CHAPTER VII.

This eBook was produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks

and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

[Illustration: JOSEPHINE]

World's Best Histories: FRANCE

BY

M. GUIZOT AND MADAME GUIZOT DE WITT

IN EIGHT VOLUMES

VOLUME SEVEN

HISTORY OF FRANCE

VOLUME SEVEN

TABLE OF CONTENTS--VOL. VII.

CHAPTER VII. The Consulate (1799-1804)

CHAPTER VIII. Glory and Success (1804-1805)

CHAPTER IX. Glory and Conquest (1805-1808)

CHAPTER X. The Home Government (1804-1808)

CHAPTER XI. Glory and Illusions. Spain and Austria

CHAPTER XII. The Divorce (1809-1810)

CHAPTER XIII. Glory and Madness. The Russian Campaign (1811-1812)

THE HISTORY OF FRANCE

CHAPTER VII.

THE CONSULATE (1799-1804).

For more than ten years, amid unheard of shocks and sufferings, France had

been seeking for a free and regular government, that might assure to her

the new rights which had only been gained through tribulation. She had

overthrown the Monarchy and attempted a Republic; she had accepted and

rejected three constitutions, all the while struggling single-handed with

Europe, leagued against her. She had undergone the violence of the Reign

of Terror, the contradictory passions of the Assemblies, and the

incoherent feebleness of the Directory. For the first time since the death

of King Louis XIV., her history finds once more a centre, and henceforth

revolves round a single man. For fifteen years, victorious or vanquished,

at the summit of glory, or in the depths of abasement, France and Europe,

overmastered by an indomitable will and unbridled passion for power, were

compelled to squander their blood and their treasure upon that page of

universal history which General Bonaparte claims for his own, and which he

has succeeded in covering with glory and crime.

On the day following the 18th Brumaire, in the uncertainty of parties, in

face of a constitution audaciously violated, and a government mainly

provisional, the nation was more excited than apprehensive or disquieted.

It had caught a glimpse of that natural power and that free ascendancy of

genius to which men willingly abandon themselves, with a confidence which

the most bitter deceptions have never been able to extinguish. Ardent and

sincere republicans, less and less numerous, felt themselves conquered

beforehand, by a sure instinct that was not misled by the protest of their

adversaries. They bent before a new power, to which their old hatreds did

not attach, which they believed to be in some sort created by their own

hands, and of which they had not yet measured the audacity. The mass of

the population, the true France, hailed with joy the hope of order and of

a regular and strong administration. They were not prejudiced in favor of

the philosophic constitution so long propounded by Sieyès. In the eyes of

the nation, the government was already concentrated in the hands of

General Bonaparte; it was in him that all were trusting, for repose at

home and glory and peace abroad.

In fact, he was governing already, disregarding the prolonged discussions

of the two legislative commissions, and the profound developments of the

projects of Sieyès, expounded by M. Boulay. Before the Constitution of the

year VIII, received the sanction of his dominant will, he had repealed the

Law of Hostages, recalled the proscribed priests from the Isle of Oléron,

and from Sinnamari most of those transported on 18th Fructidor. He had

reformed the ministry, and distributed according to his pleasure the chief

commands in the army. As Moreau had been of service to Bonaparte in his

_coup d'état_, he was placed at the head of the army of the Rhine joined

to the army of Helvetia, taken from Massena on the morrow of his most

brilliant victories. Distrust and ill-will struggled with his admiration

of Bonaparte in the mind of the conqueror of Zurich; he was sent to the

army of Italy, always devoted to Bonaparte. Berthier remained at Paris in

the capacity of minister of war. Fouché was placed at the police, and

Talleyrand undertook foreign affairs. By a bent of theoretical fancy,

which was not borne out by experience in government, the illustrious

mathematician Laplace was called to the ministry of the interior. Gaudin

became minister of finances; he replaced immediately the forced loans with

an increase of direct taxes, and introduced into the collection of the

public revenues some important improvements, which paved the way for our

great financial organization.

At the same time, without provocation and without necessity, as if simply

in compliance with the mournful traditions of past violence, a list of

proscriptions, published on the 23rd Brumaire, exiled to Guiana or the Île

de Ré nine persons--a mixture of honest republicans opposed to the new

state of things, and of wretches still charged with the crimes of the

Reign of Terror. Only the name of General Jourdan excited universal

reprobation, and it was immediately struck out. The measure itself was

soon mitigated, and the decree was never executed.

Through the revolutionary storms and the murderous epochs which had

successively seen all the great actors in the political struggles

disappear from the scene, the Abbé Sieyès emerged as a veteran associated

with the first free impulses of the nation. In 1789, his pamphlet, "What

is the Third Estate?" had arrested the attention of all serious minds. He

had several times, and in decisive circumstances, played an important part

in the Constituent Assembly. Since his vote of the 20th January, and until

the 9th Thermidor, he remained in voluntary obscurity; mingling since then

in all great theoretical discussions, he had exercised a preponderating

influence in recent events. From revolution to revolution, popular or

military, he came out in the part of legislator, his spirit escaping from

the influence of pure democracy. He had formerly proposed the banishment

_en masse_ of all the nobility, and he still nursed in the depths of his

soul a horror for all traditional superiority. He had said, "Whoever is

not of my species is not my fellow-creature; the nobles are not of my

species; they are wolves, and I fire upon them." He had, however, been

brought, by his reflections and the course of events, to construct

eccentric theories, of a factitious aristocracy, the wielders of power to

the exclusion of the nation, recruited from a limited circle--a disfigured

survival of the Italian republics of the middle ages, without the free and

salutary action of representative government.

"Confidence ought to proceed from below, and power to act from above,"

declared the appointed legislator of the 18th Brumaire. He himself

compared his political system to a pyramid, resting on the entire mass of

the nation, terminating at the top in a single man, whom he called the

Great Elector. He had not the courage to pronounce the word king.

Five millions of electors, constituted into primary assemblies, were to

prepare a _municipal_ list of 500,000 elected who in their turn were

entrusted with the formation of a _departmental_ list of 50,000 names. To

these twice sifted delegates was confided the care of electing 5000 as a

_national_ list, alone capable of becoming the agents of executive power

in the whole of France. The municipal and departmental administrations

were to be chosen by authority from their respective lists. The

_Conservative Senate_, composed of eighty members, self-elective, had the

right of appointing the members of the Corps Législatif, the Tribuneship,

and the Court of Cassation. It was besides destined to the honor of

choosing the Great Elector. The senators, richly endowed, might exercise

no other function. The Corps Législatif was dumb, and limited to voting

the laws prepared by the Council of State, and discussed by the Tribunate.

The Great Elector, without actively interfering in the government,

furnished with a civil list of six millions, and magnificently housed by

the state, appointed the two councils of peace and war, upon whom depended

the ministers and all the administrative _personnel_ of prefects and sub-

prefects entrusted with the government of the departments. In case the

magistrate, so highly placed in his sumptuous indolence, should seem to

menace the safety of the State, the Senate was authorized to _absorb_ him

by admitting him into its ranks. The same action might be exercised with

respect to any of the civil or military functionaries.

So many complicated wheels calculated to hinder rather than to sustain

each other, so much pomp in words and so little efficacy in action, could

never suit the intentions or the character of General Bonaparte. He

claimed at once the position of Great Elector, which Sieyès had perhaps

secretly thought to reserve for himself.

"What!" said he, "would you want to make me a pig in a dunghill?" Then

demolishing the edifice laboriously constructed by the legislator, "Your

Great Elector is a slothful king," said he to Sieyès; "the time for that

sort of thing is past. What! appoint people to act, and not act himself!

It won't do. If I were this Great Elector I should certainly do everything

which you would desire me not to do. I should say to the two consuls of

peace and war: 'If you don't choose such and such a man, or take such and

such a measure, I shall send you about your business.' And I would compel

them to proceed according to my will. And these two consuls? How do you

think they could agree? Unity of action is indispensable in government. Do

you think that serious men would be able to lend themselves to such

shams?"

Sieyès was not fond of discussion, for which indeed he was not suited;

with the prudent sagacity which always characterized his conduct, he

recognized the inferiority of his will and his influence in comparison

with General Bonaparte. Three consuls were substituted for the Great

Elector and his two chosen subordinates equal in appearance, but already

classed according to the origin of their power. As first consul, Bonaparte

was not to be subjected to any election; he held himself as appointed by

the people. "What colleagues will they give me?" said he bluntly to

Roederer and Talleyrand who served him constantly as his agents of

communication. "Whom do you wish?" He named Cambacérès, then minister of

justice, clever and clear-sighted, of an independent spirit joined to a

docile character; and Lebrun, the former secretary of the Chancellor

Maupeou, minister for foreign affairs under the Convention, and respected

by moderate republicans. Some had spoken of M. Daunou, honestly courageous

in the worst days of the Revolution; the clever author of the Constitution

of the year III., and whom Bonaparte had taken a malicious pleasure in

entrusting with the drawing up of the new Constitution. A certain number

of voices in the two legislative commissions had supported his name. The

resolution of M. Daunou was known; Bonaparte did not complete the counting

of the votes. "We shall do better," said he, "to keep to those whom M.

Sieyès has named." Cambacérès and Lebrun were appointed consuls. Sieyès

received from the nation a rich grant and the estate of Crosne. In concert

with Roger-Ducos and the new consuls, he formed the list of the Senate,

who immediately completed its numbers, as well as the lists of the 300

members of the Corps Législatif, and the 100 members of the Tribunate.

Moderation presided over the composition of the lists; Bonaparte attached

no importance to them, and took no part in their preparation. He had

formed with care the Council of State, many capable men finding a place in

it. It was the instrument which the First Consul destined for the

execution of his ideas. Once only, on the 19th Brumaire, he came for a

moment into contact with the assemblies. Henceforth he left them in the

shade; all power rested in his hands. Under the name of Republic, the

accent of an absolute master resounded already in the proclamation

everywhere circulated on the day following the formation of the new

government:--

"Frenchmen,

"To render the Republic dear to citizens, respected by foreigners,

formidable to our enemies, are the obligations which we have contracted in

accepting the chief magistracy.

"It will be dear to citizens if the laws and the acts of authority bear

the impress of the spirit of order, justice and moderation.

"The Republic will be imposing to foreigners if it knows how to respect in

their independence the title of its own independence, if its engagements,

prepared with wisdom and entered upon with sincerity, are faithfully kept.

"Lastly, it will be formidable to its enemies, if the army and navy are

made strong, and if each of its defenders finds a home in the regiment to

which he belongs, and in that home a heritage of virtue and glory; if the

officer, trained by long study, obtains by regular promotion the

recompense due to his talents and work.

"Upon these principles depend the stability of government, the success of

commerce and agriculture, the greatness and prosperity of nations.

"We have pointed out the rule, Frenchmen, by which we ought to be judged,

we have stated our duties. It will be for you to tell us whether we have

fulfilled them."

"What would you have?" said the First Consul to La Fayette. "Sieyès has

put nothing but shadows everywhere; the shadow of legislative power, the

shadow of judicial power, the shadow of government; some part of the

substance was necessary. Faith! I have put it there." The very preamble of

the Constitution affirmed the radical change brought about in the

direction of affairs. "The powers instituted to-day will be strong and

lasting, such as they ought to be in order to guarantee the rights of

citizens and the interests of the State. Citizens, the Revolution is fixed

upon the same principles which began it. It is finished!"

