m4] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
maintained a long and desperate 
fight. 
Various were the sallies ‘and skir- 
mishes that took place in the course 
of this famous siege, between the 
garrison and the besiegers. Every 
Species of art and stratagem was 
-employed by each party, and num- 
‘bers fell in the encounters that con- 
‘tinually happened. But the suc- 
cess was usually on the side of the 
French, who gradually diminished 
-the strength of the garrison, by the 
frequent captures of those who sal- 
-lied out, and who, notwithstanding 
the skill and valour they displayed 
on these occasions, seldom could 
make good their retreat into the 
town. 
While the French army lay be- 
fore Mantua, the standards taken 
from the Austrians in the several 
aétions on the borders of Italy, to- 
wards the Tyrol, and lately before 
Mantua, were sent to the direétory, 
and presented, on the first of Oéto- 
ber, with great form and solemnity, 
by Buonaparte’s aid-de-camp, Mar- 
mont, who, in a set speech, detailed 
the recent triumphs of the French 
in'Italy. They had, he observed, in 
the course of this campaign, destroy- 
‘ed three hostile armies, taken forty- 
seven thousand men, two hundred 
and eighty pieces of cannon, and 
forty-nine stand of colours. Two 
of theseindeed, the French, he said, 
held in little value, as they were 
taken from the troops of his holi- 
ness, who had changed his late 
tone, as will presently appear ; an 
enemy unworthy of their notice: 
but still they shewed the number of | 
their enemies, and the extent of 
their own successes, 
Shortly after the festivals and re- 
joicings, occasioned by the presen- 
tations of these trophies, the direéto- 
-sy had another opportunity of ex- 
‘it had been the resort of all those 
ulting in the good fortune that seems 
ed so invariably connected with the 
proceedings of the French in Italy. 
Since their occupation of *Leghorn, 
Corsicans who had fled from, o 
‘been expelled their country, whe 
it became annexed to the British 
dominions. They received every 
encouragement from the French 
there, and came to the determina« 
tion of forming a ‘plau for the ex= 
pulsion of the English from Cors 
sica.” 
A ‘circumstance »that operated 
powerfully for the French in that 
island was, that Buonaparte was a 
native of it. The great aétions 
he had performed had rendered 
him an objet of universal respeét 
among his countrymen, who glo- 
ried in him, as 2a man who refleéted 
the highest honour on his country, 
The report of ‘his continual viéto- 
ries emboldened the French party, 
in Corsica, to renew their endeas 
vours to undermine the interest of 
the English, whose government 
they represented as domineerin 
and oppressive,and contrary to thos 
principles that were congenial to the’ 
natives of this island. They gra- 
dually succeeded in  propagatin 
discontent among a people note 
for their fickleness and the incon 
stancy of their attachments. A 
communication was established be 
tween the exiles at Leghorn an 
elsewhere, and their partisans i 
Corsica. In a short time, the ad- 
herents to France became so numer- 
ous and aétive, that the English in 
the island clearly perceived that a: 
insurreétion was preparing agains 
them, which, from the inconsider- 
ableness of their force, they would 
not be able to withstand. Th 
€orsicans held meetings and a 
sembled numbers of men in arms 
whos 
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