_Directory proposes to divide the Army of Italy betwixt
Buonaparte and Kellermann--Buonaparte resigns, and the Directory
give up the point--Insurrection against the French at
Pavia--crushed--and the Leaders shot--Also at the Imperial
Fiefs, and Lugo, quelled and punished in the same
way--Reflections--Austrians defeated at Borghetto, and retreat
behind the Adige--Buonaparte narrowly escapes being made
Prisoner at Valeggio--Mantua blockaded--Verona occupied by the
French--King of Naples secedes from Austria--Armistice purchased
by the Pope--The Neutrality of Tuscany violated, and Leghorn
occupied by the French Troops--Views of Buonaparte respecting
the Revolutionizing of Italy--He temporizes--Conduct of the
Austrian Government at this Crisis--Beaulieu displaced, and
succeeded by Wurmser--Buonaparte sits down before Mantua._
Occupying Milan, and conqueror in so many battles, Buonaparte might be
justly considered as in absolute possession of Lombardy, while the
broken forces of Beaulieu had been compelled to retreat under that sole
remaining bulwark of the Austrian power, the strong fortress of Mantua,
where they might await such support as should be detached to them
through the Tyrol, but could undertake no offensive operations. To
secure his position, the Austrian general had occupied the line formed
by the Mincio, his left flank resting upon Mantua, his right upon
Peschiera, a Venetian city and fortress, but of which he had taken
possession, against the reclamation of the Venetian government, who were
desirous of observing a neutrality between such powerful belligerents,
not perhaps altogether aware how far the victor, in so dreadful a
strife, might be disposed to neglect the general law of nations. The
Austrian defence on the right was prolonged by the lago di Guarda, a
large lake out of which the Mincio flows, and which, running thirty-five
miles northward into the mountains of the Tyrol, maintained
uninterrupted Beaulieu's communication with Germany.
Buonaparte, in the meantime, permitted his forces only the repose of
four or five days, ere he again summoned them to active exertion. He
called on them to visit the Capitol, there to re-establish (he ought to
have said to _carry away_) the statues of the great men of antiquity,
and to change, or rather renovate, the destinies of the finest district
of Europe. But while thus engaged, he received orders from Paris
respecting his farther proceedings, which must have served to convince
him that _all_ his personal enemies, all who doubted and feared him,
were not to be found in the Austrian ranks.
The Directory themselves had begun to suspect the prudence of suffering
the whole harvest of success which Italy afforded, to be reaped by the
adventurous and haughty character who had first thrust in the sickle.
They perhaps felt already an instinctive distrust of the waxing
influence, which was destined one day to overpower their own. Under some
such impression, they resolved [May 7] to divide the army of Italy
betwixt Buonaparte and Kellermann, directing the former general to pass
the Po, and advance southward on Rome and Naples, with twenty thousand
men, while Kellermann, with the other moiety of the Italian army, should
press the siege of Mantua, and make head against the Austrians.[144]
This was taking Buonaparte's victory out of his grasp; and he resented
the proposal accordingly, by transmitting his resignation [May 14,] and
declining to have any concern in the loss of his army, and the fruits of
his conquests. He affirmed, that Kellermann, with an army reduced to
twenty thousand men, could not face Beaulieu, but would be speedily
driven out of Lombardy; and that, in consequence, the army which
advanced southward would be overwhelmed and destroyed. One bad general,
he said, was better than two good ones.[145] The Directory must have
perceived from such a reply, the firm and inflexible nature of the man
they had made the leader of their armies, but they dared not, such was
his reputation, proceed in the plan they had formed for the diminution
of his power; and, perhaps for the first time since the Revolution, the
executive government of France was compelled to give way to a successful
general, and adopt his views instead of their own. The campaign was left
to his sole management;[146] he obtained an ascendancy which he took
admirable care not to relinquish, and it became the only task of the
Directory, so far as Italy was concerned, to study phrases for
intimating their approbation of the young general's measures.
Whatever were the ultimate designs of Buonaparte against Rome, he
thought it prudent to suspend them until he should be free from all
danger of the Austrians, by the final defeat of Beaulieu. For this
object, he directed the divisions of his army towards the right bank of
the Mincio, with a view of once more forcing Beaulieu's position, after
having taken precautions for blockading the citadel of Milan, where the
Austrians still held out, and for guarding Pavia and other points, which
appeared necessary to secure his conquests.
[Sidenote: REVOLT OF PAVIA.]
Napoleon himself fixed his headquarters at Lodi, upon the 24th of May.
But he was scarcely arrived there, when he received the alarming
intelligence, that the city of Pavia, with all the surrounding
districts, were in arms in his rear; that the tocsin was ringing in
every village, and that news were circulated, that the Prince of Condé's
army, united with a strong Austrian force, had descended from the Tyrol
into Italy. Some commotions had shown themselves in Milan, and the
Austrian garrison there made demonstrations towards favouring the
insurrection in Pavia, where the insurgents were completely successful,
and had made prisoners a French corps of three hundred men.