It was not the apotheosis, but the end of the Revolution that the authors

of the Constitution of the year VIII. arrogantly announced. In the first

impulse of a great spirit brought face to face with a difficult task,

Bonaparte conceived the thought of terminating the war like the

Revolution, and of re-establishing, at least for some time, the peace he

needed in order to govern France. Disdainful of the ordinary forms of

diplomacy, he wrote directly to George III., as he had formerly written to

the Archduke Charles (18th December, 1799).

"Called by the will of the French nation to be first magistrate, I deem it

expedient on entering upon my charge to communicate directly with your

Majesty.

"Must the war which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters of the

globe, be eternal? Is there no other means of arriving at a mutual

understanding?

"How can the most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong

beyond what their security and independence require, sacrifice the

interest of commerce, the prosperity of their people, and the happiness of

families, to ideas of vainglory?

"These sentiments cannot be foreign to the heart of your Majesty, who

governs a free nation with the sole aim of rendering it happy.

"Your Majesty will see in these overtures only my sincere desire to

contribute effectively, for the second time, to a general pacification by

a prompt procedure, full of confidence and divested of those forms which,

necessary perhaps, in order to disguise the dependence of feeble States,

only reveal between strong States a mutual desire to deceive each other.

"France and England, by the abuse of their power, may for a long time yet

retard its termination; but I dare to say that every civilized nation is

interested in the close of a war which embraces the whole world."

At the same time, and in nearly the same terms, Bonaparte wrote to the

Emperor Francis. He had treated formerly with this sovereign, and would

not perhaps have found him inflexible; but Pitt did not believe the

Revolution finished, and had no confidence in a man who had just seized

with a victorious hand the direction of the destinies of France. A

frigidly polite letter, addressed by Lord Granville to Talleyrand, the

minister of foreign affairs, repelled the advances of the First Consul.

The English then prepared a new armament intended to second the attempts

which the royalists were at that time renewing in the west. In enumerating

the causes of European mistrust with regard to France, Lord Granville

added, "The best guarantee, the most natural guarantee, for the reality

and the permanence of the pacific intentions of the French government,

would be the restoration of that royal dynasty which has maintained for so

many ages the internal prosperity of France, and which has made it

regarded with respect and consideration abroad. Such an event would clear

away all the obstacles which hinder negotiations for peace, it would

ensure to France the tranquil possession of her ancient territory, and it

would give to all the nations of Europe that security which they are

compelled to seek at present by other means."

During the violent debate raised in Parliament by the pacific propositions

of the First Consul, Pitt based all his arguments upon the instability and

insecurity of a treaty of peace with the French Revolution, whatever might

be the name of its chief rulers. "When was it discovered that the dangers

of Jacobinism cease to exist?" he cried. "When was it discovered that the

Jacobinism of Robespierre, of Barère, of the five directors, of the

triumvirate, has all of a sudden disappeared because it is concentrated in

a single man, raised and nurtured in its bosom, covered with glory under

its auspices, and who has been at once the offspring and the champion of

all its atrocities?... It is because I love peace sincerely that I cannot

content myself with a vain word; it is because I love peace sincerely that

I cannot sacrifice it by seizing the shadow when the reality is not within

my reach. _Cur igitur pacem nolo? Quia infida est, quia periculosa, quia

esse non potest!_"

More moderate in form, Austria had in reality replied like England. War

was inevitable, and in the internal disorder in which the Directory had

left affairs, in the financial embarrassment and in the deplorable state

of the armies, the First Consul felt the weight of a government that had

been so long disorganized and weak, pressing heavily on his shoulders. His

first care was to achieve the pacification of the west, always agitated by

royalist passions. For a moment the chiefs of the party thought it

possible to engage General Bonaparte in the service of the monarchical

restoration: they were speedily undeceived. But the First Consul knew how

to make use in Vendée of the influence of the former curé of St. Laud, the

Abbé Bernier; he made an appeal to the priests, who returned from all

parts to their provinces, "The ministers of a God of Peace," said the

proclamation of the 28th December, 1799, "will be the first promoters of

reconciliation and concord; let them speak to all hearts the language

which they learn in the temple of their Master! Let them enter temples

which will be reopened to them, and offer for their fellow-citizens the

sacrifice which shall expiate the crime of war and the blood which has

been made to flow!" Always in intimate unison with the religious sentiment

of the populace who fought under their orders, the Vendean chiefs

responded to this appeal, laying down their arms. In Brittany and in

Normandy, Georges Cadoudal and Frotté continued hostilities; severe

instructions were sent, first to General Hédouville, and then to General

Brune. "The Consuls think that the generals ought to shoot on the spot the

principal rebels taken with arms in hand. However cunning the Chouans may

be, they are not so much so as Arabs of the desert. The First Consul

believes that a salutary example would be given by burning two or three

large communes, chosen from among those who have behaved themselves most

badly." Six weeks later the insurrection was everywhere subdued; Frotté,

and his young aide-de-camp Toustain, had been shot; Bourmont had accepted

the offers of the First Consul, and enrolled himself in his service;

Georges Cadoudal resisted all the advances of him whom he was soon to

pursue with his hatred even to attempting a crime. "What a mistake I have

made in not stifling him in my arms!" repeated the hardy chief of the

Chouans on quitting General Bonaparte. He retired into England. The civil

war was terminated; the troops which had occupied the provinces of the

west could now rejoin the armies which were preparing on the frontiers.

Carnot, who had just re-entered France, replaced at the ministry of war

General Berthier, called upon active service. It was the grand association

connected with his name, rather than the hope of an active and effective

co-operation, which decided the First Consul to entrust this post to

Carnot; possibly he wished to remove it from the little group of obstinate

liberals justly disquieted at the dangers with which they saw freedom

menaced. Already the journals had been suppressed, with the exception of

thirteen; the laws were voted without dispute; and, "in a veritable

whirlwind of urgency," the government claimed to regulate the duration of

the discussions of the Tribunate. Benjamin Constant, still young, and

known for a short time previously as a publicist, raised his voice

eloquently against the wrong done to freedom of discussion. "Without

doubt," said he "harmony is desirable amongst the authorities of the

Republic; but the independence of the Tribunate is no less necessary to

that harmony than the constitutional authority of the government; without

the independence of the Tribunate, there will be no longer either harmony

or constitution, there will be no longer anything but servitude and

silence, a silence that all Europe will understand."

The past violence of the assemblies, and their frequent inconsistencies,

had wearied feeble minds, and blinded short-sighted spirits. The speech of

Benjamin Constant secured for his friend Madame de Staël a forced

retirement from Paris. The law was voted by a large majority, and the

adulations of flatterers were heaped up around the feet of the First

Consul. He himself took a wiser view of his position, which he still

considered precarious. On taking up his residence at the Tuileries, in

great state, on February 19, 1800, he said to his secretary, "Well,

Bourienne, we have reached the Tuileries; the thing is now to stop here."

Already, and by the sole effort of a sovereign will, which appeared to

improve by exercise, the power formerly distributed among obscure hands

was concentrated at Paris, under the direction of a central administration

suddenly organized; exactions borne with difficulty resulted in abundant

resources from the conquered or annexed countries, at Genoa, in Holland,

at Hamburg. The young King of Prussia, sensible and prudent, had refused

to transform his neutrality into alliance; but he had used his influence

over the smaller states of the empire, to induce them to maintain the same

attitude. The Emperor Paul I., tossed to and fro by the impetuous

movements of his ardent and unhealthy spirit, was piqued by the defeats of

Suwarrow, and offended by the insufficiency of the help of Austria; he was

discontented with the English government, and ill-humoredly kept himself

apart from the coalition. The resumption of hostilities was imminent, and

the grand projects of the First Consul began to unroll themselves. Active

preparations had been till then confined to the army of the Rhine under

Moreau. The army of Liguria, placed under the command of Masséna, with

Genoa as a centre of operations, had received neither reinforcements nor

munitions; its duty was to protect the passage of the Appenines against

Mélas, whilst Moreau attacked upon the Rhine the army of Suabia, commanded

by Marshal Kray. The occupation of Switzerland by the French army impeded

the movements of the allies, by compelling them to withdraw their two

armies from each other; the First Consul meditated a movement which should

give him all the advantages of this separation. Moreau in Germany, Masséna

in Italy, were ordered at any cost to keep the enemy in check. Bonaparte

silently formed a third army, the corps of which he cleverly dispersed,

distracting the attention of Europe by the camp of the army of reserve at

Dijon. Already he was preparing the grand campaign which should raise his

glory to its pinnacle, and establish his power upon victory. In his idea

everything was to be sacrificed to the personal glory of his successes. He

conceived a project of attack by crossing the Rhine. Moreau, modest and

disinterested, accepted the general plan of the war, and subordinated his

operations to those of the First Consul; in his military capacity

independent and resolute, he persisted in passing the Rhine at his

pleasure. Bonaparte was enraged. "Moreau would not seek to understand me,"

cried he. He yielded, however, to the observations of General Dessoles,

and always clever in subjugating those of whom he had need, he wrote to

Moreau to restore him liberty of action. "Dessoles will tell you that no

one is more interested than myself in your personal glory and your good

fortune. The English embark in force; what do they want? I am to-day a

sort of manikin, who has lost his liberty and his good fortune. Greatness

is fine but in prospective and in imagination. I envy you your luck; you

go with the heroes to do fine deeds. I would willingly barter my consular

purple against one of your brigadier's epaulettes" (16th March, 1800).

The army of Italy had been suffering for a long time with heroic courage;

the well-known chief who took the command was more than any other suited

to obtain from it the last efforts of devotion; it was the first to

undergo the attack of the allied forces. The troops of Masséna were still

scattered when he was assailed by Mélas. The fear of prematurely

exhausting the insufficient resources of Genoa had prevented him from

following the wise councils of Bonaparte, by massing his troops round that

town. After a series of furious combats upon the upper Bormida, the French

line found itself cut in two by the Austrians; General Suchet was obliged

to fall back upon Nice, Masséna re-entered Genoa. A new effort forced back

General Mélas beyond the Appenines. The attempt to rejoin the corps of

General Suchet having failed, Masséna saw himself constrained to shut

himself up in Genoa, in the midst of a population divided in opinion, but

whose confidence he had already known how to win. Resolved to occupy by

resistance and by sorties all the forces of the allies, the general made

preparations for sustaining the siege to the last extremity. All the

provisions of the place were brought into the military magazines; the most

severe order reigned in the distribution, but already scarcity was felt.

The forces of Masséna, exhausted by frequent fights, diminished every day;

bread failed; and the heroic obstinacy of the general alone compelled the

Austrians to keep a considerable corps d'armée before a famished town (5th

May, 1800). Mélas had in vain attempted to force the lines of Var, behind

which General Suchet, too feeble to defend Nice, had cleverly entrenched

himself.

Moreau delayed to commence the campaign; his material was insufficient;

Alsace and Switzerland, exhausted of resources, could not furnish the

means of transport required by his movement. The First Consul urged him.

"Obtain a success as soon as possible, that you may be able by a diversion

in some degree to expedite the operations in Italy," he wrote to him on

April 24; "every day's delay is extremely disastrous to us." On April 26,

Moreau passed the Rhine at Strasburg, at Brisach, and at Basle, thus

deceiving General Kray, who defended the defiles of the Black Forest,

whilst the different divisions of the French army reascended and repassed

the Rhine, in order to cross it afresh without difficulty at Schaffhausen.

