«;if *&>..-: \.* 4 iijp £%¦¦ '< %£#*-&• ,.. "I givtihtfe Boats ; foi the founding of a Colfcgi en ~iH* Colony"^ >Y^LE«¥lMIIYE]&SinFY« • ILIIBIKAIKF • DEPOSITED BY THE LINONIAN AND BROTHERS LIBRARY A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE, Jfrom fyt Jfirsi ^tbahxtxan ta t\t fjw'swit Cim*. By BON LOtlS HENRI MARTIN, SENATOR OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, AUTHOR OF "ITALIAN UNITY," "EUROPEAN RUSSIA," "THE GENIUS AND DESTINY OF FRANCE," ETC., ETC. «!%.! m : ' 4 H*"' '; jm .jiaiSli sag* ''M • ¦- v^.. 1111111 -^ M'V'1'1' O.AIHON m Morel feSarSeot ; lv '*:¦¦ ax, J arid l.ari rial;, miau.i: A POPULAR History of France, FROM The First Revolution to the Present Time. By HENRI MARTIN. By MARY L. BOOTH and A. L. ALGER. FULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH WOOD AND STEEL PLATES BY A. DE NEUVILLE, LEOPOLD FLAMING, G. STAAL, VIOLLAT, PHILIPPOTEAUX, LIENARD, AND OTHERS. Vol. II. BOSTON: DANA ESTES and CHARLES E. LAURIAT, 301 Washington Street. Copyright, 1878. By ESTES AND LAURIAT. 3o September 4, Treilhard, a new plenipotentiary sent by the Directory, asked the English envoy, Lord Malmesbury, if he were empowered to restore all their colonies to the French Republic and her allies. "No," replied Malmesbury. "Then the Directory requires your return to London, within twenty-four hours, to obtain such author ity." All negotiations were broken off (September 4), and no one in France believed that Pitt really desired peace, but at this time he did. The 4th of September restored Austria's wish for peace. It destroyed her hope of counter-revolution in France, and she no longer expected any efficient aid from England, while she had exhausted her own resources for carrying on the war. But as 1797.] BONAPARTE'S NEW SCHEMES. 71 Austria grew pacific, the Directory became bellicose, and would have no peace save on startling terms; Barras writing to Bona parte directly after September 4, "Let the Rhine be our limit; grant Mantua to the Cisalpine republic, and never cede Venice to Austria!" The Directory aimed at resuming the revolutionary policy in Italy, and would not ratify the new treaty made with the king of Sardinia, guaranteeing that his kingdom should be unmo lested. The Directory meant to permit, if not to assist, a revolu tion in Piedmont, where army influence was swelling the republican party. But Bonaparte had other views. He had long been averse to peace, because it would rob him of the army he had gathered around him, and restore him to private life before he could lay vio lent hands on domestic power. Now he had formed new projects, allowing of peace with Austria providing war with England was maintained. The occupation of Corfu and the other Ionian Isles opened a vast and vague perspective to his eager imagination, and he had no sooner conquered Italy than he scorned his fair captive and wrote to the Directory (August 29) : " The islands of Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia are more important to France than all Italy put together. If we have to choose, better restore Italy to Austria and keep these islands. The Turkish Empire is crumbling rapidly. .... We shall soon see its fall. Corfu and Zante will make France mistress of the Adriatic and Levant. The time is not far distant when, to destroy England, France will he forced to seize Egypt." While Hoche lived, Bonaparte could not speak as master, but the very day he died, Bonaparte replied to a letter written by Barras in the name of the Directory, by a despatch doubting whether peace could be made if the Directory refused Venice to Austria, and de claring, contrary to his previous assertions at Ldoben, that " Venice was the city of all Italy most worthy of freedom," and requesting reinforcements if he was to enter upon a campaign. The same day he wrote a singular letter to Talleyrand (the minister of foreign affairs) in regard to the constitution of Genoa and the Cisalpine republic, in which he begged him to communicate his ideas on the 72 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. III. matter to Sidyes ; he gave all authority to the executive power and made the legislative power almost a nonentity. At that same time Francis II. with his own hand wrote him a most flattering and con ciliatory letter, to announce the arrival of a new ambassador, Count de Cobentzel, who was in his entire confidence, and fully empowered to act for him. Cobentzel and Bonaparte met at Udine, and, Hoche being dead, the latter changed his tone with the home government, writing to Talleyrand, October 7 : " Within a few days it will be one thing or the other, war or peace. I confess I am ready to make any concessions for peace, as the season is advanced and there is slight hope of doing anything great," and going on to abuse the Italians as unworthy to have had forty thousand Frenchmen slain for them. He had received a despatch, dated September 29, from La ReVeillere in the name of the Directory, and most honorable to that Director. He said that " the question was now reduced to a doubt whether or no France would give Italy over to Austria, which the French gov ernment ought not and would not do," and gave as his ultimatum, Italy free to the Isonzo, that is, all Venice, protesting against the inexcusable treachery of giving up that province, the consequences of which, he added, would be worse than the greatest misfortunes of war. And if the war must be continued, it was certainly better both for the interests and happiness of France to fight for Italian independence, than to seek adventures in Egypt, when France was not mistress of the sea ! But Bonaparte took no heed of this de spatch, sending word to the Directory, October 10, that peace would be signed or negotiations broken off next night, without mentioning the ultimatum sent him, and setting forth the advantages of his plan, which was the same formed at Mombello, the preceding May, and refused by Austria and the Directory alike ; giving Venice and the boundary of the Adige to Austria. In return for the sacrifice of Venice, he pointed out that the French troops could be set to work to " free the English," and he explained that the chief agent in the restoring of continental peace was " his aversion to military rule, the ruin of so many republics and states ! " The conference was prolonged beyond the limits he had fixed, Cobentzel insisting 1797.] PEACE OF CAMPO-FORMIO. 73 on having Mantua, and on the 16 th of October, Bonaparte abso lutely refusing to sunender that city, he declared that the emperor would submit to anything sooner than to such peace. Bonaparte rose and snatched a porcelain box from a table near by, and, dash ing it to the ground, cried, " Well, then ! Let it be war ! Before autumn is over, I will break your monarchy as I now shiver this porcelain." He went out forthwith, and announced to Archduke Charles that hostilities would be renewed within twenty-four hours. Cobentzel, in alarm, sent a hurried message to his head quarters at Passeriano, accepting this ultimatum, as Bonaparte ex pected when he played his angry scene in cold blood, and the treaty was signed next day at Campo-Formio, near Udine, Austria receiving Venice with the boundary of the Adige, Dalmatia, Istria, and in Germany, Salzburg. France had the left bank of the Rhine, Belgium, and the Ionian Isles. The day after (October 18), Bona parte received a despatch from the Directory, that parties were to be named " to relieve him of his political burdens, and leave him free to devote his time to the army," again forbidding him to cede Venice and the Adige to Austria. Bonaparte foresaw this, and had therefore hastened to conclude the treaty. The Directory received the blow with deep displeasure, which it dared not show ; and, feel ing its impotence, ratified the treaty, and congratulated the general who had trodden his government's instructions under foot, and im posed his will upon the rulers of his country. 74 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. CHAPTER IV. directory {continued). — invasion of Switzerland. — overthrow OF THE POPE. — BONAPARTE SETS OUT FOR EGYPT. CONSOLIDATED THIRD. — ELECTIONS OF YEAR VI. — BREAK WITH AUSTRIA. — SEC OND COALITION. — CONSCRIPTION. — CAPTURE OF NAPLES. — ANNEX ATION OF PIEDMONT. — REVERSES IN GERMANY AND ITALY. — MURDER OF FRENCH AMBASSADORS AT RASTADT. ELECTIONS OF YEAR VII. — BATTLE OF NOVI. — BRUNE'S VICTORY IN HOLLAND. — MASSENA'S TRIUMPH IN SWITZERLAND. Vendeiniaire 36, Tear VI., to Vendeiniaire 34, Tear VTII.— October 17, 1707, to October 16, 1799. THE treaty of Campo-Formio, through its secret articles, tended to turn the policy of France in a new direction. Bonaparte, while sacrificing revolutionary principles by bargaining with Austria at the expense of Venice, conceived the idea of establishing an understanding or even an alliance between France and Austria. The secret articles of this treaty relating to the left bank of the Rhine differed from those of the treaty of Basle with Prussia, the latter giving France the whole left bank in return for land in Ger many, while the former only granted it as far as the junction of the Rhine and Moselle, whence the French7 frontier followed the Erft, then the Ruhr and Neers toward the Lower Meuse and Venloo. France promised to restore to Prussia her ancient duchies of Cleves and Gelders, but she was to be allowed no new conquests either by France or Austria. From a military point of view, Bonaparte yielded nothing essential for France's defence ; from a political point, he reacted against the tendency of revolutionary politicians ever since 1792, to treat with Prussia and fight Austria to the death ; and this, although Prussia had concluded " friendly agreements " 1797.] CONGRESS AT RASTADT. 75 with France in August, 1796, promising not to oppose her posses sion of the whole left shore. Cobentzel and Bonaparte had exchanged views of affairs in Europe far beyond the secret articles. The emperor dealt with France as head of the Germanic Empire, and not as head of the House of Austria, so that the secret articles must necessarily form a new treaty to be accepted by Germany entire. It was agreed to hold a congress at Rastadt, a month later, composed of plenipoten tiaries from the German Empire and French Republic. Bona parte was sent thither by the Directory. He took leave of the Cisalpine republic in a proclamation, counselling and encouraging the new Italian republicans. He had not insisted on the ideas expressed to Talleyrand regarding the constitution for the Cisalpine, but had permitted them to copy the French Constitution of the year III. The question for him was at Paris, not at Milan. He promised his men to return to them, and passed through Switzer land, which he found anxiously awaiting a crisis, and where he was received with great honor by the democrats, who hoped in him, and the aristocrats, who feared him, entering Rastadt November 25. He had no idea of staying there to discuss the complicated interests of petty German states, the details of territorial changes, and indemni ties to be accorded, on the right bank of the Rhine, to those princes who had lost their lands on the left shore. Nor could he impose the conditions talked over with Cobentzel, unless he were master at Paris. Accordingly, he settled the most pressing point with Austria, that is, the French return to Mayence on the same day that the Austrians entered Venice, and contrived his recall to Paris to confer with the Directory. Soon after the treaty of Campo-Formio the Directory made him commander-in-chief of the " army of England." He was received in Paris with solemn state, assumed an air of reserve, and affected to live amongst scholars and learned men, being chosen a member of the Institute in the department of math ematics and physical sciences. At the public reception given him in presence of the assembled multitude, Talleyrand presented 76 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. him to the Directory, adroitly flattering .him, setting forth his " dis interested nature," and hinting that he might some day be tempted from his peaceful retreat to fight a new enemy, to impose on Eng land, the tyrant of the sea, a peace worthy of the glory of the Repub lic. Bonaparte replied briefly and grandiloquently, calling France " the great nation, whose only limits were the boundaries fixed by nature," and congratulating her on her mode of ruling by repre sentation. Both these principles, representation and natural fron tiers, he afterwards destroyed, the one by establishing despotism, and the other by extending France throughout Europe, to revive the Roman Empire for his own profit. He concluded : " When the happiness of France is based on better organic laws, all Europe will be made free." These "better laws" were those he suggested to Talleyrand in regard to the Cisalpine republic, and which would bring about a feigned representation concentrated in executive power, as in the days of the Caesars. He soon put his credit with the Directory to the proof by an attempt to rid himself of a rival, who was stirring up the Jacobins against him. Augereau, infatu ated with his own importance, denounced his former general's am bitious plans, severely blamed the treaty of Campo-Formio, and provoked the German populations along the Rhine to revolution. The Directory did not remove him from command of the army of the Rhine, but suppressed the army, rendered useless by peace with Austria, and, while thus recalling Augereau from the Rhine, de sired to send Bonaparte thither, requesting him to return to Rastadt to huny on negotiations, for, despite his reserve, the Directors were uneasy so long as he was in Paris. Bonaparte refused on pretence that he must superintend the preparation of the English expedition. It was a serious mistake to give up the English expedition and disarm the fleet at Brest when Hoche died, for the Dutch navy was then ready to aid France, and in fact bravely attacked the English fleet blockading Texel, losing the naval battle of Camper- down, owing to superior forces, October 11, 1797. The Directory saw its error, and ordered the fleet at Brest to be reorganized, but the ill-paid sailors worked slowly. 1797.] INVASION OF SWITZERLAND. 77 Bonaparte did not wish to stay in Paris, as the Directory sup posed, for his time had not come in France ; he was too young for the Directory, being only twenty-nine, the legal age being forty; nor were things at such a pitch that he could seize the power at one fell blow. " There is nothing to do here," said he to a confidant. " My laurels will soon wither. This petty Europe has not fame enough for me ; I must go to the East, whence all great names proceed. If success in England seems doubtful, as I fear, I shall go to Egypt." But he did not see that the East was old and decrepit, and the West — Europe and America — was now the world. In February he visited the coast of Picardy, Flanders, and Zealand, examined the points where an embarkment was prac ticable, and returned decided not to try an adventure for which he never cared, setting vigorously to work to persuade the Direc tory to change the English into an Egyptian expedition. Resources were lacking for either. The Directory won a vote from the Councils for a loan of eighty millions, and civic collections were made. Want of money persuaded the Directory to commit vio lence beyond the borders, for it resolved to overthrow the aristo cratic governments of the Swiss cantons and lay hands on their treasures. Political motives existed besides this secret motive, the Directory wishing to impose republican constitutions like its own on all the little states, neighbors, or allies of France, as it had done with Genoa, the Cisalpine republic, and recently in Holland, where it had excited another October 2 against the government of the United Provinces, a federal democracy (January 22, 1798). Bona parte now urged that Switzerland should be revolutionized, and had already provoked revolt in the Grisons, a federative aristocratic republic, whose subjects, the Valtelins, an Italian-speaking race, lived on the Italian side of the Alps, in the valley of the Upper Adige. Bonaparte helped La Valteline to rebel, and pressed the people to join the Cisalpine republic, and then excited a demo cratic and unitary revolution in the Grisons. He now advised an attack on the aristocracies of Berne and the other Swiss cantons. Switzerland's situation was extremely complicated ; the great can- 78 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. tons were aristocracies, the little ones democracies ; but both had subjects, that is, lands whose people had civil but no political rights. The French-speaking people of the Canton de Vaud were subject to Berne and Friburg, German-speaking cantons, whose yoke was most impatiently borne, the aid of the French Republic to shake it off being at last invoked. December 28, 1797, the Directory issued a proclamation assuring the protection of France "to all persons claiming it against the sovereignty of Berne and Friburg." A few days previous it had warned the Swiss confedera tion that French troops were about to occupy the Swiss city of Bienne, as belonging to the bishop of Basle, a German prince still at war with France, peace with the Germanic Empire not having been signed. After the Reformation Basle broke with her bishop- prince, and became a Swiss canton, but he kept much of his land on the eastern side of the Jura, which territory went over to France in 1793, with the exception of Bienne, forming the department of Mont Terrible, to which was added Montbeliard, conquered from Wiirtemberg. Democratic movements broke out in all the subject territories, and the aristocrats made slight resistance, the peasants being admitted to political rights in Basle, Lucerne, Zu rich, Schaffhausen, and Soleure. Berne and Friburg were left face to face with their Vaudois subjects, and the petty primitive cantons opposing their subjects in the Italian bailiwicks (now Ticino). Friburg yielded, Berne resisted ; the Vaudois proclaimed their inde pendence of Berne, and Bonaparte urged the Italians of Upper Ticino to do the same. French troops supported the Vaudois, fifteen thou sand entering Lausanne, January 28, 1798. The government of Berne tried to negotiate, making all her citizens equal, but taking a year in which to prepare the new constitution. General Brune came up with fresh forces, and the Directory announced its ulti matum, which stripped Berne of dignity and independence. The Swiss democrats were as much wounded as the aristocrats, espe cially when, after a fruitless armistice, Berne received a new ulti matum requiring her to lay down arms, and the Swiss republic, from federative, to become unitary. The Bernese government con- 1797.] INVASION OF SWITZERLAND. 79 sented to yield to the democracy, but Brune still persisted that arms should be laid down, and when this was refused, invaded the canton of Berne at Friburg and Soleure (March 2). The confusion was extreme; the contingents who had come to Berne's support went back to defend their homes, the Bernese militia cried treason against their leaders, and the government was dissolved and re placed by a temporary regency. Brune kept up the same demands as before, and the regency strove to resist, a Bernese regiment repulsing the French at Laupen, women fighting in the ranks with their husbands and sons ; but, at the same time, the troops defend ing the direct approach to Berne were forced from their positions, in spite of their energetic resistance, and the enraged militia slew their general, D'Erlach. Berne opened her doors, her people and property being promised protection, though private goods were not altogether respected, money belonging to patrician families being seized in several instances, and General Brune took possession of the public funds in the name of the French government. Brune, though the instrument of this violent policy, tried to dissuade the Directory from proceeding further, but Bonaparte and Talleyrand carried the day. Brune resigned, announcing that Schwitz, Uri, and Unterwald, the prime nucleus of Switzerland, had not sub mitted, and would not give up their old established local democ racies to be absorbed in a central democracy. A legislative meet ing was held at Aarau, to impose a unitary constitution on the Swiss, heavy requisitions were made on patricians in the old can tons, and the agents of the Directory irritated the Swiss by their arrogant rule. The lesser cantons refused the constitution voted at Aarau, thus leading to a petty war which lasted until the great war of the following year. Two small republics allied to Switzer land were at this time united to France, — one being Geneva, the other Mulhausen. A few days before the invasion of Switzerland a still more im portant invasion took place in Italy. The French were at Rome, and the papal government showed great ill-will to France, continu ally intriguing against her with Austria and Naples, and before the 80 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. conclusion of the treaty of Campo-Formio, the Pope made the Aus trian, Provera, general of his troops. Bonaparte wrote to his brother Joseph, whom he had made ambassador to Rome, that if Provera were not at once dismissed, hostilities must be renewed, and, returning to the views of the Directory, he added : " If the Pope dies, do your best to prevent the nomination of another, and to raise a revolution" (September 29, 1797). The papal govern ment yielded with a bad grace, but too late ; a revolutionary party had formed in Rome, encouraged by French agents, and attempted action prematurely and unsuccessfully. Next day the struggle was renewed, a noisy band rushing to the French embassy with shouts of " Long live the Republic ! " A detachment of papal troops pur sued them, and the French general, Duphot, who was betrothed to Bonaparte's sister, happening to be present, interposed between the rioters and the troops; the latter fired on him and he fell dead. The next morning (December 29) Joseph Bonaparte left Rome. The Directory would listen to no excuse, and ordered General Ber- thier, commander of the French forces in Italy since Bonaparte's departure, to march on Rome. The Directory would have seized this opportunity to conclude the temporal power of the Pope in any case, but other motives contributed to put Bonaparte in accord with the Directors. His successor, Berthier, wrote to him, January 19, "In sending me to Rome, you made me treasurer of the English expedition ; I will do my best to fill its coffers "; but it was not on the English expedition that Bonaparte meant to spend Rome's millions. The Pope had no means of defence, the king of Naples dared not help him, and Austria would not interfere. The Pope announced to the Romans that the French army would not act against them, and that he would not forsake them. Berthier entered Rome, Feb- • ruary 10, and went straight to the capitol, where he recognized the Roman republic, just proclaimed in the Forum by the democrats of Rome. He informed the Pope that the papal government no longer existed, but permitted him to remain at the Vatican, and ordered religion and the clergy to be treated respectfully. Four teen cardinals assisted at a Te Deum in honor of the Roman 1798.] . OVERTHROW OF THE POPE. 81 republic. The fall of the temporal power was most peacefully managed, but the Directory did not approve such moderation, and commanded that the Pope, cardinals, and prelates, members of the former government, should leave Rome, and also replaced Berthier by Massena. The Pope, refusing to leave or to recognize the repub lican government, was treated with unseemly rudeness, and driven by force from the Roman dominions, retiring into Tuscany. The new Roman republic was established under sad auspices ; Austrian tyranny crushed Venice, and tragic scenes marked the death-pang of Venetian independence. Villetard, the French charge" d'affaires, joined in the angry protests of Venetian nobles against Bonaparte's offers of shelter and support in the Cisalpine republic. Berthier had neither the talent nor the strength of character requisite to govern the stormy elements which Bonaparte had intrusted to him only that he himself might be missed. Contractors, commissaries, and generals made scandalous fortunes, while the troops went ragged and hungry, not having been paid for five months (Febru ary, 1798). At last they rebelled, and on the 11th of February the garrison of Mantua mutinied, seizing flags and cannon, and declar ing that they would go back to France. When their general sum moned them to return to their duty in the name of the law, they replied : " The law orders that we shall be paid ; tho law-breakers are those who steal the Italian treasures won hy our victories ! They leave us ragged and barefoot ; they strip us of everything but our bayonets, used by them to spoil the Italians, who detest us, and we will have justice from France and our countrymen!" Their general, Miollis, calmed them by promising to pay their arrears in a week, at Italy's expense again, for it could only be done by levy ing a tax on the country. A few days later a still more serious movement took place in Rome, the officeis rebelling instead of the men, on hearing that Massena was to take Berthier's command, he being considered the leader of all the depredations in Italy. Three hundred officers met in solemn conclave, and declared that they would never recognize him as their chiefj disavowed the spoli ations in Rome and the Roman territories, and demanded vengeance VOL. II. 6 82 THE DIRECTORY. . [Chap. IV. on the greedy and corrupt leaders and administrators, who " dishon ored France," and they were upheld by all the garrisons of Rome and the Roman States. This is a fact of great importance in the history of the Revolution, the moral wakening of the army of Italy. The Directory, knowing that rigor meant ruin, in affright sent Gou- vion Saint-Cyr, a general of strong character and irreproachable hon esty, to Italy, and by appealing to the patriotism of the soldiers, promising to punish the guilty and pay the troops, discipline was soon restored. Unfortunately it was not so easy to suppress' the causes for complaint which prejudiced the Italians against France. It was impossible to prevent official exactions ; vast supplies were needed to guard Italy and to assist Bonaparte's expedition, and these supplies were raised from a country already staggering and exhausted. But Bonaparte cared nothing for Italy, being utterly absorbed in Egypt, straining every nerve to win the Directory to his views. La Reveillere resisted, as did Rewbell, but Banas and the new Directors, Francois de Neufchateau and^Merlin de Douai, agreed to the expedition, led away by their dread of Bonaparte and desire to remove him, and early in March he was empowered to make the necessary preparations. The secretary of the navy, P16- ville-Lepeley, resigned, declaring that the expedition would destroy the navy. April 2, the Directory published, to deceive the English, an order for Bonaparte to repair to Brest, and on the 12th, secret orders changed the army of England to the army of the East, and authorized its general-in -chief to take possession of Malta, occupy Egypt, establish communication between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, by means of the Isthmus of Suez, and drive the Eng lish from any Eastern possession he might chance to traverse (India). The Directory justified the invasion of Egypt on the ground that the Mamelukes, who ruled the country, only acknowl edging the Sultan's nominal superiority, were close allies of Eng land, and had persecuted the French in Egypt. Bonaparte was to keep terms with the Sultan while warring with the Mamelukes. Not content with providing excellent under-officers, — Kleber, 1798.] BONAPARTE SETS OUT FOR EGYPT. 83 Desaix, Caffarelli-Dufalga, Lannes, Davoust, Murat, etc., — he formed a commission of learned men to study nature and art in the cradle of civilization, under the protection of his sword. But events at Vienna delayed his departure. April 14, 1797, on the news of the arrival of the French vanguard at Simmering, the young men of Vienna offered their services in a body to defend the capital. The Viennese celebrated the anniversary of the day, and the French am bassador, General Bernadotte, replied to what he considered a hos tile demonstration by hanging the tricolored flag from his balcony ; the mob tore down the flag, entered and sacked the house, and Bernadotte left Vienna. At the outset the Directory thought war inevitable, and offered the German army to Bonaparte, though the Austrian government had no share in the riot, and tendered satis faction. Bonaparte was asked to return to Rastadt and conclude negotiations ; and though at first vexed at his interrupted plans, he grasped at the occasion to arbitrate for war or peace, returning to the plans abandoned for Egypt, and writing to Cobentzel to renew the secret treaties of Campo-Formio. Fresh victories over Austria or alliance with Austria would, to his thinking, lead to the same result, — to give him France. If he made a treaty with Austria, ren dered popular by this success he would overthrow the Directory by a bold stroke. The Directory was warned, and decided that Bona parte should not go to Rastadt, but to Egypt forthwith. He angrily offered his resignation. Rewbell, or, as some say, La Reveillere, handed him a pen, saying, " Write it down, general ; the Republic has plenty of children who will not desert her ! " But Merlin de Douai snatched the pen from him; he yielded, and set off for Toulon next day (May 3, 1798), where the main body of the Egyptian army, chiefly composed of his old Italian troops, was awaiting him. He renewed the promises of his first campaign, offering every man on his return enough money to buy six acres of land, but either felt or was told of the impropriety of such language, and published an other proclamation, speaking not. of booty, but of glory. The fleet set sail May 19, collecting on the way the convoys prepared at Genoa, Ajaccio, and Civita Vecchia, and proceeded to Malta. We 84 THE DIRECTORY. ' [Chap. IV. will return to this daring expedition later, but must now recount passing events in France and Europe. After September 4, and the peace of Campo-Formio, the Direc tory made fresh efforts to establish order in the state and financial departments, increasing the old and establishing new taxes, order ing tolls on many roads, and licensing lotteries, — sad expedients borrowed from the old regime, — but although expenses were much reduced, the national debt was immense, and there was still a deficit of one hundred and seventy-two millions, and, all its sugges tions being refused, the Republic was forced to fail, in imitation of the monarchy's thirteen failures, and public confidence was slow to return, though there was a tendency to revive commerce and indus try, and agriculture prospered. In October of the year VI. (the preceding year) there were roy alist revolts in the South, and counter-revolutionary bands at tempted bold strokes at Pont St. Esprit, Carpentras, and Tarascon, which were easily parried, but the country round Lyons was still shaken by the " Comrades of Jesus." Lyons and other cities were put in a state of siege ; Chouans and thieves desolated the West, particularly Brittany and Lower Normandy. England and the emigrant party did their best to prevent a return of peace and order, the Directory responding to these intrigues by frequent exe cutions of Chouans and emigrants. The two Councils, in the latter days before September, fa vored the Catholic religion, and restored the cathedrals and parish churches, but the Directory took away many. The departmental authorities at Paris and elsewhere ordered the compulsory celebra tion of the d&adi, or every tenth day, in lieu of Sunday. Another measure, as praiseworthy as this was vexatious, was the indemnity granted to accused persons who had been acquitted, which equi table principle was unfortunately razed from French laws in later times. The conduct of the Directory at the time of the elections of year VI. (March to April, 1798) was ill calculated to calm the public or waken respect for the laws. Before the elections came on, the CHURCH OF THE ORATORY. 