Buonaparte represents these disturbances as effected by Austrian
agents;[147] but he had formerly assured us, that the Italians took
little interest in the fate of their German masters. The truth is, that,
having entered Italy with the most flattering assurances of observing
respect for public and private property, the French had alienated the
inhabitants, by exacting the contributions which they had imposed on the
country with great severity. As Catholics, the Italians were also
disgusted with the open indignities thrown on the places and objects of
public worship, as well as on the persons and character of their
priests.[148]
The nobles and the clergy naturally saw their ruin in the success of the
French; and the lower classes joined them for the time, from dislike to
foreigners, love of national independence, resentment of the exactions
made, and the acts of sacrilege committed by the ultramontane invaders.
About thirty thousand insurgents were in arms; but having no regular
forces on which to rest as a rallying point, they were ill calculated to
endure the rapid assault of the disciplined French.
Buonaparte, anxious to extinguish a flame so formidable, instantly
returned from Lodi to Milan, at the head of a strong division, took
order for the safety of the capital of Lombardy, and moved next morning
towards Pavia, the centre of the insurrection. The village of Benasco,
which was defended against Lannes, was taken by storm, the inhabitants
put to the sword, and the place plundered and burnt. Napoleon himself
arrived before Pavia, blew the gates open with his cannon, dispersed
with ease the half-armed insurgents, and caused the leaders of the
insurrection to be put to death, for having attempted to defend the
independence of their country. He then seized on the persons of many
inhabitants, and sent them to Paris as hostages for the subjection of
their fellow-citizens.[149]
The French general published a proclamation in the Republican style, in
which he reproaches the insurgents for presuming to use arms in defence
of their country, and menaces with fire and sword whatever individuals
should in future prosecute the same daring course. He made his threat
good some weeks afterwards, when a similar insurrection took place in
those districts called the Imperial Fiefs,[150] and still later, when an
effort at resistance was attempted in the town of Lugo. On both
occasions, the leaders of the armed inhabitants were tried by a military
commission, condemned, and shot. On the last, indeed, to revenge the
defeat sustained by a squadron of French dragoons, Lugo was taken by
storm, pillaged, burnt, and the men put to the sword; while some credit
seems to be taken by Buonaparte in his despatches, for the clemency of
the French, which spared the women and children.[151]
It is impossible to read the account of these barbarities, without
contrasting them with the opinions professed on other occasions, both by
the republican and imperial governments of France. The first of these
exclaimed as at an unheard of cruelty, when the Duke of Brunswick, in
his celebrated proclamation, threatened to treat as a brigand every
Frenchman, not being a soldier, whom he should find under arms, and to
destroy such villages as should offer resistance to the invading army.
The French at that time considered with justice, that, if there is one
duty more holy than another, it is that which calls on men to defend
their native country against invasion. Napoleon, being emperor, was of
the same opinion in the years 1813 and 1814, when the allies entered the
French territories, and when, in various proclamations, he called on the
inhabitants to rise against the invaders with the implements of their
ordinary labour when they had no better arms, and "to shoot a foreigner
as they would a wolf." It would be difficult to reconcile these
invitations with the cruel vengeance taken on the town of Lugo,[152] for
observing a line of conduct which, in similar circumstances, Buonaparte
so keenly and earnestly recommended to those whom fortune had made his
own subjects.
The brief insurrection of Pavia suppressed by these severities,
Buonaparte once more turned his thoughts to the strong position of the
Austrians, with the purpose of reducing Beaulieu to a more decided state
of disability, before he executed the threatened vengeance of the
Republic on the Sovereign Pontiff. For this purpose he advanced to
Brescia, and manœuvred in such a manner as induced Beaulieu, whom
repeated surprises of the same kind had not put upon his guard, to
believe, that either the French general intended to attempt the passage
of the Mincio at the small but strong town of Peschiera, where that
river issues from the lago di Guarda, or else that, marching northward
along the eastern bank, he designed to come round the head of the lake,
and thus turn the right of the Austrian position. While Beaulieu
disposed his forces as expecting an attack on the right of his line,
Buonaparte, with his usual celerity, proposed to attack him on the
centre, at Borghetto, a town situated on the Mincio, and commanding a
bridge over it, above ten miles lower than Peschiera.
[Sidenote: BATTLE OF BORGHETTO.]
On the 30th May, the French general attacked with superior force, and
repulsed across the Mincio, an Austrian corps who endeavoured to cover
the town. The fugitives attempted to demolish the bridge, and did break
down one of its arches. But the French, rushing forward with
impetuosity, under cover of a heavy fire, upon the retreating Austrians,
repaired the broken arch so as to effect a passage, and the Mincio,
passed as the Po and the Adda had been before, ceased in its turn to be
a protection to the army drawn up behind it.