The Austrians had not yet collected their forces, dispersed by the

unlooked-for movement they found themselves obliged to execute; the French

corps were themselves dispersed when the battle commenced, on May 3, at

Engen. After a furious struggle at several points, General Moreau achieved

a splendid victory; two days later the same fortune crowned the battle of

Moesskirch; the loss on both sides was great. The action was not well

combined; Marshal Kray at first fell back behind the Danube; by the advice

of his council of war he decided to defend the magazines at Biberach. He

repassed the river, and offered battle to the corps of Gouvion St. Cyr,

then hampered with Moreau, bearing his direction with difficulty. The

positions occupied by the Austrians were everywhere attacked at once;

their troops, already demoralized by several defeats, retired in disorder.

Kray fell back on Ulm, where an entrenched camp was ready for him. General

Moreau was compelled to weaken his army by detaching a corps of 1800 men,

necessary for the operations of the First Consul. He attempted without

success a movement intended to turn the flank of General Kray, and

resolved to blockade him in his positions, and wait for the result of the

manoeuvres of Bonaparte. On the 27th May he wrote to Bonaparte, "We await

with impatience the announcement of your success. M. de Kray and I are

groping about here--he to keep his army round Ulm, I to make him quit the

post. It would have been dangerous, especially for you, if I had carried

the war to the left bank of the Danube. Our present position has forced

the Prince of Reuss to remove himself to the passes of the Tyrol, to the

sources of the Lech and the Iller; thus he is no longer dangerous for you.

If M. de Kray comes towards me, I shall still retreat as far as Meiningen;

there I shall join General Lecourbe, and we shall fight. If M. de Kray

marches upon Augsburg, I shall do the same; he will quit his support at

Ulm, and then we shall see what will have to be done to cover your

movements. We should find more advantages in carrying on the war upon the

left bank of the Danube, and making Wurtemberg and Franconia contribute to

it; but that would not suit you, as the enemy would be able to send

detachments down into Italy whilst leaving us to ravage the provinces of

the Empire.

"Give me, I pray you, some news of yourself, and command me in every

possible service I can render you."

All was thus prepared in Germany and Italy for the success of that

campaign of the First Consul of which the enemy were still ignorant.

Always deceived by the fictitious concentrations carried on at Dijon, the

Austrians saw without disquietude the departure of Bonaparte, who left

Paris, as it was said, for a few days, in order to pass in review the army

of reserve. The French public shared the same illusion; the preparations

eagerly pushed forward by the First Consul, remained secret. He set out at

the last moment, leaving with regret, and not without uneasiness, his

government scarcely established, and new institutions not yet in working

order. "Keep firmly together," said he to Cambacérès and Lebrun; "if an

emergency occurs, don't be alarmed at it. I will return like a

thunderbolt, to crush those who are audacious enough to raise a hand

against the government." He had in advance, by the powerful conceptions of

his genius arranged the whole plan of operations, and divined the

movements of his enemies. Bending over his maps, and designating with his

finger the positions of the different corps, he muttered in a low voice,

"This poor M. de Mélas will pass by Turin, he will fall back upon

Alessandria. I shall pass the Po, and come up with him again on the road

of Placenza, in the plains of the Scrivia; and I shall beat him there, and

then there." The Tribunate expressed their desire that the First Consul

might return soon, "conqueror and pacificator." An article of the

Constitution forbade him to take the command of the armies; Berthier

received the title of general-in-chief. The First Consul passed in review

the army of conscripts and invalids assembled at Dijon. On May 13, he

combined the active forces at Geneva; the troops coming from Germany under

the command of General Moncey had not yet arrived; they were to pass by

the St. Gothard. General Marescot had been ordered to reconnoitre the

Alps; the pass of the St. Bernard, more difficult than that of the Simplon

or Mont Cenis, was much shorter, and the passage from it could be much

more easily defended. "Difficult it may be," replied the First Consul to

the report of Marescot, "but is it possible?" "I think so," said the

general, "with extraordinary efforts." "Ah, well! let us set out," said

Bonaparte.

From Geneva to Villeneuve the journey was easy, and vessels carried

provisions to that point. The First Consul had carefully arranged places

for revictualling all along the road. At Montigny half the mules,

requisitioned at great cost in the neighborhood, were loaded with victuals

and munitions of war; the other half were attached to the gun carriages

relieved of the cannon, which were to be again put in working order at San

Remi, on the other side of the pass. The cannon themselves were enveloped

in the hollowed trunks of trees; they could then be dragged over the ice

and snow. The number of mules proving insufficient, and the peasants

refusing to undertake this rough work, the soldiers yoked themselves to

the cannon, and dragged them across the mountain without wishing to accept

the rewards promised by the First Consul. He rode on a mule at the head of

the rear-guard, wrapped in a gray greatcoat, chatting familiarly with his

guide, and sustaining the courage of his soldiers by his unalterable

coolness. After a few hours' rest at the hospice of St. Bernard commenced

the descent, more difficult still than the ascent. From the 15th to the

20th of May the divisions followed each other. Lannes and Berthier, who

commanded the vanguard, had already advanced to Aosta, when they found

themselves stopped by the little fort of Bard, built upon a precipitous

rock, and with artillery commanding the defile. It was now night; a layer

of straw and refuse was spread over the frozen foot-path; the wheels of

the gun-carriages were encased in tow; at the break of day the passage had

been safely cleared. The French army, descending like a torrent into the

valley, seized upon Ivry, and repulsed the Austrians at the Chiusella on

May 26th. All the divisions of Bonaparte's army assembled by degrees; the

corps of Moncey debouched by the St. Gothard, 4000 men under the orders of

General Thureau crossed by Mont Cenis. General Mélas still refused to

believe in the danger which menaced him, and already an imposing army was

advancing against his scattered and divided forces. Already Lannes had

beaten General Ott at Montebello, after a hotly disputed engagement. "I

heard the bones crackle like a hailstorm on the roofs," said the

conqueror.

Bonaparte threw himself upon Milan, neglecting Genoa, which he might have

delivered without risk; thereby condemning Masséna and his army to the

sufferings of a prolonged siege, terminated by a sad defeat. He had

conceived vaster projects, and the design of annihilating the Austrian

army by a single blow. Everything had to give way to the consideration of

personal success and his egotistical thirst for glory. The Lombard

populace received the First Consul with transport, happy to see themselves

delivered from the Austrian yoke, and beguiled in advance with the hope of

liberty. General Mélas was at Alessandria, summoning to his aid the forces

that were attacking Suchet on the Var, and the troops of General Ott,

detained by the siege of Genoa. He was assured of the impossibility of any

succor being sent by Marshal Kray. It was necessary to conquer or die. In

the prison in which the Austrian army detained him, Masséna had divined

the situation of the enemy. He was still hoping for the assistance that

had been promised him; already General Ott had sent him a flag of truce.

"Give me only provisions for two days, or one day," said he to the

Genoese, "and I will save you from the Austrian yoke, and spare my army

the sorrow of surrender."

All resources were exhausted; the horrors of famine had worn out the

courage of the inhabitants; even the soldiers were yielding to

discouragement. "Before he will surrender," said they, "the general will

make us eat his boots." For a long time the garrison had lived on

unwholesome bread made with starch, upon linseed and cocoa, which scarcely

sufficed to keep the soldiers alive; the population, reduced to live on

soup made of herbs gathered on the ramparts, died by hundreds; the

prisoners cantoned in the port in old dismasted vessels, uttered cries

that reached the ears of their old generals. The latter had refused to

send in provisions for the prisoners, in spite of the promise of Masséna

to reserve it for them. The last food was used up; on the 3rd of June the

general consented to receive the flag of truce. He asked for, and

obtained, the honors of war; the army was authorized to depart from Genoa

with arms and baggage, flags displayed, and free to direct its course

towards the corps of General Suchet. "Without that I should issue arms in

hand, and it should be seen what eight thousand famished men could do."

War and famine had reduced to this number the soldiers in condition to

carry arms. After their cure, the sick, who filled the hospitals, were to

be sent to the quarters of General Suchet. Masséna defended the interests

of the Genoese, and asked in their favor for a free government. The

Austrian generals refused to make any engagement. "In less than a

fortnight I shall be back again in Genoa," declared the French general.

"You will find there the men whom you have taught how to defend it,"

replied St. Julien, one of the plenipotentiaries. General Soult remained

in the place, seriously wounded. Masséna brought his exhausted troops to

the Var. In the depths of their souls, generals and soldiers cherished a

bitter resentment for the manner in which they had been abandoned. When

the Austrian troops, beaten by Suchet, had retired towards Alessandria,

Masséna did not allow him to pursue them; he contented himself with

guarding the gates of France.

Bonaparte had just quitted Stradella, which he had occupied after leaving

Milan. He had been obliged to disperse his forces, in order to cut off all

the passages open to the enemy. When he entered, on June 13th, the plain

that extends between the Scrivia and the Bormida, near the little village

of Marengo, he was badly instructed as regards the movements of the enemy,

as well as the resources of the country. On the morning of the 14th,

General Mélas, constrained by necessity, evacuated Alessandria, and,

passing the Bormida upon three bridges, attacked General Victor before

Marengo. Lannes was at the same time surrounded on every side, and obliged

to retreat in spite of prodigies of courage. Marengo had been destroyed by

the artillery of the enemy, when Bonaparte arrived upon the field of

battle with his guard and his staff officers, at once drawing upon himself

the brunt of the fight. Meanwhile the retreat continued; the army seemed

about to be cut in two; the Austrian general, old and fatigued, believing

himself assured of victory, re-entered Alessandria. It was now three

o'clock, and Bonaparte still hoped and kept on fighting. He despatched an

aide-de-camp to Desaix, returned from Egypt two days before, and whom he

had detached in the direction of Novi; upon his return depended the

fortune of the day. Desaix had divined this, and forestalled the message

of Bonaparte; before he could be expected he was beside the general, who

questioned him as to the aspect of affairs. "Well," said Desaix, after

having rapidly examined the situation of the different corps, "it is a

lost battle; but it is not late; we have time to gain another." His

regiments were forming whilst he spoke, stopping the march of the

Austrians. "My friends," said the First Consul to the reanimated soldiers,

"remember that it is my custom to sleep upon the field of battle."

At the same moment Desaix advanced at the heads of his troops. "Go and

tell the First Consul that I am about to charge," said he to his aide-de-

camp, Savary; "I need to be supported by cavalry." He was crossing an

undulation in the ground when a ball struck him in the breast; from

daybreak he had been oppressed by gloomy presentiments. "I have been too

long making war in Africa," said he; "the bullets of Europe know me no

longer." On falling he said to General Boudet, "Conceal my death; it might

unsettle the troops." The soldiers had perceived it and rushed forward to

avenge him. Kellermann arrived at the same instant, urged forward by one

of those sudden inspirations which mark great generals; hurling his

dragoons upon the Austrian cavalry, which he broke through, he attacked

the column of grenadiers which arduously sustained the assault of the

division of Desaix. Their ranks fell into disorder; one entire corps threw

down its arms. General Zach, entrusted with the command in the absence of

Mélas, was forced to give up his sword. When the old general hurried up in

agitation, the battle was lost. The Austrian troops, repulsed and routed,

and crowded against the banks of the Bormida, blocked up all the bridges,

or cast themselves into the river, everywhere pursued by the victorious

French. The cannon, which stuck fast in the Bormida, fell into the hands

of the conquerors. The staff was decimated.