1798.] ELECTIONS OF YEAR VI. ' 85 government began to react against the Jacobins, its September allies, who now laid claim to power by closing the Constitutional Club, which had so ably seconded it against the Clichy Club, but had since grown more and more ultra in its views. Thus far the Direc tory was legally right, but it did not stop there. The nominations at the primary meetings were very different from those of the two previous years. The reactionists abandoning the electoral field since September 4, the struggle was now between the Directory and the republicans, or independents, the former interposing directly by issuing a circular against the "fomenters of 1793," drawn up by Merlin de Douai, who claimed that the magistrates had a right to point out the candidates they thought most suitable, and accused the terrorists, of being in their turn the tools of foreign agents. The electoral assemblies of the second degree were very stormy, each side of the meeting choosing its own deputy in many cases ; for instance, at Paris, the majority made their election in the Church of the Oratory, while the minority or friends of the Directory went to the Louvre, and proceeded to choose other officers, though, after all, there was but a shade of difference between the candidates, all being republican. The Directory, its self-love wounded and its influence threatened, pushed matters to extremes, pretending, in a message to the Legislature (May 2), that royalism had replaced the white cockade by the red cap, and taking advantage of a recent law, requiring a representative's power to be confirmed by the Legis lative Body before he entered it ; the elections of seven departments were thus annulled, fourteen being approved, and thirty-four depu ties chosen by assemblies, whose other acts were acknowledged valid, were excluded. It was another 4th of September in an oppo site sense, and minus the transportations. A certain number of ex- conventionalists were excluded, Barere among them for the second time, and Treilhard, one of the leading lawyers of the Convention, replaced Franqois de Neufchateau in the Directory, whose policy, fierce and arbitrary at home, was no wiser abroad. We have al ready detailed the invasions of Switzerland and Rome, — the one unjustifiable, the other incompatible, from its grave and inevitable 86 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. results, with the invasion of Egypt. France was making enemies on all sides, having broken with her former friend America, because the latter dared not combat, with her infant navy, the naval forces of England, and submitted to England's tyrannical demands on neutral countries. American plenipotentiaries had been sent to Paris the preceding autumn to renew friendly relations, but Barras's agents claimed a large loan from them to aid in the projected descent on England and money for the Directors^ that is, Barras, who had secretly proposed to Pitt to procure peace for a heavy sum. The envoys repulsed this strange request, and Barras broke off negotia tions, but the shameful intrigue was discovered, and Barras's mis deeds were imputed to the whole Directory. In Germany the Directory was also acting in a way to alarm and distress both rulers and people, trying to force a loan from the small maritime and commercial republics called the " Hanseatic towns," — Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, — and to form the prov inces on the left bank of the Rhine into French departments, without waiting for Germany's consent to cede them. The Direc tors were no longer content with the left bank of the Rhine, but claimed the right shore from Huningue to Mayence for the protection of the left. The petty German princes driven from the left bank refused to admit its cession as the point of departure for negotiations at Rastadt, as the French ambassadors required. Prussia, seeing that she was sacrificed to Austria, and suspecting secret and worse engagements between Bonaparte and Cobentzel, encouraged them to resist; but Cobentzel admitted the French basis, and the German deputation yielded (end of February, 1798). The principle of impropriation for indemnities was adopted, the three ecclesiastic Electors of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne bein" forced to pay the greater part of the cost ; of the war by the loss of their lands beyond the Rhine. The application of the principle was, however, long delayed and finally abandoned, owing to the misunderstanding between Prussia and Austria. The general con- dition of Europe began to be modified. The Czar Paul at first broke the promises made by his mother, Catherine the Great, to England 1798.] TROUBLE WITH AUSTRIA. 87 and Austria, and seemed to take no interest in Oriental matters, but soon became even more counter-revolutionary than she, taking Condi's army into his pay, offering asylum at Mittau to Louis XVIIL, and declaring that he would protect naval commerce against "the Directory's oppression." The Directory had already considered what was afterwards called, under Napoleon, the " Con tinental blockade," replying to English naval tyranny by an at tempt to prevent all commerce between England and the Continent, and announcing that any passage granted through the Sound to ves sels carrying English goods would be considered as a declaration of war from Denmark and Sweden. The czar made overtures to England, and offered to aid Francis II. to put a stop to French invasion. Bonaparte had gone, giving up his policy of compromise with Austria for Eastern dreams, and the Directory did not pursue his plan; Austria knew what was to be expected, and told the czar that nothing could be done with out Prussia's concurrence. England and Russia strove to draw Prussia into their alliance, and the Directory thought best to send Sieyes to Berlin to counterbalance these hostile influences, and Francois de Neufchateau to terminate matters at Rastadt. But Austria changed her mind when she found that Bonaparte was not likely to rule France, and Cobentzel insisted that the French should leave Switzerland, and refused to recognize the Roman re public, offering France carte blanche for Germany, provided that Austria might take the greater part of Bavaria, but also insisting that France should abandon Italy, minus Piedmont, which she might annex. The Directory was so far from consenting to give up Italy, that it demanded the union of Tuscany to the Roman republic, promising to repay the grand duke in German lands. It was impossible to agree, and the conference was broken off, July 6, Cobentzel leaving at once for Berlin, where he put himself in full accord with Russian and English envoys. King Frederick William II., nephew of Frederick tfie Great and conqueror of Val- my, had died November 16, 1797, and his son Frederick William III. seemed anxious to carry out his father's policy, receiving 88 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. 'Sieyes kindly, although the aristocracy and staff-officers were very hostile to him, he being the relentless foe of the nobility. The new king of Prussia tried to keep an even course between Sieyes and the Russian envoy Repnin, with whom Cobentzel united to draw him into the coalition, but failed ; the king declaring that he would remain neutral. August 10, Cobentzel and Repnin signed an agreement at Berlin in the name of the emperors of Germany and Russia. Thirty thou sand Russians were to enter Gallicia to support the Austrian armies, and Repnin set out for Vienna, taking haughty leave of Prussia. "We will make war on France," said he, "with you, without you, or against you ! " Cobentzel went to St. Petersburg. The coalition was renewed, minus Prussia, Spain, and Holland, but plus Russia and Turkey, — the latter taking part against France on hearing of the French descent into Egypt. The Directory and two Councils foresaw that greater efforts* and resources would be re quired than for the campaigns of years VI. and VII., and there was a deficit of more than sixty millions in the return of contributions. Stamp and poll taxes and custom-house duties were again increased, a tax was ordered on doors and windows, and everything was done to swell the public revenues. At General Jourdain's suggestion, the Councils passed a law to make recruits ; all Frenchmen from twenty to twenty-five were to be at the disposition of the coun try, forming five classes, the youngest to be called on first, the only exceptions to the rule being newly married men and such as had already fought for their country. When France was in danger, a general levy might be ordered, as in 1793, and an annual law was to fix the number of conscripts for the year, and two hundred thousand were now called for. Thus was established the system of conscrip tion so abused by Napoleon, and it was accepted throughout France, save in departments infested by Chouans ; not so in the newly annexed provinces, for angry revolts occurred in Belgium, and for some weeks it seemed likely to become another La Vendee, but all these troubles were stifled before the year was out. The Directory, feeling the gravity of the situation, assumed, 1798.] TROUBLE WITH AUSTRIA. 89 though rather late, a moderate attitude abroad, showing itself con ciliatory towards the German states at Rastadt. Austria, on the contrary, grew aggressive, succeeding in preventing the union of Les Grisons with Switzerland, so much desired by France, by excit ing a counter-revolution which called in Austrian troops, thus replying to the French occupation of Switzerland. But the Direc tory did not break with Austria, which, despite its new engage ments with Russia, had not quite resolved on war. If France had restored Mantua, the Mincio, and the Roman States, she would have rested quiet and given up the papacy on condition of being its heir ; but the Directory could not and would not grant this, though it went far in the way of concessions, offering to leave Switzerland and the Roman States, to restore to Austria the Roman provinces north of the Apennines, and to make treaty with England and Tur key, on condition of the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Austrian dominion. The court of Vienna received this offer November 10, and, instead of replying at once, communicated it to England. Parliament was just in session; George III. made a warlike speech and the opposition party seconded governmental hos tility to France, so that the Directory's pacific propositions were unavailing. There was no direct declaration of war between France and Austria, but troubles broke out at the extreme end of Italy with Austrian connivance. Before Austria decided to break with France, she signed a treaty of mutual defence with Naples, where Queen Caroline of Austria reigned in the name of her weak and lawless spouse, Ferdinand de Bourbon. Marie Antoinette's sister had all her faults in an exaggerated form, as well as all the vices wickedly attributed to her. She shared her power with her Eng lish favorite, Acton, and his favorite, the beautiful and wayward English ambassadress, Lady Hamilton. She exercised boundless and immoral tyranny, persecuting every approach to free thought, and heartily hating France. Austria persuaded her to dissimulate and not provoke the French to arms prematurely, but news from the East hastened matters. Bonaparte successively took Malta, went down to Alexandria, and conquered Egypt with his troops, 90 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. although his naval forces were defeated at Aboukir by the English fleet, whose admiral, Nelson, returned in triumph to Naples, Sep tember 22, where he was hailed with transports of joy, and the arsenals were given over to repair his ships. Queen Caroline and her advisers lost their presence of mind, hurried on their prepara tions for war, and summoned the French ambassador to order his armies from the Papal States and the island of Malta (November 22), sending Nelson to blockade the latter place, while a Neapolitan army of more than fifty thousand men marched on Rome, under the Austrian, General Mack, a staff-officer under Cobourg in 1792 and 1793. One of the generals of the Rhenish army, Championnet, commanded the French troops in Rome ; he had but fifteen thou sand men, but all old soldiers, against a mass of raw recruits. He abandoned Rome, leaving a garrison at San Angelo, and con centrated his forces in the Apennines. The King of Naples then entered Rome, which was given over to horrors, the mob pil laging and murdering, throwing republicans and Jews into the Tiber. Naples then wrote to Sardinia, urging her to surprise and massacre the French troops throughout Piedmont; but her facile success was fleeting, for the Neapolitan troops, who strove to reach the heart of the Roman States, were routed at Fermo and Terni. General Mack meanwhile besieged San Angelo, informing the gar rison that all French in Roman hospitals would be considered host ages, and that one would be killed for every shot fired from the castle. These vile and cowardly threats roused the French army to an anger which cost the enemy dear. The castle did not surrender ; Mack pressed forward, his divisions were beaten, one after the other, by Championnet and his lieutenant Macdonald. Mack was driven back to Rome, whence the King of Naples had already fled, his troops hastily quitting the city, December 15, leaving fifteen thousand prisoners and forty cannon. Neither Austria nor Piedmont stirred. Championnet re-established the republican government at Rome, and, reinforced by ten thousand men, sent one division to Abruzzo and La Pouille, marching on Naples himself with seven teen thousand men. The court of Naples, giving up all hope in its 1798.] CAPTURE OF NAPLES. 91 disgracefully beaten army, appealed to the fanaticism of the Neapoli tan mob (the lazzaroni) and the mountaineers of the Abruzzi, priests and monks preaching a crusade against "impious revolutionists," and the mountaineers fought with a spirit unknown to the regular troops, stopping the French march at several points, though they could not prevent their junction with the main body proceeding against Naples. The maritime stronghold of Gaeta yielded without resistance, and General Mack, rallying his forces at Capua, repulsed an attack on that city ; but meanwhile fearful disorder reigned at Naples. The lazzaroni, armed and excited by the court, were masters of the city, and gave way to excesses of every kind ; the king and queen feared their defenders as much as their foes, and took refuge on board the English fleet, with the crown-jewels and public funds (December 31), and Admiral Nelson, coming to succor Naples, treated the Neapolitan navy as his predecessor Hood treated the French ships at Toulon, burning it before carrying the royal pair to Sardinia. The king's vicar-general then signed a treaty with Championnet, surrendering Capua with a heavy tribute ; on hear ing this, the lazzaroni cried treason, seized the forts of Naples, and threw open the prisons and galleys. The vicar-general fled, and Mack, threatened by his own men, took refuge in Championnet's headquarters, owing his life to the very French whom he had threatened so fiercely. The leaders of the mob tried to negotiate, but Championnet refused, and Naples wrestled with furious anar chy, the royalist and fanatic mob turning against the upper classes, whom they accused of complicity with France, and two great lords, patrons of arts and letters, were burned alive. These horrors soon brought on reaction. A republican party was formed, who sur prised Fort St. Elmo commanding the city, and sent word to Cham pionnet, who attacked Naples at four points, and forced an entrance to the city (January 21, 1799). The lazzaroni fought madly, and the next day, when efforts were made to reduce them to submission, there was no one left with whom to treat. On the third day the heart of the city was reached, and the republicans held the forts on the sea-shore. Championnet hung out a white flag in sign of peace, 92 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. and addressed the mob in Italian, promising to respect religion and their patron saint, Januarius, upon which they laid down their arms, the French sent a guard of honor to St. Januarius's relics, and the fickle mob rushed from rage to joy, shouting, " Long live the French ! " A " Parthenopian " republic was proclaimed, Parthenope being the old Greek name for Naples, all the Neapolitan provinces recognized the republic, and nothing but Sicily remained to the King of Naples. The Naples revolution was preceded by one in Piedmont. King Charles Emmanuel was in no way like the rulers of Naples ; but it was impossible to maintain a monarchy, overruled by the French Republic, and flanked by two Italian republics, the Cisalpine and Ligurian (Genoese), which were constantly inciting the Piedmon tese to rebel. Charles Emmanuel yielded to all the Directory's demands, thus robbing it of any pretext for overthrowing him, and the Directors, influenced by Talleyrand, for some time seemed dis posed to leave him his shadow of royalty. But General Brune, now in command of the army of Upper Italy, went beyond his orders and favored the Piedmontese refugees, who, helped by Geno ese and Lombards, were striving for a republic in Piedmont. Their aggressions were repulsed by royal troops, and many of them were slain (May to June, 1798). Still Brune forced the king to receive a French garrison in the citadel of Turin. The conquest of Naples was the ruin of Piedmontese royalty, for when the Directory found the coalition a fixed fact, and a fresh struggle with Austria inevit able, it saw that Piedmont must be mastered, and General Joubert, who had succeeded Brune, was ordered thither, the stronghold be ing quietly surprised and taken. The king abdicated December 9, 1798, and it was agreed that he should retire jnto Sardinia with his family. The union of Piedmont and France was accomplished in the spring of the year VII. (1798), after a feint at a unanimous vote. An insurrection in the province of Acqui was easily put down, but deep discontent prevailed. Lucca and Tuscany were next revolution ized, the former being changed to a democratic republic. As for 1799.] WAR ON THE RHINE. 93 Tuscany, when the King of Naples marched on Rome, a Neapolitan division was landed at Leghorn by the English, to cut off the French retreat, if they were driven from Rome ; but the French soon forced them to re-embark, the grand duke taking no part in the matter. France, however, having resumed her war with Austria, wished no Austrian princes in Italy, and a declaration of war against Tuscany, as well as Germany, was issued by the Councils, March 14.. The grand duke yielded without the least resistance. Pope Pius VI., who had withdrawn to the Carthusian convent near Florence, was taken prisoner to France. His great age and illness made this measure truly inhuman. He was held successively at Briantjon, Grenoble, and Valenza, where he died, August 29, 1799, and the Directory's severity towards him aided a reaction in favor of Catholicism. While Italy was revolutionized, war was opened on the Rhine. February 20, 1799, the Directory, having received no answer to the explanation demanded from Austria in regard to the entry of Rus sian troops, ordered the French generals to advance. The plan of the campaign was a mere exaggeration of the one which failed in 1796, committing a double error by scattering the troops and by bringing the chief action to bear on the Alps, instead of the valley of the Danube, especially as the French army was greatly reduced in numbers and ill supplied. Bernadotte's army only existed on paper, and an evil omen occurred in Italy, in the shape of Jourdan's resig nation, occasioned by a dispute with the Directory in regard to the administration of the Cisalpine republic. The Directory, wishing to put an end to staff exactions, attempted to take administrative and financial powers from the generals occupying foreign countries, which they resisted, some through interest and others, who were honest, from wounded pride. Joubert was a great loss. Bernadotte, discontented with the state of affairs in Italy, refused to take his place, and the aged Schemer, quite incapable of such a task, succeeded him. Jourdan crossed the Rhine, March 1, and went beyond the Black Mountains. Massena entered the Grisons, March 6, and drove out the Austrians. March 12, hostilities being in full blast, the 94 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. Councils declared war against Austria. Jourdan could not forestall the Austrians on the Lech. Their leader, Archduke Charles, had crossed that river, March 4, with superior forces, opposed two divis ions to Massena, and marched against Jourdan. The latter, after a series of bloody combats, lost the battle of S/tockach, and fell back on the Black Mountains, his communication with Massena being cut off. He fell ill, and his army withdrew to the Rhine. Bernadotte, whose army was still in process of formation, was unable to aid him. The plans of an offensive campaign had thus utterly failed, and it was fortunate that the stupid instructions of the Austrian gov ernment prevented Archduke Charles from pushing his success. Scherer did not move until three weeks after Jourdan, and before the campaign opened on the Adige, France had lost outside and be yond Italy those maritime possessions which Bonaparte prized above Italy itself, — Corfu and the Ionian Isles. The French army in Italy was large, but so scattered as to be of little avail. Scherer crossed the Adige, and won one victory over General Kray, March 26, but could not take Verona, being instead driven back to Magnano ; he then recrossed the river, and, instead of defending the Mincio, with drew to the Oglio. The first Russian corps of twenty thousand men now joined the Austrians under General Suwaroff. Schemer was driven from the Oglio to the Adda, and the major part of the French siege artillery fell into the enemy's hands. Schdrer, dis couraged and unpopular, yielded his command for a time to Moreau, who had entered the army as a simple general of division. The Directory felt that it must forget its grievances against Moreau, and confirmed him in the office, which it should have given him after the dismissal of Joubert and the refusal of Bernadotte. But twenty-eight thousand men remained to Moreau, scarcely half the enemy's number, and he could not contend against such odds. He failed to hold the line of the Adda, lost the battle of Cassano, evacuated Lombardy, and retired to the angle formed by the Tanaro and the right bank of the Po, between Alexandria and Valenza, thus protecting his rear by the Apennines, and covering the road to Genoa, which insured his communication with France, 1793.] REVERSES IN GERMANY AND ITALY. 95 and his retreat in case of need (end of April to the first of May). The Milanese was lost and Piedmont invaded. The French reverses in Germany and Italy caused great initation at home, and a tragic event on the left shore of the Rhine increased public agitation. War having been declared between France and Austria alone, and not with the German Empire, the Rastadt Con gress was not officially dissolved in April, though most of the German representatives left with the Austrians. The French am bassadors remained in the hope of holding Germany to her neutral ity, but at last decided to leave Rastadt on the evening of April 28. The Austrian troops had advanced to the suburbs of the town since Jourdan's retreat. A colonel of hussars commanding the Austrian outposts promised the French envoys safe passage, but their car riages were stopped in a forest near the city by a detachment of Hungarian hussars, who tore the three unfortunate plenipotentiaries from the embrace of their wives and children and cut them to pieces. Two of them, Bonnier and Roberjot, were left dead on the field. The third, Jean Debry, was only wounded ; he dragged him self under the trees and escaped under cover of darkness. The hussars pillaged the carriages and carried off the papers of the em bassy, which were the chief end of this infamous trap. The Aus trian government desired to learn France's secret relations with the German states. The Prussian minister and those members of the Congress still remaining at Rastadt expressed the most lively indignation. The Austrian commandant pretended to know nothing of the crime, and promised to punish it, but did not keep his word, and the Viennese cabinet remained silent. The Directory denounced this dastardly attack to the Councils, who responded with cries for vengeance, and ordered funeral ser vices to be held throughout France and the armies. In the pres ence of such a monstrous breach of the rights of humanity, all France should have risen in indignation, but party spirit had reached such a height that the reactionists accused the Directory of having slain the envoys by feigned hussars, as they had accused it 96 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. before of poisoning General Hoche. The Jacobins and independent republicans could not pardon the Directory's arbitrary measures in regard to the elections of the year VI. The military leaders op posed it for taking away the administrative powers which they had abused, and the stockholders were enraged, because their consols were paid them in bonds instead of money, as had been promised. All turned against the Directory, and reproached it for extending the scene of war, and exiling their best general and troops, as if the Directors had planned the expedition to Egypt. The elections of the year VII. had just begun when the news of the Rastadt assassination arrived. The reactionists this time carried the day, the Directory not daring to interfere, and the new third were installed May 19 ; Jean Debry, the survivor of the Rastadt ambus cade, being made president of the Five Hundred. Rewbell drew the lot expelling him from the Directory, and was replaced by Sidyes, whose election was doomed to cost the patriots dear. The Five Hundred required a report on the situation of the Republic from the Directory, and as no report appeared, they declared them selves in permanent session until an answer was received (June 16). The next day the message was presented. It was very gloomy, denouncing the attempts of the royalists to renew Chouannerie and murder in the South. The message met an unfriendly reception. The majority in the Five Hundred were led away by passion, and wrought upon by the intrigues of Sieyes and Barras. They had just annulled, for a slight irregularity, the election of the last-nominated Director, Treilhard, for whom they had substituted Gohier, also a republican, but far less able. A violent report was offered against the Directory's message, expressing ardent revolutionary sentiments, but protesting for form's sake against the rule of 1793, and concluding by claiming the dismissal of the triumvirs. The triumvirs of September 4 had been Barras, Rewbell, and La ReVeillere ; now they were La Rdveillere, Merlin de Douai, and Treilhard, who had just been ex cluded. Boulay de la Meurthe, who denounced the first two with extreme virulence, soon showed that he was not actuated by love 1799.] REVERSES IN GERMANY AND ITALY. 97 of liberty, but by a blind desire to maintain Banas, which was shared by many sincere republicans. Merlin and La Reveillere re signed, the latter thus expiating his share in the September riots, but his fall only increased the perils of the Republic. The vacant places were filled by General Moulins, a devoted patriot, though too unknown to influence the armies, and by Roger-Ducos, a weak man who soon became Sidyes' tool. The government was thus left at the mercy of Barras and Sieyes, the latter of whom was an enemy to the Constitution which he was trusted to execute, and the former cared neither for constitutions nor moral principles. Sieyes at this moment held the strangest ideas. He had never believed in true liberty ; he no longer believed in the Republic ; but, still desiring civil liberty, he rejected Louis XVIIL, who typified to him the Ancient Regime, and dreamed of a monarchy with a foreign prince, the Archduke Charles or the Duke of Brunswick, which shows the hollowness and emptiness of his boasted profundity. Barras through corruption, as Sieyes through system, was also quite ready to betray the Republic, if he found it to his interest to do so ; he was in secret treaty with Louis XVIIL, while holding himself free to choose between royalty and the Jacobins. Fortunately the two could not agree, distrusted each other, and the new Legislative Body did not allow itself to be led by the Directory, like the preceding one. The Councils soon restored liberty of the press, assemblage, and free elections. On June 27, they received a message from the Direc tory on the danger of the country, to which they responded by a law summoning the conscripts of the five classes to rally round the flag, and another, authorizing a forced loan of one, hundred millions from the well-to-do classes. They also voted an address to the people, protesting against a return of the Reign of Terror, and call ing on them to defend their country. Sidyes and Barras, whatever were their inclinations, were forced to swim with the tide. Offices were given to patriots, and Bernadotte was made minister of war, — an excellent choice. Meantime military events daily excited public alarm. After 98 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. Jourdan's retreat, Massena, who had been left in Switzerland, con cluded that it was by maintaining himself in these mountains that he must prevent the Austrians from invading Alsace; that they would not dare to advance and thus allow the French to out flank their left wing. Archduke Charles did in fact attack him there. He defended himself with skill and courage, though far in ferior in numbers. Attacked near Zurich, early in June, by superior forces, he held the field victoriously, but was forced through numer ical weakness to fall back a little, lest he should be surrounded, to the heights of Albis, where he maintained his position. Meanwhile General Lecourbe, with Massena' s right wing, drove the Austrians beyond the mountains of Uri, and forced them from the Grisons, waging a series of heroic combats in the wildest part of the Alps, and afterwards boldly appearing on the Italian side to harass the great Austro-Russian army. Suwaroff, howeyer, forced back Lecourbe's little corps with his right wing, and marched with the main body of his army on Turin, entering the town May 27. The French garrison were too few to defend anything but the citadel, and vast stores of artillery, arms, and ammunition fell into the enemy's power. Moreau, having garrisoned Mantua, Peschiera, the castle of Milan, etc., had but twenty thousand men left, and, Piedmontese revolts coming to the aid of an enemy three or four times as strong, he was forced to abandon his position between Alexandria and Valenza, and fall back on the Apennines until the return of the army from Naples, which the Directory had finally despatched to his aid, though parts of it were left to guard Roman and Neapolitan strongholds. Championnet had been removed from command, and replaced by another meritorious chieftain, General Macdonald. Macdonald left Naples, May 7, with twenty-eight thousand men. The departure of the French army brought fearful calamities upon Naples and her provinces, already a prey to fierce civil war; the Neapolitan court, which had taken refuge in Sicily, incited and led by Cardinal Ruffo, — better fitted for a robber captain than a prince of the church, — roused the peasants to rebellion. A few thousand patriots struggled desperately against him, and he finally proposed 1799.] REVERSES IN GERMANY AND ITALY. 