Beaulieu, who had his headquarters at Valeggio, a village nearly
opposite to Borghetto, hastened to retreat, and evacuating Peschiera,
marched his dismayed forces behind the Adige, leaving five hundred
prisoners, with other trophies of victory, in the hands of the French.
Buonaparte had designed that this day of success should have been still
more decisive; for he meditated an attack upon Peschiera at the moment
when the passage at Borghetto was accomplished; but ere Augereau, to
whom this manœuvre was committed, had time to approach Peschiera, it
was evacuated by the Austrians, who were in full retreat by Castel
Nuovo, protected by their cavalry.[153]
The left of the Austrian line, cut off from the centre by the passage of
the French, had been stationed at Puzzuolo, lower on the Mincio. When
Sebottendorf, who commanded the Imperial troops stationed on the left
bank, heard the cannonade, he immediately ascended the river, to assist
his commander-in-chief to repel the French, or to take them in flank if
it was already crossed. The retreat of Beaulieu made both purposes
impossible; and yet this march of Sebottendorf had almost produced a
result of greater consequence than would have been the most complete
victory.
The French division which first crossed the Mincio, had passed through
Valeggio without halting, in pursuit of Beaulieu, by whom the village
had been just before abandoned. Buonaparte with a small retinue remained
in the place, and Massena's division were still on the right bank of the
Mincio, preparing their dinner. At this moment the advanced guard of
Sebottendorf, consisting of hulans and hussars, pushed into the village
of Valeggio. There was but barely time to cry to arms, and, shutting the
gates of the inn, to employ the general's small escort in its defence,
while Buonaparte, escaping by the garden, mounted his horse and galloped
towards Massena's division. The soldiers threw aside their cookery, and
marched instantly against Sebottendorf, who, with much difficulty, and
not without loss, effected a retreat in the same direction as his
commander-in-chief Beaulieu. This personal risk induced Buonaparte to
form what he called the corps of guides, veterans of ten years' service
at least, who were perpetually near his person, and, like the _Triarii_
of the Romans, were employed only when the most desperate efforts of
courage were necessary. Bessières, afterwards Duke of Istria, and
Marshal of France, was placed at the head of this chosen body, which
gave rise to the formation of the celebrated Imperial Guards of
Napoleon.[154]
[Sidenote: FORTRESS OF MANTUA.]
The passage of the Mincio obliged the Austrians to retire within the
frontier of the Tyrol; and they might have been considered as completely
expelled from Italy, had not Mantua and the citadel of Milan still
continued to display the Imperial banners. The castle of Milan was a
place of no extraordinary strength, the surrender of which might be
calculated on so soon as the general fate of war had declared itself
against the present possessors. But Mantua was by nature one of those
almost impregnable fortresses, which may long, relying on its own
resources, defy any compulsion but that of famine.
The town and fortress of Mantua are situated on a species of island,
five or six leagues square, called the seraglio, formed by three lakes,
which communicate with, or rather are formed by, the Mincio. This island
has access to the land by five causeways, the most important of which
was in 1796 defended by a regular citadel, called, from the vicinity of
a ducal palace, La Favorità. Another was defended by an intrenched camp,
extending between the fortress and the lake. The third was protected by
a horn-work. The remaining two causeways were only defended by gates and
draw-bridges. Mantua, low in situation, and surrounded by water, in a
warm climate, is naturally unhealthy; but the air was likely to be still
more destructive to a besieging army, (which necessarily lay in many
respects more exposed to the elements, and were besides in greater
numbers, and less habituated to the air of the place,) than to a
garrison who had been seasoned to it, and were well accommodated within
the fortress.
To surprise a place so strong by a coup-de-main was impossible, though
Buonaparte represents his soldiers as murmuring that such a desperate
feat was not attempted. But he blockaded Mantua [June 4] with a large
force, and proceeded to take such other measures to improve his success,
as might pave the way to future victories. The garrison was numerous,
amounting to from twelve to fourteen thousand men; and the deficiencies
of the fortifications, which the Austrians had neglected in over
security, were made up for by the natural strength of the place. Yet of
the five causeways, Buonaparte made himself master of four; and thus the
enemy lost possession of all beyond the walls of the town and citadel,
and had only the means of attaining the mainland through the citadel of
La Favorità. Lines of circumvallation were formed, and Serrurier was
left in blockade of the fortress, which the possession of four of the
accesses enabled him to accomplish with a body of men inferior to the
garrison.[155]
To complete the blockade, it was necessary to come to some arrangement
with the ancient republic of Venice. With this venerable government
Napoleon had the power of working his own pleasure; for although the
state might have raised a considerable army to assist the Austrians, to
whom its senate, or aristocratic government, certainly bore good will,
yet, having been in amity with the French Republic, they deemed the step
too hazardous, and vainly trusting that their neutrality would be
respected, they saw the Austrian power completely broken for the time,
before they took any active measures either to stand in their defence,
or to deprecate the wrath of the victor. But when the line of the Mincio
was forced, and Buonaparte occupied the Venetian territory on the left
bank, it was time to seek by concessions that deference to the rights of
an independent country which the once haughty aristocracy of Venice had
lost a favourable opportunity of supporting by force.
