deliver Italy from the sway of these Republicans. The Austrian
Court, of which Bonaparte had been the conscious or
unconscious dupe, instead of disarming after the Treaty of
Campo-Formio, continued its armaments with redoubled vigour,
and now demanded indemnities, on the pretext that it had
suffered from the Republican system which the French
introduced into Switzerland and Italy. The Directory very
naturally refused to accede to this; and thereupon Austria
prepared for war, and endeavoured to drag Prussia and the
German Empire into it. ... But Frederick William's successor
and the princess of the empire declined to recommence
hostilities with France, of which they had reason to fear the
enmity, though at present she was scarcely able to resist a
second coalition. The French nation, in fact, was sincerely
eager for peace. ...
{1323}
Nevertheless, and though there was little unity amongst them,
the Councils and the Directory prepared their measures of
defence; they increased the revenue, by creating a tax on
doors and windows; they authorised the sale of national
property to the amount of 125,000,000 francs; and finally, on
the report of Jourdan, they passed the famous law of
conscription (5th September), which compelled every Frenchman
to serve in the army from the age of 20 to that of 25, the
first immediate levy to consist of 200,000 troops. When the
victory of the Nile became known at Naples the court was a
prey to frenzied excitement. Taxes had already been doubled, a
fifth of the population called to arms, the nobles and middle
classes were tortured into submission. And when the report
spread that the Russians were marching through Poland, it was
resolved to commence hostilities by attacking the Roman
Republic, and to rouse Piedmont and Tuscany to rebellion.
Forty thousand Neapolitans, scarcely provided with arms,
headed by the Austrian general Mack, made their way into the
Roman states, guarded only by 18,000 French troops, dispersed
between the two seas (12th November). Championnet, their
commander, abandoned Rome, took up a position on the Tiber,
near Civita-Castellana, and concentrated all his forces on
that point. The King of Naples entered Rome, while Mack went
to encounter Championnet. The latter beat him, routed or
captured the best of his troops, and compelled him to retire
in disorder to the Neapolitan territory. Championnet, now at
the head of 25,000 men, returned to Rome, previous to marching
on Naples, where the greatest disorder prevailed. At the news
of his approach the Court armed the lazzaroni, and fled with
its treasures to the English fleet, abandoning the town to
pillage and anarchy (20th December, 1798). Mack, seeing his
army deserting him, and his officers making common cause with
the Republicans, concluded an armistice with Championnet, but
his soldiers revolted and compelled him to seek safety in the
French camp. On Championnet's appearance before Naples, which
the lazzaroni defended with fury, a violent battle ensued,
lasting for three days; however, some of the citizens
delivered the fort of St. Elmo to the French, and then the mob
laid down its arms (23rd January, 1799). The Parthenopeian
Republic [so called from one of the ancient names of the city
of Naples] was immediately proclaimed, a provisional
government organised, the citizens formed themselves into a
National Guard, and the kingdom accepted the Revolution. The
demand of Championnet for a war contribution of 27,000,000
francs roused the Calabrians to revolt; anarchy prevailed
everywhere; commissioners were sent by the Directory to
re-establish order. The French general had them arrested, but
he was deposed and succeeded by Macdonald. In commencing its
aggression the court of Naples had counted on the aid of the
King of Sardinia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. But Piedmont,
placed between three republics, was herself sharing the
Revolutionary ferment; the King, who had concluded an alliance
with Austria, proscribed the democrats, who, in their turn,
declared war against him by means of the Ligurian Republic,
whither they had fled. When Championnet was compelled to
evacuate Rome, the Directory, afraid that Sardinia would
harass the French rear, had ordered Joubert, commanding the
army of Italy, to occupy Piedmont. The Piedmontese troops
opened every place to the French, entered into their ranks,
and the King [December 8, 1798] was forced to give up all
claims to Piedmont, and to take refuge in Sardinia ...
[retaining the latter, but abdicating the sovereignty of
Piedmont]. Tuscany being also occupied by the Republican