The First Consul regretted the loss of Desaix, the only one among the

companions of his youth who had seemed able to inspire in him any

particular regard. He was, however, triumphant, and this great day made

him in fact the master of Italy. He had the wisdom to perceive it. The

needs of government recalled him to France; the conditions he proposed to

Mélas, although hard, were such as could be accepted. The Austrian army

was authorized to retire with the honors of war; but it was to surrender

to the French troops all its positions in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, and

the Legations, whilst evacuating the Italian territory as far as the

Mincio. To the protests of Mélas, Bonaparte replied by a formal refusal to

listen. "Sir," said he, "my conditions are irrevocable. I did not begin to

made war yesterday. Your position is as well known to me as to yourself.

You are in Alessandria, encumbered with the dead, the wounded, and the

sick, and destitute of provisions; you have lost the _élite_ of your army;

you are surrounded on all sides. I could exact everything, but I only

demand of you that which the situation of affairs imperatively requires.

Return to Alessandria; you will have no other conditions."

Mélas signed, pledging his word until he should receive a reply from

Vienna. On the same evening, before quitting the field of battle, the

First Consul wrote for the second time to the Emperor Francis Joseph. He

was moved to the very depths of his impassable and haughty soul by the

spectacle of the carnage and fury of the battle. In subsequent calmer

moments he perhaps regretted his letter. "It is upon the battlefield of

Marengo," said he, "in the midst of agonies, and surrounded by 15,000

corpses, that I conjure your Majesty to listen to the cry of humanity, and

not permit the children of two brave and powerful nations to massacre each

other for interests which are foreign to them. It is for me to press this

upon your Majesty, since I am the nearest to the theatre of war. Your

heart cannot be so keenly alive to it as mine. The arms of your Majesty

have achieved sufficient glory. You govern a large number of States. What

then can those in the cabinet of your Majesty allege in favor of the

continuation of hostilities? Is it the interests of religion and of the

Church? Why do they not counsel your Majesty to make war on the English,

the Muscovites, and the Prussians? They are further from the Church than

we. Is it the form of the French Government, which is not hereditary but

simply elective? But the government of the Empire is also elective; and

besides, your Majesty is thoroughly convinced of the powerlessness of the

entire world to change the desire which the French people have received

from nature to govern themselves as they please. Is it the destruction of

revolutionary principles? If your Majesty will take account of the effects

of war you will see that it tends to revolutionize Europe, by increasing

everywhere the public debt and the discontent of the people. In compelling

the French people to make war, you compel them only to think of war, only

to live in war; and the French legions are numerous and brave. If your

Majesty wishes for peace it is done; let us give repose and tranquillity

to the present generation. If future generations are foolish enough to

fight--well, they will learn after a few years of war to become wise and

live in peace. I might take captive the entire army of your Majesty. I am

satisfied by a suspension of hostilities, having hopes that it may be the

first step towards the repose of the world; an object for which I can

plead all the more forcibly because, nurtured and schooled by war, I might

be suspected of being more accustomed to the evils it drags after it. If

your Majesty refuses these proposals, the hostilities will recommence; and

let me be permitted to tell you frankly, in the eyes of the world you

alone will be responsible for the war."

Peace was still to be delayed, but the Convention of Alessandria was

concluded at once; and the success of General Moreau sustained in Germany

the victorious arguments of the First Consul. The former passed the Danube

near Hochstedt; after a very brilliant action, which lasted eighteen hours

(June 19), he took 5000 prisoners, and captured twenty pieces of cannon

and considerable magazines. Kray, menaced with the probability of having

his line of retreat cut off, had abandoned his position at Ulm, forcing

his march so precipitately that General Moreau had not been informed of

it. Meanwhile he attacked the Grisons and the Tyrol, repulsed the Prince

of Reuss, and established himself upon the Isar. On the 15th of July a

suspension of arms was signed at Parsdorf, near Munich. Like the soldiers

of the army of Italy, the soldiers of the army of the Rhine were about to

take some repose.

Masséna had re-entered Genoa on the 24th of June, justifying to the letter

his glorious bravado; his ill-humor was dissipated, and he remained

entrusted with the chief command of the army of Italy. The First Consul

had received at Milan the eager homage of the Lombards, but the Cisalpine

Republic was not reconstituted; a Grand Council governed it under the

Presidency of Pétiet, the French minister. At Turin, General Jourdan

directed the provisional government; at Genoa, General Dejean filled the

same functions; everywhere the paraded power of France was substituted for

the semblance of liberty; the Roman States were still in the hands of the

Neapolitans. The new Pope, Barnabus Chiaramonti, formerly Bishop of Imola,

who had shown himself well disposed towards the French, had just arrived

unexpectedly at Ancona, whence he negotiated his re-entry into the eternal

city. The First Consul assured him of his good intentions as regards the

Catholic Church, and the Holy See. The far-seeing _finesse_ of the Court

of Rome did not permit it to be deceived. The Secretary of the Sacred

College, Monsignor Consalvi, had said during the conclave, "It is from

France that we have received persecutions for ten years past; well, it is

from France that will perhaps come in the future our succors and our

consolations. A very extraordinary young man, and even more difficult to

be judged, rules there to-day. There is no doubt he will soon have

reconquered Italy. Remember that he protected the priests in 1797, and

that he has recently rendered funeral honors to Pius VI. Let us not

neglect the resources which offer themselves to us on this side." On the

day after the battle of Marengo preliminary negotiations already

commenced. The First Consul was officially present at the grand _Te Deum_

chanted in the cathedral of Milan. "Our atheists at Paris may say of it

what they will," wrote Bonaparte to Cambacérès.

During the night of the 2nd and 3rd July, 1800, Bonaparte re-entered

Paris, overwhelmed on the way by evidences of public joy, which were most

brilliantly manifested at Lyons. He had forbidden all preparations for his

return: "My intention is to have neither arches of triumph nor any species

of ceremony," he wrote to his brother Lucien, who had replaced Laplace at

the ministry of the interior. "I have too good an opinion of myself to

hold such baubles in much estimation. I know no other triumph than the

public satisfaction."

The day would come when public satisfaction, of a truth much mitigated by

long sufferings, would no longer suffice for the triumph of the absolute

master who dragged exhausted France across fields of battle; the

remembrance of his return to Paris after the victory of Marengo was to

recur to his sorrowful mind when he dictated at St. Helena the memoirs

explanatory of his life: "It was a great day," said he.

Already the adulations and mean worship of courtiers were encompassing

him; already, also, was revealed the provisional character of that power

which depended so completely upon the life of a single man. Sinister

reports were circulated during the campaign in Italy; the names of Carnot,

Moreau, and La Fayette had been put forward. The triumphant arrival of the

First Consul promptly baffled the intrigues in which the principals

interested had never taken part; nevertheless, he nursed against Carnot an

unjust feeling, which soon betrayed itself in his dismissal. Lucien

Bonaparte had forestalled, or badly comprehended, the wishes of his

brother; he had got Fontanes to write a pamphlet entitled "Caesar,

Cromwell, and Bonaparte," which revealed projects and hopes in favor of

the First Consul for which the public was not prepared. "Happy for the

Republic," it was said, "if Bonaparte were immortal? But where are his

successors? Who is the successor of Pericles? Frenchmen, you slumber over

an abyss, and your sleep is madly tranquil."

It was too soon to allow these premature pretensions to be thus made

public. The _finesse_ of La Fayette enabled him to penetrate the secret

hope of the First Consul, who was already occupied, and for most serious

reasons, with the re-establishment of religion in France. He was able to

say to him, with an irony that was a little scornful, "Come, general,

confess that this has no other aim than to get the little phial broken on

your head." Public opinion was not yet calling for the re-establishment of

the monarchy; it did not connect the idea of hereditary power with a

victorious general, still young, and who had scarcely seized the reins of

the government of the interior. The pamphlet, and the insinuations it

contained, had no success; Fouché was openly reprimanded for allowing the

publication. Lucien Bonaparte was sent as ambassador to Madrid, bearing,

he has declared, the manuscript of the pamphlet, with four corrections in

the handwriting of the First Consul. The latter began to surround himself

with a court. Madame Bonaparte had already her ladies and chevaliers of

honor.

St. Julien had just arrived at Paris with the ratification of the treaty

of Alessandria, and for the purpose of sounding the First Consul as to his

intentions on the subject of a definitive peace. Major-general of the

imperial armies, and little versed in diplomatic usages, he, in all

simplicity, avowed his ignorance to Talleyrand. The latter profited by

this to prevail upon the Austrian ambassador to sign the preliminary

articles. "So be it," said St. Julien, "but they will have no authority

until after their ratification by my sovereign." The major-general was not

authorized to treat; and the conventions he had accepted being vague as to

the most important point, the settlement of the frontiers of Italy, were

disavowed at Vienna. Thugut proposed the opening of a congress, in which

England was disposed to take part. General Duroc, aide-de-camp of the

First Consul, who had accompanied St. Julien on his return to Vienna, was

not admitted to negotiate, and found himself compelled to return to Paris.

Bonaparte's temper was quick; his irritation against England was old and

inveterate. For more than two years that power had hindered the success of

his favorite enterprises; and he struggled against her in her commercial

interests, as well as in her military efforts, with a perseverance worthy

of Pitt. He had already won over the United States to the doctrine of the

greater part of European States as to the rights of neutrals, and

concluded with their diplomatists the treaty of Morfontaine; he then

worked to raise up against England a formidable coalition, at the head of

which the Emperor Paul I. had just placed himself. Strongly influenced in

favor of France by the offer the First Consul had made to cede to him

Malta, then besieged by the English, the Czar also received with

satisfaction the 6000 Russian prisoners whom Bonaparte sent to him without

ransom, after having vainly solicited exchanges with England and Russia.

The maritime powers of the north of Europe had to complain of vexatious

interference with merchant vessels on the part of England. The law of the

seas, said they, authorized them to carry on commerce between one power

and another, goods contraband of war alone excepted; as the flag covered

the merchandise, English vessels could not legitimately stop and visit

ships of neutral countries, in order to seize French or Spanish

commodities. The theory of England was different, serving her own

commercial and military interests. In 1800 the Emperor Paul embraced the

cause of the maritime powers, and formed against England the League of

Neutrals, whilst he entered into amicable relations, and a sort of

alliance, with the First Consul. At the same time Bonaparte negotiated

with the King of Spain, offering him Tuscany, with the title of King of

Etruria, for his son-in-law the Duke of Parmo, on condition that France

should receive back Louisiana, formerly ceded to Spain by Louis XV. for an

indemnity claim. Charles IV. also engaged himself to use his influence to

have the ports of Portugal closed against England. Before admitting

England to the congress, the First Consul demanded that the continental

armistice should be extended to naval forces, as the suspension of

maritime hostilities would permit him to revictual Malta and Egypt; he

accepted on these terms the common negotiations.

England rejected, and could not but reject, these proposals. She already

held the conquest of Malta as certain; and since Bonaparte himself had

quitted Egypt, the English soldiers and marines no longer doubted the

ultimate success of their efforts against us, everywhere united with those

of the Porte. Egypt was henceforth a point so important for England that

she had resolved never to yield to the passionate caprices which had led

General Bonaparte to establish the French dominion there. In the month of

August, 1800, she could not accept an armistice which would of necessity

have prolonged the war in the East. In the month of November, 1799,

letters of General Kléber, sincere and discouraged, had fallen into the

hands of the English Government. Entrusted since the departure of General

Bonaparte with the chief command, Kléber displayed to the Directory the

sad state of his army and his finances. Five months had passed, and

nothing new had taken place; no succor had arrived from France. Kléber had

lent his ear to the proposals of the vizier and Sir Sidney Smith.