[Sidenote: VERONA--LOUIS XVIII.]
There was one circumstance which rendered their cause unfavourable.
Louis XVIII., under the title of a private person, the Comte de Lille,
had received the hospitality of the republic, and was permitted to
remain at Verona, living in strict seclusion. The permission to
entertain this distinguished exile, the Venetian government had almost
mendicated from the French revolutionary rulers, in a manner which we
would term mean, were it not for the goodness of the intention, which
leads us to regard the conduct of the ancient mistress of the Adriatic
with pity rather than contempt. But when the screen of the Austrian
force no longer existed between the invading armies of France and the
Venetian territories--when the final subjugation of the north of Italy
was resolved on--the Directory peremptorily demanded, and the senate of
Venice were obliged to grant, an order, removing the Comte de Lille from
the boundaries of the republic.
The illustrious exile protested against this breach of hospitality, and
demanded, before parting, that his name, which had been placed on the
golden book of the republic, should be erased, and that the armour
presented by Henry IV. to Venice, should be restored to his
descendant.[156] Both demands were evaded, as might have been expected
in the circumstances, and the future monarch of France left Verona on
the 21st of April, 1796, for the army of the Prince of Condé, in whose
ranks he proposed to place himself, without the purpose of assuming any
command, but only that of fighting as a volunteer in the character of
the first gentleman in France. Other less distinguished emigrants, to
the number of several hundreds, who had found an asylum in Italy, were,
by the successes at Lodi and Borghetto, compelled to fly to other
countries.
Buonaparte, immediately after the battle of Borghetto, and the passage
of the Mincio, occupied the town of Verona [June 3,] and did not fail to
intimate to its magistrates, that if the _Pretender_, as he termed him,
to the throne of France, had not left Verona before his arrival, he
would have burnt to the ground a town which, acknowledging him as King
of France, assumed, in doing so, the air of being itself the capital of
that republic.[157] This might, no doubt, sound gallant in Paris; but
Buonaparte knew well that Louis of France was not received in the
Venetian territory as the successor to his brother's throne, but only
with the hospitality due to an unfortunate prince, who, suiting his
claim and title to his situation, was content to shelter his head, as a
private man might have done, from the evils which seemed to pursue him.
The neutrality of Venice was, however, for the time admitted, though not
entirely from respect for the law of nations; for Buonaparte is at some
pains to justify himself for not having seized without ceremony on the
territories and resources of that republic, although a neutral power as
far as her utmost exertions could preserve neutrality. He contented
himself for the time with occupying Verona, and other dependencies of
Venice upon the line of the Adige. "You are too weak," he said to the
Proveditore Foscarelli, "to pretend to enforce neutrality, with a few
hundred Sclavonians, on two such nations as France and Austria. The
Austrians have not respected your territory where it suited their
purpose, and I must, in requital, occupy such part as falls within the
line of the Adige."[158]
But he considered that the Venetian territories to the westward should
in policy be allowed to retain the character of neutral ground, which
The Government, as that of Venice was emphatically called, would not,
for their own sakes, permit them to lose; while otherwise, if occupied
by the French as conquerors, these timid neutrals might, upon any
reverse, have resumed the character of fierce opponents. And, at all
events, in order to secure a territory as a conquest, which, if
respected as neutral, would secure itself, there would have been a
necessity for dividing the French forces, which it was Buonaparte's wish
to concentrate. From interested motives, therefore, if not from respect
to justice, Buonaparte deferred seizing the territory of Venice when
within his grasp, conscious that the total defeat of the Austrians in
Italy would, when accomplished, leave the prey as attainable, and more
defenceless than ever. Having disposed his army in its position, and
prepared some of its divisions for the service which they were to
perform as moveable columns, he returned to Milan to reap the harvest of
his successes.
The first of these consisted in the defection of the King of Naples from
the cause of Austria, to which, from family connexion, he had yet
remained attached, though of late with less deep devotion. His cavalry
had behaved better during the engagements on the Mincio, than has been
of late the custom with Neapolitan troops, and had suffered accordingly.
