FRANCE. 391 



defeated at Casteggio, with the loss of 3000 men killed, and 6000 taken 

 prisoners. 



This victory was the prelude to the great and decisive battle of 

 Marengo, fought five clays afterwards, and which fixed the fate of 

 Italy. Melas having assembled the whole of his forces, marched to 

 meet his enemy, and took post in the village Marengo. In the bat- 

 tle which ensued, victory appeared at first to have declared decidedly 

 for the Austrians. The centre of the French was compelled to retreat 

 with great slaughter ; but the body of reserve, under general Desaix, 

 impetuously charging the Austrians, who were thrown into some 

 confusion by the eagerness of pursuit, and their confidence that the 

 battle was gained, turned the fortune of the day ; and though Desaix 

 himself fell in the attack, gave the French a complete victory. The 

 Austrians lost, by the French accounts, in killed, wounded, and pri- 

 soners, 15,000 men ; and the loss of the French could not be much 

 less. Yet so important was this battle in its consequences, that the 

 next day, general Melas, finding his situation no longer tenable, pro- 

 posed an armistice, which was accepted by Bonaparte, and by which 

 Genoa was immediately surrendered to the French, together with all 

 the strong places of Lombardy and Piedmont. 



In Germany the French had opened the campaign with similar 

 success. They crossed the Rhine in three divisions, at Kehl, Brisac, 

 and Basle, and forced the Austrian army to fall back on the line of 

 Stockach, where a battle took place on the 4th of May, in which the 

 French were victorious, and which in a great degree decided the 

 fate of the campaign, as the Austrians were not able afterwards to 

 make any effectual resistance, but continued to retreat and suffer suc- 

 cessive defeats. 



When the armistice was concluded in Italy, the Austrian general 

 of the army in Germany endeavoured to avail himself of it, to put 

 an end to the progress of the troops under Moreau, but the French 

 general would not listen to such a proposition : on the contrary, being 

 in possession of Munich, and the greater part of Bavaria, he detach- 

 ed Lecourbe towards the Tyrol to seize upon the Vorarlberg and 

 the Grisons, and form a junction with the army of Italy. The offer 

 of a suspension of arms however having been repeated, and count 

 St. Julien having arrived at Paris, with proposals for peace, an 

 armistice was at length concluded for the armies in Germany, leav- 

 ing each in possession of the posts it occupied at the time it was 

 signed. 



In the negotiations now carried on at Paris, the court of Vienna 

 intimated that it was bound in honour only to treat for peace in con- 

 cert with Great Britain. The first consul signified his consent that 

 the negotiations should include a peace with England, but required 

 a naval armistice as a preliminary. This demand, under certain con- 

 ditions, the British ministry did not reject ; but they would not per- 

 mit the Brest fleet to be supplied with stores, or succours to be sent 

 to .the French army in Egypt. This proposal therefore not being 

 accepted, Bonaparte refused to negotiate with England, and the 

 emperor refused to ratify the preliminaries of peace which had been 

 signed by his envoy count St. Julien at Paris. 



The rupture of these negotiations was followed by that of the 

 armistice in Germany, which had been renewed by the emperor, at 

 the expence of surrendering the important fortresses of Ulm, Ingol- 

 stadt, and Philipsburg, into the hands of the French, as a pledge of 