Bonaparte himself had foreseen the circumstances under which the

evacuation of Egypt would become necessary; he had left upon this subject

peremptory and haughty instructions. Kléber forestalled the term marked

out by the general who had let his mantle fall upon his shoulders, and he

concluded the treaty of El Arish, a monument of his sorrow and desolation.

The signature of Desaix, who negotiated it, was mournfully wrung from him,

after he had required from the general-in-chief a formal order to put his

name to it. Negotiated between military men, it was not countersigned with

the signature of the plenipotentiary, who himself had not better authority

to negotiate. The Government of Great Britain, informed of the distress of

General Kléber, sent to Admiral Keith a formal injunction forbidding him

to treat with the French army, unless they surrendered as prisoners of

war. Sir Sidney Smith immediately made known to Kléber the orders he had

received; the honorable conditions which the French general had previously

accepted were already in process of execution; several places had been

given up to the Turks; the vizier had advanced. Kléber, however, did not

hesitate. He published to the army the letter of the English commodore,

with these words: "Soldiers! such insolence as this is only answered by

victories: prepare to give battle."

It is a noble spectacle, that of resolute men reduced to extremities

without fleeing from danger. On March 20 the French army went out from

Cairo; diminished by death and sickness it numbered no more than 12,000

men, who formed themselves into squares, according to the old tactics of

the troops of Egypt, in front of the ancient ruins of Heliopolis. Kléber

estimated at 70,000 or 80,000 men the Turkish army which was to assail

him. "My friends," said he in passing along the ranks, "you possess in

Egypt only the ground which you have beneath your feet! If you retreat a

step, you are lost!" Having thus spoken, he gave the order to carry the

entrenched village of El Matarieh. The little redoubts were already in our

possession when the Janissaries made their first rush upon the Friant

division. The squares remained immovable, keeping up a continuous fire,

enveloped in smoke, and scarcely distinguishing the mass of the enemies

who were falling at their feet. When the clouds began to disperse, a

rampart of corpses surrounded all the French corps; in the distance were

seen the enemy in flight. Kléber order a pursuit, which was continued

during three days. When the general-in-chief at length reached the camp of

the vizier at Salahieh he only found a few detachments of the enemy. The

chiefs had disappeared in the desert, with their best troops. The French

soldiers pillaged the tents: they were loaded with rich spoils when they

retook the road to Cairo.

The capital of Egypt, never in complete submission, and disturbed by

frequent insurrections, had revolted at the announcement of the evacuation

and the departure of the French army; crimes had been committed, and the

Christians had been massacred in several quarters. Kléber laid siege to

it; the resistance was long and furious, and it was as conquerors that the

French re-entered the city which formerly cost them such slight efforts.

All the rebel cities of Lower Egypt were again brought back into obedience

to France. The war indemnities and the prizes taken from the enemy

restored the finances. Kléber labored for the completion of the forts

scattered over the hills; he enrolled Copts, Syrians, and some blacks from

Darfour; he treated with Murad Bey, who had driven from Upper Egypt the

Turkish corps of Dervish Pacha; Ibrahim Bey and Nassif Pacha, who had

sustained the revolt of Cairo, obtained an authorization to retire. Egypt

appeared to be once more submissive; but the illusions which the

Mohammedans had conceived were promptly dissipated: they recognized their

traditional enemies, and the old fanaticism was reawakened. An assassin

had already arrived in Cairo from Palestine, and shut up in the great

mosque he had confided to the sheiks his project of killing General

Kléber. They sought to dissuade him from it, but without informing the

French. On the 14th of June, as the general was walking in his garden with

the architect of the army, Suleiman presented himself before him,

pretending to ask alms, and struck him several times with his dagger. The

architect was wounded in striving to defend Kléber. When the soldiers came

hurrying up the general had already breathed his last. The assassin made

no attempt to flee; he expired under torture. At Cairo, and on the

battlefield of Marengo, Kléber and Desaix succumbed on the same day, and

almost at the same hour, both young, and serving to their last day the

designs of the chief to whom they were very unequally attached. The First

Consul wished to unite them in the same patriotic honors; he had never had

much liking for Kléber, but he did not the less keenly feel the greatness

of his loss. General Menou, who took by seniority the command of the army

of Egypt was incapable, and of a chimerical spirit. Bonaparte comprehended

the danger which threatened that one of his conquests to which he attached

the most importance; he increased the reinforcements of men and munitions,

but he was in want of generals, and the war was recommencing in Europe.

The English had just succeeded at last in taking Malta.

The armistice had been prolonged for eighty-five days, and the Emperor of

Austria had paid for this moment of peace by the surrender of the cities

of Ulm, Philipsburg, and Ingoldstadt; the preliminaries, which Cobentzel

had drawn out to great length, had brought about no result. Austria

refused to negotiate without England, to whom she was allied by a treaty

of subsidies. In contempt of the convention of Alessandria, the French

troops occupied Tuscany; Masséna no longer commanded the army of Italy.

Quarrels had arisen with the Italian administrations, who said they were

victims of heavy exactions. Masséna was accused; in the depth of his soul

he was discontented, and was always little favorable to the First Consul.

Brune had replaced him. At the expiration of the armistice, and in spite

of the new attempts at negotiations, the troops entered on the campaign.

General Bonaparte still remained at Paris, ready to proceed at need to the

threatened points. All eyes were fixed on Germany; by a common instinct

great military events upon this theatre were look forward to.

The Archduke John was young and daring; he conceived the hope of cutting

off the army of General Moreau, and imprudently crossing the Inn, the

difficult passage of which the French dreaded, he advanced immediately

towards the Isar, intending to reascend the river in our rear. But already

the difficulties of the enterprise became apparent; the young general

resolved to give battle immediately. An advantage gained on the 1st of

December, over the left wing of the French army, emboldened him to the

point of pushing forward across the forest of Hohenlinden, in the vain

hope of encountering no resistance. General Moreau waited for him in the

plain between Hohenlinden and Harthofen; Generals Richepanse and Decaen

had been directed to take the Austrians in the rear. Moreau had exactly

calculated the time necessary for this operation. The battle commenced at

the exit from the forest; as fast as they debouched upon the plain the

Austrian corps encountered the attack of our troops. Across the snow,

which fell in great flakes, the general-in-chief discerned a little

confusion in the ranks of the enemy. "The moment has come to charge," he

cried; "Richepanse has taken them in the rear." General Ney rushed forward

at the head of his division; he rejoined his companions at the centre of

the defile mingled with the confused crowd of the enemy, which they drove

before them. The centre of the Austrian army was completely hemmed in; the

left wing had been thrown back upon the Inn by Decaen. The French

divisions who were engaged on the right, repulsed for a moment, had in

their turn forced the Austrians to redescend into the valley. The plain of

Hohenlinden remained in the hands of the French army. The enemy lost 8000

men killed or wounded, 12,000 prisoners, and eighty-seven pieces of

cannon. General Lecourbe passed the Inn close behind the Archduke John,

the division of Decaen crossed the Salza and seconded the movement of

Lecourbe; General Moreau crossed the Traun, and advanced towards the Ens.

The Archduke Charles, drawn from his disgrace by the danger of his

country, resumed the command of the Austrian troops. It was too late to

snatch back victory; he accepted the sorrowful duty of arresting the

conqueror's progress by negotiations. Moreau had arrived at Steyer, a few

leagues from Vienna; the ardor of his lieutenants urged him to march

forward. "It would, without doubt, be a fine thing to enter Vienna," he

replied; "but it is a much finer thing to dictate peace." The armistice

was signed on the 25th of December, 1800, delivering to the French all the

valley of the Danube, with the Tyrol, various fortresses, and immense

magazines. The army of Augereau, which had had adventure enough on the

Rednitz, was included in the armistice; the generals commanding in Italy

and in the Grisons, Macdonald and Brune, were to be engaged to accept a

suspension of arms. The modest prudence and consummate cleverness of

General Moreau had assured to our arms advantages which at length promised

peace. Bonaparte perceived this, not without secret heartburning; but for

a time he felt himself compelled to dissemble. "I cannot tell you all the

interest I have taken in your admirable and wise manoeuvres," he wrote to

Moreau; "in this campaign you have surpassed yourself."

The orders of the First Consul caused the war in Italy to be ardently

pushed forward. "Wherever a couple of men can plant their feet, an army

can find the means of passing," said General Bonaparte; and Macdonald had

led his 15,000 men across the passes of the Splügen, among rocks and

glaciers, obliged to open a path by the oxen, who trod down the snow in

order to permit the soldiers to advance; he left behind him numerous

victims of cold and fatigue. The army of the Grisons had arrived at Trent,

the efforts of General Wukassovich having failed to arrest its progress.

Brune had conducted his operations more gently; when he marched towards

the Mincio, in order to cross it at two points, the imprudence of the

attack and the division of the forces led to a great shedding of blood; it

was only on the 31st December that the passage of the Adige was at last

effected. The corps of General Moncey rejoined the forces of Macdonald at

Trent; the Count of Laudon, close pressed, could only save his troops by a

subterfuge, by forestalling the armistice, which did not yet extend to the

armies of Italy. He had rejoined the Count of Bellegarde, when all

military operations were suspended by a convention signed at Treviso.

Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte had remained at Lunéville during the

resumption of hostilities, negotiating mutual concessions, of which the

cannon every day altered the conditions. The success of his armies, and

the attitude of the powers of the north, enlarged the pretensions of the

First Consul; the Austrian plenipotentiary defended with persevering

courage the frontier of the Adda, and the re-establishment of the Italian

princes in their States, when the instructions of Bonaparte to his brother

were all of a sudden altered. Order was given to retard the conclusion of

peace; at the same time, as if for the purpose of calling upon Austria to

bow to imperious necessity, the First Consul sent to the Corps Législatif

a message, which was a bold evidence of the newest phase of his diplomacy.

"Legislators, the Republic triumphs, and its enemies once more implore its

moderation.

"The news of the victory of Hohenlinden has resounded throughout Europe;

that day will be reckoned in history as one of the grandest examples of

French valor. But it has been thought little of by our defenders, who only

think themselves victors when the country has no more enemies. The army of

the Rhine has passed the Inn; every day has been a battle, and every

battle a triumph. The Gallo-Batavian army has conquered at Bamberg; the

army of the Grisons, through snow and ice, has crossed the Splügen, in

order to turn the formidable lines of the Mincio and the Adige. The army

of Italy has carried by main force the passage of the Mincio, and has

blockaded Mantua. Lastly, Moreau is no more than five days' march from

Vienna, master of an immense tract of country, and of all the magazines of

the enemy.

"It is at this juncture that the Archduke Charles has asked, and the

general-in-chief of the army of the Rhine has accorded, the armistice of

which the conditions are about to be placed before you.

"Cobentzel, plenipotentiary of the Emperor at Lunéville, has declared

himself ready to open negotiations for a separate peace. Thus Austria is

freed from the influence of the English Government.

"The Government, faithful to its principles and to the prayer of humanity,

confides to you, and proclaims to France and entire Europe, the intentions

which animate it.

"The left bank of the Rhine shall be the limit of the French Republic; she

claims nothing on the right bank. The interests of Europe will not permit

the emperor to pass the Adige. The independence of the Helvetic and

Batavian Republics shall be assured and recognized. Our victories add

nothing to the claims of the French people. Austria ought not to expect

from its defeats that which it would not have obtained by victories. Such

are the unchangeable intentions of the Government. It will be the

happiness of France to restore calm to Germany and Italy; its glory to

enfranchise the continent from the covetous and malevolent influence of

England.

