BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



770 



equally surprised at seeing the Austrians, whom they had driven far 

 away in their front, re-appear in their rear. Wukassowich did not 

 hesitate; he charged into the village of Magliani and took it. Maesena 

 hurried to the spot to drive away the Austrians ; Lahiirpe came also 

 with reinforcements, but they could not succeed, until Bonaparte him- 

 self came and led a fresh charge, and at hut obliged Wukassowich to 

 retire. This was called the battle of Dego, but more properly of 

 Magliani, the last of a series of combats which opened to Bonaparte 

 the road into the plains of North Italy. 



Beaulieu retired to the Po with the intention of defending the 

 Milanese territory, leaving Colli and the Piedmontese to their fate. 

 Bonaparte turned against Colli, drove him from Ceva, and afterwards 

 from Mondovl, and beyond Cherasco. Colli withdrew to Carignano, 

 near Turin. The provinces of Piedmont, south of the Po, were now 

 open to the French. The king, Victor Amadeus III., became alarmed, 

 and asked for a truce, which Bonaparte granted on condition that the 

 fortresses of Cuneo and Tortona should be placed in his hands. A 

 peace was afterwards made between the king and the Directory, by 

 which the other Piedmontese fortresses and all the passes of the Alps 

 were given up to the French, and Piedmont in fact was surrendered 

 at discretion. This defection of the king of Sardinia ensured the 

 success of the French army. 



Being now safe with regard to Piedmont, Bonaparte advanced to 

 encounter Beaulieu, who had posted himself on the left bank of the 

 Po, opposite to Valeuza, his troops extending eastward as far as Pavia. 

 Bonaparte made a feint of crossing the river at Valenza, while he dis- 

 patched a body of javalry along the right bank into the state of Partna, 

 where they met with no enemy, seized some boats near Piacenza, 

 crossed over to the Milanese side, and dispersed some Austrian picquets 

 who were posted there. Bonaparte, quickly following with a chosen 

 body of infantry, crossed the river nearly thirty miles below Pavia. 

 Beaulieu was now obliged to fall back upon the Adda after a sharp 

 engagement at Fombio, on the road from Piacenza to Milan. Milan 

 wag evacuated by the Austrians with the exception of the castle. 

 Bonaparte resolved to dislodge Beaulieu from his new position, and 

 accordingly he attacked the bridge of Lodi, on the Adda, which the 

 Austrians defended with a numerous artillery. He carried it by the 

 daring bravery of his grenadiers and the bad dispositions of the Aus- 

 trian commander, who had not placed his iufantry near enough to 

 support his gun*. Beaulieu attempted to defend the line of the 

 Mincio, but he had only time to throw a garrison into Mantua, and 

 then withdraw behind the Adige into the Tyrol. Bonaparte took pos- 

 session of Milan and of all Lombardy, with the exception of Mantua, 

 which he blockaded. Thus ended the first Italian campaign of 1796. 



At the first entrance of the French the people of Lombardy showed 

 a quiet, passive spirit There was no enthusiasm among them either 

 for or against the invaders. The Milanese looked upon the French 

 inva-ion rather with wonder than either satisfaction or hostility. 

 Ideai of a republic existed only in a few speculative heads ; but there 

 were many who sided with the French, in order to share their supe- 

 riority and advantages as conquerors. The people of the towns 

 behaved hospitably to the French troops, who on their side maintained 

 a stricter discipline than they had done in passing through Piedmont. 

 But the army was to be supported, equipped, and paid by the 

 conquered countries: such was the system of the Directory and of 

 Bonaparte. The Directory, besides, wished to receive a share of the 

 golden harvest to recruit its own finances, and its orders were to draw 

 money from all the Italian states. Bonaparte accordingly put upon 

 Lombardy a contribution of twenty millions of francs, which fell 

 chiefly on the rich proprietors and the ecclesiastical bodies. Mean- 

 time he authorised the commissaries to eeiz provisions, stores, horses, 

 and other things required, giving cheques to be paid out of the con- 

 tributions. This was done in the towns with a certain regularity, but 

 in the country places, away from the eyes of the general, the commis- 

 saries and soldiers often seized whatever they liked without any 

 acknowledgment. The owners who remonstrated were insulted or ill- 

 used ; and many of the Italians calling themselves republicans assisted 

 the French in the work of plunder, of which they took their share. 

 All property belonging, or supposed to belong, to the archduke and the 

 late government, was sequestrated. But an act which exasperated the 

 Milanese was the violation of the Monte di Pieta of Milan, a place of 

 deposit for plate, jewels, &c., which were either left for security, or as 

 pledges for money lent upon them. The Monte was broken into by 

 orders from Bonaparte and Saliceti, who accompanied the army as 

 commissioner of the Directory. They seized upon this deposit of 

 private property, took away the most valuable objects, and sent them 

 to Genoa to be at the disposal of the Directory. Many of the smaller 

 articles belonged to poor people; ninny were placed there by the 

 parents of young girls as a dowry when they came to be married. 

 Although thene smaller objects were not intended by Bonaparte to be 

 detained, ;-et in the disorder of the seizure many of them disappeared, 

 and a report spread through Milan that all had been seized. The 

 same thing had been practised at Piacenza when Bonaparte and Saliceti 

 passed through it; and afterwards the plunder, either partial or 

 entire, of the Monte di Pieta, became a common practica of the French 

 army in all the towns they entered. 