The King, discouraged with the loss, solicited an armistice, which he
easily obtained [June 5]; for his dominions being situated at the lower
extremity of Italy, and his force extending to sixty thousand men at
least, it was of importance to secure the neutrality of a power who
might be dangerous, and who was not, as matters stood, under the
immediate control of the French. A Neapolitan ambassador was sent to
Paris to conclude a final peace; in the meanwhile, the soldiers of the
King of the Two Sicilies were withdrawn from the army of Beaulieu, and
returned to their own country. The dispositions of the Court of Naples
continued, nevertheless, to vacillate, as opportunity of advantage,
joined with the hatred of the Queen, (sister of Marie Antoinette,) or
the fear of the French military superiority, seemed to predominate.[159]
The storm now thickened round the devoted head of the Pope. Ferrara and
Bologna, the territories of which belonged to the Holy See, were
occupied by the French troops. In the latter place, four hundred of the
Papal troops were made prisoners, with a cardinal who acted as their
officer. The latter was dismissed on his parole. But when summoned to
return to the French headquarters, his eminence declined to obey, and
amused the republican officers a good deal, by alleging, that the Pope
had dispensed with his engagement. Afterwards, however, there were
officers of no mean rank in the French service, who could contrive to
extricate themselves from the engagement of a parole, without troubling
the Pope for his interference on the occasion. Influenced by the
approaching danger, the Court of Rome sent Azara, the Spanish minister,
with full powers to treat for an armistice. It was a remarkable part of
Buonaparte's character, that he knew as well when to forbear as when to
strike. Rome, it was true, was an enemy whom France, or at least its
present rulers, both hated and despised; but the moment was then
inopportune for the prosecution of their resentment. To have detached a
sufficient force in that direction, would have weakened the French army
in the north of Italy, where fresh bodies of German troops were already
arriving, and might have been attended with great ultimate risk, since
there was a possibility that the English might have transported to Italy
the forces which they were about to withdraw from Corsica, amounting to
six thousand men. But, though these considerations recommended to
Napoleon a negotiation with the Pope, his holiness was compelled to
purchase the armistice [June 23] at a severe rate. Twenty-one millions
of francs, in actual specie, with large contributions in forage and
military stores, the cession of Ancona, Bologna, and Ferrara, not
forgetting one hundred of the finest pictures, statues, and similar
objects of art, to be selected according to the choice of the committee
of artists who attended the French army, were the price of a respite
which was not of long duration. It was particularly stipulated, with
republican ostentation, that the busts of the elder and younger Brutus
were to be among the number of ceded articles, and it was in this manner
that Buonaparte made good his vaunt, of establishing in the Roman
capitol the statues of the illustrious and classical dead.[160]
[Sidenote: LEGHORN VIOLATED.]
The Archduke of Tuscany was next to undergo the republican discipline.
It is true, that prince had given no offence to the French Republic; on
the contrary, he had claims of merit with them, from having been the
very first power in Europe who acknowledged them as a legal government,
and having ever since been in strict amity with them. It seemed also,
that while justice required he should be spared, the interest of the
French themselves did not oppose the conclusion. His country could have
no influence on the fate of the impending war, being situated on the
western side of the Apennines. In these circumstances, to have seized on
his museum, however tempting, or made requisitions on his territories,
would have appeared unjust towards the earliest ally of the French
Republic; so Buonaparte contented himself with seizing on the grand
duke's seaport of Leghorn [June 27,] confiscating the English goods
which his subjects had imported, and entirely ruining the once
flourishing commerce of the dukedom. It was a principal object with the
French to seize the British merchant vessels, who, confiding in the
respect due to a neutral power, were lying in great numbers in the
harbour; but the English merchantmen had such early intelligence as
enabled them to set sail for Corsica, although a very great quantity of
valuable goods fell into the possession of the French.
While the French general was thus violating the neutrality of the grand
duke, occupying by surprise his valuable seaport, and destroying the
commerce of his state, the unhappy prince was compelled to receive him
at Florence,[161] with all the respect due to a valued friend, and
profess the utmost obligation to him for his lenity, while Manfredini,
the Tuscan minister, endeavoured to throw a veil of decency over the
transactions at Leghorn, by allowing that the English were more masters
in that port than was the grand duke himself. Buonaparte disdained to
have recourse to any paltry apologies. "The French flag," he said, "has
been insulted in Leghorn--You are not strong enough to cause it to be
respected. The Directory has commanded me to occupy the place."[162]
Shortly after, Buonaparte, during an entertainment given to him by the
grand duke at Florence, received intelligence that the citadel of Milan
had at length surrendered. He rubbed his hands with self-congratulation,
and turning to the grand duke, observed, "that the Emperor, his
brother, had now lost his last possession in Lombardy."
When we read of the exactions and indignities to which the strong reduce
the weak, it is impossible not to remember the simile of Napoleon
himself, who compared the alliance of France and an inferior state, to a
giant embracing a dwarf. "The poor dwarf," he added, "may probably be
suffocated in the arms of his friend; but the giant does not mean it,
and cannot help it."