99 to capitulate ; but Admiral Nelson, arriving just then, declared the capitulation null and void in the king's name, and Ferdinand and Caroline returned in hot haste to glut themselves with vengeance. The great English sailor, blinded by his passion for the depraved Lady Hamilton, the queen's favorite, forever dishonored himself by becoming the instrument of the most hideous reaction. Naples, under Caroline of Austria and the still worse Emma Hamilton, witnessed scenes that recalled the days of Nero and Caligula. Nel son's flagship, surrounded by rotten hulks in which the victims were crowded until they could be hung from the yards, will go down to posterity with the scuttled boats of Carrier. Among the victims was the venerable Neapolitan Admiral Caracciolo, whom Nelson was base enough to hang face to face with the English flag, his mistress, Lady Hamilton, presiding at the horrible scene. The small French garrisons left in Naples and Rome, which surrendered one after the other, had afforded no help to the Italian patriots, whereas they might have done good service in Macdonald's army. Macdonald and Moreau arranged a double attack to regain the Po, and meet on the right bank of that river, which they managed successfully. Macdonald crossed the Apennines, defeated an Aus trian division at Modena, and was rejoined at Parma by a detach ment from Moreau's army. But Suwaroff gathered his forces and moved rapidly between the two armies before Moreau could descend from the mountains, and attacked Macdonald with forty-five or fifty thousand men to his thirty thousand ; a terrible three days' battle taking place near Piacenza on the shores of the Trebbia, June 17 - 19. A body of Polish refugees aided the French against the Russians and Austrians. Macdonald held his position, but, seeing that the enemy was reinforced, and hearing nothing from Moreau, he thought best to beat a retreat on the third night. The enemy carried the French wounded to Piacenza, but did not follow Mac donald. Suwaroff turned against Moreau, who descended the moun tains at Gavi and Novi with thirteen or fourteen thousand men, and conquered the Austrians, June 20, near Tortona. The news of Macdonald's check and the surrender of the Turin citadel arrested 100 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. his march; he fell hack on the Apennines, and was rejoined at Genoa by Macdonald. It was fortunate for the French that the active and ardent Suwaroff had not the full disposal of the enemy's forces, else this junction would never have been accomplished ; but the " Aulic Council," the Emperor Francis' council of war, had fettered his movements, as they did those of the Archduke Charles, and forbade him to assume the offensive at Genoa or in the Apennines, until he had taken Mantua and all the other posts to the north. The French army in Italy was not destroyed, but of the whole Italian peninsula France retained only Genoa and a few citadels north of the Apennines, which yielded one after the other. This succession of reverses made the Council of Five Hundred and the republican party desperate. The Jacobins boldly resumed their name, and reopened their club in the riding^school, the hall of the three great assemblies, the Constituent, the Legislative, and the Convention, as well as of the Five Hundred, who afterwards moved to the Bourbon palace. The Jacobins were joined by many who were strangers to the excesses of 1793. Their resurrection roused movements in an opposite direction, a riot breaking out against them July 12. The Directory interposed to prevent bloodshed, and the Legislative Body passed a severe law for the repression of the robberies and murders following in the wake of the Chouans. Stage and mail coaches were stopped, public funds stolen, and re publican magistrates and purchasers of national property slain, in the West and South, the Chouans being joined by young nobles. The "hostage law" of July 12 made the relations and friends of emigrants or ci-devant nobles known to belong to Chouan bands responsible for their misdeeds, and local authorities were authorized, if necessary, to put them under police inspection. If any civil or military officer or purchaser of public property were assassinated, four hostages were to be transported to Guiana, and the hostages were to furnish money to pay spies and indemnity to the pur chasers of public goods. The excess of the remedy proved the ex tent of the evil. This state of affairs produced many and serious divisions in the Directory and Councils. Talleyrand, suspected and 1799.] GENERAL JOUBERT. 101 attacked by zealous patriots, resigned, and was replaced in the min istry of foreign affairs by a distinguished diplomat named Rein- hardt. Two men of the epoch of the Reign of Terror, diametrically opposite in character and views, also entered the ministry, — Robert Lindet in the treasury department, and Fouche in the police ; the one being a firm republican, and the other quite ready to sell the Republic. Sieyes now began to declare himself against the repub licans, inducing the Council of Ancients to close their hall to the Jacobins, and to claim the execution of the articles in the Consti tution against seditious associations. The Directory replied by a report against the Jacobins, drawn up by Fouche\ the new minister of police. Riots occurred at this time at Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Amiens. The Directory closed the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, whither the Jacobins had gone, but it was easier to restrain them in large cities than to destroy Chouannerie, the hostage law not attaining its end, and the bands increasing instead of diminishing. Whole departments were broken up, recruiting paralyzed, and a royalist revolt occurred in July on the Upper Garonne under the leadership of returned emigrants, who were easily put down. When the majority in the Directory (La Rdveillere, Merlin de Douai, and Treilhard) were overthrown, they were on the point of adopting a bold plan suggested by Merlin, namely, to cease all military operations except in Italy; to garrison strongly Holland and the Rhine, where the coalition would probably send troops ; and to concentrate all the offensive forces in Italy, in order to attract the coalition thither and strike a decisive blow. This plan fell with those Directors who had accepted it, and other combinations were made which only complicated matters. Sieyes, seeing that his monarchical dreams were vain, but unwilling to submit to the liberal republic of the year III., now hoped to change the Constitu tion in favor of the executive power by a coup d'etat aided by some general who would consent to be the arm while he should be the head. He thought of Joubert, the most brilliant and popular of young French generals, who was wavering between Sieyes and those republicans who wished not to destroy the Constitution, but to 102 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. modify it by substituting a single leader for the five Directors. Both parties seeking to win him to their side concurred in offering him a fine position, and recalled him to the command of the army of Italy. It was unfortunate that he quitted it a few months before ; it was doubly unfortunate that he returned, for it was in excellent hands, and the expectation of this change paralyzed Moreau for a month, which Joubert wasted in his nuptials iii France. Shortly before his nomination as general-in-chief, Joubert had presented a report to the Directory on the military and political condition of France, calling for strong measures and insisting that good-will must exist between the Directory and Councils if they desired to save their country from anarchy, royalty, and foreign invasion. His language was worthy of Hoche, and fully clears him of a shadow of complicity with Sieyes. In military matters he suggested that union of Macdonald and Moreau which occurred a few days later. He demanded that an army should be formed in the Upper Alps to sustain the Italian army, that Massena should assume the offensive, and that the army of the Rhine should be reorganized and the strongholds of Holland well guarded (July 5, 1799). The chief point in Italy was to resume the offensive, while the greater part of the Austro-Russian forces were occupied in besieg ing Mantua ; but unfortunately, Joubert, delayed by his marriage, did not reach his headquarters until August 2. Alexandria had just capitulated, and three days later, news was brought of Man tua's surrender, which put a new face on matters. Famine drove the French from the sterile mountains to the rich plains of Pied mont, the English intercepting all supplies sent by sea. Joubert still tried to doubt the loss of Mantua, and hoped that at least the besieging corps would not join Suwaroff in time. He made a descent from the Apennines on Novi with forty thousand men. Scarcely had he effected this movement, when he saw before him, by the side of the Suwaroff's Russians, the Austrian corps of Kray, that had taken Mantua. There were nearly seventy thousand troops of the line, with an artillery much more numerous than that of the 1799.] BATTLE OF NOVI. 103 French, and twelve thousand cavalry against two thousand. Jou bert determined to return to the Apennines, and await the army of the Alps, which was forming under Championnet. He did not take advantage of the single night that was left him in which to effect his retreat, and was attacked next morning (August 15). Suwaroff had not the skill for the strategic combinations of Hoche and Bona parte, but he had their decision and celerity. The French were firmly established on the heights of Monte Rotondo to the south of Novi. Kray'3 Austrian corps, which had besieged Mantua, attacked their left wing, and began to scale the heights. Joubert, seeing his men falter, rallied them and charged at their head. A ball pierced his heart, and with a cry of " Forward, march ! " he fell dead. The troops were shaken for a moment, but Moreau, who had luckily remained as Joubert's friend and adviser, took the command, and the men fought with fury to revenge their beloved general. Kray's Austrians were repulsed three times, and the Russians driven back with great losses. The battle began at five in the morning ; until far into the afternoon the French had the advantage, but towards five in the evening Suwaroff renewed his attack, and a fresh division of Austrians managed to turn the French left. Moreau ordered a retreat, and his left wing, turned and cut to pieces by the Austrians, yielded. The battle cost France between eight and ten thousand men. Moreau rallied his troops in the Apennines, but Suwaroff did not pursue him. He was prevented less by his losses, which were even greater than those of the French, than by the news he received from the Alps, which led him to fear a French descent from Switzerland and Dauphine\ The loss of the battle of Novi and Joubert's death made a pro found impression at Paris. One piece of bad news followed another. An English army corps was landed in Holland, August 27, and the fleet which brought them over crossed the Texel Channel, which gave access to the Zuyder-Zee. The Dutch fleet, at the Prince of Orange's instigation, rebelled against its leaders, and went over to the English. General Brune, the commander of the French and 104 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. Dutch forces, attacked the English in camp on the Helder, and was repulsed (September 8). A few days later, a second English divis ion and a Russian corps landed. The enemy then numbered more than forty thousand, under the Duke of York, who wished to avenge his Hondschoote defeat. Public danger redoubling the violence of the press, the Directory that is, Sidyes and Barras, arrested, under pretext of conspiracy, the editors and publishers of eleven patriotic papers, and revived the law of September 5, 1797, against reactionary journalists. This persecution of the press brought on lively debates in the Council ol Five Hundred. General Jourdan accused the Directory, old and new, of being the cause of all misfortunes, declaring that Switzer land and Italy had been alienated and roused to revolt by disloyal and greedy occupation, and proposing that the country should be declared in danger, and a committee of public safety formed (Sep tember 13). But the plan was rejected, though Jourdan's charges against the Directory were true, at least in regard to the real powers, Sieyes and Barras, who took the ministry of war from Bernadotte because he would have nothing to do with their plots. While the Republic was disturbed by these fruitless discussions and intrigues, the face of affairs changed abroad. A wonderful stroke of good luck occurred in Holland, the government and Dutch democrats aiding the French to the best of their ability, and canying the people with them. Amsterdam and other cities were strongly guarded, and the Dutch troops rivalled the French in ardor. The Duke of York at the head of the Anglo-Russian army attacked General Brune in his positions near Alkmaar, but, despite his numerical superiority, was repulsed with great loss, Hermann, the leader of a Russian division, being captured (September 19). The duke renewed his attack, October 2-6, and after a series of bloody battles the Anglo-Russians were forced to beat a retreat to their first camp at Zyp, near the Helder. The Duke of York was com pelled by famine and disease, which were ravaging his men, to capitulate, and signed an agreement with Brune that the Anglo- Russians should leave Holland, and that England should also sur- 1799.] FRENCH SUCCESS IN SWITZERLAND. 105 render eight thousand French and Dutch prisoners without ex change (October 18). Other glorious news came from Switzerland, where military matters grew daily more closely linked with those in Italy. Suwaroff had taken no advantage of his victory at Novi, but foolishly allowed himself to be led away by a few diversions of the little army of the Alps and Massdna's extreme right. He was, moreover, on very bad terms with the Viennese cabinet and Austrian generals. His master the Czar Paul and he himself entered upon the war from motives of disinterested fanaticism, detesting French republicans as infidels, while Austria cared noth ing for religion, and only wished to rule over Italy. By encour aging ideas of Italian independence, Suwaroff succeeded in winning a welcome at Milan and Turin, and turning the regular Lombard troops against the French ; but his popularity was of short duration, and the disorder soon grew even greater than before. Meanwhile the Viennese government ordered Suwaroff to take his army to Switzerland, where the Austrians were so unsuccessful. Moreau had just descended the Apennines to rescue Tortona, the last French town to the north of the mountains, and the French vanguard reappeared at Novi three weeks after the battle (Sep tember 8). Suwaroff delayed his departure for Switzerland three days, drove them back to the mountains, and Tortona yielded ; but his delay entailed more important results than would have ensued from the deliverance of Tortona. Massdna, having been unable to sustain himself on Lake Con stance and the Upper Rhine, had fallen back on the Linth, Lake Zurich, and the Limmat, and after the battle which forced him from Zurich, had taken up a position near by on the heights of Albis, still protected by the lake and two rivers. Not only were Arch duke Charles's efforts to carry these points fruitless, but Massdna despatched his right wing into the Upper Alps under the brave Lecourbe, who, towards the middle of August, drove the Austrians from the lesser cantons, recaptured Mount St. Gothard and the defiles of the Upper Ticino leading into Italy. The archduke had a chance to repair this check and to crush Massena, for a second army of thirty 106 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. IV. thousand Russians under Korsakoff came to the aid of the Aus trians, and entered Switzerland. But instead of concentrating these forces against Massena, he received orders from the Viennese cabinet to leave only twenty-five thousand men with Korsakoff, and to march into Suabia with thirty-six thousand, to take command of the Austrian army of the Lower Rhine, and co-operate with the Anglo-Russian army in recapturing Holland and Belgium. He accordingly started the last of August, supposing that Suwaroff would take his place in Switzerland; but the latter, instead of going round by the Splugen Pass, crossed Mount St. Gothard, where Lecourbe was lying in wait for him. Massdna, warned of his advance and the march of a body of Bavarians and emigrants to join Korsakoff, crossed the Limmat by night (September 24), drove Korsakoff back to Zurich, and after two days' desperate struggle chased him to the Rhine, captured his baggage and all his artillery. Meantime, at the other end of the lake, a French division, led by General Soult, crossed the Linth and routed the Austro-Russian left wing. Suwaroff, delayed three days at Novi by Moreau's attack, and four days by the necessity of collecting means /of transportation, did not begin operations in the mountains until September 19. He sent an advance guard of six thousand Russians on the right into the gorges leading back to St. Gothard, and himself scaled that mountain with twelve thousand men. Meanwhile six or seven thousand Austrians threatened Lecourbe, who had only nine or ten thousand men in all, but who adroitly escaped to the Devil's Bridge, which he broke down. A Russian column that attempted to cross was shot or precipitated into the rushing torrent of the Reuss, two hundred feet below. The main body succeeded in crossing higher up. Lecourbe retired in good order on the left bank to the Lake of the Four Cantons. Suwaroff, leaving him on his left, set out to rejoin the Austro-Russian army in Switzer land, but was harassed in the rear by Lecourbe, and found the French instead of the Austrians awaiting him near Schwitz, the latter corps having, as we have said, been routed by Soult. Mas- 1799.] MASSENA'S TRIUMPH IN SWITZERLAND. 107 sdna came up to aid Lecourbe, and the Russian army turned towards the Linth. The advance guard was stopped at Nofels by a French and Swiss corps under General Molitor, and the rear guard was attacked by Massdna, but the latter was repulsed by the Russian general Rosenberg, whose desperate resistance saved the remnant of the Russian army. Suwaroff succeeded in gaining the valley of the Upper Rhine at Coire and Ilanz (October 5-10) with a few thousand wounded and exhausted men. During his retreat Mas- sdna's left wing drove Korsakoff from Constance and the other positions held by the Austro-Russians on the Swiss side of the Rhine, leaving Switzerland entirely free. The French troops had behaved admirably, regaining victory as in 1794 and 1796, in spite of the absence of their greatest gen eral and the flower of the army in Egypt. But alas, discord and disorder continued ! Affairs at home were not as prosperous as those abroad. The only really able man in the government, Sieyes, thought solely how to destroy the Constitution confided to his care. The Five Hundred suspected him of wishing to compound with the coalition at the price of a change in the institutions, and shortly before the Dutch and Swiss victories, they had voted, without designating him openly, a declaration against any one who should attempt to modify the Constitution or attack the integrity of French territory. This confusion and the lack of a great leader revived the popular memory of the brilliant young general who had carried off such laurels, and people began to regret Bona parte and to long for his return. Little was known of him and his army. His letters had long been intercepted by the English navy in the Mediterranean, and little faith was put in the news from Egypt as given in the English newspapers. On the 5th of October a despatch from Bonaparte, eluding the enemy, reached the Directory and Councils; it contained a full account of his exploits in Egypt and Syria, adroitly planned to act on public imagination, and was productive of great effect. October 15, Paris was informed that Bonaparte had landed shortly before in Provence, and all France waited in breathless expectation. 108 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. Y. CHAPTER V. THE DIRECTORY {end). — WAR IN EGYPT. — BONAPARTE'S RETURN. — BRUMAIRE 18. Floreal 30, Tear VII., to Brumaire 19, Tear VIII.— May 19, 1798, to November 10, 1799. WE must now recount Bonaparte's extraordinary adventures in Egypt before relating the events which followed his return. We have mentioned the various projects concerning Egypt from the time of Louis XIV. to the Directory. This country, however, was not Bonaparte's first thought on setting out upon his distant expedition. After capturing the Ionian Islands and other Venetian settlements in Albania, Epirus, and Cerigo (the ancient Cythera), south of the Morea (the ancient Peloponnesus), he at first schemed against Greece and Constantinople. He stopped at Egypt, ' which gave him a double opening, as he thought that from this point he could attack the English in India or turn against Constantinople through Syria, either taking the Turks as allies against Russia, and in case of need, Austria, or expelling them by a grand uprising of Oriental Christians, and proceed thence to Europe. Hoping to gain the Turks, he had agreed with Talley rand that the latter should go as ambassador to Constantinople to anange matters with the Sultan. The project was a strange one. Bonaparte desired the Turkish alliance, and began by in vading a country which recognized, if not the authority, at least the supremacy of the Sultan, and he dreamed that the whole East would rise at his voice as at Mahomet's command. For a moment he wavered, and doubted whether he should not give up the dream for the reality, the East for France, but he saw that his day had not dawned at home. For him to be master in France it was PALACE OF THE GRAND MASTER. MALTA. 1798.] WAR IN EGYPT. 109 necessary that the Directory should suffer reverses in his absence, and that his return should restore victory to his country's banners. He sailed from Toulon, May 19, 1798, with the main body of the Eastern army, and was rejoined before Malta by troops from Corsica and Civita Vecchia, which swelled his forces to thirty-five thousand soldiers and ten thousand sailors. He had been preparing for a year to occupy Malta, a central position in the Mediterranean, which would insure communication between France and Egypt. This island had belonged since the sixteenth century to the military order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who had taken the name of Knights of Malta. This order, formerly instituted to protect the Eastern Christians from Mussulmen, and which had failed to embrace the opportunity to continue its influence by attacking the Algerine pirates, had fallen into decay. Neverthe less, France had no right over it save the right of the strongest, but England and Russia undoubtedly had the same views in regard to it, and the order of St. John must have disappeared in any case. It was a dangerous undertaking, for a regular siege would have given the English time to collect their naval forces and attack the French convoy. It was necessary to carry Valetta, the capital, by surprise, and the place was very strong, though in bad repair. Bonaparte demanded entry to the harbor for his fleet. The grand master Hompesch refused, alleging the neutrality of the order. The French army, however, landed, and after a feint of resistance, the grand master ceded all the rights of the order over Malta and the surrounding islands, in return for a large pen sion for himself and a petty allowance for such of his knights as were of French birth. On surveying the fortifications of Valetta, the general of engineers, Caffarelli, exclaimed, " It is very lucky that we had some one in the place to open the gates for us ! " Bonaparte garrisoned the town, and again set sail, June 19. The few days spent at Malta exposed his men to great danger, for Nelson was in pursuit with reinforcements, and reached Naples just as he left the place. He escaped the same peril a second time, for Nelson reached Alexandria before him, and, not finding the 110 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. French fleet there, concluded that it had turned back upon Sicily and Naples, and repaired in that direction. Scarcely had he gone, when the French squadron hove in sight of Alexandria, July 1. The day before Bonaparte had published a proclamation which finally revealed to the army the aim of the expedition, requiring religious tolerance and forbidding pillage or outrage on pain of death. His ruling thought at that time was to gain the Mussulman population at any cost. The French troops landed in haste, thinking the English near at hand. The next day Bonaparte attacked Alexandria in person, forcing the gates and finally taking the town. He repaired the fortifications, making it his depot, and then prepared to march on Cairo. Egypt had for some centuries been ruled by the Mame lukes, a militia that was constantly recruited by slaves bought from the valiant tribes of the Caucasus, and led by eighty chiefs called beys. They were conquered in the sixteenth century by Sultan Selim, and forced to yield to the Ottoman Empire, but since the decline of that empire, in the eighteenth century, the Mamelukes had rebelled and only recognized the Sultan as a sort of honorary suzerain. The Turkish pacha who represented him at Cairo had no authority over them. Bonaparte wrote to the latter that his attack was not against the Koran or the Sultan, but simply against the rebellious beys, and addressed an appeal to the Egyptians, promising to protect their religion and reminding them that it was he who pulled down the Pope who urged war on Mohammedism. The French army set out, July 6, taking the shortest road, across the desert. When the troops found themselves amid burning sands without shade or water, they began to murmur ; nevertheless they went on, and on the fifth day reached the Nile. A flotilla loaded with supplies joined them at Ramanieh and ascended the river with them. After repulsing the Mamelukes at Chebreiss, they went on their way, and the 31st of July saw the mosques of Cairo to their left, across the river. On the right towered the Pyramids, the tombs of ancient Egyptian kings. Crowds of armed peasants {fellahs) and a small body of Turkish infantry occupied 1798.] WAR IN EGYPT. Ill the intrenched village of Embabeh, on the banks of the Nile, and bands of Bedouins swarmed at the foot of the Pyramids. Between the Bedouins and the infantry was displayed on the plain the true and only force of the enemy, the splendid Mameluke cavalry, eight or ten thousand strong, magnificently dressed, armed, and mounted on the finest horses in the world. Bonaparte had no cavalry, intending to mount his men at the enemy's expense. Forming his infantry into five moving squares, with the artillery at the corners, he galloped along the ranks, and, turning toward the Pyramids, cried to his men : " Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you ! " He then ordered the army to make an oblique movement to the right to escape the cannon of Embabeh and to turn the Mamelukes ; but Murad Bey, the Mameluke leader, saw through the manoeuvre and hurled his cavalry against the French squares on the right. The first square under Desaix calmly awaited the whirlwind of men and horses, and received them with a fire of shot and shell. They next fell upon the second and third squares, which received them in like manner. They disbanded, and left the field strewn with dead and dying men and horses. The French squares on the left then forced the village of Embabeh, throwing into the Nile or scattering the mob who defended it. The Bedouins vanished in the desert, and Murad Bey retired to Upper Egypt with the wrecks of the Mamelukes. The French won immense stores of plunder, precious arms, Indian shawls, and purses of gold. As Bonaparte said, they were reconciled to Egypt. Cairo was the property of France. This great city of three hun dred thousand souls received the French without resistance. Napo leon treatec1 the people with much consideration, organizing the chief men into a sort of municipal government called "divan." These divans were to be formed in the other provinces as they were occupied, and were to send delegates to the central one at Cairo, so that the country would be ruled by her own people under French direction and subject to the nominal sway of the Sultan. Bonaparte presided at the festival of the Nile, August 18, on the occasion of the annual inundation which fertilizes Egypt. He did 112 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. more, — he affected to be a true Mussulman, taking his place in the mosque with the Arab sheiks at the celebration of Mahomet's birthday. Amidst these triumphal pomps he received bad tidings. The French fleet had been utterly destroyed at Aboukir by Admiral Nelson, after brave resistance from Admiral Brueys. Nelson was wounded, and Brueys was shot dead on his flag-ship, the Orient, Which was set on fire and blown up with all hands on board. Villeneuve, the next in command, escaped with two frigates and two ships, one of which, the Generous, afterwards captured at Candia one of Nelson's ships that was carrying the news of victory and the trophies of Aboukir to England. The defeat at Aboukir was the greatest reverse that France had sustained since the early days of the revolutionary war. It gave the English the same supremacy by sea which France possessed on land, and delivered up to them the Mediterranean. The army of the East had no longer a fleet to second its victories, or insure its retreat in case of misfortune. The first effect on the army was terri-^ ble, but Bonaparte and Kleber soon restored the sinking courage of their troops, persuading them that they could easily obtain such a hold on Egypt as to defy all the efforts of England. Bonaparte, indeed, worked desperately for this end, driving back to Syria a body of Mamelukes who had tried to maintain themselves in Lower Egypt, and sending General Desaix to chase Murad Bey from Upper Egypt. He installed in a great palace at Cairo the commission of scholars and artists that the Directory had joined to the expedition, associating the ablest of his leaders with them, and giving it the imposing name of the Institute of Egypt. Its first president was Monge, who had turned his science to such account in his country's defence in 1793, and their investigations of natural science and his torical monuments were greatly favored by the expedition of Desaix, with a handful of soldiers, who repeated at Sediman the victory of the Pyramids, October 7, 1798. Murad Bey, and his few remain ing Mamelukes were mowed down by the French balls and bayonets. Desaix ascended the Nile as far as the magnificent ruins of Thebes 1798.] WAR IN EGYPT. 