FRA 
encounters. Being thus difappointcd in his hopes, Cham¬ 
pionnet repaired to Genoa, where Moreau yielded up to 
him the command of the republican army of Italy. 
Championnet now perfevered in the moll aftive efforts 
to prevent the progrefs of the Andrians towards Coni, 
and feveral fkinnifhes were fought in different quarters 
during the remainder of September and October, in which 
the French were fuccefsful, and obliged Melas to eva¬ 
cuate Mondovi. In his retreat, however, the Auftrian 
general meditated an attack ; and the French purfuing 
his fteps to a pofition he had chofen between the Stura 
and the Grana, both (ides prepared for a general engage¬ 
ment on the 4th of November. The day was conteffed 
with great obftinacy, and for fome time with doubtful 
fuccefs ; but the French were in the end defeated, and 
obliged to give ground in every diredtion. Melas purfued 
his advantage by renewing the adtion on the following 
day, when he difperfed the republicans among the defiles 
of Maira, Grana, and Stura. General Kray, about the 
fame period, having received reinforcements at Alexan¬ 
dria, drove the French from the valley of the.Bormida 
and from Acqui, palled the Bormida ; and though de¬ 
feated in an obflinate conteft for the heights of Novi, he 
cleared the valleys of the Scrivia and the Orba. Incon¬ 
sequence of thefe fucceffes, Championnet was obliged to 
quit his pofition. He retreated to the narrow pallages of 
the Apennines, and placed his head-quarters at Sofpello 
on the road to Nice, while Melas made vigorous prepara¬ 
tions for the fiege of Coni. 
His operations were greatly facilitated, and he received 
a confidera'ole reinforcement, in confequence of the fur- 
render of Ancona, which, fince the commencement of the 
campaign, had been blocked up by a combined army of 
Ruffians, Turks, and Italians, and by a Ruffian and Turk- 
ifii fleet. After the furrender of Civita-vecchia, the Au¬ 
ftrian general Froelich, advancing againft this place, took 
the chief command ; and prefling the fiege with great vi¬ 
gour, he obliged the republican general Mounier, with 
a garrifon of three thoufand men, to furrender on the 
15th of November. The victors found in Ancona fix 
hundred pieces of cannon, and in the harbour three fail of 
the line, and feveral fmall (hips of war. Melas in the 
mean time diredted his whole attention to the fiege of 
Coni, which he commenced when the fnow had covered 
the furrounding mountains. The conduct of the fiege was 
intruded to prince Lichtenflein ; and this fortrefs for the 
firfl time was taken by force, on the 3d of December 1799. 
Melas now fent his army into winter quarters; and Cham¬ 
pionnet, having made the principal part of his troops re¬ 
turn to their pofition between Savona and Genoa, depart¬ 
ed for Paris, but fell ill on the road, and.died at Antibes. 
Maflena fucceeded to the command, but found the army 
overwhelmed with the miferies of want, diforganifed, and 
almoft incapable of fubordination. Thus ended the cam¬ 
paign of Italy, in which the allies are computed to have 
loft thirty thoufand men in killed and wounded, and ten 
thoufand prifoners ; the republicans placed forty-five 
thoufand to the former, and thirty-five thoufand to tire 
latter, account. 
Soon after the departure of the archduke from the 
Rhine, in order to repair, if poffible, the difafters occa- 
fioned by withdrawing his troops from Switzerland, ge¬ 
neral Ney, who had fucceeded to the command of the re¬ 
publican army, fet out towards Frankfort, and obliged the 
Auftrians, who were commanded by prince Schwartzen- 
berg, to repafs the Nidda. The French general, finding 
the Auftrians alfo weak on the Rhine and Mein, again put 
his troops in motion ; and on re-crofling the Rhine on the 
ift of November, fuddenly prefented himfelf before Man- 
heim and Heidelberg. Manheim, being feebly defended, 
was foon captured ; Heidelberg made a tranfient refiftance, 
hut was evacuated the next morning ; and the Auftrians, 
in their retreat towards Heilbron and Bruckfall, were fe- 
verely harafled. The imperialifts, reduced to a ftridt 
Vox., VII. No, 473. 
