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.
"On hearing of the battle of Aboukir [better known as 'the
battle of the Nile'], a solitary sigh escaped from Napoleon.
'To France,' said he, 'the fates have decreed the empire of
the land--to England that of the sea.' He endured this great
calamity with the equanimity of a masculine spirit. He gave
orders that the seamen landed at Alexandria should be formed
into a marine brigade, and thus gained a valuable addition to
his army; and proceeded himself to organise a system of
government, under which the great natural resources of the
country might be turned to the best advantage. ... He was
careful to advance no claim to the sovereignty of Egypt, but
asserted, that having rescued it from the Mameluke usurpation,
it remained for him to administer law and justice, until the
time should come for restoring the province to the dominion of
the Grand Seignior. He then established two councils,
consisting of natives, principally of Arab chiefs and Moslem
of the church and the law, by whose advice all measures were,
nominally, to be regulated. They formed of course a very
subservient senate. ... The virtuosi and artists in his train,
meanwhile, pursued with indefatigable energy their scientific
researches; they ransacked the monuments of Egypt, and laid
the foundation, at least, of all the wonderful discoveries
which have since been made concerning the knowledge, arts,
polity (and even language), of the ancient nation. Nor were
their objects merely those of curiosity. They, under the
General's direction, examined into the long-smothered traces
of many an ancient device for improving the agriculture of the
country. Canals that had been shut up for centuries were
reopened; the waters of the Nile flowed once more where they
had been guided by the skill of the Pharaohs or the Ptolemies.
Cultivation was extended; property secured; and it cannot be
doubted that the signal improvements since introduced in
Egypt, are attributable mainly to the wise example of the
French administration. ... In such labours Napoleon passed the
autumn of 1798. ... General Dessaix, meanwhile, had pursued
Mourad Bey into Upper Egypt, where the Mamelukes hardly made a
single stand against him, but contrived by the excellence of
their horses, and their familiarity with the deserts, to avoid
any total disruption of their forces. ... The General, during
this interval of repose, received no communication from the
French Government; but rumours now began to reach his quarters
which might well give him new anxieties. The report of another
rupture with Austria gradually met with more credence; and it
was before long placed beyond a doubt, that the Ottoman Porte,
instead of being tempted into any recognition of the French
establishment in Egypt, had declared war against the Republic,
and summoned all the strength of her empire to pour in
overwhelming numbers on the isolated army of Buonaparte. ...
The General despatched a trusty messenger into India, inviting
Tippoo Saib to inform him exactly of the condition of the
English army in that region, and signifying that Egypt was
only the first post in a march destined to surpass that of
Alexander! 'He spent whole days,' writes his secretary, 'in
lying flat on the ground stretched upon maps of Asia.' At
length the time for action came. Leaving 15,000 in and about
Cairo, the division of Dessaix in Upper Egypt, and garrisons
in the chief towns,--Buonaparte on the 11th of February 1799
marched for Syria at the head of 10,000 picked men, with the
intention of crushing the Turkish armament in that quarter,
before their chief force (which he now knew was assembling at
Rhodes) should have time to reach Egypt by sea. Traversing the
desert which divides Africa from Asia, he took possession of the
fortress El-Arish (February 15), whose garrison, after a
vigorous assault, capitulated on condition that they should be
permitted to retreat into Syria, pledging their parole not to
serve again during the war. Pursuing his march, he took Gazah
(that ancient city of the Philistines) without opposition; but
at Jaffa (the Joppa of holy writ), the Moslem made a resolute
defence. The walls were carried by storm, 3,000 Turks died
with arms in their hands, and the town was given up during
three hours to the fury of the French soldiery--who never, as
Napoleon confessed, availed themselves of the license of war
more savagely than on this occasion. A party of the
garrison--amounting, according to Buonaparte, to 1,200 men,
but stated by others as nearly 3,000 in number--held out for
some hours longer in the mosques and citadel; but at length,
seeing no chance of rescue, grounded their arms on the 7th of
March. ... On the 10th--three days after their surrender--the
prisoners were marched out of Jaffa, in the centre of a
battalion under General Bon. When they had reached the
sand-hills, at some distance from the town, they were divided
into small parties, and shot or bayoneted to a man. They, like
true fatalists, submitted in silence; and their bodies were
gathered together into a pyramid, where, after the lapse of
thirty years, their bones are still visible whitening the
sand. Such was the massacre of Jaffa, which will ever form one
of the darkest stains on the name of Napoleon. He admitted the
fact himself;--and justified it on the double plea, that he
could not afford soldiers to guard so many prisoners, and that
he could not grant them the benefit of their parole, because
they were the very men who had already been set free on such
terms at' El-Arish. ...
{1325}
Buonaparte had now ascertained that the Pacha of Syria,
Achmet-Djezzar, was at St. Jean D'Acre (so renowned in the
history of the crusades), and determined to defend that place
to extremity, with the forces which had already been assembled
for the invasion of Egypt. He in vain endeavoured to seduce
this ferocious chief from his allegiance to the Porte, by
holding out the hope of a separate independent government,
under the protection of France. The first of Napoleon's
messengers returned without an answer; the second was put to
death; and the army moved on Acre in all the zeal of revenge,
while the necessary apparatus of a siege was ordered to be
sent round by sea from Alexandria. Sir Sidney Smith was then
cruising in the Levant with two British ships of the line, the
Tigre and the Theseus; and, being informed by the Pacha of the
approaching storm, hastened to support him, in the defence of
Acre. Napoleon's vessels, conveying guns and stores from
Egypt, fell into his hands, and he appeared off the town two
days before the French army came in view of it. He had on
board his ship Colonel Philippeaux, a French royalist of great
talents (formerly Buonaparte's school-fellow at Brienne); and
the Pacha willingly permitted the English commodore and this
skilful ally to regulate for him, as far as was possible, the
plan of his defence. The loss of his own heavy artillery, and
the presence of two English ships, were inauspicious omens;
yet Buonaparte doubted not that the Turkish garrison would
shrink before his onset, and he instantly commenced the siege.
