HISTORY OF EUROPE. [173 



that a real famine was to be dread- 

 ed, and the price of bread was al- 

 ways exorbitant. The wants of 

 the French, as may easily be sup- 

 posed, were always the first sup- 

 plied, and the people were left to 

 the horrors of their fate. Several 

 insurrections broke out, not only in 

 the country, but even in Genoa ; 

 and the French, incapable of re- 

 medying the evils which occasioned 

 them, under the pretext of defend- 

 ing the town against the Imperial- 

 ists, declared it to be in a state of 

 siege, that is to say, they suspended 

 the authority of government, and 

 subjected it to their own. The Li- 

 gurian republic, thus reduced under 

 subjection to their ally, consoled 

 themselves by imitating, both in 

 June and November, the changes 

 of government which took place, 

 at those periods, in France. It was 

 in this state of things, not unlike 

 that in which he had left Switzer- 

 land, that general Massena took the 

 command of the army of Italy, in 

 place of Championet ; and, ac- 

 cording to the custom of the French 

 commanders, announced himself 

 before hand, by a proclamation, in 

 which he promised plenty and vic- 

 tory. 



These engagements he found it 

 the more difficult to fulfil, for while 

 his army was held in a state of 

 blockade by an English fleet, under 

 lord Keith at sea, the victorious 

 Austrians were in possession of all 

 the territories that environ those of 

 the Genoese republic. 



Though no armistice had been 

 agreed on between the French and 

 Austrians, the grand operations of 

 the war, in other quarters, were 

 suspended by the rigour of the sea- 

 sons. Yet there were some parts, 

 iuch as the banks of the Levante 



and the Scrivia, where there was 

 still some fighting. In a course 

 of actions between a part of the 

 French army, on the fourteenth, 

 fifteenth, and sixteenth of Decem- 

 ber, and the Austrian division, under 

 the generals Klenau and Hoheij- 

 zoUern, in which several hundreds 

 of men were killed on each side. 



These skirmishes finally closed 

 the campaign, and the corps of the 

 generals Klenau and HohenzoUern 

 on the one side as well as those of 

 the French generals St. Cvr and 

 Vatrin on the other, took up their 

 winter quarters. 



The positions of the opposite ar- 

 mies, in the beginning of January, 

 1800, were these : — The Austrian 

 army of Switzerland ended at the 

 upper valley of the Tesino, and 

 was there met by the army of Italy, 

 which had absorbed that of the 

 Tyrol. General Davidovich occu- 

 pied Bellinzona, and his advanced 

 posts extended as far as Ariolo, 

 thus observing the openings of the 

 St. Gothard. That of the Simplon 

 was guarded by a part of the corps 

 which prince Victor de Rohan had 

 commanded in the valley of Ossola, 

 on the frontier of the Upper Valais. 

 The troops left in the valley of 

 Aosta by general Haddick, when at 

 the end of October, he went to re- 

 inforce general Kray, were station- 

 ed along the frontier of the Lower 

 Valais, and occupied the foot of the 

 great and little St. Bernard. The 

 passages of the Maui'ienne, the foot 

 of Mount Cenis, the valley of Suza, 

 till beyond Exiles, and thatof Clu- 

 zon till beyond Fenestrelles, which 

 was held in blockade, were guarded 

 by ditferent detachments, all under 

 the orders of general Kaim, who 

 commanded at Turin, where the 

 right of the amiy ended. The 