N C E, 
defenfive, thought only of covering Phiiipfburg ; hut the 
French, having gained pofleffion of the Palatinate and of 
the bifliopric of Spire, and driven back the Auftrians as 
far as the other fide of the Entz, occupied both banks of 
the Necker to the confluence of thefe rivers, and blockad¬ 
ed the city. 
The fituation of the archduke Charles was now feri- 
011 fly embarrafling : he was threatened on every fide; 
and, while he was oppofed by armies amounting to more 
than a hundred thoufand men, the retreat of the Ruffians 
from the theatre of war left him with lefs than feventy 
thoufand to line the banks of the Rhine from its fource 
as far as Kehl, to defend Suabia, and fupport the armed 
peafants who covered Franconia. But the military genius 
of the archduke was on this occafion happily exerted. 
His meafures for the protection of the Grifons and the 
hereditary dominions were prudent and effectual; and he 
prepared to relieve Phiiipfburg by reinforcements, which, 
notwithftanding his inferiority in numbers, he found 
means to fpare. 
The conteft on the banks of the Mein, the Necker, the 
Entz, and the Rhine, was conducted with great vigour 
from the ift to the 3d of November. The French bom. 
barded Phiiipfburg, hoping to carry it by an inceffant 
fire; while the Auftrians endeavoured, to raife the fiege, 
and at all events to fhelter the duchy of Wirtemberg. 
Prince Hohenlohe having crofted the Entz, forced them 
to fall back to Erligheim, where he put them to the 
rout, with the lofs of feven hundred prifoners, and fifteen 
hundred killed and wounded. This event loft to the re¬ 
publicans all the advantages they had been making for a 
month, and appeared to overturn their projects with re- 
fpeCt to Germany. They were driven from the borders 
of the Necker beyond Neuburgh, and, on the following 
day, obliged to evacuate Kelmftadt and Pfortzheim, and 
fubfequently driven from Knitlingen, Bretten, and Bruck- 
lall, and, after feveral engagements, compelled to retreat 
into an angle formed by the Rhine and Necker, where 
they were joined by fome troops from Holland. 
Thus reinforced, they refumed the offenft ve; and, in 
confequence of a well-judged attack in four columns, 
regained the ground they had been lofing during the late 
encounters, and renewed the blockade of Phiiipfburg; 
but the archduke difpatched a reinforcement under gene¬ 
ral Sztaray, who, on the ad of December, made an attack 
in five columns, which proved completely fuccefsful, 
breaking the centre of the French line from the Rhine to 
the Necker, and turning their left. In the night Lecourbe 
concentrated his forces, and took an advantageous pofition 
between Sinzheim and Wifiock ; but was again aflailed at 
break of day, defeated at all points, and compelled to re¬ 
treat towards Heidelberg. The blockade of Phiiipfburg 
was in confequence raifed on the 4th, and the French "re¬ 
treated to a pofition they had occupied three weeks be¬ 
fore ; their right towards the Rhine above Neckerau, 
their centre in front of Schwetzingen, and their left to¬ 
wards the Necker above Heidelberg : their head-quarters 
at Manheim, 
General Lecourbe now propofed a fufpenfion of arms, 
to which Stzaray, who could not venture an aflault on the 
new pofitions, agreed, on condition of its being ratified by 
the archduke. The French general haftened, under fa¬ 
vour of this provifional compact, to bring back his army 
fafe beyond the Rhine, fending it to take cantonments, 
part in the Palatinate, part in the bifliopric of Spire, 
and leaving only one battalion at Manheim and another at 
Neckerau. He then departed to join the army of Swiffer- 
land, leaving the command to general d’Hilliers, who was 
foon to be fuperfeded by Moreau. The archduke refill¬ 
ing to ratify the convention made by Sztaray, the French 
haftily evacuated Manheim and Neckerau ; thus doling 
the campaign of Germany; in which it is fuppofed that 
the allies, by killed and wounded, were deprived of about 
forty thoufand men; and the French of about forty-five 
10 E thoufand; 