"If our good faith is still deceived, we are at Prague, at Vienna, at

Venice."

So many rigorous conditions, thus arrogantly announced, were, and could

not fail to be, the object of discussions and stubborn resistance. But

even these did not satisfy the will of the First Consul, and his

resolution to snatch the last concessions from the conquered. The Emperor

Paul, in his capacity of Grand Master of the Order, demanded from England

the cession of the island of Malta. Upon the refusal of the British

Government, he placed an embargo on all English vessels found in his

ports, at the same time announcing the despatch of a plenipotentiary to

Paris. In accord with Prussia, he admitted the principle of the granting

of indemnities to the deposed Italian princes by the secularization of the

ecclesiastical territories in Germany. Cobentzel was constantly opposed to

this arrangement; he equally refused to deliver Mantua to France as a

condition of the armistice in Italy. Abandoned by the neutral powers,

isolated in Germany, and separated from England, who alone remained openly

hostile to France, the Austrian envoy saw himself constrained to accept

conditions harder than those the rigor of which he had formerly deplored.

On the 9th February, 1801, the treaty of Lunéville was at last signed. A

single concession had been accorded to Cobentzel; France had consented to

surrender the places which she held on the right bank of the Rhine. She

insisted, however, that the fortifications should be demolished.

"Dismantle them yourselves," said the Austrian plenipotentiary,

sorrowfully, "and we will engage that they shall remain in the condition

in which they are surrendered." This was the last hope, and the last

effort of diplomacy. Upon the very morning of the signature, and with

reference to the obstinate persistence of Cobentzel, Joseph Bonaparte

declared, in language which was not his own, "that if the termination of

the war was favorable to France, the house of Austria ought to expect to

find the valley of the Adige on the crest of the Julian Alps; and that

there was no power in Europe which did not see with pleasure the Austrians

expelled from Italy."

The bases of the treaty of Lunéville were identical with those of the

treaty of Campo Formio. Austria lost in Germany the bishopric of Salzburg,

assured as an indemnity to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and in Italy the

territories of this prince were granted to the Duke of Parma. The articles

made no mention of Piedmont or Parma, or of the Pontifical States. The

First Consul did not wish to commit himself on this point or encounter the

sluggish proceedings of a congress. The Emperor of Austria had treated for

the Empire as for himself. The Diet assembled at Ratisbon simply ratified

the conditions of the treaty. Henceforth England found itself isolated in

Europe, as France had been in 1793. The duel continued between Bonaparte

and Pitt.

So much _éclat_ abroad, so much glory and success terminating in an almost

general peace, did not absorb all the thoughts of the First Consul, and

had not yet succeeded in founding his power on a lasting basis. He felt it

bitterly, and the irritation which he experienced habitually manifested

itself against the remnants of the Jacobin party, the declared enemies of

the order of things which he wished to establish, capable, he thought, of

any crimes, and whose works he had had the opportunity of judging. This

exclusive preoccupation sometimes turned away his attention from more

pressing perils and bolder enemies. A conspiracy to which the police had

lent themselves, and which had failed without any of the accomplices

daring to put their hands on their arms, roused public attention, in the

month of October, 1800, to the dangers which pursued the First Consul.

Since then there had been seized, at the house of a mechanician named

Chevalier, an explosive machine which had given rise to certain

suspicions; but no attempt had been made, and the conspirators, who

plotted in the dark, were as yet only known to Fouché, the minister of

police, clever and foreseeing, constantly hostile to the old enemies of

the Republic, and more disquieted than the First Consul at the royalist

manoeuvres. It was to the Chouans and men of that class that the police

attributed the brigandage which infested the roads in the departments of

the west, the centre, and the south; it was the descents of their former

chiefs upon the Norman coasts which preoccupied Fouché. At one period the

royalists had thought General Bonaparte capable of playing the _rôle_ of

Monk, and accepting that modest ambition. On the 20th of February, 1800,

Louis XVIII. wrote to him with his own hand, "Whatever may be their

apparent conduct, men like yourself, monsieur, never inspire uneasiness.

You have accepted an eminent place, and I am thankful for it. Better than

any one you know how much force and power are needed to make the happiness

of a great nation. Save France from its own madness, and you will have

accomplished the first desire of my heart; restore to it its king, and

future generations will bless your memory. You will always be too much a

necessity of the State for me ever to discharge by the highest

appointments the debt of my forefathers and my own."

This letter remained unanswered. Louis XVIII. thought he ought to write

again. "For a long time, general," said he yon ought to know that you have

won my esteem. If you have any doubt as to my being susceptible of

gratitude, appoint your place, and decide as to the position of your

friends. As to my principles, I am French; merciful by character, I should

be still more so by reason.

"No, the conqueror of Lodi, of Castiglione, of Arcola, the conqueror of

Italy and Egypt, cannot prefer a vain notoriety to glory. But you are

losing precious time. We can assure the peace of France; I say _we_,

because I need Bonaparte for that, and he cannot do it without me.

"General, Europe observes you, glory waits for you, and I am impatient to

restore peace to my people."

Sad illusions of exiles, who in a remote country know not how to judge

either men or circumstances! Louis XVIII. and his friends were blind as to

the state of men's minds in France, which they believed ripe for a

monarchical restoration; they comprehended neither the character nor the

still veiled designs of the man who had conquered, by the audacity of his

genius, military glory and the civil authority. In the depth of his soul,

and in spite of his firm design to mount the throne by means of absolute

power, Bonaparte was, and remained, revolutionary--hostile to the remains

of the past by conviction as well as by personal ambition. He wrote to

Louis XVIII. on the 7th September, 1800. "I have received, monsieur, your

letter; I thank you for the fair words you have spoken. You ought not to

desire your return to France; it would be necessary for you to march over

500,000 corpses. Sacrifice your interests for the repose and happiness of

France; history will take account of you for it.

"I am not insensible to the misfortune of your family. I shall contribute

with pleasure to the comfort and tranquillity of your retreat."

Five hundred thousand corpses of French soldiers were yet to strew the

soil of Europe to serve the ambition of Bonaparte, without hindering that

return of the House of Bourbon which he declared to be so disastrous. In

1800 the First Consul deigned to promise his benevolence to the

descendants of Henry IV., and felt no fear as to royalist intrigues in

France. Since the troubles had ceased in the west, only Georges Cadoudal

had continued sometimes to attract his attention. A letter in the month of

July had ordered Bernadotte to pursue him: "Have this miserable Georges

arrested, and shot within twenty-four hours," he wrote. Georges had

returned to England.

He was back again in France on the 24th December, 1800, when the coach of

the First Consul was stopped in the Rue St. Nicaise by a small cart which

barred the way; the coachman urged forward the horses, and passed it. At

the same instant an explosion was heard; the dead and the wounded fell

round the carriage of Bonaparte, shaken by the violence of the shock, all

the windows being broken. Bonaparte stopped his carriage, and comprehended

at once the cause of the accident. "Drive to the opera!" said he. Madame

Bonaparte was waiting for him there. When the public was reassured by his

presence, he returned to the Tuileries. A barrel of powder, loaded with

grape-shot, had been placed upon the road; the victims were numerous, and

the assassins escaped.

The general fright was of use to the anger and emotion of the First

Consul. The enemies of Fouché denounced a police everywhere favorable to

the old Jacobins. The suspicions of Bonaparte were all directed against

these known and furious enemies of his person and his policy. He was

enraged in his irritation, and disdained, according to his custom, the

legal forms and the justice of the tribunals. "We must make the number of

the convicted equal to the number of their victims," he said, "and

transport all their adherents. I will not have all quarters of Paris

successively undermined. There are always Septembrisers, miscreants

covered with crimes, in square battalion against every successive

government. It is necessary to make an end of them." Fouché, silent but

imperturbable, for a long time on the traces of the conspiracy, persisted

in seeing in the infernal machine the work of the agents of Chouannerie.

The Council of State proposed to institute a military commission and

authorize the First Consul to remove the men who appeared dangerous.

Bonaparte was irritated by this slowness of justice. "The action of a

special tribunal will be slow," said he; "it will not get hold of the

truly guilty. It is not a question of judicial metaphysics. There are in

France 10,000 miscreants who have persecuted all honest men, and who are

steeped in blood. They are not all culpable in the same degree, far from

it. Strike the chiefs boldly and the soldiers will disperse. There is no

middle course here; it is necessary to pardon all, like Augustus, or else

there must be a prompt and terrible vengeance proportionate to the crime.

It is necessary to shoot fifteen or twenty of these miscreants, and

transport 200 of them. I am so convinced of the necessity of purging

France from these sanguinary dregs that I am ready to constitute myself

sole tribunal--to bring forward the guilty, examine them, judge them, and

have their condemnation carried into effect. It is not myself that I seek

to avenge here. I am as ready to die as First Consul for the preservation

of the Republic and the Constitution as to fall upon the field of battle;

but it is necessary to reassure France, who will approve my policy."

The members of the council listened, struck with consternation at such

absolutist and revolutionary violence, but already too much dismayed to

defend the cause of the most elementary justice. Admiral Truguet alone

suggested doubts as to the true authors of the crime. "It is desired,"

said he, "to defeat the miscreants who trouble the Republic, so be it; but

the miscreants are of more than one kind. The returned emigrants menace

those who have acquired national property, the Chouans infest the

highways, the priests inflame the passions of the people, the public

spirit is corrupted by pamphlets." The First Consul blushed violently at

this allusion; the reminder of the unfortunate attempt of Lucien Bonaparte

increased his anger. Advancing towards the admiral, "Of what pamphlets do

you speak?" cried he. "You know as well as I do," without giving way,

answered the brave sailor.

The First Consul paced the hall; the councillors of State watched him,

vaguely recognizing in the outbursts of the anger of the master the

powerful instinct of government, which discerned the permanent hostility

of the revolutionaries without being able to divest itself of their

principles or of their modes of action. "Do people take us for children?"

he cried. "Do they expect to draw us aside with these declamations against

the emigrants, the Chouans, and the priests? Because there are still a few

partial attempts in Vendée, must we be called upon to declare the country

in danger? If the Chouans commit crimes, I will have them shot. But must I

commence proscribing for a quality? Must I strike these because they are

priests, those because they are old nobles? Must I send away into exile

10,000 old men, who only ask to be allowed to live peaceably in obedience

to the established laws? Do you not know, gentlemen, members of the

council, that excepting two or three you all pass for royalists? You,

Citizen Defermon, don't they take you for a partisan of the Bourbons? Must

I send Citizen Portalis to Sinnamari, and Citizen Devaisne to Madagascar,

and then must I make for myself a Babeuf council? No, no, Citizen Truguet,

you won't get me to make any change; there are none to fear except the

Septembrisers. They would not spare even you yourself, and it would be in

vain for you to tell them that you defended them at the Council of State.

They would cut your throat, just the same as mine or the throats of your

colleagues."

He went out without giving time for any one to answer him. Cambacérès,

moderate and prudent, equally clever in giving counsel and at yielding

when counsels were useless, deemed the anger of the First Consul too

passionate to admit of contradiction. The Council of State, several times

consulted, was brought over with repugnance to the idea of an

extraordinary measure. The First Consul wished a law; it was decided to

involve the great bodies of the State in the arbitrary act which he was

about to commit. "The consuls do not know what may happen," said he. "So

long as I am alive I am not afraid of any one daring to ask me an account

of my actions; but I may be killed, and then I cannot answer for my two

colleagues. You are not very firmly placed in your stirrups," he added,

turning to Cambacérès, with a smile. "Better to have a law now as well as

for the future." The Council of State hesitated from a repugnance to form

a proscription list, assuring him that it would be rejected by the

Tribunate and the Legislative Body. "You are always afraid of the

Tribunate," said Bonaparte, "because it rejected one or two of your laws;

but there are only a few Jacobins in the Legislative Body, ten or twelve

at most. The others know well that but for me they would all have been

massacred. The law will be passed."