He opened his trenches on the 18th of March. 'On that little
town' said he to one of his generals, as they were standing
together on an eminence, which still bears the name of Richard
Cœur-de-Lion--'on yonder little town depends the fate of the
East. Behold the Key of Constantinople, or of India.' ...
Meanwhile a vast Mussulman army had been gathered among the
mountains of Samaria, and was preparing to descend upon Acre,
and attack the besiegers in concert with the garrison of
Djezzar. Junot, with his division, marched to encounter them,
and would have been overwhelmed by their numbers, had not
Napoleon himself followed and rescued him (April 8) at
Nazareth, where the splendid cavalry of the Orientals were, as
usual, unable to resist the solid squares and well-directed
musketry of the French. Kleber with another division, was in
like manner endangered, and in like manner rescued by the
general-in-chief at Mount Tabor (April 15). The Mussulmans
dispersed on all hands; and Napoleon, returning to his siege,
pressed it on with desperate assaults, day after day, in which
his best soldiers were thinned, before the united efforts of
Djezzar's gallantry, and the skill of his allies." On the 21st
of May, when the siege had been prosecuted for more than two
months, Napoleon commanded a final assault. "The plague had
some time before this appeared in the camp; every day the
ranks of his legions were thinned by this pestilence, as well
as by the weapons of the defenders of Acre. The hearts of all
men were quickly sinking. The Turkish fleet was at hand to
reinforce Djezzar; and upon the utter failure of the attack of
the 21st of May, Napoleon yielded to stern necessity, and
began his retreat upon Jaffa. ... The name of Jaffa was
already sufficiently stained; but fame speedily represented
Napoleon as having now made it the scene of another atrocity,
not less shocking than that of the massacre of the Turkish
prisoners. The accusation, which for many years made so much
noise throughout Europe, amounts to this: that on the 27th of
May, when it was necessary for Napoleon to pursue his march
from Jaffa for Egypt, a certain number of the plague-patients
in the hospital were found to be in a state that held out no
hope whatever of their recovery; that the general, being
unwilling to leave them to the tender mercies of the Turks,
conceived the notion of administering opium, and so procuring
for them at least a speedy and an easy death; and that a
number of men were accordingly taken off in this method by his
command. ... Whether the opium was really administered or
not--that the audacious proposal to that effect was made by
Napoleon, we have his own admission; and every reader must
form his opinion--as to the degree of guilt which attaches to
the fact of having meditated and designed the deed. ... The
march onwards was a continued scene of misery; for the wounded
and the sick were many, the heat oppressive, the thirst
intolerable; and the ferocious Djezzar was hard behind, and
the wild Arabs of the desert hovered round them on every side,
so that he who fell behind his company was sure to be slain.
... Having at length accomplished this perilous journey [June
14], Buonaparte repaired to his old head-quarters at Cairo,
and re-entered on his great functions as the establisher of a
new government in the state of Egypt. But he had not long
occupied himself thus, ere new rumours concerning the beys on
the Upper Nile, who seemed to have some strong and urgent
motive for endeavouring to force a passage downwards, began to
be mingled with, and by degrees explained by, tidings daily
repeated of some grand disembarkation of the Ottomans,
designed to have place in the neighbourhood of Alexandria.
Leaving Dessaix, therefore, once more in command at Cairo, he
himself descended the Nile, and travelled with all speed to
Alexandria, where he found his presence most necessary. For,
in effect, the great Turkish fleet had already run into the
bay of Aboukir; and an army of 18,000, having gained the
fortress, were there strengthening themselves, with the view
of awaiting the promised descent and junction of the
Mamelukes, and then, with overwhelming superiority of numbers,
advancing to Alexandria, and completing the ruin of the French
invaders. Buonaparte, reaching Alexandria on the evening of
the 24th of July, found his army already posted in the
neighbourhood of Aboukir, and prepared to anticipate the
attack of the Turks on the morrow. ... The Turkish outposts
were assaulted early next morning, and driven in with great
slaughter; but the French, when they advanced, came within the
range of the batteries and also of the shipping that lay close
by the shore, and were checked. Their retreat might have ended
in a route, but for the undisciplined eagerness with which the
Turks engaged in the task of spoiling and maiming those that
fell before them--thus giving to Murat the opportunity of
charging their main body in flank with his cavalry, at the
moment when the French infantry, profiting by their disordered
and scattered condition, and rallying under the eye of
Napoleon, forced a passage to the entrenchments. From that
moment the battle was a massacre. ... Six thousand surrendered
at discretion: 12,000 perished on the field or in the sea. ...
Napoleon once more returned to Cairo on the 9th of August; but
it was only to make some parting arrangements as to the
administration, civil and military; for, from the moment of
his victory at Aboukir, he had resolved to entrust Egypt to
other hands, and Admiral Gantheaume was already preparing in
secret the means of his removal to France."
_J. G. Lockhart,
Life of Napoleon Buonaparte,
chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_Duke of Rovigo,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 9-11._
_Memoirs of Napoleon dictated at St. Helena,
volume 2._
_Letters from the army of Bonaparte in Egypt._
_M. de Bourrienne,
Private Memoirs of Napoleon,
volume 1. chapter 15-23._
{1326}
FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (April-September).
Murder of the French envoys at Rastadt.
Disasters in North Italy.
Suwarroff's victories.
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland and
capture of the Dutch Fleet.