These excesses led to insurrections in different part 1 ! of the country, 

 in which French soldien were killed by the peasantry. The inhabit- 



DIOO. DIV. vou i. 



ants of Binasco, a large village between Milan and Pavia, rose and 

 killed a number of the French and their Italian partisans. The country 

 people rau towards Pavia, and were joined by the lower classes of that 

 town, who had been irritated at the hoisting of a tree of liberty in 

 one of their squares, where an equestrian statue of an emperor had 

 been thrown down by the republicans. On the 23rd of May Pavia. 

 was in open insurrection. The French soldiers took refuge in the 

 castle ; those scattered about the town were seized and ill-treated ; 

 some were killed, but most had their lives saved by the interference of 

 the municipal magistrates and other respectable people. General 

 Haquin, who happened to pass through on his way to Milan, was 

 attacked by the frantic populace and wounded, but the magistrates, 

 at their own risk, saved his life. In all this tumult the country 

 people were the chief actors, by the acknowledgment of Haquin him- 

 self. Bonaparte, alarmed by this movement in his rear, and at the 

 possibility of its spreading, determined to make an example, and 

 " strike terror into the people," a sentence which was afterwards fre- 

 quently carried into effect in the progress of his arms. A strong body 

 of French troops marched on Binasco, killed or dispersed the inhabit- 

 ants, burned the place, and then marched against Pavia, which being 

 a walled town was capable of making some defence. Bonaparte sent 

 the archbishop of Milan, who, from the balcony of the town-house, 

 addressed the multitude, and exhorted them to lay down their arms 

 and quietly to disperse, explaining to them the futility of their attempts 

 at resistance. The ignorant and deluded people would not listen to 

 his advice ; the French soon forced one of the gates, and the cavalry 

 entering the town, cut down all they met in the streets. The country 

 people ran away by the other gates, and left the unfortunate city to 

 the conqueror. Bonaparte then deliberately ordered Pavia to be given 

 up to plunder for twenty-four hours, as though Pavia had been a 

 fortified town taken by storm, while it was well known that the great 

 majority of the inhabitants had taken no part in the insurrection, 

 and had made no resistance to the French. This order was publicly 

 signified to the inhabitants and the troops, and during the rest of that 

 day, 25th of May, aud the whole of that night, the soldiers rioted in 

 plunder, debauchery, and every sort of violence within the houses of 

 the unfortunate Pavese. Next morning (the 26th) at twelve o'clock 

 the pillage censed, but Pavia for a long time felt the effects of this 

 cruel treatment. The municipal magistrates were sent for a time as 

 hostages to France. Four of the leaders of the insurrection were 

 publicly executed, and about one hundred had been killed on the first 

 irruption of the French into the city. The university and the houses 

 of some of the professors, Spallanzani's in particular, were exempted 

 from pillage. 



Bonaparte imposed on the Duke of Parma, who had not yet acknow- 

 ledged the French Republic, a sort of peace, on condition of his paying 

 to France a million and a half of francs, besides giving provisions and 

 clothes for the army, and twenty of his best paintings to be sent to 

 Paris. The Duke of Modeua, alarmed for his own safety, fled to 

 Venice with the greater part of his treasures, leaving a regency at 

 Modena, who sent to Donaparte to sue for peace. Modena had com- 

 mitted no hostilities against France, but the duke was allied to tho 

 house of Austria by tho marriage of his daughter with one of the 

 archdukes : he was also considered as a feudatory of the Emperor of 

 Germany. He was required to pay six millions of francs in cash, 

 besides two millions more in provisions, cattle, horses, carts, &c., and 

 fifteen of his choice paintings; but as he was not quick enough in 

 paying the whole of the money his duchy was taken from him a few 

 months after. The Directory wanted cash, and Bonaparte says that 

 he sent during his first Italian campaigns fifty millions of francs from 

 Italy to Paris. 



The Grand Duke of Tuscany, although brother to the Emperor of 

 Austria, was an independent sovereign ; he had long acknowledged 

 the French Republic, and kept an ambassador at Paris ; but the 

 Directory ordered Bonaparte to seize Leghorn, and confiscate the 

 property of the English, Austrians, Portuguese, and other enemies of 

 the republic. Bonaparte executed the order, took Leghorn without 

 any opposition, put a garrison in it, seized the English, Portuguese, 

 and other goods in the warehouses, which were sold by auction, and 

 insisted upon the native merchants delivering up all the property in 

 their hands belonging to the enemies of the French republic. The Leg- 

 hornese merchants, to avoid this odious act, agreed to pay five millions 

 of francs, as a ransom for the whole. The pope's turn came next. 

 That sovereign was really in a state of hostility towards the French 

 republic, which he had never acknowledged, in consequence of the 

 abolition of the Catholic church in France. On the 18th of June the 

 French entered Bologna, whence Bonaparte ordered away the papal 

 authorities, and established a municipal government. He did the same 

 at Ferrara; aud at the same time laid heavy contributions on both 

 those provinces. The Monte di Pietii of Bologna shared the same fute 

 as that of Milan, only the deposits or pledges not exceeding 200 livres 

 each (8/. sterling), were ordered to be returned to the owners. The 

 people of Lugo, a town between Imola and Ravenna, rose against the 

 invaders. Augereau was sent against Lugo : after three hours' fight, 

 in which 1000 of the natives aud 200 French soldiers fell, Lugo was 

 taken, given up to plunder, and partly burnt ; the women aud children 

 were spared. Proclamations were then issued that every town or 

 village that took up arms against the French should bo burnt, and 



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