113 and the Cataracts, French rule extending two hundred leagues south of Alexandria. Desaix showed the same mercy and justice to the inhabitants of the banks of the Nile as to the dwellers on the Rhine, and won the name of the " Just Sultan." Bonaparte would have been glad for his army to turn Mussulmen, to assist in the fusion of conquerors and conquered. One of his generals, Menou, who had played an ignoble part in the September riots, set the ex ample, and, at Bonaparte's instigation, formally embraced the Moham medan faith ; but the men only mocked at him. All Bonaparte's demonstrations of respect for Mahomet did not prevent the Mussul men from hating the French " infidels." After three months of apparent submission, a bloody revolt broke out at Cairo that lasted for three days (October 21 - 23). When Bonaparte found kindness of no avail, he had recourse to terror. He decapitated all the insurgents taken in arms, and displayed their heads in the market place of Cairo. Bonaparte's hope of gaining the Orient by playing the part of Mahomet's successor began to fade, and with it his dream of Turkish alliance. The Pacha of Cairo, instead of answering his advances, fled with the Mamelukes, and the Pacha of Acre, who ruled Syria, received his proposals no better. He made a last effort with the Sultan. Hearing nothing from Europe, he despatched an agent to Constantinople, where he hoped to be seconded by Talleyrand (mid dle of December, 1798). Talleyrand, however, was not there. That astute politician had soon recovered from his momentary enthusiasm, and, breaking his promise to Bonaparte, abstained from setting out on the dangerous mission. Had Brueys defeated Nelson at Aboukir, the Sultan might have acceded ; but after the naval defeat he yielded, as was inevitable, to the double pressure of England and Russia, and declared war with France, September 4. Bonaparte, being warned that Turkish armies were forming in Syria and the island of Rhodes to attack Egypt by land and sea, determined to forestall them by invading Syria, whence he might march through Persia to India, or rouse the Christians to attack Constantinople by way of Asia Minor, both of which plans were 114 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. senseless and impracticable ; but the invasion of Syria might ensue and assure, at least for a time, French power in Egypt. He strengthened his infantry by battalions of the sailors who escaped the Aboukir disaster, and formed a body of dromedaries, which ani mals could go without water or vegetable food for a space of time impossible to the best horses. Each of them was mounted by two soldiers, with provisions for several days, and this novel squadron pursued the Bedouins far into the desert. Bonaparte set out early in February, 1799, with thirteen thousand men, and crossed the small desert which divides the delta of the Nile from Syria. He defeated a hostile corps and recaptured Fort El-Arisch, held by the Turkish vanguard on the Egyptian frontier. He next entered the ancient country of the Hebrews, Philistines, and Phoenicians, — that land of Canaan renowned in Biblical his tory, — and took Jaffa — formerly Joppa, the oldest city in Phoenicia — by storm, March 7. The carnage was fearful, the French being enraged by the Turkish murder of a French^parliamentarian. The massacre of Jaffa will go down in history with the Lyons mitrail- lades and Nantes drownings. March 17, the French army arrived at St. Jean d'Acre, the ancient Ptolemais, so long besieged by Philip Augustus, Saladin, and Cceur de Lion in the time of the Crusades, and now the chief city of mari time Syria and the residence of Ahmed Pacha, surnamed Djezzar, or " the butcher," who had concentrated his forces there, supported by the English commodore, Sydney Smith, the incendiary of the ships at Toulon. Smith had but recently escaped from the prison of the Temple, aided and joined by a French emigrant and fellow-student of Bonaparte, Phelippeaux by name, who directed the fortifications and defence of the town. Several assaults were made in vain. The city, being built on a peninsula, could only be approached from one point, and the enemy, master of the sea, received constant supplies. The Christians were disgusted by Bonaparte's Mohammedan demon strations, but his policy won him the warlike Druses from the Syrian mountains, who were neither Christian nor Mussulman. They sent him provisions, and warned him that an army of thirty 1799.] WAR IN EGYPT. 115 thousand Turks and Arabs was forming under the Pacha of Damas cus to succor Acre. Bonaparte forestalled the enemy by sending Kleber to meet them, and an engagement followed at Nazareth. K14ber, with his little division, subsequently sustained the shock of the whole Mohammedan army. Towards noon Bonaparte came to his aid, attacking the Turks in the rear and sweeping them beyond the Jordan. He then renewed his siege, opened a breach in the walls and made several sallies into the town, but was as often re pulsed. May 7, the besieged received fresh troops from Rhodes, though Bonaparte made a desperate effort to take the town before their arrival. Two days later he made a fresh and fruitless assault, for the fourteenth time, and on the sixtieth day of the siege. The French general of engineers, Caffarelli, several other illustrious generals, and four thousand men, were dead. The plague was deci mating the French troops, and they learned that the mass of the Turkish army at Rhodes was about to sail for Egypt. Bonaparte was forced to retreat, May 20. Often afterwards, at the height of his power, he was heard to say of Sydney Smith : " That man ruined me ! If St. Jean of Acre had fallen, I should be Emperor of the East ! " He tried to dissemble his reverses by bravado, issuing a proclama tion in which he declared that he had not left one stone upon another in Acre, and retired only before the plague. After burning every thing behind him on the Syrian coast to prevent pursuit, he returned and made a triumphal entry into Egypt, ordering the captured Turk ish flags to be borne before him. His lieutenants, in his absence, had repressed revolt and outwitted Murad Bey ; but a few weeks after his return the Anglo-Russian fleet landed, near Aboukir, fif teen or eighteen thousand janissaries, those once renowned Turkish infantry. They had no cavalry, and hoped Murad Bey would join them with his Mamelukes and Bedouins. He, however, several times conquered by Desaix, had just been driven back to the desert by Murat. Bonaparte hastily attacked the Turks with six thousand men, and Murat's cavalry won the day, the Turkish army being killed, captured, or drowned in the sea and Lake Madieh (July 25). 116 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. For ten months Bonaparte had received but one despatch from the Directory, the rest being intercepted by the English, but he had lately had a letter from his brother Joseph urging his return. On the occasion of an exchange of prisoners, Sydney Smith maliciously sent him papers containing news of the French reverses in Germany and Italy, which decided him to leave Egypt. The days of the Direc tory seemed numbered in his eyes, and his hour had come. He did not hesitate to forsake his army, deceiving them by announcing his departure for Upper Egypt, while he went in the opposite direction, and sent word to Desaix to join him in France. He carried with him Berthier, Lannes, Murat, and the greater part of his best gen erals and scientists, leaving Kleber, to whom he sent instructions to do what he could with the rest, empowering him to arrange for the evacuation of Egypt if no help reached him before the coming May and the plague had not carried off more than fifteen hundred men, and sailed, himself, August 22. Contrary winds and fear of encountering the English prolonged his journey, as did also a few days' delay in his native island, where he learned the true condition of France. Outside Toulon he just escaped an English fleet, and landed at St. Raphael, in the Gulf of Frejus, October 9, 1799. The populace received him with enthusiasm. He entered Paris, October 25, and went that very night to Gohier, President of the Directory. " President," said he, " the news I received in Egypt was so alarm ing that I unhesitatingly abandoned my army to share your peril." " General," was the reply, " the peril was great, but we have glori ously surmounted it. You are just in time to celebrate the triumphs of your comrades in arms." The next day the Directory gave him an official audience, when he renewed his protestations that he would never draw his sword " save in defence of the Republic and its government." The Directory accepted his offer to assist in their plans. He then resumed the attitude of reserve worn after Campo- Formio, studied his ground, and made all preparation. The Council of Five Hundred made advances to him by choosing his brother Lucien, an intriguing politician, for their president, — a most impru dent step, as events subsequently proved. Bonaparte's present pro- 1799.] BONAPARTE'S RETURN. 117 ject was to become Director in place of Sieyes, whose election was irregular ; but he was too young according to the Constitution, and neither the two sincerely republican Directors, Gohier and Moulins, nor the Five Hundred would allow the Constitution to be tampered with. He was offered the chief command of the army of Italy, but refused under pretext of ill-health. He then conceived the idea of plotting with the Jacobins to change the Directory by a bold stroke. But for that he required the aid of the republican generals in Paris, and Bernadotte and Jourdan refused to join him. He next tried to conciliate Talleyrand and Sieyes, forgetting the former's treachery in regard to Constantinople, and leaving Barras out of the question as a worn-out tool. Sieyes yielded reluctantly, knowing, as he told Joseph Bonaparte, " what would be his fate," and that he would be discarded in the day of success. This deprives him of all excuse for betraying his country. The majority of gen erals fl6cked round Bonaparte, willing to follow in his wake. Mo reau was angered at being deprived of the command in Italy, Macdonald and Serurier joined him, while Murat, Berthier, Lannes, and Marmont did their best to seduce other officers. The police shut their eyes, Minister Fouche" hoping to be rewarded in case of success and safe in case of failure, and the departmental author ities were gained by Prefect Real. Two of the Directors, Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, were on Bonaparte's side ; a third, Barras, -was ' too unpopular to exert any influence, and the two last, Gohier and Mou lins, were easily deceived by Napoleon's protestations of friendship, though Dubois-Crance, the minister of war, tried hard to open their eyes. November 6, a banquet was given to Bonaparte at the Church of St. Sulpice, then called the " Temple of Victory," at which Gohier presided, with Bonaparte and Moreau on either hand. Bonaparte was so afraid of being poisoned that he sent by an aide-de-camp for a roll and a bottle of wine ! He drank to the union of France. No response was made. He rose precipitately and hurried to Sieyes to make his final arrangements. They agreed to invent a Jacobin plot, which would give the Ancients a pretext for transferring both coun- 118 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. cils to St. Cloud, and giving Bonaparte the military command in Paris. The Councils once there, Sieyes and Roger-Ducos would insist upon the dismissal of the other three Directors, and force the Councils to choose three provisory consuls in the persons of Bona parte and themselves, who should be charged to prepare a new con stitution, the form of which was not yet determined, Bonaparte affecting to leave it to his future colleagues. The blow was be struck three days later. November 9, at six o'clock in the morning, a crowd of generals and officers, convened by Bonaparte, met at his rooms in the Rue de la Victoire. Lefevre, commander of the Parisian division, who was ignorant of the plot, came in very ill humor. "Well, Lefevre," said Bonaparte, " are you, one of the Republic's main-props, going to let it perish in these lawyers' hands ? Here is the sword I wore at the Pyramids, I give it to you in token of my esteem and confi dence ! " " Yes," cried Lefevre, " let us throw the lawyers into the Seine ! " Bernadotte was not so easily won. He came in citizen's clothes with his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, refused to join the plot, said that it would not succeed, and withdrew without promising neutrality. At the same time the Council of Ancients assembled. The members likely to oppose the proceedings had not been summoned. Everything transpired precisely as Bonaparte and Sieyes had arranged. In order to ward off the pretended danger,, the Ancients decreed the removal of the Councils to St. Cloud on the following day, Bonaparte being commissioned to put it into execution, and to command all the military forces. A brief and vague proclamation accompanied the decrees. Bonaparte repaired to the Council with his brilliant staff, and the decree was read to him. Bonaparte, however, had never sworn alle giance to the Constitution of the year III., as Garat, ex-minister of the Convention, remarked in vain, but Lemercier, president of the Ancients, took no notice of him, pretending that no discussion was in order until the Councils met at St. Cloud. Bonaparte then re viewed the troops in the Tuileries gardens, and was hailed with cheers by the soldiers and people, among whom a pamphlet was 1799.] BRUMAIRE 18. 119 distributed, explaining that this was " no revolution, but a necessary step to restore the Constitution." The Council of Five Hundred met four hours later than the An cients, and were loath to move to St. Cloud, but their president, Lucien Bonaparte, replied, like the president of the Ancients, that nothing could be discussed until next day, and they broke up with cries of " Long live the Constitution of year III.," the most energetic dreaming of resistance. Bonaparte pursued his task actively, ad vising Augereau and Jourdan not to go to St. Cloud next day, and not to oppose an inesistible movement. Sidyes and Roger-Ducos had already resigned, together with Barras, who only asked security for his person and his money. Gohier and Moulins, finally aroused from their naive security, saw their last means of action slip through their fingers by the defection of Barras. There was no longer any Directory. Never theless, they repaired to the Tuileries to make a final effort. Bona parte tried to gain them, but in vain ; neither threats nor caresses induced them to resign. They returned to the Directorial residence in the Luxembourg, which was immediately guarded by troops, Moreau becoming their jailer. The movement of November 9 had succeeded in Paris. An up rising of the Faubourg St. Antoine had led to no results, and it now remained to be seen what the Councils would do next day at St. Cloud. The leaders of the majority in the Ancients and the minority in the Five Hundred met at the Tuileries that night, with Bonaparte, Sieyes, Ducos, and Fouche\ Sieyes proposed to arrest forty of the principal opponents in the two Councils. Bonaparte refused, believing himself so sure of success as to render such an act of violence needless. He plainly declared that the Constitution must be changed, and a temporary dictatorship established, in fact, if not in name. No one dared resist, and it was agreed that three provisory consuls should be chosen, and the Councils adjourned for three months. During the night a dozen or more representatives met to concert resistance. They had a chance of success, but unluckily they as- 120 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. sembled at the house of a Corsican, named Salicetti, who denounced them to Bonaparte, and FoucWs police prevented them from carry ing out their plans. November 10, shortly before two o'clock, the two Councils met at St. Cloud, the Ancients in a hall, the Five Hundred in the Orangery. The latter renewed their oath of alle giance to the Constitution, Lucien Bonaparte being forced to swear with the rest. A letter from the secretary general of the Directory was read to the Ancients, announcing the resignation of four Direc tors, though neither Gohier nor Moulins had yielded. Bonaparte, apprised of the Ancients' hesitation, suddenly appeared among them ; troubled by their unforeseen resistance, and angered at his trouble, he spoke incoherently, being both vague and violent, pro testing against the charge that he aspired to be a Csesar or Crom well, and yet affirming that his comrades and the nation had long summoned him to lead them, concluding : " Save liberty and equal ity!" "And the Constitution.?" cried a deputy. " The ConstiT tution ! " he replied fiercely, " you violated it September 6 ; you violated it May 11 ; you violated it June 18 ! " This was bold language for the chief promoter of September 6. He continued: " The Constitution is no longer a safeguard, as it has ceased to be respected ! " and concluded by demanding a concentration of power, which he would give up when the danger was past. " What dan ger ? " was the question, answered by an attack on party factions and the Five Hundred, " where may be found the men who strove to replace revolutionary committees and the scaffold ! Should any orator in foreign pay threaten to outlaw me, I will appeal to you, my brave comrades in arms, the gleam of whose bayonets I catch even now ! Remember that I walk hand in hand with the gods of fortune and of war ! " But his boasted luck tottered. Jourdan, Bernadotte, and Auge reau were at St. Cloud ready to seize the propitious moment, and Bonaparte hurried to the Five Hundred, who had just decided to de mand the motives for moving the Councils, and had heard Barras's resignation. They were discussing the nomination of a substitute when Bonaparte appeared, escorted by some of the legislative pHB OP W O P Ooa EnD S5«i 1799.] BRUMAIRE 18. 121 guard, upon which the Assembly rose, crying out, " Swords here, and bayonets ! What does it mean ? You are violating the sanc tuary of the laws ! Was it for this you conquered ? Down with the tyrant ! Outlaw the dictator ! " And some rudely seized and shook Bonaparte, who turned pale and trembled as he never did before the enemy's fire. General Lefevre and the soldiers posted outside rushed in and bore him from the hall, but the clamor con tinued, and when Lucien Bonaparte strove to defend his brother, the cries of " Outlaw the dictator ! " were renewed. " Would you have me outlaw my own brother ? " replied Lucien with theatric despair, protesting and struggling obstinately, whereupon the As sembly saw its mistake in making the natural accomplice of the man they dreaded their president. Sieyes alone retained his self- possession. " They would outlaw you," said he to Bonaparte, " when they themselves are outlawed." The latter, by a sudden inspiration, sent in ten grenadiers, who brought out his brother. He mounted his horse, rode by Bonaparte's side, and addressed the troops as follows: "The President of the Five Hundred assures you that that Council is oppressed by representatives who threaten their colleagues' lives ! They are in English pay, in rebellion against the Ancients ! Soldiers, in the name of the people, rescue your representatives ; the loyal ones will follow me, those who hesi tate are no longer representatives of the people ! Long live the Republic ! " The soldiers cheered him, but hesitated ; he seized a sword, and, turning to Bonaparte, cried : '' I swear to stab my own brother to the heart should he ever attack the liberty of France ! " Murat sounded the charge and led the soldiers on. They faltered on the threshold, but were ordered forward by their commander, and advanced, driving the representatives before them and clearing the hall. At nine o'clock that night Lucien Bonaparte assembled thirty members of the Five Hundred, who declared themselves a majority, and approved of the course taken by Bonaparte and the troops. Boulay de la Meurthe, the apologist for coups d'e'tat, and reporter of the orders of October 6, proposed and carried the nomi nation of the three consuls, three months' adjournment of the Coun- 122 THE DIRECTORY. [Chap. V. cils, and formation of two commissions to assist the consuls in changing the Constitution, and finally the exclusion of the fifty- seven representatives, General Jourdan among them. The order was carried to the Ancients at one in the morning and ratified, it being decreed that " no changes should be made in the Constitu tion tending to impair the people's sovereignty, the Republic one and indivisible, the division of power, liberty, equality, or property rights." The three consuls appeared before the Councils to take the oath of allegiance, Bonaparte at their head, and Lucien congratulated his colleagues in a speech which ended thus : " If French liberty was born in the Tennis Court at Versailles, it has been strength ened in the Orangery at St. Cloud." November 9, Bonaparte issued a proclamation declaring that he had repulsed all party propositions (he made the propositions and was refused himself), and had only been the instrument in the Ancients' plan of social renovation, affirming that twenty assassins, dagger in hand, attacked him in the Council of Five Hundred, — a pure invention, there being neither assassins nor daggers. Deceit reigned supreme, and the accomplices in the plot talked of nothing but the principles of 1789 and "liberal ideas," which had really been dealt a blow whose results increased for fifteen years. The Revolution had hitherto marched Steadily on through tempests ; the Republic of 1792 was an advance on the royal democracy of 1791 ; the Constitution of the year III. was an advance on revolutionary dictatorship ; but, dating from November 9, the Revolution recoiled and stood stilL 1799.] CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIIL 123 CHAPTER VI. THE CONSULATE. — CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. — FINE DEFENCE OF GENOA BY MASSENA. — MOREAU'S SUCCESS IN GERMANY. — BONAPARTE'S VICTORY AT MARENGO. — MOREAU'S VICTORY AT HOCHSTEDT. — ARMISTICE WITH AUSTRIA. Brumaire 80 to Thermldor 2, Tear VTII. — November 11, 1799, to Jnly 21, 1800. THE 9th of November, but vaguely understood, was accepted or meekly submitted to, a protest only being made by Bar- nabe\ president of the Criminal Court of the Yonne, who was accord ingly exiled by the consuls. The people looked on Bonaparte as another Washington, instead of the Caesar that he was, and for a time he seemed disposed to keep up the illusion. The decree which formed the provisional consulate invested the three consuls with full power, and charged them to restore order and peace ; two commissions taking the place of the Councils. Each commission had twenty-five members skilfully chosen, some few republicans being mingled with the agents of Bonaparte and Sieyes ; but the Commission qf Ancients took for president Lebrun of the old monarchy, and the Commission of Five Hundred chose Lucien Bonaparte. The powers of consuls and commissions were conferred on them for three months, and the former Councils were to meet early in March, but Bonaparte and his adherents were de termined not to allow them to assemble. Bonaparte wishing to be supreme, his ministers were naturally nothing more than clerks, but he took care to choose the most illustrious ones, giving Talley rand charge of foreign affairs, Berthier of war, and Gaudin of finances. The latter, though neither original nor enterprising, was a man of rare administrative power. His first measures were wise, replacing the forced loan, which caused so much complaint, 124 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. by a war subsidy of twenty-five centimes on the franc, in addition to the principal raised by direct tax. He also obtained an advance from leading bankers to send to the armies, and formed a regular body of assessors to receive taxes. The hostage law, violating all principles of law and justice, and which had never attained its end, namely, to suppress Chouannerie, was abol ished. Many refractory priests were freed from prison, though the emigrant list was kept up and the sale of national goods declared irrevocable, to show that there was no tendency to counter-revolution. All this was praiseworthy ; but November 16 an order was passed to transport thirty-seven citizens to Guiana and imprison twenty- two at the Isle de Re. Some among them had won a dread renown in the September massacres and days of the Tenor, but even these, if time could not cast a veil over their misdeeds, should not have been condemned unheard. And with them were blameless patriots, members of the Council of Five Hundred, whose only crime was that of having defended the law, November 9, against usurpation ; the names of two among them struck France dumb, — Bernadotte and Jourdan. The. scandal was such that Bonaparte recoiled, erased their names, and wrote to Jourdan protesting friendship. Nor was the order for transportation executed, being repealed the next month. The work of revising the Constitution was begun, Sieyes presenting his plan to the united Commissions, and for the first time since 1789, a sketch for the Constitution was not preceded by a declaration of the rights of men and citizens, Sieyes not daring to proclaim rights which he meant to annihilate. France had at least five million electors, and Sieyes desired that these five millions should elect a tenth of their number, five hundred thousand, to form "parishes"; these in turn were to choosfe a tenth of their number, fifty thousand, forming " departments," who would again elect five thousand " nationals." Municipal officers were to be taken from the first list, departmental officers from the second, and national officers from the third. This was all that Sieyes left the people ; he robbed them of the right to choose their representa tives of all degrees. A state council chosen by the executive power 1799.] CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. 125 was to draft laws and present them to a legislative corps, which was to decide upon them after hearing the objections made by a tribunal charged to plead against, as the state council was to plead for them. Besides these various bodies, there was to be a senate with power to break any law or governmental action which it deemed unconstitu tional, and which was to choose from the third list (the five thou sand) its own members, and those of the legislative body and tri bunal, as well as an "elector-general," who would choose two consuls, who would nominate the ministers, and the latter would choose from the three lists all functionaries of every degree, no longer considered as representatives, but simply as agents of the executive power. The senate might at will revoke the elector- general by again absorbing him into their own body. The people were thus deprived of any share in their own fate, and the repre sentative government crushed. Such a regime, made for shadows and not for men, such a republic of void silence, seemed conceived expressly to stifle France. The unparalleled violence of the crises through which France had passed since 1789 left such lassitude, such a desire for peace and security, that this monstrous scheme was well received by the Commissions, and did not shock even those of the Commissioners too republican and too liberal to approve of it ; but the question was to make Bonaparte adopt it : he avoided explaining himself, and ananged that each article should be dis cussed and voted on in turn. Daunou, and some few others, only accepted a position on the double Commission in the hope of pre serving liberty ; and Bonaparte, who excelled in the art of compro mising men whom he could not bribe, requested the former to serve as secretary of the meeting, which he could not refuse to do. The man who framed the liberal Constitution of the year III. thus un willingly became the framer of the reactionary Constitution of the year VIII., being forced to write out a series of articles, every one of which he had opposed, and the memory shadowed the rest of his life. Almost all Sieves' plan, that is, all the machinery to crush political life, suited Bonaparte; he only thought the senate too strong, and diminished its attributes. But when the executive power 126 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. came to be discussed he bitterly satirized the idea of an elector- general, loaded down with honors and wealth, having the luxury and civil list of a king with almost no power or share in the admin istration. "The shadow of the sluggard king," he cried, — "a pig fed for fattening." In the place of this image he put an om nipotent first consul. Feeling that public opinion was still too strong against any semblance of monarchy to allow the executive power to be vested in one man, he renounced the dictatorship or presidency for himself, and supported the three consuls, — a merely nominal concession, for he gave the first consul all the important attributes. The executive power as dreamed of by Sieyes was as dead as the legislative power ; but the executive power as established by Bona parte lived on alone amid corpses. The three consuls were to be elected for ten years and re-eligible, and official responsibility was annulled by the necessity henceforth imposed on every citizen of obtaining permission from the Council of State before preferring charges against official personages, — a state of things which lasted for nearly three quarters of a century. There was no question in the new Constitution of liberty of association, assemblage, or the press, and the consuls soon suppressed all but thirteen newspapers, until the close of the war (January 17, 1800). Nothing was guaranteed save personal liberty, nor that for long. The Constitution was finished December 12, and promulgated De cember 15, founded, as the preface read, " on the true principles of representative government, and the sacred rights of property, liberty, and equality." It was put to the popular vote by means of registers opened in each municipality, and was accepted blindly, though the voters were far more .numerous than in any election under the pre vious Constitution. Sieyes, whose plan had been so rudely shattered by Bonaparte, refused to be second consul, that is, a mere fixture beside his col league, or rather his treacherous accomplice ; but, not having suffi cient dignity to retire, took office under the new Constitution. He was very miserly, and had appropriated most of the money remaining 1799.] CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. 