At last, Talleyrand, who had previously remained silent, said that since

there was a Senate, some use should be made of it. The proscription list

was sent to the Senate. It had been written by Fouché, who knew the real

criminals; and the statement of reasons were drawn up by the two sections

of the Council of State who were at first unanimously opposed to the

measure: the Senate voted, the First Consul having signed the act. "All

these men have not taken the dagger in their hands," said the preamble,

"but they are all universally known to be capable of sharpening it and

taking it." Two days afterwards 133 Jacobins sailed from Nantes for

Guiana--formerly members of the Convention and the Commune, proved or

supposed to have had a part in the massacres of September, all certainly

loaded with crime, and worthy of the punishment which they underwent,

strangers to the attempt to assassinate the First Consul, and condemned

without regard to moral or legal justice. At the same time, and as if to

clear off all old accounts with the conspirators, the four men accused in

October, Aréna, formerly a representative, and recently employed by the

Committee of Public Safety, and the artists Ceracchi and Topino-Lebrun,

were at last tried, and condemned to perish on the scaffold. Chauveau-

Lagarde defended them, as he had formerly defended Charlotte Corday and

the men of Nantes denounced by Carrier. His efforts were not crowned with

success; whether acknowledged or only suspected, the Jacobin conspiracy

was everywhere repressed with the same rigor.

Nevertheless, Fouché had at last recovered the temporarily lost traces of

the real criminals. Two assistants of Georges Cadoudal, Limoëlan and St.

Réjant, who had formerly taken part in the civil wars, entered into

partnership with a man of the lower orders named Carbon, who bought them

the cart, the horse, and powder. He was found concealed in Paris; Limoëlan

had fled abroad. St. Réjant, who had let off the infernal machine, had not

yet recovered from the injuries caused by it; and Carbon having betrayed

his place of concealment, and all the details of the plot, they were both

executed. Fouché's penetration on this occasion gained him still greater

confidence with the First Consul. "He was right," repeated Bonaparte: "his

opinion was better than that of the others. The returned emigrants, the

royalist plotters, and people of that sort, ought to be closely watched. I

am pleased, however, to be rid of the Jacobin staff."

Neither the banishment of the old revolutionists, nor the condemnation of

those who had contrived the infernal machine, had disturbed the repose of

public opinion, then in close alliance with the steady and firm power

which ruled France. The abstract principles of justice were no longer

thought of by men in general: the desire for permanent freedom had given

place to the longing for rest and quiet, and all were pleased with the

energy which the government had shown against disturbers of the peace; and

the oppressive laws being modified, prosperity was reappearing. The state

of the finances became more satisfactory: a part of the public funds had

been paid, and that which still remained had just been registered in the

"Great Ledger;" the fundholders accepted without too much difficulty the

delay in paying the first dividend. The national property not yet sold was

set apart for the liquidation, excepting what was assigned for public

instruction and the support of the Invalides. Everywhere roads were being

made or repaired, canals dug, and three bridges were built over the Seine.

In spite of the formation of extraordinary tribunals, the great Code of

Civil Law was being slowly made--destined to rule France and extend her

useful action. An agent, almost unknown at Rome and only recently arrived

in Paris, was already discussing with Abbé Bernier those great questions

of order and organization which were afterwards to introduce the

concordat. Peace, even when partial and precarious, was everywhere bearing

its fruits; at home, France displayed that wonderful recuperative power so

frequently and painfully put to the proof by the severe shocks of our

modern history; abroad, her importance in Europe was daily increasing, and

caused more disquiet to all her enemies. The government of England,

however, was soon to pass from Pitt's hands: the whole English nation

called loudly to stop a war of which they had financially borne the

burden, even though their armies had generally had little share in it.

In the south of Europe the First Consul, while negotiating with the Pope,

and occupying Piedmont without diplomacy, had no longer any enemy to

subdue worthy of his power. Murat had invaded the kingdom of Naples,

causing so great terror that the queen herself was on the point of

accepting an armistice by which the ports of the Two Sicilies were closed

to the English. The treaty of definitive peace was signed at Florence on

the 18th of March, 1801, the conditions being the same as those of the

armistice, with the important addition that the territory of Elba, a

dependency of the kingdom of Naples, was to be ceded. By a secret article,

the sovereign of the Two Sicilies was obliged to receive and maintain a

body of fifteen thousand men, which the First Consul intended to transport

to Egypt, important armaments being prepared in our ports in order to be

sent to the same place, their real destination being yet concealed. A

Franco-Spanish expedition, nominally commanded by Prince de la Paix but

really directed by General Gouvion St. Cyr, was to attempt in April the

conquest of Portugal. In spite of repeated promises, the government of

that small State remained obstinately faithful to England.

England was suffering from a scarcity of food which threatened to become a

famine, constantly made worse by the hindrances put in the way of her

commerce. The difficulties of the home government increased those of the

diplomatic and military isolation which she underwent in Europe. At the

moment of the conclusion of the Treaty of Union, Pitt had entered upon

engagements with the Irish Catholics which he felt himself bound to

fulfil. The conscientious but shortsighted and narrow-minded George III.

opposed every act of toleration with respect to his Catholic subjects: he

refused to give his assent, and Pitt by resigning his post sacrificed, at

a perilous crisis for his country, foreign policy to the duties and

obligations of parliamentary tactics. The reason of King George, already

tottering, was unable to undergo so much agitation; he remained faithful

to his convictions, but was for a short time out of his mind. When he

regained his faculties, Pitt, who was moved to the heart by the trouble

which he had caused to his aged king, and disturbed by the evils which

threatened England under the regency of the Prince of Wales, undertook

never to raise the question of the emancipation of the Catholics during

the life of George III. He had no seat, however, in the new cabinet, which

was obviously incapable, and unequal to the difficult task which it had

undertaken, and in their earlier proceedings still influenced by Pitt's

action, and following the line of policy which he had traced. Scarcely had

Addington become prime minister, when an attempt which had long been

projected against Denmark was put in execution. Nelson had charge of it

under the superior command of Sir Hyde Parker, who was above him in the

order of seniority. "This is no time to feel nervous," said Nelson to his

superior as they were setting sail. "Dark nights and mountains of ice

matter little; we must take courage to meet the enemy."

Having passed the Sound, the English squadron blockaded the fleet which

covered Copenhagen. The Danes made an heroic defence, and the old Admiral

Parker, somewhat alarmed, gave the signal for the action to cease. "I'll

be d----d first!" cried Nelson in a passion: "I have the right of seeing

badly"--putting his telescope to the eye which he had lost at Aboukir. "I

don't see the signal. Nail mine to the mast. Let them press closer on the

enemy. That's my reply to such signalling." It was Nelson, moreover, who,

when the battle was gained, arranged with the Prince Royal of Denmark the

terms of the armistice which separated his country from the number of the

neutral states.

Almost at the same moment the coalition of maritime powers underwent a

more fatal check. For several months the strange workings of the mind of

the Emperor Paul I. had become more obvious. Everybody trembled before

him, and even the empress, as well as her sons, had been threatened with

banishment to Siberia. A caricature was published representing the Czar

holding in one hand a paper on which was written the word "order;" in the

other, the word "counter-order;" on his forehead was read the word

"disorder." A conspiracy was formed, including the principal nobles and

the most intimate members of his household. "They are conspiring against

me, Pahlen," said the emperor to the Governor of St. Petersburg. "Let your

Majesty's mind be easy," replied the Russian, coolly; "I am up to them."

He really was so, and on the night of the 23rd March, 1801, he entered the

Michael palace with the conspirators. The next in importance to him,

General Benningsen, had afterwards the honor of fighting bravely against

the Emperor Napoleon when subduing Poland; he was already distinguished,

and had been decorated with all the orders of the empire. On making his

way to the bedroom of the Czar, who was asleep, the two Hungarians who

formed the only guard ran away after striking one or two blows; the

palace-guard were already on an understanding with the conspirators. The

unfortunate Czar, pursued by the assassins, took refuge behind a screen.

Benningsen observing him held out a paper: "There is your act of

abdication," said he; "sign it and I answer for your life." The emperor

resisted; the conspirators crowded into the room; the lamp fell and was

extinguished, and in that moment of darkness a scarf was tightened round

the neck of Paul I., and he was struck on the head with the pummel of a

sword. When a light was brought in he was dead.

Count Pahlen had not entered the room, being engaged in guarding the doors

with a troop of soldiers: he went to call on the new emperor. Alexander

was not ignorant of the plot formed to force from his father an abdication

which had become necessary; but he had not considered, and did not

anticipate, the fatal consequences of that enterprise. Pahlen's silence

was the only reply to his questions about the Czar: the young man burst

into tears, hiding his face in his hands and heaping reproaches upon the

Governor of St. Petersburg, who still remained motionless before him. But

by this time the empress, out of her mind from sorrow, and suddenly seized

with an ill-regulated ambition, sent to announce to her son that she was

resolved to take possession of the power. Count Pahlen at once threw off

his apathy. "Enough of childish tears," said he to the young emperor;

"now, come and reign!" He then presented him to the troops, by whom he was

well received.

A few days afterwards the Emperor Alexander was crowned. "Before him

marched his grandfather's murderers," wrote Madame de Bonneuil, "beside

him those of his father, and behind him his own." Count Pahlen's ambition

was to govern the young monarch, but he was not to reap the fruits of his

crime. The empress-mother insisted upon the banishment of the murderers of

Paul I. In the retirement of his country estate, where he lived a long

time, the count on the 23rd of March made himself drunk from daybreak, in

order to pass in oblivion the dreaded anniversary which awoke in his mind

a remorse which was only slumbering. "That's the regular mode of

deposition in Russia," said Talleyrand, cynically, on hearing of the

emperor's assassination. The First Consul's anger overcame his judgment.

"The wretches!" he exclaimed; "they failed here on the 3rd Nivôse, but

they have not failed in St. Petersburg." And bent on showing his spite

towards his enemies, he had the following note inserted in the _Moniteur_:

"Paul I. died on the night of the 23rd March, and the English squadron

passed the Sound on the 31st. History will inform us the relation that

possibly exists between these two events."

History has done justice to those false insinuations, unworthy even of him

who pronounced them. Admiral Nelson felt no joy at the death of the

Emperor Paul, which finally broke the league of the neutrals, and deprived

him of the easy triumph which he made sure of gaining over the Russian

fleet. It was of service, however, to England, and contributed to assist

the wish for peace which was beginning to be awakened in the mind of the

First Consul. Scarcely was the Emperor of Russia dead, when Piedmont, long

protected by his favor, was reduced to the condition of a French

department: but it was in vain that Bonaparte pretended to reckon on the

alliance of the young Czar, in vain that Duroc was despatched to St.

Petersburg with a mission of confidence; he was not deceived as to the

Emperor Alexander's leaning to ally himself with England. In fact, M.