While Buonaparte made truce with several of the old states in Italy, or
rather adjourned their destruction in consideration of large
contributions, he was far from losing sight of the main object of the
French Directory, which was to cause the adjacent governments to be
revolutionized and new-modelled on a republican form, corresponding to
that of the Great Nation herself.
This scheme was, in every respect, an exceedingly artful one. In every
state which the French might overrun or conquer, there must occur, as we
have already repeatedly noticed, men fitted to form the members of
revolutionary government, and who, from their previous situation and
habits, must necessarily be found eager to do so. Such men are sure to
be supported by the rabble of large towns, who are attracted by the
prospect of plunder, and by the splendid promises of liberty, which they
always understand as promising the equalization of property. Thus
provided with materials for their edifice, the bayonets of the French
army were of strength sufficient to prevent the task from being
interrupted, and the French Republic had soon to greet sister states,
under the government of men who held their offices by the pleasure of
France, and who were obliged, therefore, to comply with all her
requisitions, however unreasonable.
This arrangement afforded the French government an opportunity of
deriving every advantage from the subordinate republics, which could
possibly be drained out of them, without at the same time incurring the
odium of making the exactions in their own name. It is a custom in some
countries, when a cow who has lost her calf will not yield her milk
freely, to place before the refractory animal the skin of her young one
stuffed, so as to have some resemblance to life. The cow is deceived by
this imposture, and yields to be milked upon seeing this representative
of her offspring. In like manner, the show of independence assigned to
the Batavian, and other associated republics, enabled France to drain
these countries of supplies, which, while they had the appearance of
being given to the governments of those who granted the supplies,
passed, in fact, into the hands of their engrossing ally. Buonaparte was
sufficiently aware that it was expected from him to extend the same
system to Italy, and to accelerate, in the conquered countries of that
fertile land, this species of political regeneration; but it would
appear that, upon the whole, he thought the soil scarcely prepared for a
republican harvest. He mentions, no doubt, that the natives of Bologna
and Reggio, and other districts, were impatient to unite with the French
as allies, and intimate friends; but even these expressions are so
limited as to make it plain that the feelings of the Italians in general
were not as yet favourable to that revolution which the Directory
desired, and which he endeavoured to forward.
He had, indeed, in all his proclamations, declared to the inhabitants of
the invaded countries, that his war was not waged with them but with
their governments, and had published the strictest orders for the
discipline to be observed by his followers. But though this saved the
inhabitants from immediate violence at the hand of the French soldiery,
it did not diminish the weight of the requisitions with which the
country at large was burdened, and to which poor and rich had to
contribute their share. They were pillaged with regularity, and by
order, but they were not the less pillaged; and Buonaparte himself has
informed us, that the necessity of maintaining the French army at their
expense very much retarded the march of French principles in Italy. "You
cannot," he says, with much truth, "at the same moment strip a people of
their substance, and persuade them, while doing so, that you are their
friend and benefactor."
He mentions also in the St. Helena manuscripts,[163] the regret
expressed by the wise and philosophical part of the community, that the
revolution of Rome, the source and director of superstitious opinions,
had not been commenced; but frankly admits that the time was not come
for going to such extremities, and that he was contented with plundering
the Roman See of its money and valuables, waiting until the fit moment
should arrive of totally destroying that ancient hierarchy.
[Sidenote: VIEWS AGAINST ITALY.]
It was not without difficulty that Buonaparte could bring the Directory
to understand and relish these temporizing measures. They had formed a
false idea of the country, and of the state and temper of the people,
and were desirous at once to revolutionize Rome, Naples, and Tuscany.
Napoleon, more prudently, left these extensive regions under the
direction of their old and feeble governments, whom he compelled, in the
interim, to supply him with money and contributions, in exchange for a
protracted existence, which he intended to destroy so soon as the fit
opportunity should offer itself. What may be thought of this policy in
diplomacy, we pretend not to say; but in private life it would be justly
branded as altogether infamous. In point of morality, it resembles the
conduct of a robber, who, having exacted the surrender of the
traveller's property, as a ransom for his life, concludes his violence
by murder. It is alleged, and we have little doubt with truth, that the
Pope was equally insincere, and struggled only, by immediate
submission, to prepare for the hour when the Austrians should
strengthen their power in Italy. But it is the duty of the historian
loudly to proclaim, that the bad faith of one party in a treaty forms no
excuse for that of the other; and that national contracts ought to be,
especially on the stronger side, as pure in their intent, and executed
as rigidly, as if those with whom they were contracted were held to be
equally sincere in their propositions. If the more powerful party judge
otherwise, the means are in their hand to continue the war; and they
ought to encounter their more feeble enemy by detection, and punishment
of his fraud, not by anticipating the same deceitful course which their
opponent has resorted to in the consciousness of his weakness,--like a
hare which doubles before the hounds when she has no other hope of
escape. It will be well with the world, when falsehood and finesse are
as thoroughly exploded in international communication, as they are among
individuals in all civilized countries.