127 in the Directory's treasury, November 9. He was made president of the Senate with a large salary, and a fine place called Crosne, near Paris, as a " national reward." Roger-Ducos, his shadow, left the consulate with him, and the two Commissions were desired to choose successors, Bonaparte knowing that the candidates proposed by him would be accepted. He chose Cambac^res, a scholar and able law yer, and Lebrun, a man of great administrative power. The former" was to act upon the conventionalists, and the latter on the Feuil- lants and men of the old regime, for Bonaparte was perfectly will ing to employ adherents of any party, provided 'they would yield implicitly to him. December 24, the three consuls, or rather Bona parte, named the Council of State, most of whom were men of great talent. Sieyes, Roger-Ducos, Cambaceres, and Lebrun then chose thirty-one of the sixty senators, who in turn chose the remaining twenty-nine, and the whole sixty elected the Legislative Body, Crim inal Court, and Court of Bankruptcy. The majority of the senators were ex-members of the Council of Ancients, who had prepared the 9th of November ; the Legislative Body being principally composed of the obscure remnant of the various revolutionary assemblies, all the great men among them being dead or in retirement. Beyond the assemblies, one startling name was added to the Legislature by the Senate, that of the brave La Tour d'Auvergne ; but he was un fitted for such a gathering of mutes, and soon disappeared. It must be confessed that the Senate was conscientious in making up the Criminal Court, choosing sincere republicans and friends of liberty, like Daunou, Chenier, Benjamin Constant, the philosopher La Ro- miguiere, the economist J. B. Say, etc., but they were all condemned to an opposition at once systematic and impotent. The consuls established themselves at the Tuileries, Bonaparte preferring the royal residence. The Senate took possession of the Luxembourg, the Legislative Body of the Bourbon palace, and the Criminal Court of the Palais Royal. December 25, the emigrant list was declared closed. Thence forth no absence could be called emigration, and all emigrants who had not flagrantly borne arms against France were easily erased 128 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. from the list, and such of their goods as remained unsold were restored to them, the only essential being to win the First Consul's favor. Bonaparte thus gained a firm hold on the nobility, and the State Council repealed the law excluding ci-devant nobles and families of emigrants from public office. Citizens transported with out trial were permitted to return with but few exceptions, such as the traitor Pichegru and his accomplices. All religious edifices net sold were restored to worship (December 28), and funeral honors rendered to Pope Pius VI., — advances to the papacy which showed Bonaparte's tendencies. The commemorative services on January 21 were abolished, as humanity — if not the First Consul's policy — dictated. The abolition of the celebration of August 10 was of very different meaning. Bonaparte, aspiring to re-establish mo narchical power, would not permit the memory of the overthrow of royalty by republican revolt to be celebrated, and retained only temporarily the festival of July 14 (the downfall of the old regime) and that of the foundation of the Republic, to tamper with which would be too open an attack on the Revolution. His overtures to the clergy were well received, the priests of Franche-Comte sending him an address glorifying the " ever memorable " day of November 9. The First Consul wanted not only to treat with Rome, but to conciliate the West, having granted an armistice to the leaders of Chouan bands newly risen in those regions. He addressed a proclamation to the West, December 29, in which he offered amnesty to all insurgents who would submit, and invited " the ministers of a God of peace " to preach conciliation and con cord, but announced " that any future resistance to the national sovereignty would be at once suppressed by force of arms." The chief instigator of the Vendean leaders, who had unscrupulously and relentlessly fomented fanaticism without sharing it ever since 1793, the notorious Abbe" Bernier, judging the royalist cause lost, yielded without reserve, and La Vendue followed his example, January, 1800, but the insurgents of Brittany and Lower Normandy held out. The First Consul issued the most severe orders, and rapidly assembled sixty thousand soldiers in the West, under Gen- 1800.] CLOSE OF CHOUAN WAR. 129 eral Brune, the friend of Danton and Desmoulins, who, on hearing of November 9, for a moment contemplated a march on Paris from Holland, but soon calmed down and was skilfully won over by Bonaparte's gift of a mission so well suited to his revolutionary sentiments. The rebels were quickly exterminated. The chief lead ers of Breton revolts, Bourmont and Georges Cadoudal, yielded, — the latter surrendering twenty thousand guns and twenty cannon given him by the English. A third leader, commanding the Chouans of Lower Normandy, Count de Frottd, held out a fortnight longer. He was a bold and clever fellow, and had incensed Bonaparte by proclamations ridiculing him and accusing him of cowardice at St. Cloud, November 9. The latter accordingly offered a reward of one thousand louis for his head ; but when Frotte, at his wits' end, begged to treat, Bonaparte replied that if he surrendered at dis cretion he might count on the government's generosity, — a promise broken as soon as made, for Frotte^ submitting to the general pursuing him, was tried by a military commission and shot (February 18). Bonaparte enrolled by force all Chouans able to bear arms, and did his best to attach their leaders to his service, gaining Bourmont, who betrayed him when his fortunes declined ; but the fierce Cadoudal withstood all his flatteries. War in the West was really over now, and there was no more trouble there during Bonaparte's rule. The lingering sparks of royalist revolt were also trampled out, and the First Consul labored with passionate zeal to organize France from a legislative point, according to his own views. The legis lative session was opened January 3, 1800, and the Tribunal showed signs of opposition. There was much discussion of the question whether or no the Tribunal should settle in the Palais Royal, a place of ill repute at that time, and the tribune Duvergier thanked those who chose that spot for the opportunity afforded the orators of gazing on the point whence Desmoulins gave the signal for the 14th of July. "I thank them," said he, "for giving us housing where, if any dare speak to us of an idol of a fortnight, we may remember that the idol of fifteen centuries has been shattered." These words made a deep sensation and greatly annoyed Bonaparte, 130 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. who from that time took a violent dislike to the whole Tribunal, although it did not uphold Duvergier's speech, because he could not bear criticism, the only raison d'etre of that court. The proposed laws presented by the State Council in the govern ment's name were only too open to criticism. The government claimed the right of fixing the day on which the Tribunal should discuss each scheme before the Legislature, and though Constant showed the impropriety of such a course in an able speech, it was adopted by the majority of the court, who were reluctant to begin by opposition. Bonaparte took a mean revenge for Constant's speech by ordering Madame de Stael, through Fouche\ the minister of police, to leave Paris, he suspecting her of urging on Constant. The law of Pluviose 28, Year VIII., created a great administra tive organization, suppressing the cantonal municipalities which bound several communes into one, and replacing them by a more extended unity in the shape of the arrondissement, known before the year III. as the district. Officers chosen by the government were substituted for those elected by the people ; the departmental administration gave way to the prefect; the arrondissement was governed by an underprefect and the commune by a mayor. No vestige of the spirit of 1789 was left. Judiciary reform was regu lated on similar principles, and even juries were to be chosen by the prefects instead of the people. By the judiciary law of Ventose 6, Year VIIL, the country lost all share in the election of magis trates, excepting only judges of the peace ; it gained a better distri bution of tribunals. The First Consul, not caring to have the budget discussed by the assemblies, caused them to continue the taxes of year VIIL through year IX., reserving any further demands until later. For the rest, the finances were wisely guided by Gaudin, the government form ing among the chief capitalists a great establishment, which still exists, and has done good service in the recent troubles of France, — the Bank of France, which, by issuing a limited amount of paper- money and discounting bills, greatly contributed to raise commerce under the consulate. But unfortunately, with these useful creations, 1800.] WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 131 Bonaparte formed less laudable financial schemes. Not wishing to increase the taxes, lest he should make himself unpopular, he ex torted money from the nations dependent on France. Bonaparte skilfully asumed the part of a lover of peace, writing late in December, 1799, to the King of England and Emperor of Germany, eloquently urging them to unite with him in putting an end to the war, which had ravaged the world for eight years. This proceeding, though unusual, was natural in regard to Francis II., after Bonaparte's relations with him at Campo-Formio, but with King George it was contrary to the English Constitution, which forbids the personal intervention of the king outside of the ministers. Pitt desired peace at the time of his greatest trouble, about the date of Campo-Formio, but had given up all such ideas now that he had caused Austria to resume arms against France, whom she had robbed of the greater part of Italy, and from whom she hoped to capture Egypt and Malta. Pitt also hoped to repeat in Brittany the expe dition so unsuccessful in Holland, and to seize Brest as the starting- point for another Vendue, cherishing this absurd plan at the very time when Western insurrection was crushed. He therefore replied, through Lord Granville, the minister of foreign affairs, to the French minister Talleyrand (January 4, 1800), by inveighing against the French system of invasion and revolutionary propagandism, declar ing peace impossible as long as this went on. The only gauge of its cessation which could be accepted would be the restoration of the Bourbons. Such an answer was all that Bonaparte could wish, and he replied through Talleyrand in moderate terms, closing by propos ing a truce, which Lord Granville refused, declaring that hostilities would be continued without respite (January 20). Pitt did Bona parte a great service ; public opinion in France was all for peace, and was incensed against England for having resumed the war. Many and bitter debates took place in the English Parliament in regard to this correspondence, Fox and the opposition party attack ing the Ministry, who in turn accused Bonaparte and the Directory, but the majority was faithful to Pitt, who presented England as the only refuge of European liberty against the French conqueror's despotism. 132 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. The Austrian government answered the First Consul more fit tingly, though in vague terms. Talleyrand offered to take the treaty of Campo-Formio as a basis, only giving Austria the German indem nities promised her in Italy, and implied the restoration of those petty states invaded either by her or by France. These were seri ous offers, showing that Bonaparte was really disposed to make peace with Austria and concentrate his efforts on England. Austria replied that she could do nothing without the consent of her allies, and therefore there was nothing left but to fight. Bonaparte vainly sought Prussian alliance, offering in exchange Hamburg and the other free cities, but only won her promise to labor for the neutrality of the Czar Paul and the petty German states. The former -was angered by Austria's withholding of the Italian states from their rightful princes, and by England's attempt to take Malta, and re called the troops in league with the coalition. This made one pow erful enemy the less. Bonaparte thought of nothing but the campaign, and won an assistant greatly dreaded by the foes of France, in the shape of Carnot, who had spent the period of his proscription in Switzerland and Northern Germany. Bonaparte had been most ungrateful to him, unscrupulously taking his place in the Institute, but now that he thought Carnot could aid him, he offered him the ministry of war, which was accepted. His return caused Europe to tremble. f Austria strained every nerve to preserve and increase the ad vantages lately won in Italy, but her best general, Archduke Charles, did not share the illusions of his brother, the emperor, and blamed him for his refusal to treat with France. He was accord ingly disgraced, and replaced in command of the great German army by General Kray. The rich English subsidies had much to do with Austria's resolve, and besides the regular troops, levies were made in the Black Forest and the other regions on the right bank of the Rhine. The English at Port Mahon, lately won from Spain, were to make a diversion against Provence with twenty thousand English and emigrants. Kray was to remain on the defensive, and General M^las, commanding in Italy, to attack Genoa, and then join the English in Provence. 1800.] BRAVE DEFENCE OF GENOA BY MASSENA. 133 France had met with reverses in Piedmont during the preceding autumn. The Directory having removed Moreau from the army of Italy, saved by him at Novi, Championnet's effort to profit by Suwaroff's departure and resume the offensive in Piedmont failed, the Austrians driving him south of the Apennines, and France hold ing nothing in Italy but Genoa and Liguria. The Austrians reck oned that if they could force a passage of the Var and reach Pro vence, the French would ungarrison the Rhine and come to the rescue, thus leaving General Kray free to attack Alsace. But the plan failed, the two Austrian armies being cut off from direct com munication by the French in Switzerland. Mass&a's victory, in driving France's foes from Switzerland, not only insured the frontier against invasion, but prepared the success of an offensive campaign by giving France a fine advanced position, of which Bonaparte made great use. Austria had nearly one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Italy, to his forty thousand worn out with fatigue and privation. But instead of reinforcing them, he simply sent pro visions, equipments, and Massena, charging the latter to defend the Apennines and maritime Alps from Nice to Genoa, and oppose a desperate resistance to the Austrian troops. Meantime he himself gathered his forces on the Rhine under Moreau, giving him at least one hundred and ten thousand men, without counting the garrisons, and charging him to march against Kray. He then called for volunteers, ordered all soldiers absent on leave to join their troops, and persuaded the Legislature to levy one hundred thousand men, forming at this time the first train of artillery ; hitherto cannon and powder carts had been drawn by the first thing that came to hand. With infinite art he deceived the enemy as to his plans, ostenta tiously collecting stores and a few volunteers at Dijon, under Ber thier. Austria and England, informed by their spies of the delay and insignificance of these preparations, fancied him unable to make up a third army, and meantime the troops which quelled Western revolt quietly marched towards Geneva and Lausanne by different roads, even the war offices being ignorant of their movements, which were guided by direct orders from the First Consul to the officers in 134 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. command. The reserve army was ready towards the end of April, and a furious struggle began in Italy early in that month. General Melas, leaving fifty thousand men in Piedmont to guard the Swiss outlets, marched against Massena with seventy thousand troops. The latter's position was both difficult and dangerous ; with about thirty-six thousand soldiers he had to defend the four lines of mountains stretching from Nice to Genoa. Bonaparte expected him to atone for numerical inferiority by concentrating his forces and defeating one hostile corps at a time, but, provisions failing, he was obliged to divide his little army, covering with one half the Apen- nine passes opening on Savona and Genoa, defending with the other, under General Suchet, the Tenda pass, Nice, and the Var. He was attacked, April 11, by three Austrian columns, who, thanks to their superior numbers, broke through his line, and he centred his men at Genoa, where he was instantly surrounded by the Austrian army and English fleet. He resumed the offensive with vigor, and re pulsed the Austrian corps that threatened Genoa on the east, April 7, but on the west, where the majority of hostile forces were as sembled, he was cut off from Suchet. He therefore made preparar tion to stand a siege, strengthened his garrison by a body of Genoese patriots, and carefully portioned out his scanty supplies, victoriously defending the outer forts on the heights overlooking the town. It was evident that the Austrians could not take the place by force, but equally evident that it must be starved out unless help arrived. The safety of Genoa and the success of the campaign depended on the speed of operations elsewhere in the scene of war. Unfortu nately, the army of the Rhine was prevented from marching as soon as desirable, by lack of horses and other supplies. Moreau did not start until the 25th of April, when his men crossed the Rhine in four divisions, — at Strasburg, Brisach, Basle, and Schaff- hausen, — unopposed by Kray, one hundred thousand French thus confronting one hundred and ten thousand Austrians. A French corps seized the Austrian supplies at Stockach, while Moreau con quered Kray at Engen, May 3, and again the next day at Moss- kirch. Kray withdrew beyond the Danube, Moreau failing to profit 1800.] BRAVE DEFENCE OF GENOA BY MASSENA. 135 by the Austrian passage of the river, owing to his want of harmony with his subaltern, Gouvion St. Cyr. Kray venturing back to the right bank of the Danube to save his vast stores at Biberach, St. Cyr, with a single corps, repulsed and overthrew the main body, already shaken by repeated reverses (May 9), and Kray retired to Ulm, having lost thirty thousand men. Moreau, keeping his prom ise to send twenty thousand men to aid Bonaparte in Italy, stopped short, content to hold Kray at Ulm until further orders. Bonaparte was in full march, though he came late for the brave defenders of Genoa. Massena made a successful sally, May 10, but another, three days after, failed. The Genoese sustained him, but all were reduced to the last extremity by hunger and privation. Bona parte left Paris, May 6, with great pomp, deceiving the enemy to the last. He knew of Genoa's extreme distress, but also knew that Melas had divided his forces into three parts, one of which remained in Piedmont ; another was before Genoa, and the third under Melas had marched against Suchet, and occupied Nice, but was barred the passage of the Var by Suchet strongly posted at St. Laurent. All this presaged well for Bonaparte's success. May 13 he chose Lau sanne as his starting-point for crossing the Alps through the Great St. Bernard pass, going from Martigny to Aosta between the high roads to Turin and Milan. He sent orders to Moreau's advance corps to go down into Italy by the way of St. Gothard ; directed a small division of the Ligurian army guarding Mont C^nis to proceed thither by way of Susa, while he crossed Great St. Bernard with the main body, one division taking the Little St. Bernard, — sixty odd thou sand in all, for he had brought only forty thousand picked men from France. There were no highways over the Alps as now, and many difficulties lay in their way, but the soldiers cheerfully sur mounted them all. Lannes entered Aosta with the advance guard, May 17; but between there and Ivrea he was stopped by Fort de Bard, whose strong position was but little known, and which com manded the only road by which the army could come out. There was no time for a siege. Bonaparte arrived, May 21, and it was discovered that the infantry and artillery might turn the fort by a 136 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. mountain path : covering the road with straw and wrapping the cannon and gun-caniages in oakum, they succeeded in doing so, and took Ivrea by storm, May 22 ; the army issuing in the plains of Piedmont and defeating an Austrian division, May 26. M^las, the Austrian general-in-chief, learned too late the truth regarding the reserve force so scorned by its enemies. When he heard of the passage of St. Bernard, at Nice, he made a vain effort to cross the Var, which was vigorously defended by Suchet with twelve thou sand men. Still flattering himself that the French descent was but a feint, he left twenty thousand men on the Var to oppose Suchet and thirty thousand before Genoa, recrossed the Col di Tenda with ten thousand, and marched on Turin, where he rallied divers de tachments and swelled his numbers to thirty thousand. No longer able to doubt Bonaparte's presence, he fancied himself able to dis pute his passage of the Po at Chivasso. It was his last illusion ; Bonaparte, coming up with more than forty thousand picked men, would undoubtedly have crushed him. It was late in May. Mas sena had succeeded in communicating with the First Consul, and the latter knew that Genoa and its defenders were at the last extremity ; but he heartlessly abandoned Massena and his men, immolating them to the vain and perilous plan of not only con quering, but crushing, the Austrian army at a blow, by cutting off its retreat. While Mela3 awaited him on the Turin road, he turned to Milan, his vanguard forcing the passage of the Ticino at Turbigo, May 31, and entering Milan two days after. At the same time Lannes seized the Austrian stores, reserve artillery, etc., in Pavia, and took the position of Belgiojoso beyond the Ticino and Po, other detachments occupying the Ticino as far as Lake Maggiore, on the opposite shore, and Bonaparte now hold ing the Austrian line of retreat along the Ticino and the northern bank of the Po. On hearing this threatening news, Melas ordered his officers to abandon their posts on the Var and raise the siege of Genoa. But it was too late for Genoa : for two long weeks her people had lived on grass and roots. Men died by hundreds, some thousand prisoners taken in various sorties shared the general dis- 1800.] BRAVE DEFENCE OF GENOA BY MASSENA. 137 tress, the Austrian general Ott and the English admiral Lord Keith being cruel enough to refuse them the provisions which Massena promised to divide faithfully among them. Massena set a brave example of endurance to the last, but was forced to yield. General Ott, concealing his orders to raise the siege, allowed the French troops to march out with the honors of war and join Suchet by the Corniche Pass ; and Massena left Genoa, June 5, with the eight thousand men remaining from his fifteen thousand ; four thousand were in hospital, and the Austrians promised to nurse them and give them up without ransom. This intrepid little army caused the enemy a loss of eighteen thousand men ; nor is there anything more glorious in the history of 'sieges than this defence of Genoa. Massena joined Suchet at Savona ; and the latter, having pursued the Austrians on their retreat from the Var and defeated them in a series of skirmishes which cost them ten thousand men, now threatened Mdlas' rear, who, finding the Ticino and northern bank of the Po blocked by the French, planned a retreat by the southern bank, near Mantua, ordering the troops scattered through Piedmont or returning from the Var to assemble at Alexandria and proceed thence to Piacenza, and the besiegers of Genoa to march thither by way of Tortona. But he was forestalled; the first Austrian detachments that reached Piacenza were met by the French, who remained masters of the town (June 7). Bonaparte prepared to block the enemy's passage to the south bank of the Po, and to occupy a good position at Stradella, between Tortona and Piacenza, arriving there on the evening of June 9. A battle had been raging at Montebello, near Stradella, since early morning ; Lannes having met General Ott and attacked him boldly, driving him from the field with considerable loss. The First Consul, coming up just at the close of the contest, waited two days at Stradella for reinforce ments and to prepare the plan of action. The third day, Melas not appearing, he decided to march towards Alexandria, crossing the Scrivia and coming out on what is now known as the Plain of Marengo (June 13). The enemy did not yet appear. Bonaparte's uncertainty increased ; thinking that Melas had gone towards Genoa, 138 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. he sent out a division to reconnoitre, under General Desaix, whom he had recently summoned from Egypt. Nor had he any idea of fighting, when, at dawn of the 14th of June, the Austrian forces, leaving Alexandria, crossed the Bormida, flowing between that town and the plain of Marengo, and attacked the French troops ; Melas having resolved to give battle and open his road to Piacenza, his troops being greatly reduced. Bonaparte's men were also scattered, and he had not more than thirty thousand at his immediate dis posal, barely half of whom were now in presence of the Austrians. The portion under General Victor and General Lannes, assailed by constantly increasing forces, defended themselves bravely for several hours, but were at last overpowered, Lannes being turned and Victor driven from the village of Marengo. Bonaparte coming up, they rallied, but lost ground, though contesting every inch. Their slow retreat was superb. Marengo and Castel-Ceriolo were lost ; the foe held the road to Piacenza, their main object, and Melas felt sure of victory. Worn out by his labors, he left the command to his chief of staff, General Zach, himself retired to rest at Alex andria, and sent out couriers to announce his triumph. Zach formed his army in a column to march on Piacenza, but between two and three o'clock, near San Giuliano, he found his way barred by a French division, — General Desaix hurrying up with six thousand men. Sent by Bonaparte to reconnoitre, he was arrested by the distant sound of cannon, and followed the sound without awaiting the messengers sent to recall him. When he joined Bonaparte, most of the generals believed the day lost, but Desaix said, " Yes, the battle is lost ; but it is only three o'clock : there is plenty of time to win another." Bonaparte decided to renew the attack, Desaix assailing the front while the main body marched against the enemy's left flank. At the first fire Desaix fell. His last words were an order to the general under him to conceal his death from the troops, lest it should shake their courage. His men saw him drop, and charged with fury to avenge him. The shock was fearful and the struggle desperate, bayonet to bayonet, when General Kellermann, at the head of a cavalry corps, 1800.] BONAPARTE'S VICTORY AT MARENGO. 