Otto, who had been sent to London to arrange the exchange of prisoners,

had already several weeks previously been authorized to meet favorably the

advances made by Lord Hawkesbury, then the foreign minister. On both sides

they tried to gain time. The great question which then separated France

and England, the possession of Egypt, remained undecided, and both sides

determined that it should be settled. On the 7th of March, 1801, the

English squadron of the Mediterranean, which was long stationed at Mahon,

and had recently been directed towards Malta, suddenly disembarked a body

of 18,000 soldiers under the orders of Sir Ralph Abercromby. Thus, with a

Turkish contingent and the regiments of sepoys brought from India, there

were 60,000 men united against the army of occupation, which was reduced

to 15,000 or 18,000 soldiers, commanded by dissatisfied officers, and

generals who could not act together. Unfortunate in his relations to his

colleagues, and showing little tact in his application of European methods

of organization to the native population, General Menou was unable to take

the necessary precautions against the English invasion of Egypt; and in

spite of his bravery, General Friant, who was in charge of 15,000 men

defending Alexandria, could make only a feeble resistance to the landing

of the English. Assisted by General Lanusse, he again joined battle, 13th

March, on the road to Ramanièh; while General Menou--"Abdallah Menou," as

his soldiers called him after he became a Mussulman--was on march with all

his troops to assist Alexandria. After committing the fault of allowing

the English army to land, it was necessary to make haste to fight it

before it should have received the expected reinforcements. The battle of

Canopa was fought on the 21st March under disadvantageous circumstances;

and General Lanusse being killed in the action, General Reynier's

disposition prevented his supplying his chief's incapacity. The battle,

though remaining indecisive, left the English masters of the coast, and

constantly revictualled by the fleet.

For more than two months, the French army hoped and waited for the

assistance which had been promised them. Admiral Ganteaume, provided with

the best vessels of our navy, a body of picked soldiers, and supplies and

resources of every kind, had in fact set sail on the 23rd January, leaving

Brest in the midst of a frightful tempest in the hopes of escaping the

English cruisers. After being beaten about and somewhat damaged by the

sea, the French vessels made for the Straits of Gibraltar, without any

accident except a short engagement between the frigate "Bravoure" and an

English one. The admiral hesitated; in spite of his personal courage, he

felt loaded with too great a responsibility. Bringing back his squadron

almost within view of Toulon, he thought he saw Mahon's English fleet

making straight for him, and as the struggle threatened to be unequal he

returned into the harbor of Toulon. Leaving it on the 19th of March, after

his vessels were repaired and urgent orders were received from the First

Consul, he again delayed, on account of an accident which had happened to

one of his ships, and it was only on the 22nd that he finally put to sea.

On the 26th he was delayed by the collision of two vessels at Cape

Carbonara in Sardinia, and becoming discouraged and uneasy, the admiral

again entered Toulon on the 5th of April, at the moment when the English

fleet were passing Rosetta. The town was badly defended and fell into the

hands of the enemies, who thus became masters of the mouth of the Nile;

and sending some gun-boats up as far as Fouèh, they soon took it. Generals

Lagrange and Morand held Ramanièh; and Menou delaying to lend the

assistance which he promised, Lagrange fell back upon Cairo, and

communication with Alexandria was interrupted. General Billiard, who

commanded in the capital of Egypt, made a sally to repulse the vizier's

troops; but in spite of several skirmishes he could not reach the main

body of the army, and returning to the town, he offered to capitulate. The

English were anxious to finish, being afraid of one of those strokes of

good fortune to which the French arms had so often owed their success. The

most honorable conditions were granted to the army, the troops evacuating

Egypt being carried back to France at the expense of England, and in their

vessels (27th June, 1801). Almost at the same moment (24th June), Admiral

Ganteaume, with his squadron reduced by sickness, at last anchored before

Derne, several marches from Alexandria; but as the people on the coast

opposed his landing, and the undertaking was hazardous and the land route

difficult, he again put to sea, thinking himself fortunate in finding in

the Straits at Candia an English ship, which he captured and brought

triumphantly to Toulon. General Menou, now alone, and shut up in

Alexandria, obstinately and heroically resisted in vain. When at last he

surrendered, he had been long forgotten in his isolation. Thus though

Bonaparte's thoughts often went back to that famous and chimerical

conquest of his youth, Egypt was definitively lost to France.

The negotiations with England had undergone the fluctuations inseparable

from the vicissitudes of a distant war, the events of which remained still

doubtful in Europe several weeks after their occurrence. The successes

gained by Admiral Linois against the English before Algesiras and Cadiz,

and the danger of Portugal threatened by the Spanish army, had their

influence no doubt upon the English cabinet, but it was still haughty and

exacting. The First Consul himself drew up a minute for the minister of

foreign affairs, giving an abstract of the concessions which he was

disposed to accept. "The French Government wishes to overlook nothing

which may lead to a general peace, that being for the interests both of

humanity and of the allies. It is for the King of England to consider if

it is also for the interests of his policy, his commerce, and his nation:

and if so, a distant island more or less can be no sufficient reason for

prolonging the unhappiness of the world.

"The question consists of three points: the Mediterranean--the Indies--

America.

"Egypt will be restored to the Porte.

"The Republic of the Seven Islands will be recognized.

"All the ports of the Adriatic and Mediterranean occupied by French troops

will be restored to the King of Naples and to the Pope.

"Mahon will be restored to Spain.

"Malta will be restored to the Order; and if the King of England should

consider it conformable to his interests as a preponderating naval power

to destroy the fortifications, that clause will be admitted.

"In India, England will keep Ceylon, and so become unassailable mistress

of those immense and wealthy countries.

"The other establishments will be restored to the allies, including the

Cape of Good Hope.

"In America, all will be restored to the former possessors. The King of

England is already so powerful in that part of the world that to wish for

more is, being absolute master of India, to wish to be so of America also.

"Portugal will be preserved in all its integrity.

"Such are the conditions which the French Government is ready to sign.

"The advantages which the British Government thus derive are immense: to

claim greater ones is not to wish a peace which is just and reciprocally

honorable.

"Martinico not having been conquered by the English arms, but placed by

the inhabitants in the hands of the English till France should have a

government, cannot be considered an English possession. France will never

give it up.

"All that now remains is for the British Government to make known the

course they wish to adopt; and if these conditions do not satisfy them, it

will be at least proved before the eyes of the world that the First Consul

has left nothing undone, and has shown himself disposed to make any

sacrifice, in order that peace may be restored and humanity spared the

tears and bloodshed which must inevitably result from a new campaign."

The concessions were in fact great, the First Consul abandoning points

which had long been disputed,--Egypt, Malta, and Ceylon; and he showed

extreme annoyance when Lord Hawkesbury refused to admit the principle of

complete restitution in America. Several threatening articles were

inserted in the _Moniteur_, and Bonaparte urgently hurried the preparation

of a fleet of gun-boats at Boulogne, which were supposed to be intended

for the invasion of England. It had long been an idea of the First

Consul's thus to intimidate the English Government, but it was only the

people on the coast who were really alarmed. Nelson wrote immediately to

the Admiralty, that "even on leaving the French harbors the landing is

impossible were it only for the difficulties caused by the tides: and as

to the notion of rowing over, it is impracticable humanly speaking." An

attempt to land a large army on the English coast was soon to become a

fixed idea in Bonaparte's mind; but then he used his armaments to disquiet

the British Government. Twice Nelson attempted to destroy our fleet, and

twice he failed completely: in the second attack, which was begun at

night, and vigorously carried on to boarding, Admiral Latouche-Tréville

compelled the English ships to withdraw, after inflicting severe losses

upon them. Nevertheless, England still insisted on obtaining possession of

the island of Trinidad, which belonged to Spain. The First Consul refused

for a long time, but the Prince de la Paix had betrayed the hopes of his

imperious ally. Bonaparte had guaranteed the throne of "Etruria" to the

young Duke of Parma, and recently received in Paris the new sovereign, and

his wife, the daughter of the King of Spain, and showed the nation that

the prince was a simple lad, to be easily bent to his purposes. In return

for so many favors, the Spanish troops had with difficulty conquered a few

provinces, and King Charles IV., already reconciled to his son-in-law, the

King of Portugal, concluded the treaty of Badajoz, which closed the

harbors to the English, and granted an indemnity of twenty millions to

France. The First Consul was extremely indignant, having counted on the

threat of a war in Portugal to exercise a preponderating influence in the

negotiations in London. At first he insisted that the treaty must be

broken. "At the very time," said he, "when the First Consul places a

prince of the house of Spain on a throne which is the fruit of the

victories of the French nation, the French Republic is treated as the

Republic of San Marino might with impunity be treated. Let the Prince de

la Paix know that if he has been bought by England, and has drawn the king

and queen into measures contrary to the honor and interest of the

Republic, the last hour of the Spanish monarchy has struck."

The Prince de la Paix made ample excuses, but refused to break the treaty

of Badajoz. The real intention of the First Consul was to have peace: he

had three vessels granted him by Portugal, and abandoned the island of

Trinidad to the demands of the English Government. At one time England

also claimed Tobago, but the very terms of the treaty were displeasing to

Bonaparte's pride, and he assumed the insulting tone which he had been

accustomed to use with foreign diplomatists. "The following is what I am

directed to tell you," wrote Talleyrand: "excepting Trinidad, the First

Consul will not yield, not only Tobago, but even a single rock, if there

is one, with only a village of a hundred people; and the ground of the

First Consul's conduct is, that in the treaty he has yielded to England to

the last limit of honor, and that further there would be for the French

nation dishonor. He will grant nothing more, even if the English fleets

were anchored before Chaillot."

Lord Hawkesbury withdrew his demands as to Tobago, and the First Consul

modified his threats, both nations being eagerly desirous of peace. The

preliminaries were at last signed in London, on the 1st October, 1801; and

when, two days afterwards, the ratifications were brought from Paris by

Colonel Lauriston, the welcome news caused an irresistible outburst of joy

amongst the populace. The horses of the French envoy's carriage were

unharnessed, that he might be drawn in triumph to Lord Hawkesbury's house;

and everywhere in the streets there were shouts of "Long live Bonaparte!"

At the banquets the First Consul's health was drunk, and cheered as loudly

as the speeches in favor of the friendship of the two nations. The same

excessive delight was shown in Paris, which was soon crowded with the

foreigners whom war had long kept away; and Fox was received by the First

Consul with such flattering attentions as made a deep impression on his

mind. Party feeling had so influenced the mind of the illustrious orator

as to partially efface his patriotic sentiments. A few days after the

preliminaries were signed, he wrote to his friend Lord Grey, "I confess to

you that I go farther than you in my hatred of the English Government: the

triumph gained by France excites in me a joy I can scarcely conceal."

The public joy and hopes, both in France and England, were founded on

motives superior to those which inspired Fox's satisfaction, but they were

not more permanent, or better founded. On the day after signing the

preliminaries of London, and as if to increase the renown of his

successes, the First Consul took pleasure in concluding successively

treaties with Portugal, the Sublime Porte, the Deys of Algiers and Tunis,

Bavaria, and finally Russia. One clause of the last treaty stipulated that

both sovereigns should prevent criminal conduct on the part of emigrants

from either country. The House of Bourbon and the Poles were thus equally

deprived of important protection. The situation of the King of Sardinia

was to be regulated in every way according to actual circumstances. Each

of the conventions, and especially the treaty of peace with England

contained reticences and obscurities, which were fertile in pretexts for

war and in unfriendly interpretations. The First Consul wished to secure

an interval of rest and leisure, to consolidate his conquests at home and

abroad. He had not renounced the glorious and ill-defined project of the

imperial government which he affected to exercise over Europe. "If England

made a new coalition," he wrote to M. Otto, "the only result would be a

renewal of the history of the greatness of Rome."