But though those states, whose sovereigns could afford to pay for
forbearance, were suffered for a time to remain under their ancient
governments, it might have been thought that Lombardy, from which the
Austrians had been almost totally driven, and where, of course, there
was no one to compound with on the part of the old government, would
have been made an exception. Accordingly, the French faction in these
districts, with all the numerous class who were awakened by the hope of
national independence, expected impatiently the declaration of their
freedom from the Austrian yoke, and their erection, under the protection
of France, into a republic on the same model with that of the Great
Nation. But although Buonaparte encouraged men who held these opinions,
and writers who supported them, he had two weighty reasons for
procrastinating on this point. First, if France manumitted Lombardy, and
converted her from a conquered province into an ally, she must in
consistency have abstained from demanding of the liberated country those
supplies, by which Buonaparte's army was entirely paid and supported.
Again, if this difficulty could be got over, there remained the secret
purpose of the Directory to be considered. They had determined, when
they should make peace with the Emperor of Austria, to exact the cession
of Belgium and the territory of Luxembourg, as provinces lying
convenient to France, and had resolved, that under certain
circumstances, they would even give up Lombardy again to his dominion,
rather than not obtain these more desirable objects. To erect a new
republic in the country which they were prepared to restore to its
former sovereign, would have been to throw a bar in the way of their own
negotiation. Buonaparte had therefore the difficult task of at once
encouraging, on the part of the republicans of Lombardy, the principles
which induced them to demand a separate government, and of soothing them
to expect with patience events, which he was secretly conscious might
possibly never come to pass. The final issue shall be told elsewhere. It
may be just necessary to observe, that the conduct of the French towards
the republicans whom they had formed no predetermination to support, was
as uncandid as towards the ancient governments whom they treated with.
They sold to the latter false hopes of security, and encouraged the
former to express sentiments and opinions, which must have exposed them
to ruin, in case of the restoration of Lombardy to its old rulers, an
event which the Directory all along contemplated in secret. Such is, in
almost all cases, the risk incurred by a domestic faction, who trust to
carry their peculiar objects in the bosom of their own country by means
of a foreign nation. Their too powerful auxiliaries are ever ready to
sacrifice them to their own views of emolument.
Having noticed the effect of Buonaparte's short but brilliant campaign
on other states, we must observe the effects which his victories
produced on Austria herself. These were entirely consistent with her
national character. The same tardiness which has long made the
government of Austria slow in availing themselves of advantageous
circumstances, cautious in their plans, and unwilling to adopt, or
indeed to study to comprehend, a new system of tactics, even after
having repeatedly experienced its terrible efficacies, is combined with
the better qualities of firm determination, resolute endurance, and
unquenchable spirit. The Austrian slowness and obstinacy, which have
sometimes threatened them with ruin, have, on the other hand, often been
compensated by their firm perseverance and courage in adversity.
Upon the present occasion, Austria showed ample demonstration of the
various qualities we have ascribed to her. The rapid and successive
victories of Buonaparte, appeared to her only the rash flight of an
eaglet, whose juvenile audacity had over-estimated the strength of his
pinion. The Imperial Council resolved to sustain their diminished force
in Italy, with such reinforcements as might enable them to reassume the
complete superiority over the French, though at the risk of weakening
their armies on the Rhine. Fortune in that quarter, though of a various
complexion, had been, on the whole, more advantageous to the Austrians
than elsewhere, and seemed to authorise the detaching considerable
reinforcements from the eastern frontier, on which they had been
partially victorious, to Italy, where, since Buonaparte had descended
from the Alps, they had been uniformly unfortunate.
[Sidenote: BEAULIEU DISPLACED.]
Beaulieu, aged and unlucky, was no longer considered as a fit opponent
to his inventive, young, and active adversary. He was as full of
displeasure, it is said, against the Aulic Council, for the associates
whom they had assigned him, as they could be with him for his bad
success.[164] He was recalled, therefore, in that species of disgrace
which misfortune never fails to infer, and the command of his remaining
forces, now drawn back and secured within the passes of the Tyrol, was
provisionally assigned to the veteran Melas.
Meanwhile Wurmser, accounted one of the best of the Austrian generals,
was ordered to place himself at the head of thirty thousand men from the
Imperial forces on the Rhine, and, traversing the Tyrol, and collecting
what recruits he could in that warlike district, to assume the command
of the Austrian army, which, expelled from Italy, now lay upon its
frontiers, and might be supposed eager to resume their national
supremacy in the fertile climate out of which they had been so lately
driven.