139 rushed upon the Austrian flank. Desaix having begged Bonaparte to order this charge, we may say that even in death he gave France victory. Kellermann broke the Austrian column and surrounded and forced it to lay down arms, General Zach being captured with his men. Lannes and his brave infantry charged in their turn and shook the Austrian centre. Panic seized their cavalry, and they fled towards the Bormida pell-mell, those who could not cross the bridges trying to ford the stream. The artillery was swamped, and the French took men and cannon. The rest of the army retreated in great disorder to Alexandria, leaving twelve thousand dead. wounded, and prisoners. The victory cost France dear, — seven thousand men and Desaix, — but it was decisive. The enemy was utterly routed. The next day Mdlas sent an envoy to treat with Bonaparte, who consented to the Austrian army's retreat with honors of war, if it would abandon all territory occupied by it in Upper Italy, as far as the Mincio. A truce was agreed upon until the Austrian government could ratify the plan. The evacuation of strongholds, not being subject to this ratification, began at once, and Massena could thus keep the prom ise he made to the Austrian general with whom he arranged the evacuation of Genoa, — "I swear to re-enter Genoa within a fort night." A splendid triumph was prepared at Milan for Bonaparte, and he ordered a council to assemble there and reorganize the Cisalpine republic, to be presided over by a French commissary. He gave Piedmont a provisional government under General Jour dan, whom' he wished to win over as he had done Carnot. He assumed an attitude towards religion and the clergy of Milan which announced a decided return to the policy of the first Italian war, lavishing protestations of attachment on Catholicism, and assisting in solemn state at a Te Deum. Mohammedan in Cairo, he was Catholic in Italy, but the higher clergy had not forgotten his behavior in 1797. The new Pope, Pius VII., and the cardinals, in choosing a bishop of Romagna on good terms with him, doubt less thought of the chances of reconciling Rome and the First Consul But it was for France as well as for Italy that Bona- 140 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VI. parte sought alliance with the Holy See of Rome. He wrote at this time a letter to the prefect of La Vendue, which he intended should be shown in that Catholic country, inveighing bitterly against "those wicked heretics, the English." Leaving the command of the army of Italy to Massena to calm his just resentment, he returned to France, being received with en thusiasm everywhere, but especially at Lyons, where he laid the first stone in the new Place Bellecour, destroyed in 1793, and reached Paris, July 2. For a brief space he had been thought dead or defeated, and many had planned to replace him by Carnot or La Fayette. This rankled in his mind despite his cordial reception, and he soon withdrew the ministry of war from Carnot. All the state officials called to congratulate him, the Tribunal in more measured terms than the rest, associating Desaix's memory with Bonaparte's praises. Glorious news arrived from Germany. The Rhenish army, now the army of the Danube, had nobly emulated the triumphs of the army in Italy. Moreau, freed from his forced inaction by tid ings of the crossing of St. Bernard, and no longer obliged to protect the reserve' corps, crossed the Danube below Ulm to drive Kray from his intrenchments near that city. Kray, seeing the French on his line of retreat, left Ulm and attacked them. The French cavalry under Lecourbe defeated the Austrian horse ; and the infantry, led by Moreau, conquered the hostile foot, remaining masters of the ground about Hochstadt, the very region where a great battle was lost by France under Louis XIV. (June 19). Kray hastily withdrew to the northern bank of the Danube ; Moreau did not follow him, but recrossed the Danube and marched on Augsburg and Munich, establishing one of his officers in the capital of Bavaria (June 28), and himself settling in the heart of that country, ready to bear down on Tyrol and Vienna. During this march the brave La Tour d'Au- vergne, "the first grenadier of France," perished in an engagement near Neuburg, pierced. to the heart by an Austrian Uhlan. Moreau's right wing carried the Austrian mountain-posts on the confines of Bavaria, the Tyrol, and the Grisons ; and after thus as suring his position, he signed a truce (July 15), the French remaining 1800.] ARMISTICE WITH AUSTRIA. 141 in possession of Franconia, Suabia, and the greater part of Bavaria. Public joy was great ; France was triumphant in Italy and Germany, and news had come of a victory in Egypt (at Heliopolis), which seemed to promise that that fair land would not be lost. The con suls announced that the next stock-dividend would be paid for the first time in hard cash, public funds, which were at thirteen before Bonaparte assumed the power, having risen to forty and continuing to rise. July 21 came an envoy from the German emperor charged with the ratification of the Alexandrian treaty, and the emperor's answer to a letter written him by the First Consul the day after the battle of Marengo. The people no longer doubted that a glo rious peace would soon be concluded. 142 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. CHAPTER VII. consulate {continued). — moreau's VICTORY AT HOHENLINDEN. — PEACE OF LUNE>ILLE WITH AUSTRIA. — LOSS OF EGYPT. — PEACE OF AMIENS WITH ENGLAND. Thermldor 2, Tear VIIL, to Germinal 4, Tear X. — July 22, 1800, to March 25, 1802. PUBLIC opinion was wrong as to immediate peace with Austria, whose government was still so loath to break with England that the very day of the news of Marengo it signed a fresh treaty, engaging to make no separate peace at least until February, 1801, in return for an English subsidy of sixty-two millions. The envoy sent to Paris by Francis II., Count de St. Julien, was therefore charged merely to ascertain the basis on which the First Consul founded his offers of peace. St. Julien was a soldier and no diplo mat, and had to deal with Talleyrand, who was so much more adroit a politician, that he led the Austrian to sign peace preliminaries, acknowledging the Rhine as the French frontier, and promising Austria indemnity in Germany, instead of the Italian territory granted at Campo-Formio (July 27). But St. Julien had exceeded his powers ; he was disavowed, and Austria proposed a congress to which English envoys should be sent. The negotiations came to naught. To obtain a few weeks' truce, Austria was obliged to yield to France three important posts, — Philipsburg on the right bank of the Rhine, Ulm and Ingolstadt on the Danube. Parleys were then renewed, and De Cobentzel, who had ibeen ambassador in the days of Campo-Formio, met Joseph Bonaparte at Luneville. Once there, he insisted that he could do nothing without the consent of English plenipotentiaries. The First Consul replied that hostilities would be renewed, and continued until Austria agreed to treat on her own 1800.] MOREAU'S VICTORY AT HOHENLINDEN. 143 responsibility, giving her forty-eight hours to accept an ultimatum which deprived her of Mantua. It was refused, and the campaign opened November 28. Bonaparte first sent a detachment of the Italian army into Tuscany, where he feared that the English might land and combine with Naples and Austria; then launched his armies, five in number, and resolved to direct operations from Paris, as Carnot had done, not acting in person, save in some grave emer gency. The decisive blow was to be dealt in Germany, for Bona parte was well aware that Austria could not be routed in Italy. Moreau was made commander-in-chief, and Augereau was to sus tain him by a diversion with twenty thousand men on the Main. Massena was withdrawn from command in Italy, less on account of the complaints his rule excited than of the jealousy he inspired in Bonaparte, who replaced him by Brune. France was well prepared for the winter campaign, having four hundred thousand men under j arms. Austria was quite equal in numbers, but military confidence was shaken. General Kray was disgraced like the archduke, and re placed by another brother of the emperor, Archduke John, young and ardent, but inexperienced. He boldly assumed the offensive. Moreau was quartered with his main army on a wooded plain before Munich, between the Iser, the Inn, and the Danube. Arch duke John crossed the Inn, tried to turn Moreau, and fell upon his left wing, commanded by General Grenier, who with Ney fought bravely, but finally fell back in good order to the forest of Hohen- linden (December 1), and there concentrated his forces. The arch duke took this for a retreat, and two days later entered the deep glades of the forest, which he supposed that the French had left, advancing slowly through narrow paths to a clearing, where Grenier and Ney, greatly reinforced by Moreau, were awaiting him. The snow was falling fast. The Austrians were twice repulsed, and the struggle continued, when the French saw the enemy falter. " Now is our time," said Moreau to Ney ; " forward ! " And he sent Ney to charge the Austrian column. He knew the cause of the enemy's hesitatioa The French right, by his order, had turned the forest and attacked the foe in the rear. General Richepanse, leaving 144 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. regiment after regiment behind to repel the straggling hostile corps, rushed headlong on the Austrian column with but one regiment, and, taking the foe in a narrow gorge, spread dire confusion. He and Ney, piercing the tumult from opposite sides, met and em braced amid the cheers of their troops. Cannon, baggage, and- thousands of prisoners remained in their hands, the main Austrian column being routed and dispersed. Meantime another hostile division, the Austrian right, tardily scaling the plateau to the north of the clearing, was repulsed by Grenier, and driven into the valley ; and the other Austrian columns were beaten one by one, and forced beyond the Inn, the enemy losing nearly twenty thousand men and eighty-seven cannon. Nothing could arrest the victors of Hohen- linden. December 9, Moreau sent Lecourbe across the Inn, a few leagues higher up, where he had been stationed, and shortly after joined him. Archduke John rallied a few troops, and made a brave effort to maintain himself on the Salza, near Salzburg ; but Decem ber 14, Lecourbe and Decaen forced the passage of the river, went down into the Danube valley, and penetrated Austria proper, driving the remnant of the Austrian army before them; and December 21, Moreau crossed the Enns, and was nearer Vienna than Bonaparte at the time of the Lioben conference. It was at his option to enter the Austrian capital with a triumph which would render his name as illustrious as that of Napoleon. He was wise enough to abstain, and granted an armistice demanded by Archduke Charles, recalled to command when all seemed lost, and who promised that Austria would break with England, and accept the terms of France (De cember 25). Lack of news from Italy, and the perilous position of Augereau, who had pushed with his little army from Frankfort to the borders of Bohemia and was struggling with superior numbers, induced Moreau to grant this truce, Austria giving up the entire right bank of the Danube as far as the Enns, including the Tyrol. Mili tary action, for a wonder, was less prompt in Italy than in Ger many. Macdonald's mission was most difficult and dangerous, Bonaparte having ordered him to cross the Splugen in midwinter. 1801.] PEACE OF LUNEVILLE WITH AUSTRIA. 145 The troops underwent unheard-of sufferings, whole companies being swept away by whirlwinds and avalanches. But Macdonald per sisted, and at last reached the Valtellina, whence he was to proceed to the Italian Tyrol and turn the Austrian army defending the Mincio, thus seconding General Brune. He first outflanked an Austrian division at Mount Tonale, and then passed through the valleys of the Oglio- and Chiese to the north of the Adige and Lake Garda, thus fulfilling his instructions (December, 1800). December 25 and 26, Brune forced a passage of the Mincio at two points, Pozzolo and Mozzembano, after a bloody struggle ; and January 1 the Adige was also crossed, and Macdonald joined Brune's left wing. The Austrian general Bellegarde, being much exposed, begged for truce, which was granted on the news of Moreau's action, and an armistice for Italy was signed at TreViso, January 16, Brune mis takenly neglecting to exact Mantua. The First Consul refused to ratify the treaty unless that town were immediately surrendered to France. Negotiations continued at Luneville while war went on in Germany and Italy, Cobentzel declaring (December 31), in ac cordance with the promise of Archduke Charles, that Austria would leave England out of the question ; but he disputed the terms of peace in Italy inch by inch. Bonaparte was inflexible, meaning to make Austria pay for her obstinacy and his own recent victories. He now exacted the Adige as the boundary of the Cisalpine republic, as he did at Campo-Formio, and required Austria to surrender Tuscany, which he intended to give to the Prince of Parma, a Spanish Bourbon, uniting Parma to the Cisalpine republic ; and he also desired that Francis should sign as German emperor, as well as head of the house of Austria, that there might be no more disputes about boundaries with the German princes. After a desperate struggle, Cobentzel yielded to his imperious will, and signed away Mantua, January 26, and the final treaty was concluded, February 9, 1801. The emperor promised not to rebuild the fortifications on the right bank of the Rhine, which the French were to destroy be fore evacuating. Austria lost Tuscany and the German indemnity promised her. Nothing was stipulated in regard to Naples, Rome, 10 VOL. II. 146 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. and Piedmont, France being free to do with them what she chose. The First Consul was at liberty to centre his efforts on England, in his contest with which he had been severely checked by losing Malta, which the French garrison was forced to yield for lack of supplies. This loss, and other events which we will relate further on, greatly compromised Egypt. Still, affairs in the North of Europe atoned for these disadvantages, and strengthened Bonaparte in his attitude to Austria. He thoroughly understood the use he might make of the czar's disaffection to the rest of the coalition, and made various advances to him. Having about eight thousand Russian prisoners, whom England and Austria refused to exchange for Frenchmen, he sent them home with their arms and flags un conditionally. The czar hoped to restore the Order of Malta and himself become Grand Master ; the First Consul at once offered him the island, which, although not yet in English power, he despaired of saving. Paul accepted, and conceived great sympathy for Bona parte without ceasing to hate the Revolution, which, despite all- his peculiarities, he was acute enough to see was the very reverse of November 9. He sent an envoy to Paris to arrange for the resto ration of harmony between Russia and France, his conditions being, besides the cession of Malta, a guaranty of the integrity of the states of Naples, Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg, and the restoration of the King of Sardinia. The only difficulty in the matter was Pied mont, which the First Consul was indisposed to give up, but never theless yielded, anxious to satisfy the czar and lead him to take decisive steps against England, which had committed intolerable acts of violence on all seas against neutrals, hoping to monopolize maritime commerce. America was weak enough to yield to her demands, and thus bring on a rupture with France, which she had since repented, and was even now making up the quanel, promis ing no longer to violate neutral rights to France's detriment. Dur ing the war for American independence in 1780, the czar's mother, Catherine the Great, provoked a neutral Northern league to resist English naval tyranny, which Napoleon hoped to persuade her son to renew, as recent English excesses had put the crowning VIEW IN HAMBURG. 1801.] PEACE OF LUNEVILLE WITH AUSTRIA. 147 point to Russian wrath. Just at this time Malta sunendered to England. Paul I. declared his title to the island, which England refused to recognize. The czar accordingly put an embargo on all her vessels in Russian ports, and proposed to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to renew the neutral league, which they agreed to do, December 26-28, 180ft He then requested Prussia to join with Russia and France in concluding a general peace, and every thing seemed to favor Bonaparte's hope of turning the coalition against England. Meantime he strengthened his position in Italy, and confirmed his alliance with Spain. After the peace with Austria, he sent Murat with a few troops against the Neapolitans occupying the Roman states. Naples, in affright, submitted to his conditions ; quitted Rome, promised to close her ports to England, yielded her share of the island of Elba, and agreed by secret articles to receive French forces in the Gulf of Taranto, which Bonaparte designed to use, in place of Malta, as a stopping-place on the way to Egypt (March 18, 1801). By a recent treaty with Spain, the First Consul promised Queen Louise of Parma, who reigned in the name of her husband, the weak Charles IV., a kingdom in Italy (Tuscany) for her nephew, the Prince of Parma, on condition that Spain would return Louisiana, which had been ceded by Louis XV., give France six ships of war, and join with her in forcing Portugal to break with England. Great preparations were made in French, Dutch, and Spanish ports, which greatly alarmed England, whose situation was most critical. She was tormented by famine in consequence of bad harvests and a break with the country (Russia) whence she generally procured her supplies of grain. Her war expenses were enormous, the English budget rising to seventeen hundred and twenty-three millions, equal to twice that sum to-day. Loan followed loan, and the public debt was more than twelve billions, Pitt having added seven and a half for the Revolutionary War. True, English resources had increased in proportion with her expenses, the application of steam to machinery having centupled her productive power, and her imports and ex- 148 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. ports having vastly increased, as had also her naval and military forces. Still, there were many alarming symptoms ; great wretched ness prevailed among the populace, causing riots and revolts, and popular frenzy against Pitt, who was accused of preventing peace. He won a great but final triumph in the union of the Irish Parlia ment with the English and Scotch Parliaments, the first United Parliament being opened in January, 1801. But he won Ireland's consent by a promise to repeal the laws excluding Catholics from public office and from some civil rights. King George III., a zeal ous Protestant, refused to ratify this engagement ; and Pitt, seeing that he could never defeat the enemy with whom he had engaged in a duel to the death, resigned, February 8, 1801. His retirement produced a great commotion in Europe, and was a seeming triumph for Bonaparte, though without immediate results, his successor con tinuing in his footsteps. Pitt had replied to Paul I.'s aggressive measures by putting an embargo on Russian, Danish, and Swedish vessels in English ports, and his successor sent a fleet into the Baltic. The entire North united against England. Prussia, being led away partly by Russian influence, partly by Bonaparte's prom ises in regard to German indemnity, closed her ports to the English and took military possession of Hanover, the hereditary domain of the reigning family of England. Denmark seized the ports of Ham burg and Lubeck, and England was cut off from German trade. The only chance was to act on the high seas with lightning-like force and speed, and she had the man she needed in Nelson, the second in command of the Baltic fleet. The English fleet, with twenty ships and thirty frigates and light craft, set sail for the sound dividing Sweden from the largest of the Danish islands, and, the Swedish coast being but feebly armed, passed through with little damage and went straight to Copenhagen. The ice prevent ing the arrival of Russian and Swedish squadrons, the Danes were thrown upon their own resources, and the English fleet called upon them to renounce the neutral league and open their ports to Eng land. The prince-regent refused, and Nelson persuaded Parker (his chief) to make an attack, which proved to be one of the most fear- 1801.] ASSASSINATION OF THE CZAR PAUL. 149 ful naval battles ever known. Two Danish ships were blown up with all on board, and others were damaged and set adrift ; but the English also suffered cruel losses, and their attempt to land and take the fort by storm utterly failed. Parker gave the signal for retreat, but Nelson pretended not to see it, and sent an envoy to the Danish prince-regent, who, unfortunately, consented to suspend his fire at the very moment when Nelson was about to cease his attack ; and directly after three English vessels ran aground, April 2, 1801. While negotiations were going on, Nelson and Parker rescued their ships. The Danes, having lost their floating batteries, feared the effect of a bombardment on the city and squadron, and, while refusing to forsake the league, agreed to a fourteen-weeks' truce, during which time the English might leave the battle-ground and go into the Baltic. Tenible news caused the prince-regent to yield to this arrangement. The Czar Paul was murdered on the 23d of March. Absolute power had turned his weak brain, and he did the wisest things in a crazy manner. His sudden rupture with England injured Russian proprietors, who usually sold their grain, wood, and hemp to the English ; and while thus losing favor with one class he alienated all around him by his capricious tyranny. In a country where everything depends on one man's will, it is very natural to imagine that an entire change will be wrought by killing that man; and the governor of Petersburg, Pahlen, the minister of foreign affairs, Panin, and General Beningsen, a German in the Russian service, resolved to destroy the czar. The first-named proved to the Grand Duke Alexander, Paul's eldest son, that his father was ruining Russia, and he consented to the czar's " depo sition." Being young and inexperienced, he fancied that a Russian emperor could be dethroned and live. Pahlen and Beningsen, at the head of a troop of generals and under-officers, entered the palace by night, and soon after the grand duke was informed of his father's death, and dragged out to be presented to the sol diers by his assassins. Thus began the reign of Alexander I. Paul's tragic death freed England from great peril and dealt Bona parte's policy a severe blow, though the latter could never have 150 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. trusted such a madman ; and the new English minister, Addington, seized the occasion to make overtures of peace, releasing all neutral vessels held in English ports, and forbidding Nelson to i resume the offensive in the Baltic unless Northern fleets should attempt a junction. This armistice was accepted by Russia and Scandinavia. The young Czar Alexander was neutral, though he broke his father's promises to France by permitting the English to visit merchant convoys and seize hostile goods unless bought by neutral parties. On her side England sacrificed part of Pitt's system; admitting neutrals to trade with hostile states and to carry all kinds of mer chandise save such as was contraband of war, and closing only such ports as were in an actual state of blockade (June 17, 1801). Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden soon joined this convention, thus breaking the league and continuing the war begun by Pitt against France. Public opinion was in favor of peace, and Addington had made overtures to Napoleon prior to the attack on Copenhagen and the czar's death, informing him (March 21) that the King of Eng land was ready to send a plenipotentiary to France to treat for peace. George III., though bitterly opposed to the Revolution, was friendly to Bonaparte ; nor did Pitt, who had great influence in Parliament, oppose the measure. The First Consul welcomed these advances, and chose a conference at London between a French agent, Otto, and the minister of foreign affairs, Lord Hawkesbury, in prefer ence to negotiations in France. His mood altered when he lost the powerful aid of the neutral league, and France clamored for peace. Parleys began in April, 1801, but proceeded very slowly, as both parties were waiting for events in Egypt and Portugal, by which each hoped to profit. We must now go back and relate what had passed in Egypt since Napoleon's abrupt departure, which startled and enraged the army abandoned in that remote region. No one was more furious than General Kleber, who was left in command and criticised him without mercy. Kleber at once sent a despatch to the Directory, which fell into the hands of the very man who overthrew that body, and denounced him. The despatch, dated September 26, 1800.] LOSS OF EGYPT. 151 1799, painted the situation of Egypt and the army in very gloomy colors, declaring that they could not long withstand the coalition of England, Russia, Turkey, etc. Bonaparte, become First Consul, concealed his rage; he confirmed Kl^ber's command, and did not forbid him to treat — which he accordingly began to do — with the Grand Vizier, who was collecting fresh forces in Syria to invade Egypt. He arranged for evacuation, which was a serious step to take, for matters were by no means so bad as he had represented them. His real excuse was that he feared lest France should be invaded, and, knowing only of her losses, longed to hasten to her defence. He therefore signed, with the Grand Vizier and Sydney Smith, the English commodore, a treaty binding him to leave Egypt within three months, on transport-ships furnished by the Vizier (January 21, 1800). Several posts were returned to the Turks, and Desaix had unwillingly set sail for France, when a despatch came from England forbidding any treaty unless the French army would yield itself prisoner. Sydney Smith had exceeded his powers. Kleber read this despatch to his troops, adding : " Soldiers, victory is the only answer to such insolence ; prepare for battle ! " Leav ing a small garrison in the citadel and forts of Cairo, he marched with ten thousand men against the Grand Vizier, stationed a few leagues away with eighty thousand, and met him near the ruins of On, called Heliopolis by the Greeks, and the centre of Egyptian science and religion (March 20, 1800). The French scattered the two Turkish advance corps, and attacked the main body with the same result as at the Pyramids. The Turks were mowed down by the French fire, their baggage remaining in the hands of Kleber, who pursued the Vizier to the entrance of the Syrian desert and utterly routed his troops, the Bedouins completing the pillage as they would have pillaged the French had they been conquered. Kleber then sent a detachment to recover the posts at the Nile Delta occupied by Turks, or in revolt, and returned to Cairo, where a great insunection had broken out, part of the Turkish vanguard beaten by the French hastening thither, while Kldber fought the Grand Vizier, and was joined there by the natives. The French 152 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. garrison made a brave defence, and Kleber returned March 27. The struggle was more prolonged than in the time of the first revolt in Cairo, a great part of the city being recaptured, street by street, by fire and sword ; but the Turks finally yielded, and the natives submitted. Kleber had a right to be severe, for the insurgents had murdered many Egyptian Christians, Europeans, and even Arabs, who had served France ; but he was more merciful than Bonaparte had ever been, granting amnesty for a heavy ransom. All Egypt now returned to French sway ; and the most valiant foe, the Mameluke leader, Murad Bey, preferring the French to the Turks, as his people could no longer rule, became their faithful friend and ally. But it seemed doubtful if this victory could be maintained, as the English fleets prevented the arrival of fresh troops, and they could only gain reinforcements among the Egyptian Christians and African blacks, who, however, proved good and trusty soldiers; but an unforeseen catastrophe suddenly robbed France of the fruits of Heliopolis by depriving her of the hero who won that victory. Kleber was murdered, June 14, 1800, by a Mussulman fanatic. The loss was irreparable. Desaix being gone, there was no one left to take his place but the weak Menou. He was devoted to Bonaparte and the preservation of Egypt, but good-will alone was not sufficient. The soldiers had no confidence in him, and dis cipline was soon destroyed. From time to time some solitary ship escaped the English and brought a little help and many promises from the First Consul. Admiral Ganteaume, who carried Bona parte back to Toulon, was ordered to Egypt with a French squadron, other Franco-Spanish squadrons being sent out to divert the English attention ; but the expedition failed, and instead of French reinforce ments an English army-corps descended on Aboukir, March 8, 1801, numbering nearly eighteen thousand. KMber or Desaix would have massed his forces to attack the English, regardless of the Turks gathering in Syria or the threatened landing of Anglo-Indian forces from the Red Sea ; but Menou rashly divided his little army between these various points, and General Friant, commanding at Alexandria, made heroic but fruitless efforts to prevent the landing 1801.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND. 153 of the English troops. Reinforced by Lanusse, he renewed the contest some days later with five thousand men against sixteen thousand, but in vain. Menou came up with five thousand more, which force would have sufficed at first, but now the enemy was firmly posted. The French troops fought with wonderful spirit, but Lanusse's death caused the failure of an attack led by him, and Menou was unable to support the French cavalry, which had made a magnificent charge through the English infantry (March 21). The French retired in good order, but Egypt was lost. The French army was cut in two, the larger portion remaining in Cairo the rest in Alexandria, but, surrounded by English, Turks, Alba nians, and Anglo-Indians, was forced to surrender, Cairo yielding June 27, and Alexandria, September 2. The French troops left Egypt on condition that they should be sent home with the honors of war. The last chance of disputing India with England was gone ; the military and political results of the Egyptian expedition were lost, but the scientific results were immense. The French army in Egypt failed, after marvellous exploits, but the Egyptian Institute was a complete success. At the very time when this bad news from Egypt reached France, thirty thousand Spaniards and fifteen thousand French invaded Portugal. Rear- Admiral Linois and Captain Troude fought a series of brilliant battles with the English near Gibraltar. The Prince of Parma came to Paris to receive the crown of Etruria from the First Consul's hands ; Bonaparte thus disposing of Tus cany by making it a kingdom, under the ancient name of Etruria, without dreaming of consulting the Tuscans. Negotiations between France and England, so long prolonged, grew more active as summer approached. The surrender of Cairo was as yet a secret, and England proposed that both French and English should leave Egypt and restore it to the Sultan ; but she insisted on keeping Malta, and would not return Ceylon to Hol land, or the island in the Antilles of which she had herself taken possession. The First Consul replied that, if England had the 154 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. ascendency in Egypt, so had he in Portugal ; but he accepted her terms if she would forego Malta and her conquests in the Antilles. The English ambassador made a strange reply in regard to Portugal, saying that, if France should seize that country, England would take Brazil and the other Portuguese colonies, — an odd way of defending an ally ! Bonaparte did not yield ; he made ostentatious preparations on the Boulogne shore, where he collected a fleet of gunboats for a descent on England if negotiations failed, and pub lished articles from his own pen in the official journal, the Moniteur, in which he eloquently and skilfully appealed to European opinion, throwing the blame of prolonged war on Pitt and his colleagues, who paralyzed their successors' good intentions. The English minister then yielded Malta, but still demanded the Spanish isl and, Trinidad, in the Antilles. Hostilities going on during the parleys, public opinion in England, alarmed by threats of inva sion, compelled the government to act on the offensive in the Straits of Dover. Nelson, recalled from the Baltic, was put in command of a squadron of light craft, and on the 4th of August tried to bombard the French fleet from a distance, but with no success. August 16 he reappeared with stronger forces, and attempted to board the enemy's line of gunboats. He was repulsed with great loss, several of his vessels being taken or scuttled, and the others forced to retreat at dawn, leaving the water strewn with corpses. • This was a most irritating check for the "invincible" Nelson, and only increased the English desire for peace. The First Consul was ill-pleased with Spain, which had just treated with Portugal, insisting, indeed, that the latter's ports should be closed to England, but not stipulating for the military occupation which Bonaparte deemed indispensable as a make-weight with England. He therefore consented to allow the latter the Spanish island of Trinidad, important from its position on the South American coast, and peace preliminaries were signed at London, October 1, 1801 ; England restoring to France and her allies, Spain and Holland, all her maritime conquests save Ceylon and Trinidad, giving back to France Martinique, — promising to return to Holland the Cape 1801.] PEACE OF AMIENS WITH ENGLAND. 