602 



RONAPARTE. 



them separately. He drove hnck one part of the 

 Austrian anny under Quosdunowich into Tyrol, and 

 defeatrd Wunnser, in the famous battle of ( 'astiglione 

 (August 5, 1796). Augereau, having rendered im- 

 portant services in this battle, was afterwards mode 

 duke of Castiglione. Bonaparte pursued the enemy 

 tit Tyrol ; Wunnser, however, found means to reach 

 Mantua. 



Meanwhile two republics were formed on the two 

 banks of the Po, under French protection. The 

 British were driven from Corsica : and Venice, Genoa, 

 and the pope compelled to remain ventral. In Ger- 

 many. Austria was more successful than in Italy, 

 which she resolved to recover at any price. Rein- 

 forcements were sent to the garrison of Mantua. 

 Bonaparte's forces were much diminished, but his 

 genius and activity rose with the danger. With the 

 divisions of Augereau and Massena, he marched upon 

 Ronco, threw a bridge over the Adige, and, with the 

 two above-named generals and Lannes by his side, 

 fought the battle of Arcola, which lasted three days 

 (from October 15 to 17). It was here that, in order 

 to force the passage over the bridge, he seized a 

 standard, and, in the midst of a murderous fire, took 

 the lead: his aid de-camp Muiron was killed upon 

 his body ; I .amir- was wounded ; but notwithstanding 

 the greatest exertions, he could not obtain his object ; 

 and suddenly decided to return to Ronco, concealed 

 his march from the enemy, and next day attacked 

 the strongest of the three divisions of the Austrian 

 army, and was victorious. He followed the same 

 plan with the second division, and Wunnser, com- 

 manding the third, had only time to shut himself up 

 in Mantua. A new army descended from Tyrol 

 under Alvinzi and Provera, but was beaten at Rivoli, 

 Jan. 14, 1797, where Massena decided the fate of 

 the day, for which he afterwards received the title of 

 duke of Rivoli. (See Massena.) After gaining 

 several minor victories, and shutting up Wunnser in 

 Mantua, that fortress, cpnsidered impregnable, was 

 itself taken, February 2, and the contest of Italy was 

 decided. The battles of Rivoli and Favorita, and the 

 capture of Mantua, cost Austria 45,000 men killed 

 and taken, and GOO cannons. On the same day that 

 Mantua was captured, after having proclaimed the 

 truce with the pope, who had been making prepara- 

 tions against France, to be at an end, he entered the 

 papal territories, defeated the papal troops on the 

 Senio, took Faenza, and soon after, Ancona, Loretto, 

 and Tolentino. February 19, the pope concluded the 

 peace of Tolentino on hard terms, which left him the 

 States of the Church beyond the Apennines. 



Bonaparte was now enabled to wage war with 

 Austria on her own soil. The archduke Charles had 

 fortified himself behind the Tagliamento. While the 

 French army of the Rhine threatened Germany, 

 Bonaparte crossed the Piave, and, on the 16th of 

 March, forced a passage over the Tagliamento and 

 Lisonzo. On the 19th, he took possession of Gradisca ; 

 on the 20th, of Gortz ; and, on the 23d, of Trieste. 

 By the end of the month, most of Carinthia and 

 Carniola, and a part of Tyrol, were conquered. At 

 a favourable moment, Bonaparte entered into nego- 

 tiations with the archduke Charles, and, April 7th, 

 granted the Austrian deputies, at his head-quarters 

 at Judenberg, an armistice of six days. His situation, 

 however, was highly critical : in froiit he was threat- 

 ened by the Austrians, strengthened by reinforce- 

 ments of militia and volunteers, who had already 

 made themselves again masters of Trieste, and 

 liberated Tyrol. In Italy, new insurrections were 

 breaking out. He therefore concluded preliminaries 

 of peace, April 18, at the castle of Eckenwalde, near 

 Lpoben, by which the Austrians were compelled -to 

 make great sacrifices, while the French were again 



put in possession of Trieste, and allowed to execute 

 their views on Venice. 



Bonaparte had already (May 3) made a declaration 

 of war against the republic of Venice, and demanded 

 the abolition of the ancient constitution. In vain did 

 the senate exculpate itself from its violation of neu- 

 trality ; in vain was the old constitution of the re- 

 public abolished (May 12), and a hasty democratic 

 constitution established. The Venetian territories 

 and capital continued to be occupied by the French. 

 In May, Genoa also was revolutionized, and, June (i, 

 received a French constitution, as the Ligiuian 

 republic. On the 29th, Bonaparte proclaimed in 

 Milan the new Cisalpine republic, with which he 

 united the Cispadane republic. Lucca saved itself by 

 repeated contributions. The king of Sardinia, after 

 a dearly-bought peace, had formed a close connex- 

 ion with France. At this early period, Bonaparte 

 collected a Polish legion (see Polish legions), and 

 sought to extend his connexions even to Greece pnd 

 Egypt. Meanwhile he supported his army entirely 

 at the expense of the conquered countries, especially 

 of the Venetian Terra Firma, and sent numerous 

 works of art to Paris. He now went, with threats of 

 war, from Milan to Udina, where (September 1) he 

 opened negotiations for peace with Austria. Octo- 

 ber 17, the definitive peace of Campo-Formio (q. v.) 

 was concluded, depriving Austria of Belgium and its 

 finest Italian provinces, with secret articles, taking 

 from the German empire the left bank of the Rhine. 

 On the other hand, Austria had already (in June) 

 taken possession of the Venetian provinces Islria and 

 Dalmatia. Bonaparte now ceded to these provinces 

 Venice and the main land of the republic, as far as 

 the Adige, entirely on his own authority, so great 

 was already the power which his genius had procured 

 him. In the peace of Campo-Formio, the negotia- 

 tions were carried on directly by Austria and Bona- 

 parte. The directory now appointed Bonaparte, 

 with Treilhard and Bonnier, deputies to the congress 

 of Rastadt. See Congress. 



Scarcely had he begun the negotiations there 

 (November 25), when he left Rastadt (December 2), 

 and hastened to Paris. Here he soon perceived the 

 insincerity of the directory in their marks of esteem 

 towards him : trembling for their power, they wished 

 to occupy and remove the ambitious general. He 

 received the chief command of what was called the 

 " army of England," which, however, was intended 

 for Egypt. It is not certain who first projected this 

 expedition. A fleet was very speedily collected at 

 Toulon, with more than cO,000 chosen troops, and 

 set sail May 19. Bonaparte was perhaps carried to 

 Egypt by the hope of shaking the British power in 

 India, of making Egypt a colony, rendering France 

 mistress of the Mediterranean, and of finding such 

 scope for his energies as Europe did nbt, at that mo- 

 ment offer. The plan had been agitated under Louis 

 XIV. (See Egypt, Campaign in.) The capture of 

 Malta (June 12, 1798) and of Alexandria (July 2) 

 were the first results of this expedition. The victory 

 over the Turks (July 25, 1799) and the recovery of 

 Aboukir (August 2) were Bonaparte's last achieve- 

 ments in Egypt. He was unable to execute the ex- 

 tended views which he had formed respecting Egypt 

 by the establishment of a permanent colony.* His 

 brother Joseph informed him of the critical state of 

 the republic. Sieyes had selected him for the re- 

 deemer of humbled France. The conviction, more- 

 over, that France could no longer exist without a 

 man at the helm, who was at once able to repel 



* The communications addressed by Bonaparte to the 

 directory on this subject, and contained ifi the life of him 

 by bourrienne, we have good reason to believe genuine. 