troops, the moment war was declared against Austria, Italy was
virtually under French dominion. These events but increased
the enmity of the Coalition, which hurried its preparations,
while the Directory, cheered by its successes, resolved to
take the offensive on all points. ... In the present struggle,
however, the conditions of warfare were changed. The lines of
invasion were no longer, as formerly, short and isolated, but
stretched from the Zuyder Zee to the Gulf of Tarentum, open to
be attacked in Holland from the rear, and at Naples by the
English fleet. ... Seventy thousand troops, under the Archduke
Charles, occupied Bavaria; General Hotze occupied the
Vorarlberg with 25,000 men; Bellegarde was with 45,000 in the
Tyrol; and 70,000 guarded the line of the Adige, headed by
Marshal Kray. Eighty thousand Russians, in two equal
divisions, were on their way to join the Austrians. The
division under Suwarroff was to operate with Kray, that one
under Korsakoff with the Archduke. Finally, 40,000 English and
Russians were to land in Holland, and 20,000 English and
Sicilians in Naples. The Directory, instead of concentrating
its forces on the Adige and near the sources of the Danube,
divided them. Fifteen thousand troops were posted in Holland,
under Brune; 8,000 at Mayence, under Bernadotte; 40,000 from
Strasburg to Bâle, under Jourdan; 30,000 in Switzerland, under
Masséna; 50,000 on the Adige, under Schérer; 30,000 at Naples,
under Macdonald. These various divisions were in reality meant
to form but one army, of which Massena was the centre, Jourdan
and Schérer the wings, Brune and Macdonald the extremities. To
Massena was confided the principal operation, namely, to
possess himself of the central Alps, in order to isolate the
two imperial armies of the Adige and Danube and to neutralise
their efforts. The Coalition having hit upon the same plan as
the Directory, ordered the Austrians under Bellegarde to
invade the Grisons, while on the other side a division was to
descend into the Valteline." Masséna's right wing, under
Lecourbe, defeated Bellegarde, crossed the upper Rhine and
made its way to the Inn. Schérer also advanced by the
Valteline to the upper Adige and joined operations with
Lecourbe. "While these two generals were spreading terror in
the Tyrol, Masséna made himself master of the Rhine from its
sources to the lake of Constance, receiving but one check in
the fruitless siege of Feldkirch, a position he coveted in
order to be able to support with his right wing the army of
the Danube, or with his left that of Italy. This check
compelled Lecourbe and Dessoles to slacken their progress, and
the various events on the Danube and the Po necessitated their
recall in a short time. Jourdan had crossed the Rhine at Kehl,
Bâle, and Schaffhausen (1st March), penetrated into the defile
of the upper Danube, and reached the village of Ostrach, where
he was confronted by the Archduke Charles, who had passed the
Iller, and who, after a sanguinary battle [March 21],
compelled him to retreat upon Tutlingen. The tidings of
Masséna's success having reached Jourdan, he wished to support
it by marching to Stockach, the key to the roads of
Switzerland and Germany; but he was once more defeated (25th
March), and retreated, not into Switzerland, whence he could
have joined Masséna, but to the Rhine, which he imagined to be
threatened. ...
{1324}
In Italy the Directory had given orders to Schérer to force
the Adige, and to drive the Austrians over the Piave and the
Brenta." He attacked and carried the Austrian camp of
Pastrengo, near Rivoli, on the 25th of March, 1799, inflicting
a loss of 8,000 on the enemy; but on the 5th of April, when
moving to force the lower Adige, he was defeated by Kray at
Magnano. "Schérer lost his head, fled precipitately, and did
not stop until he had put a safe distance between himself and
the enemy. ... The army of Switzerland, under Masséna,
dispersed in the mountains, with both its flanks threatened,
had no other means of salvation than to fall back behind the
Rhine."

_H. Van Laun,
The French Revolutionary Epoch,
book 3, chapter 1, section 2 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_R Southey,
Life of Nelson,
chapter 6 (volume 2)._

_A. Griffiths,
French Revolutionary Generals,
chapter 18._

_A. Gallenga,
History of Piedmont,
volume 3, chapter 5._

_P. Colletta,
History of the Kingdom of Naples,
book 3, chapter 2; book 4, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (August-August).
Bonaparte's organization of government in Egypt.
His advance into Syria and repulse at Acre.
His victory at Aboukir and return to France.