155 of Good Hope and Dutch Guiana; to Spain, Minorca and the famous citadel of Port Mahpn ; to the Order of St. John of Jeru salem, Malta. France relinquished Egypt, which was restored to Turkey, and evacuated the Roman and Neapolitan states ; England quitting her positions in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. The treaty established the fact, though not in so many words, that France recognized the English empire in India, and that England recognized France's power in Belgium and on the Rhine: there was no question of the states under French influence and occupied by French troops, — Holland, Switzerland, and Upper Italy, — nor of the rights of neutrals or the commercial relations between France and England. When the Second Consul, Cambac^res, read over the preliminaries, he declared that a commercial treaty must be added to the peace treaty, the first assuring the second ; but Bonaparte protested that he would not sacrifice French industries. Thus, on this point and on certain clauses relating to Malta, there were clouds which veiled the future, but they were overlooked in the general joy. The English went mad with delight, unharnessing the French envoy's horses and themselves dragging the carriages, and cheering Bonaparte frantically. The rejoicing of the French, though less demonstrative, was no less deep, and culminated soon after by the conclusion of peace with Turkey and Russia. Splendid feasts were given in London and Paris to celebrate the peace, even before it was signed ; and at the lord mayor's banquet toasts were drunk to the " First Consul, liberty, and the success of the French Republic ! " The feast in Paris was held November 9, in order to identify peace and victory with the Revolution which gave Bona parte power. Many distinguished Englishmen hastened thither, and were received with high honors. France now fancied all her sufferings over. After ten years of struggles and sacrifices, the revolutionary war closed in grandeur and glory, and popular enthu siasm for the man who brought about these happy results knew no bounds. The Revolution was indeed over, and the wars looming in the distance were of a very different character. Republican France had attained the highest degree of power dreamed of by 156 ' THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VII. statesmen of the ancient monarchy in their boldest flights, and surpassed the hopes of the heroic defenders of the Revolution, Danton, Carnot, and De Thionville, who would have preferred a speedier peace. Having attained the limits of old Gaul, the home of her ancestors, she had only to strengthen her position by annexing, through common interests, ideas, and sentiments, Savoy, Belgium, and the left bank of the Rhine, as she had annexed Alsace and Lorraine. She had to restore to their own free and sponta neous development the neighboring peoples ruled by her at the moment, — Holland, Switzerland, and Upper Italy, — while continu ing to protect them from foreign powers, and return to an attitude of peace towards the great kingdoms of Europe, of whatever form of government. The treaty whose preliminaries were signed at London was con cluded at Amiens, March 25, 1802 ; but many incidents in the course of negotiations proved to politicians that the peace was nothing but a truce. 1800.] THE FIRST CONSUL'S ADMINISTRATION. 157 CHAPTER VIII. consulate {continued). — THE first consul's administration. — CONCORDAT. — CIVIL CODE. — CONSULATE FOR LIFE. Vendemialre, Tear IX., to Fructldor, Tear X. — October, 1800, to August IS, 1802. HITHERTO we have followed the course of military and diplomatic events up to that restoration of general peace which excited so many hopes and illusions ; now we must turn back to examine the progress of France under new conditions and the policy of the consular regime. We have already mentioned some of the First Consul's measures for reviving credit and finances. With his wonted energy and decision, he set to work to favor the tendency to labor and production which reappeared under the Directory ; provided for the repair of public works, greatly neglected during the late crises ; resumed and completed the canals begun at the close of the monarchy between the Somme and Scheldt, the Marne and Seine, and from Aigues-Mortes to Beaucaire ; and made a canal through Brittany from Nantes to Brest. He opened the famous Simplon Pass, and began three other roads from France to Italy by Mont C^nis, from Savoy to Piedmont by Mont GeneVre, from Dauphiny to Piedmont, and by the Tenda Pass from Nice to Piedmont, all for the purpose of facilitating his troops' descent into Italy; but commerce and international relations profited by them as well. It was in vain to construct and repair roads without making them safe, they being more than ever infested with brigands, who frequently attacked and killed farmers and country officials. These brigands were called " chauffeurs " (firemen), from their habit of singeing the feet of their wretched victims in the hope of extorting money from them ; and their bands, filled up by " Comrades of 158 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL Jesus " from the South and Chouans from the West, ravaged half France. The First Consul resorted to the sternest discipline, send ing small divisions of men to each department to execute summary judgment on the bandits, as that was the only way to root out the scourge in regions where it inspired such terror that neither wit nesses nor jurors could be found. Several hundred brigands were shot, the rest dispersed, and order was restored. At the same time Napoleon made various advances to emigrants and priests, a fresh consular decree (October 20, 1800) reducing the long emigrant list, once containing one hundred and forty-five thousand names, to such as had borne arms against France, or held office under for eign governments or in the household of any foreign prince. All those erased from the list were to swear fidelity to the Constitu tion, and remain under police surveillance until one year from the time of general peace ; this was intended to protect the purchasers of national property, whom the returned emigrants were already threatening. No one could find fault with this decree. The First Consul was perfectly right to present it as an act of justice and humanity ; but this flattering reception of and preference for men of the old regime, courtiers and refractory priests, gave real cause for alarm. He uttered many significant words : " There are no other men [speaking of the courtiers of former days] who can really serve." Again, he exclaimed in full state council : " With my prefects, my priests, and my gendarmes, I can do anything I like ! " It was well known that he was striving to negotiate with the Pope, and gradually to substitute, in his official proclamations, the words " fidelity, glory, and honor" for "liberty and patriotism." His monarchical tendencies deceived the royalists, who fancied that they could persuade him to work for others than himself, and to play the part of the English general, Monk, who restored the Stuart dynasty after Cromwell's death. The "Pretender, Louis XVIIL," living in retirement in Russia, a cold sceptic of reflective mind, was obtuse enough to write him two letters, requesting him to " restore the lawful king to France," and to name his conditions in regard to the offices 1800.] THE OPERA PLOT. 159 he wished for himself and friends. Bonaparte replied with dignity, returning offer for offer. "You ought not," he wrote, "to desire to return to France, for it would be across five hundred thousand corpses. Sacrifice your interests to the welfare of France ; history will reward you. I am not insensible to your family misfor tunes, and will gladly contribute to the peace and pleasure of your retirement " (September 7, 1800). Bonaparte continued his efforts to gain the royalist party, and watched the Jacobins with distrust and dislike, which was increased by a plot which would have been trifling had not the police interfered. Some few malcontents, among them Italians enraged that Bonaparte had not re-established the Roman republic, gathered at the house of one Demerville, where they railed against the " new Csesar " ; some of them dream ing that a " new Brutus " had been found to slay this Csesar, in the person of an unemployed soldier named Harel, who undertook to find men and cany out the affair. The First Consul was to be struck down at the opera, October 10. The police were warned, most of the conspirators being in their pay, and Demerville and his friends were arrested. This incident, whose true character was not known, made a great stir, and the brothers and confidants of the First Consul urged him to profit by it to take a fresh step forward. An anonymous pamphlet, written by Fontanes at Lucien Bona parte's instigation and revised by the First Consul, entitled, "A Parallel between Caesar, Cromwell, and Bonaparte," was put in cir culation on the 9th of November. Napolson had repelled a com parison with Csesar as a slander ; he now provoked it, the pamphlet insisting that any comparison with a seditious wretch like Crom well or a renegade like Monk was an outrage and insult. "The author went on to say that he could not approve of Caesar's " oppression of honest men, to which he was impelled by Roman demagogues." Bonaparte did just the contrary. " Happy the Republic," said the author, " if Bonaparte were immortal ! But where are his successors ? " The conclusion to be drawn was the restoration of the hereditary transmission of power, but public opinion revolted against that ; and 160 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL even the prefects, who had not been prepared, denounced the pam phlet as seditious. The First Consul shrank back, enraged at his failure, and threw all the blame on his brother Lucien, whom he removed from the ministry of the interior and sent as ambassador to Spain. Thence dates the latter's opposition to Napoleon, and the return of that leading spirit of November 9 to bis^role of false republican. A few weeks later, Bonaparte was the object of a much more serious plot than the opera conspiracy. On the evening of Decem ber 24, 1800, as the First Consul was driving through the little Rue St. Nicaise, a fearful explosion was heard ; houses shook, and the ground was strewed with the dead and dying. A keg of powder loaded with grapeshot had been placed on a cart with the intention of blowing up Napoleon on his way to the opera, but the skill and speed with which his coachman passed it saved his life. When the officers of state hastened next day to congratulate him on his escape and to express their horror, Bonaparte burst out against the Jacobins, the Terrorists, the " Septembrists," and did not hesitate to attribute the crime to them, the recent seizure of an explosive ma chine in the house of a revolutionist giving color to the charge. Two days after, in the Council of State, he redoubled his fury, talking of shooting, transporting, and himself condemning the revolutionists, that he might escape the delay of the law. The majority were alarmed at such passion, one member only, Hoche's friend, Admiral Truguet, venturing to *eply that the Septembrists were not the Republic's only foes ; and that it had quite as much to fear from returned emigrants, Chouans, fanatic priests, and the authors of "seditious pamphlets." Bonaparte closed the session in a rage with Truguet. The Council of State was terrified by his anger, and accepted the exceptional measure by which he carried out his threats, he having drawn up a proscription-list condemning one hundred and thirty-three men unheard. He dared not put it in the form of a law, lest the Legislature should reject it, and was advised to frame a resolution to be submitted to the Senate by Talleyrand, which was accordingly done, and the Senate declared the measure " pre- 1801.] THE OPERA PLOT. 161 servative of the Constitution" (January 5, 1801). Just as this act destroying all legal order and justice was adopted, the innocence of the revolutionists was established, the police inquiry absolving them, and implicating agents of the famous Chouan leader, Georges Cadou dal. This arbitrary act would therefore have been criminal, even if it had only attacked men whose antecedents made them unworthy of interest, for it is illegal to punish even criminals for. a crime they never committed. But it was not so. Not only were revolutionists like Rossignol, and conventionalists whose violent opinions were not sufficient to bring them to trial, added to the Septembrists, but good citizens, whose only crime was their defence of law and liberty, were involved in the proscription; among them, two members of the Five Hundred, Destrem — who cried out to Bonaparte (Novem ber 9), " Was it for this you conquered ? " — and his colleague, Talot. This time Bonaparte held firm, — a remnant of decency only caus ing him to mitigate the fate of Destrem, Talot, and a few others, who were sent to the island of Oleron, where Destrem died in 1805. The rest were transported beyond the sea, and all died but two, who succeeded in escaping. While the convoy of proscribed men pro ceeded towards Nantes, whence they sailed, those accused of com plicity in the opera plot were tried at Paris, four being sentenced to death, among them the artist Topino-Lebrun, ex-juror of the revolutionary tribunal, who, set aside as suspected at the Dantonist trial, left precious revelations in regard to that monstrous proceed ing. Neither he nor his companions in misfortune had any share in the present plot. Five others, against whom there were even fewer proofs, were next condemned and executed, — the mechanician at whose house an explosive machine was found, and his accom plices. Soon after, the real authors of the attempt of December 24 were revealed in the persons of a naval officer named St. Rd- jant, and two Western Chouans, Limoelan and Carbon. Limoelan escaped, but the others were executed late in January, 1801. This unhappy episode, which plainly showed the arbitrary character of the Consulate, occurred during the second legislative session of the Constitution of the year VIIL, at the opening of which, Decem- 11 VOL. II. 162 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL ber 10, the government had protested its kindly and impartial dis position towards all. Two legal schemes were presented, — one to diminish the number and importance of justices of the peace, to the profit of the police and detriment of individual liberty ; the other, to establish special courts, partly civil, partly military, to be sub stituted for ordinary justice when the government saw fit. The mil itary commissions against brigandage were justifiable : not so those which changed an incident of war into an institution. Constant, Daunou, Chenier, Isnard, and Ginguene' (all well-known names) battled against both laws, and they only passed by a small majority. Bonaparte was furious when he heard of this opposition, and heaped insults upon the " metaphysicians " and " philosophers," who were only fit for drowning. He considered every criticism an insult. He also met with opposition in the matter of finance, though he had arranged to escape all control. Instead of presenting a budget comprising the receipts and expenses, " he proposed," says Lanfrey in his Life of Napoleon I., " to continue the taxes of year IX. through year X., presenting a budget of receipts only. Thanks to this system, the expenses alone were submitted to the Legislature, and, these once paid, it was too late to object." His object was not to conceal disorder and extravagance, for he had restored financial order ; but he meant to be master here as elsewhere. After warm debates, the financial law was defeated by the Tribunal, but accepted by the Legislature. The deficit in the budget had hitherto been supplied by the alienation of national property. In order to keep what remained, certain creditors of the state were now paid in stocks. These had risen more than fifty per cent after the peace at LuneVille, and the financial condition of France was good. The First Consul established a sinking-fund endowed from the national property to reduce the public debt, and with the surplus property (about four hundred millions) formed a fund for hospitals and public instruction. This was a laudable measure ; but let us see what he meant by " public instruction," which was evidently not what the National Convention meant in its great institutions of the year III. He was even now plotting to undo the crowning act of that famous 1801.] THE FIRST CONSUL'S ADMINISTRATION. 163 year, — the separation of church and state. He had abolished the elective institutions of the Revolution, and now attacked its religious results. Here we must go back and briefly recall the various phases through which the Revolution passed in regard to the religious question. The Constituent Assembly, groundlessly accused of inno vation, strove to compound with religion as well as with royalty ; but the Jansenists (the foes of Jesuitism) and lower order of clergy urged the Assembly to make the famous civil constitution for the clergy, which only served to bring on domestic discord and persecu tion of the Catholics. This terrible lesson was not lost ; and the Convention, taught by dear experience, made an effort before disso lution to achieve legal liberty of worship, as of all things else. But liberty did not yet exist, religion being still mingled with politics and refractory priests, who had refused allegiance to the Constitu tion, and now refused the oath of fealty to the laws, being con sidered as foes of the Republic. Some authorities punished them, while others let them go scot-free. Bonaparte, since November 9, had removed the last restrictions on these priests, simply demand ing a promise instead of an oath of obedience to the law. Indeed, he had no right to require anything, as the state neither paid nor officially recognized them. What was the condition of religious worship under the Consulate ? What were the results of the regime established by the Constitution of the year III ? On the one hand, there were the old constitutional clergy, the sworn priests, considered schismatic by the Pope because they obeyed the laws of the Revolution contrary to his will. Persecuted by the H^bertists, defended by Robespierre and Danton, and bravely sustained by Bishop Gregory, they promptly resumed their religious practices wherever they had been temporarily interrupted. In September, 1797, they held a national council at Paris, to which they invited the refractory clergy, for the sake of conciliation : their advances, however, were rudely repulsed. At that date, worship was held in more than thirty-two thousand parish churches. More than forty-five hundred other communes had petitioned the state 164 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL to restore their churches, which the First Consul willingly did. On the other hand, there were the non-sworn clergy, or rebellious priests, now freely exercising their functions. Most hostile to the constitutional clergy, who vainly proffered peace, they were also at discord with each other; some yielding to Bonaparte, and some siding with the royalists, the latter regarding the former as semi- schismatics. The non-Catholic sects, such as Jews and Protestants, still enjoyed the liberty which they owed to the Revolution ; and by their side sprang up another sect, called the " Theophilanthro- pists," or " Friends of God and Man." They were pure deists, pro fessing no dogma but the existence of God, the Author of nature and Father of man, and the immortality of the soul. There was a movement of religious reaction throughout the country. It was natural and inevitable that so much agony and distress should produce a return of religious feeling ; but this reaction against the spirit of pure criticism, and negation against atheism and materialism, was very diverse in its character and tendencies, having neither the passionate fervor of the Middle Ages, nor the logical and scholarly resumption of the Catholic dogmatism of the seventeenth century. The Constitution of the year III., in religious matters as in almost all else, realized the true principle of the modern spirit, making religion a matter between man and God, not between man and state ; but the man who destroyed that Constitution could not endure liberty in anything. Religion being an instrument of the govern ment, he must needs control it ; his conduct in this, as in all else, was guided by personal interest. His protestations in Egypt of devotion to Mahomet, and in Italy to Catholicism, show that he jested with religion as, to use his own words, he did with history. What his real opinions were we know not, for he acted from con venience rather than from feeling. If he believed in God, it was rather as a fatal than as a moral power. He confounded himself with God, as we may say, through his blind faith in his own fortune. Although he sometimes denied that he was a fatalist, that was, at bottom, his whole religion. 1801.] THE FIRST CONSUL'S ADMINISTRATION. 165 He could not permit liberty to survive in religion after stifling it everywhere else ; but what instrument of power should he choose from the various creeds ? The question was answered as soon as put. The Theophilanthropists had neither strength, numbers, nor glory to offer, and besides, they were republicans. The Protestants were too deep thinkers, too much accustomed to free examination ; they could not be made the tool of despotism in France. There remained Catholicism, with its tendencies to blind obedience, — Catholicism, not as understood at the Vatican, but at Versailles in the time of Louis XIV. and Bossuet ; or rather understood in the style of Charlemagne, when he presided over ecclesiastic councils as if they were national assemblies, only the object was not the same : Charlemagne tried to guide church and state to progress and civilization, Bonaparte thought of himself alone. He aspired to " manage the Pope " ; to attract him to Paris, which would become the capital of the Christian world; to hold councils there over which popes should merely preside, while he approved and pub lished the decisions like Constantine and Charlemagne. He aspired " to direct the religious as well as the political world." To direct it whither? Direct the religious and the political world with neither religious nor political faith ! Such were the mad dreams to which the glorious ideas of 1789 and the year III. were sacrificed. Unhappily the mind swarming with these hallucinations was joined to an iron will, armed with means of irresistible action. Public opinion by no means approved of Bonaparte's plan. The non-sworn clergy and their adherents were content to be free from persecution, and the rest of the country bitterly opposed the official restoration of Catholicism. The state officials, always the most docile where politics were concerned, the army, and even the First Consul's family, agreed on this point. But once decided, he braved public opinion, sure that he need fear no material resistance. They had made him master ; he used his power. His plan, in brief, was as follows, — to treat with the Pope, and persuade him to accept a new civil constitution for the clergy 166 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL under the name of concordat, or that given to the ancient compact between royalty and the papacy concluded by Francis I. and Leo X. The clergy would be paid by the state, their leaders being chosen, as in the old concordat, by the head of the state, and con firmed by the Pope. The clergy must promise submission to the law. Religious worship would be subject to civil authority, the Council of State having the same jurisdiction over the clergy as the former parliaments. To end the quarrel between ordained and non-ordained bishops, Bonaparte intended to suppress all dioceses, new and old, and require the Pope to dismiss all the incumbents. Fifteen new archbishoprics and forty-five bishoprics would then be made, and the First Consul would appoint sixty prelates chosen from the old ones, mostly from the ordained party, both to please the Pope and benefit himself. To these the Pope would give the canonical/ installation. In return for the salary promised the clergy by the state, the Pope would recognize as valid the alienation of church property, reconcile the married priests to the church by inducing them to resign office, and generally play the part of peace-maker. This compromise, so contrary to the spirit of the Revolution, was just as unsatisfactory to the Court of Rome ; and the party of the .old regime was as greatly scandalized as the revolutionary party, urging the Pope to refuse Bonaparte's proposal. Pope Pius VII. was weak, but kindly and devout. Before his elevation to the pontifical throne, he was the most tolerant of the Sacred Col lege, and the most disposed to compromise with Revolution and Republic; he had even quoted Rousseau in one of his mandates, and Bonaparte had won his heart, in 1797, by his forbearance to religion and the clergy. No sooner was he elected than the First Consul informed him that France, victorious at Marengo, would not re-establish the Roman republic or oppose the restoration of the temporal power of the Pope, which the latter hoped would be made complete by the return of those provinces (legations) renounced by the Holy See in the treaty of Tolentino. He was then asked to send a trusty agent to Paris to negotiate for a closer union NATIONAL LIBEABY. PARIS. 1801.] CONCORDAT. 167 between the Roman Church and France, and accordingly sent a Genoese prelate, " Monsignor " Spina, with orders to try to recover the legations (Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna). Bonaparte was far from willing to return them, and had chosen one of his most docile agents to treat with Spain in the shape of Abbe" Bernier, the ex- Vend^an leader. Spina prolonged discussion in the vain hope of obtaining the legations, but there were difficulties of another kind; the Court of Rome insisted on declaring Catholicism the state religion, and resisted the dismissal of bishops, desiring to exclude constitutional ists from the episcopacy and to restore mortmain. After six months' parley a scheme for the concordat was sent to the French envoy at Rome, with orders to submit it for the Pope's instant acceptance ; and with it was sent, to conciliate Pius VII., the famous Madonna of Loretto that had been canied off by French troops, and kept for some years in the national library at Paris as an archaeological curiosity. After long discussion between the cardinals and Pope, a counter-scheme was formed at Rome, the latter persisting in his demands. Bonaparte was furious, and threatened to break the treaty of Tolentino (May 13, 1801), that is, to rob the Pope of his remaining states. The Vatican was alarmed, and the French minister at Rome, Cacault, advised the Pope to send his first minister, Cardinal Consalvi, to Paris, with full powers, to seek concessions. Consalvi, insinuating, wily, and devoted to the Pope, was just the man for the mission ; but he had far more prejudice against France and the Revolution than Pius VII., and set out for Paris with as much terror as if he had been ordered to throw himself into an abyss. When Bonaparte discovered this, he resolved to profit by it, and sent for the luckless Consalvi immediately on his arrival, bringing him suddenly into the midst of the Legislature assembled in gala dress for a review at the Canousel (June 20, 1801). Before this imposing audience he granted five days' space in which to conclude negotiations. " If on the fifth day they are not concluded, you may return to Rome : my mind is made up." 168 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL Consalvi, though much distressed at first, succeeded in prolong ing negotiations for three weeks, disputing his ground more bravely than was expected. Still, he allowed the impossibility of restoring the state religion, substituting for that term " the religion of the great majority of Frenchmen." This was a strange formula: the law should state principles, not announce facts. To declare that a certain form of worship is professed by the majority, is simply bringing in by a back door the state religion, no longer recognized by that law. As for the personal relations of the consuls to worship, Bernier explained that Napoleon might indeed assist at a Te Deum or a mass, but must not be expected to go further. Consalvi finally yielded the point most justifiably opposed by the Pope, — the depo sition of bishops who refused to resign ; nor could he do anything in regard to church revenues, the First Consul being resolved to allow the clergy to receive nothing but a salary from the state. The fear inspired in Consalvi by a council of constitutional clergy, convened at Paris by Napoleon, contributed much to make the cardinal consent. This council, maintaining the principles of 1789, claimed the free election, or at least presentation, of bishops and priests by the faithful, and demanded that the nomination of bishops should be confirmed by archbishops, and that of arch bishops only by the Pope. The Austrian minister, Cobentzel, also urged Consalvi to accept, and all seemed over. On the 13th of July, Consalvi went to Joseph Bonaparte, who was charged by his brother with the official conclusion of the compact, and Abbe Bernier presented the concordat for his signature. He saw at once that several articles had been changed, and exclaimed in surprise, as did Joseph Bonaparte. Bernier confessed that Consalvi was right, but that the changes were made by the First Consul's order. The cardinal refused to accept the alterations, and remained for nineteen hours in debate with Bernier, after -which but one article remained under discussion, — that in regard to the public exercise of worship. Consalvi declaring he had no power to settle it with out the Pope, the First Consul yielded the point on condition that 1801.] CONCORDAT. 