Aware of the storm which was gathering, Buonaparte made every possible
effort to carry Mantua before arrival of the formidable Austrian army,
whose first operation would doubtless be to raise the siege of that
important place. A scheme to take the city and castle by surprise, by a
detachment which should pass to the Seraglio, or islet on which Mantua
is situated, by night and in boats, having totally failed, Buonaparte
was compelled to open trenches, and proceed as by regular siege. The
Austrian general, Canto D'Irles, when summoned to surrender it, replied
that his orders were to defend the place to extremity. Napoleon, on his
side, assembled all the battering ordnance which could be collected from
the walls of the neighbouring cities and fortresses, and the attack and
defence commenced in the most vigorous manner on both sides; the French
making every effort to reduce the city before Wurmser should open his
campaign, the governor determined to protract his resistance, if
possible, until he was relieved by the advance of that general. But
although red-hot balls were expended in profusion, and several desperate
and bloody assaults and sallies took place, many more battles were to be
fought, and much more blood expended, before Buonaparte was fated to
succeed in this important object.[165]
FOOTNOTES:
[144] See Letter of the Directory to Buonaparte, May 7; Correspondence
Inédite, tom. i., p. 145; and Montholon, tom. iv., p. 447.
[145] "Je crois qu'il faut plutôt un mauvais général que deux bons. La
guerre est comme le gouvernement--_c'est une affaire de
tact_."--_Correspondence Inédite_, tom. i., p. 160.
[146] "You appear desirous, citizen-general, to continue to conduct the
whole series of the military operations of the present campaign in
Italy. The Directory have maturely reflected on this proposition, and
the confidence they have in your talents and Republican zeal, has
decided this question in the affirmative."--CARNOT to BUONAPARTE, 21st
May; _Correspondence Inédite_, tom. i., p. 202.
[147] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 196.
[148] It has been alleged, that in a farce exhibited on the public stage
by authority of Buonaparte, the Pope was introduced in his pontifical
dress. This, which could not be looked on as less than sacrilege by a
Catholic population, does not accord with the general conduct of
Buonaparte. See, however, "_Tableau des Premières Guerres de
Buonaparte_," Paris, 1815, par Le Chevalier Mechaud de Villelle, p.
41.--S.
[149] "The pillage lasted several hours; but occasioned more fear than
damage; it was confined to some goldsmiths' shops. The selection of the
hostages fell on the principal families. It was conceived to be
advantageous that some of the persons of most influence should visit
France. In fact, they returned a few months after, several of them
having travelled in all our provinces, where they had adopted French
manners."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iii., p. 200.
"Pavia," said the Emperor, "is the only place I ever gave up to pillage.
I had promised it to the soldiers for twenty-four hours; but after three
hours I could bear it no longer, and put an end to it. Policy and
morality are equally opposed to the system. Nothing is so certain to
disorganize and completely ruin an army."--LAS CASES, tom. iv., p. 326.
See also Botta, tom. v., p. 465; Jomini, tom. viii., p. 137; and
Lacretelle, tom. xiii., p. 199.
[150] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 227.
[151] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 227.
[152] "The examples of the Imperial Fiefs and Lugo, though extremely
severe, were indispensable, and authorised by the usage of
war."--JOMINI, tom. viii., p. 156.
[153] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 204; Jomini, tom. viii., p. 140.
[154] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 206.
[155] Napoleon, Memoirs, tom. iii., p. 209.
[156] Daru, Hist. de Venise; tom. v., p. 436; Thibaudeau, tom. i., p.
257.
[157] Moniteur, No. 267, June 17; Montholon, tom. iv., p. 121.
[158] Thiers, tom. viii., p. 225.
[159] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 213; Thibaudeau, tom. i., p. 275.
[160] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 221; Thiers, tom. viii., p. 236.
[161] "Il parcourut avet le grand-duc la célèbre galerie et n'y remarqua
que trop la Vénus de Medicis."--LACRETELLE, tom. xiii., p. 190.
[162] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 226; Pommereuil, Campagnes de Buonaparte,
p. 78.
[163] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 222.
[164] The following letter appears in the journals as an intercepted
despatch from Beaulieu to the Aulic Council of War. It seems worthy of
preservation, as expressing the irritated feelings with which the
veteran general was certainly affected, whether he wrote the letter in
question or not. It will be recollected, that D'Argenteau, of whom he
complains, was the cause of his original misfortunes at Montenotte. See
_ante_, p. 52. "I asked you for a _general_, and you have sent me
Argenteau--I am quite aware that he is a great lord, and that he is to
be created Field-marshal of the Empire, to atone for my having placed
him under arrest--I apprise you that I have no more than twenty thousand
men remaining, and that the French are sixty thousand strong. I apprise
you farther, that I will retreat to-morrow--next day--the day after
that--and every day--even to Siberia itself, if they pursue me so far.
My age gives me a right to speak out the truth. Hasten to make peace on
any condition whatever."--_Moniteur_, 1796, No. 269.--S.
[165] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 229; Jomini, tom. viii., p. 163.