169 this exercise should be in conformity with police regulations, and the cardinal considered this a mere taking away with one hand what was given with the other. That very day there was a grand official dinner at the Tuileries, and when Consalvi came in, the First Consul cried aloud, "So, Sir Cardinal, you choose to break with me ! Well and good ! I don't need the Pope. If Henry VIIL, with not the twentieth part of my power, could change his country's religion, how much more may I ! In changing religion, I will change it throughout the greater part of Europe. You may go. When will you start ? " " After dinner, General," was the calm reply. Bonaparte, who was really reluctant to have him depart, ended by adding to the clause relating to the police regulations the words, *' which the govern ment may deem requisite for public peace," and the concordat was signed on the night of July 16, 1801. Thus was overthrown the reign of religious liberty inaugurated by the Revolution ; thus was re-established that alliance between church and state which restored to ecclesiastic hierarchy the support of public authority, humbled church to state in the present and compromised the free dom of the state in the future, especially in the capital question of education. Of all the blows dealt to public liberty and modern progress by Bonaparte, none inflicted a wound more difficult to heal. The public were dumb with surprise ; and when Bonaparte announced the concordat to the State Council, and eloquently set forth its pretended advantages, he was heard in icy silence (August 6). The same day the First Consul ordered the minister of police "to acquaint journalists that they were henceforth forbidden to speak of anything concerning religion or its ministers," and dis solved the council of clergy, their task being done. A few weeks later (October 3, 1801), he forbade the meetings of Theophilanthropists, and that form of worship disappeared without leaving a trace. Bonaparte wished to proclaim the concordat, and celebrate the official restoration of Catholicism at the same time as general peace, the preliminaries for which were signed with England November 9, 170 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL 1801. He expected to make a great sensation by this double an nouncement, but the difficulties and delays relative to the terms of the Pope's bull, and the resignations to be obtained from emigrant bishops scattered all over Europe, prevented its preparation in time. There was also a grave difference between Bonaparte and Rome in regard to the constitutional bishop, he wishing to appoint some of them for the new sees, and the Pope refusing, unless they would make a humiliating retraction of their " schism." The 9th Novem ber once passed, Napoleon was in no haste ; and when matters were arranged, he postponed for some months the presentation of the concordat to the Legislature, which was to vote upon it, foreseeing their opposition. Meantime he had prepared another project of prime importance, as necessary as the concordat was useless and dangerous ; namely, the civil code. A commission composed of the lawyers Portalis, Tronchet, Bigot de Pr&meneu, and Malleville was formed in July, 1800, to draw up the scheme, which was then sent to the various tribunals for criticism and presented to the State Council. The work, as aforesaid, was almost finished in 1793 by the Convention, and only left incomplete because the form seemed hardly philo sophic enough. It must inevitably lose in the First Consul's hands. His chief desire was to make the codification of the new civil in stitutions of France appear his personal work, casting into shadow the vast labor of the revolutionary assemblies. The same men who prepared the code under the Constituent Assembly, like Tronchet, or carried it out under the Convention, like Cambaceres, Treilhard, Merlin de Douai, etc., now reformed it under the Consulate and con sented to give the glory to the First Consul, who also displayed much adroitness in giving himself the air of a great legislator in the eyes of Europe. To sustain the part he played, he needed all his extraordinary talents. He appropriated with incredible ease, in hasty talks with specialists, elements of knowledge the most foreign to him, and discussed, with force, eloquence, and originality, matters of which he had never heard the day before. But it was not always in the cause of the most healthy ideas, and seldom for the benefit 1801.] CIVIL CODE. 171 of progress, that he employed his rare powers. He was never disin terested, and his personal passions mingled with everything. In restoring the society overthrown by the Revolution, and in strength ening order, authority, and morals, he removed everything tending to draw the family bond closer, for he preferred individuals as easier to govern. As for divorce, which the Revolution rendered scanda lously easy, the civil code put serious restrictions upon it, approach ing the true principle which makes divorce an exception, a necessary evil to prevent others still worse ; but this reform was in a manner forced upon Bonaparte by the lawyers about him. He himself went farther than the Revolution, wishing divorce to be valid, on the demand of either party, for " facts not proven," and with great reluc tance renounced his views, for he was planning on his own account ; Josephine having no children, and he, with his monarchical views, being most anxious for an heir. He wished at once to loosen the family tie, and to subject woman, whom he considered far inferior, to man, professing Mohammedan ideas in regard to her ; neither he nor any of his family had any idea of morality, resembling the Caesars in this as in other things. However, his immense labors were incompatible with irregular habits, and he was very glad to contrast the dignity of his house with the noisy license of Barras' time. The imperfections of the code in regard to woman's rights, and the inconceivable preference given to the most remote branches rather than to the surviving partner in a question of succession, as well as in regard to the unjust inequality between master and workman (civil code and penal code), are therefore undoubtedly due to Bonaparte. In spite of its faults and its insufficiencies, the French civil code is nevertheless, as a whole, the realization of the views of the eighteenth century and the principles of 1789. New France may revise or correct but cannot replace it. The common work of 1791, 1793, and 1794, it is a monument of the French Revolution, which the November reaction was forced to complete and conse crate. Far superior to the confused mass of contradictory traditions and customs forming the legislation of other European nations, it 172 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL has been adopted by the peoples then annexed to and since divided from France, and is a model for all to copy. The presentation of the concordat and civil code to that body of the state which was to vote upon them gave great importance to the legislative session of the year X., which opened November 22, 1801. The discontent produced by the concordat marred the satisfaction caused by peace. The Legislature chose for president, Dupuis, author of a famous book on the " Origin of all Forms of Worship," which presented religious dogmas as symbols veiling natural phenomena, and this fact was significant from legislators who had won the name of " mutes." The state counsellor Thibaudeau read before them, in the name of the government, a brilliant "Exposure of the Situation of the Republic," announcing the conclusion of treaties for peace, the pre sentation of the concordat, civil code, and a project for public in struction. They chose a sceptical philosopher for president, and the best known and most republican of the resigned bishops, Gregory, for their spokesman, to compliment the consuls on the condition of the country. In congratulating them, he concluded with what might seem a lesson for the future. " The nations," said he, " roused from their dreams of false grandeur, feel the need of mutual love and union. Woe to the one which shall strive to base, her own prosperity on the misfortunes of the others ! " The treaties of peace and the first three heads of the code were then presented to the Legislative Body, Bonaparte postponing the concordat until the legislators should be in a different frame of mind. One clause in the Russian treaty roused lively discussion. It stated that the two contracting parties (France and Russia) mutually promised to prevent any "subject" from exciting trouble on the other party's territory. The word " subject " was enraging. Three senators were now to be chosen. The Tribunal, Legisla ture, and First Consul, according to the Constitution, were each to present a candidate, and the Senate was to choose. The Legislature nominated Gregory, who was chosen by a large majority over the First Consul's candidate. Sieves, angry at being so overshadowed by Bonaparte, avenged himself by urging on this nomination. The 1802.] CIVIL CODE. 173 latter was deeply wounded by this rebuff, but soon received a worse one. At the suggestion of the majority in the Tribunal, the Legis lative Body rejected the preliminary clause of the code relating to publication, stocks, and the application of the law. The tribune Simdon said, " The code is not like a law. A code should be as perfect as possible. We labor for posterity." This was not syste matic opposition, for the next clause in regard to the bearing of civil acts was accepted. The third clause, on the enjoyment and priva tion of civil rights, established the confiscation of goods of con demned persons, and the compulsory dissolution of maniage, in case of condemnation to death. This was rejected as a return to the old regime. On the day that the Tribunal thus defended the principles of the Revolution (January 1, 1802), Daunou was pro posed, both by the Tribunal and Legislature, for the second sena torial vacancy, — an act of opposition far more marked than the choice of either Dupuis or Gregory ; Daunou having broken with Bonaparte on account of the law for special courts of justice, declar ing that he would remain a stranger to all legislative acts " while tyranny lasted." Bonaparte was furious, and made a violent scene next day, informing the senators that, if Daunou were chosen, he should consider it a personal insult, and such as he had never borne. The next day the government announced to the Legislature that it withdrew the legal schemes from the civil code, and the latter tried to appease Napoleon by proposing one of his candidates, General Lamartilliere, for the third vacancy in the Senate. The Senate yielded still more shamefully, feigning utter ignorance of Daunou's nomination by the Legislature, and named Lamartilliere for the second vacancy in the former's place. Bonaparte for an instant dreamed of a coup d'e'tat, another Novem ber 9, against his own Constitution, but was dissuaded by Camba- c^res, who suggested that he should pervert instead of destroying the Constitution, which the weakness of the Senate would facilitate. The great lawyer Tronchet, who played an eminent part in the Constitution and was now president of the Senate, fearing Bona parte's violence, agreed with Cambac^res. 174 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL The Constitution ordered the Tribunal and Legislative Body to be changed by fifths, dating from 1802. It was natural to effect the changes by drawing lots, but was not expressly so decreed. It was decided that the Senate should choose the members to go out, that is, all such as displeased the First Consul ; and sixty legislators and twenty tribunes were excluded, — Daunou, Constant, Chenier, and other ex -conventionalists and patriot priests opposed to the con cordat (January, 1802). Their substitutes were for the most part soldiers or officials, there being but one republican, Carnot, who had long since resigned his post as minister of war. Bonaparte now feared no dissenting voice, and on the 5th of April, 1802, presented the concordat for approval. We have already given the main points of it. By one of the articles, " His Holiness recognizes in the First Consul of the French Republic the same rights and prerogatives enjoyed by the former government." Another, resulting from this, deserves mention : " Bishops, before going into office, are to take the oath of allegiance to the First Consul, in use before the change of government, in the following terms : — " I swear, on the Holy Gospel, to be obedient and faithful to the government established by the Constitution of the French Republic. I promise to have no intelligence .... no league with aught con trary to public peace ; and if, in my diocese or elsewhere, I learn of anything to the prejudice of the state, I will make it known to the government." The next article decrees that ecclesiastics of the second order are to take the same oath before civil authorities chosen by the govern ment. Bignon, a historian favorable to Napoleon, rightly says that the First Consul meant to make a sort of " sacred police " of the clergy. Bonaparte completed the concordat, under the name of " organic articles," by a statute carefully worked out by the State Council, which was the application and development of the article by which the Pope recognized in the new government of France all rights possessed by the old regime. The double object of the stat ute was, to insure the state against all interference of the Court of Rome in its domestic affairs, and to subject bishops to the gov- 1802.] CIVIL CODE. 175 ernment and priests to bishops. The bishops were to be called " Citizen " or " Monsieur." Parish priests were to be chosen by the diocesan, with the Consul's approval ; and the lower orders of clergy were in a far worse condition than before 1789, the organic articles being laws of servitude for them. In regard to Rome, the statute was a precaution and a defence. It restored all the guaranties of the old parliament to the monarchy. The clergy was obliged in its acts to use the republican calendar, but to resume the old names of days, Sunday taking the place of D^cadi. There was nothing to surprise Rome in the articles, those con cerning the relations with Rome being the least that could be done to make the concordat, not good, but possible and supportable : either that or separation and liberty ! The day when the Ultramontane party succeeded in destroying, in 1870, the Gallican regime restored by Bonaparte, the Constitution received its death-blow, and the separation of church and state was assured. The Court of Rome was destined subsequently to make active resistance to the organic articles ; but for the present the papal legate who replaced Consalvi accepted them, while struggling des perately on another point, namely, the nomination of constitutional bishops. Napoleon was firm in choosing twelve out of the sixty new diocesans from that party, wishing to balance them against the other side. The legate Caprara finally yielded like Consalvi. " Do not anger this man," he wrote to the Pope ; " he alone sustains us in a land where every man's hand is against us." After the presentation of the concordat, the Legislature sent a dep utation to congratulate Napoleon on the peace with England recently signed at Amiens, but they did not mention the concordat. Thus, even after the exclusion of sixty opposers, the mutilated body pro tested by its silence ; but the measure none the less passed. The papal legate was solemnly received at the Tuileries, April 9, and a Te Deum was sung at Notre Dame on Easter Sunday, April 18, to celebrate the compact with Rome. The First Consul was present in great state, surrounded by the state officials, civil and military 176 THE CONSULATE. [Chap, VIIL authorities. Augereau had begged leave for himself and comrades to be absent ; but Napoleon's only answer was a formal order to repair to N6tre Dame. The generals obeyed, but plainly showed their displeasure. On leaving the church Bonaparte asked General Delmas what he thought of the service. " Very fine, General," was the answer; "it only lacked the million men slain to destroy what you have restored." He was exiled. The concordat was succeeded by the emigrants' recall, which resolution was presented and passed April 26. The inevocability of the sale of national property was again established, and amnesty granted to all emigrants but the leaders of armed forces, and some few whose offences were specially grave. The property of emi grants remaining unsold was restored, excepting forests, which Bonaparte reserved to be gradually returned as bribes to great fami lies. The legal scheme for taxes on this occasion gave neither the outlay nor income. The tax vote was henceforth a mere formality, Bonaparte regulating his budgets as he chose. Two important projects were presented to the Tribunal and Legislative Corps, the Legion of Honor and free schools. The Convention awarded prizes to the troops for special acts of daring, and the First Consul in creased and arranged the distribution, but that was not enough : he wanted a vast system of rewards, adapted to excite amour propre, repay service, and give him a new and potent means of influencing civilians as well as soldiers. He therefore conceived the idea of the Legion of Honor embracing alf" kinds of service and title to public distinction. He also sought a counterpoise to what he had done for the clergy and emigrants, and imposed on the members of the Legion an oath to defend the Republic and its tenitory, " equality " and the inviolability of national property. But this plan for forming an order of chivalry was contested even by the Council of State as offensive to that equality which its members were to defend, and as a renewal of aristocracy. It only passed the Tribunal and Legis lative Corps by a very small majority, and this after the removal of so many of the opposition party. The institution of the Legion of Honor was specious, and, despite the opposition it met with in 1802.] CIVIL CODE. 177 its early days, suits a people who love distinction, despite their passion for equality, provided it be not hereditary. As for the educational scheme, it was wretched, doing absolutely nothing for the primary schools. The state had no share in it. The Commune was to provide the buildings when the pupils could pay a teacher, thus forsaking the plans of the great assemblies. The wisest statesmen desired to sustain in an improved form the central schools founded by the Convention ; but Bonaparte meant to substitute barracks to educate young men for his service, over throwing the vast scheme of studies adopted by the Convention, creating only thirty-two lyceums in place of the one hundred cen tral schools, and restoring the old routine of Greek and Latin in place of the living languages. He diminished scientific study; suppressed history and, philosophy, which were incompatible with despotism; and completed his system of secondary instruction by creating six thousand scholarships, to be used as means of influence, like the ribbon of the Legion of Honor: these scholarships were not won by competition, but distributed by the government to the children of such as had rendered military or civil service, and the pupils of special schools in government pay. As for the education of girls, it was not even mentioned. This was perhaps the worst institution of the Consulate, and was prepared by Napoleon's tool, the learned but depraved Fourcroy. This, too, was opposed by the State Council and by the Tribunal and Legislative Corps, though in less degree than the Legion of Honor, which does not speak well for those bodies. The only good thing done for education was the creation of ten law schools, the necessary consequence of the recent codification, and the increase of the medical schools from three to six. Side by side with the polytechnic school founded by the Conven tion, the First Consul created a military school at Fontainebleau, and a cavalry school at St. Germain. While thus laboring to de velop instruction in the art of war, he pursued his campaign against philosophy, suppressing the moral sciences in lyceums and the Institute, in the latter of which they were not resumed until after 12 VOL. II. 178 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL the Revolution of 1830. All his measures succeeded, and yet he was not content : he wanted to extend his power. His first at tempt failed at the time of Fontanes' pamphlet, but his fame had increased since then. He saw that the moment had anived ; but he would fain be divined and forestalled without being forced to take the initiative. The great state bodies, docile as they were, felt and dreaded his tendency to destroy the last vestiges of the Republic and restore the monarchy. Cambaceres interfered once more, and when the Amiens treaty was presented to the Tribunal and Legislature, he proposed, through the president of the former, that the Senate should be invited to give the First Consul some- token of national gratitude (May 6, 1802). Chabot, the president, and many of his colleagues saw nothing in this but an honorary dis play ; but the Senate knew that it meant something more, and jits chief members tried to make Bonaparte explain what he wanted. He thought that they would grant more than he asked. He was wrong. The Senate, in spite of everything, dreaded a return to monarchy. The president, Tronchet, who connived at the attack on the Tri bunal for fear of worse things, saw how the danger of Napoleon's absolutism was growing, and joined Sieyes, who was working against Cambaceres to gratify his personal spite. The Senate only voted to prolong the First Consul's power for ten years (May 8), with but one protesting voice, that of Lanjuinais, who denounced the flagrant usurpation that threatened the Republic. This was a last echo of the Gironde ringing through the tame assemblies of the Consulate. Bonaparte was very angry, having expected more ; but Camba- ceVes calmed him and suggested a mode of evading the question, namely, to reply that an extension of power could only be granted by the people, and then to make the Council of State dictate the formula to be submitted to the people, substituting a life-consulate for ten years. This was accordingly done. The Council of State, who at heart agreed with the Senate, still obeyed orders, on a report from the prefect of police declaring the public discontent that Napoleon had not been made consul for life. The Council of State even added the First Consul's right to name his successor. 1802.] CONSULATE FOR LIFE. 179 This he thought premature and likely to make trouble, and therefore erased it. All the state officials congratulated him on thus accept ing what they never offered, addresses were instigated in various quarters, and the administrative machine worked smoothly. Regis ters were opened at the record offices and mayoralties to receive votes, and there were three million and a half votes in the affirmative ; a few thousand only daring to refuse and many abstaining from voting. La Fayette registered a *' no," adding that he could never vote for such a measure unless political liberty were assured, and sent the First Consul a noble letter, saying that so great a man as he could never wish "such a revolution, such victories and bloodshed, sonows and miracles, to result in nothing but his own arbitrary power ! " La Fayette then ceased the relations he had hitherto maintained with the First Consul since his return to France : '92 protested through Lanjuinais ; '89, through La Fayette. The satisfactory condition of the country and the brilliant suc cess of the government abroad explain the favorable feeling of the many towards Bonaparte. Peace was restored, industry and com merce revived, agriculture was on the increase, as was the popula tion, despite the vast slaughter by civil and foreign war, — a striking proof of the benefits of the Revolution. Finances were flourishing, the sum-total of public charges not exceeding six hundred and twenty-five millions, — scarcely half the amount paid by France previous to '89, when France was so much smaller. Bonaparte rightly claimed the agency in restoring the safety of travel and order in the finances ; but he had no share in the social restoration that preceded his rule. The masses began to attribute to a single man what they owed to the Revolution, and this delusion led to lengthy and fatal consequences. , The Senate counted the popular vote on the proposal they did not make, and carried the result to the Tuileries in a (body, August 3, 1802 ; and the result was proclaimed in the form of a Senatus- Consultum, in these terms: "The French people name and the Senate proclaim Napoleon Bonaparte First Consul for life." This was the first official use of the prenomen Napoleon, which was soon, 180 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. VIIL in conformity with royal custom, to be substituted for the family name of Bonaparte. The First Consul, exalted by success, made a lofty reply, saying that he was " called by the Great Being from whom all proceed, to restore order, justice, and equality to the world." In this outburst of imagination, if not of feeling, carried away by hearing himself declared master for life, he may, for an instant, have been sincere in the part he assumed ; but it is certain that he prepared and cal culated to increase the excessive power already vested in him. The next day various modifications of the Constitution were offered to the Council of State. Apparent concessions were made to the elective principle, the lists from which officials were chosen being replaced by electoral colleges in the arrondissements and departments, chosen for life, by universal vote, from the justices of the peace (cantons). These colleges were, in future, to present candidates for the various offices to the consuls and Council, and this feeble concession was largely rewarded. The Senate were given the right to interpret and complete the Constitution, to dis- ; solve the Legislature and Tribunal, and, what was even more, to break the judgments of tribunals, thus subordinating justice to policy. But these extravagant prerogatives could only be used at the request of the government. The Senate was limited to one hundred and twenty members, forty of whom the First Consul was to elect. The Tribunal was reduced to fifty members, and condemned to discuss with closed doors, divided into sections. The vote on treaties was taken from the Legislature and Tribunal, and even the Council of State, Bonaparte's tool, saw its attributes diminished by the creation of a privy council. Despotism concentrated more and more. Bonaparte took back his refusal to choose his successor, and now claimed that right. He also formed a civil list of six millions (nearly double to-day). The Senate agreed to everything, and the Senatus-Consultum was published August 5. August 15, the First Consul's birthday was solemnly celebrated, old monarchical customs being thus daily restored. Bonaparte took up his summer residence at St. Cloud ; 1802.] CONSULATE FOR LIFE. 181 Malmaison, which had hitherto been his country home, no longer heing equal to his dignity. The Sunday mass at St. Cloud be came like the royal mass at Versailles, the rendezvous of the new ruler's courtiers. The Republic was now but a name. The right to choose his successor made Bonaparte a Caesar, a Roman emperor. He had attained his end. Would he falsely keep the republican title of consul, or frankly take the title, as he had the power, of an emperor ? There was no other question ! 182 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. CHAPTER IX. CONSULATE {close). — EXPEDITION TO SAN DOMINGO. — RUPTURE OF THE PEACE OF AMIENS. — CAMP AT BOULOGNE. — TRIAL OF MOREAU. — MURDER OF DUKE D'ENGHIEN. — BONAPARTE PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. Brumaire, Tear X., to Pralrial, Tear XII. — November, 1801, to June, 1804. HAVING traced the course of domestic events up to the establishment of the Consulate for life, we must turn back a few months and survey Bonaparte's foreign policy. He had conceived a plan for raising the colonial power of France, so great towards the middle of the eighteenth century, so cruelly lessened by the cowardice and incapacity of the government of Louis XV., and almost destroyed by the war and the revolution ary crisis in the Antilles. The restoration of Louisiana by Spain, and her cession of the eastern part of San Domingo, mark Bona parte's first step towards this new end. This end could only be attained within modest bounds. Two conditions were requisite, — first, the maintenance of peace with England ; and second, the recog nition by a compromise, at an opportune time, of the existing condition of San Domingo. After frightful calamities, order was restored to the French or most fertile portion of that beautiful island, by the energy and ability of a negro, Toussaint L'Ouver- ture, who gloriously gave the lie to the prejudice which brands the blacks as an utterly inferior race. Driving the English and their allies, the emigrant Creoles, from the island, he established a dictatorship, which he used to the best advantage ; bringing the freed blacks back to work, organizing an army, rebuilding burned houses, and doing even more, — recalling the fugitive whites, and restoring their property to such as returned, on condition that they 1801.] EXPEDITION TO SAN DOMINGO. 183 shared the products of their land with the negroes who cultivated it. He had at once an ambition justified by his rare capacity, and a sincere devotion to the liberty of his long-oppressed people. He chose to remain at the head of the country which he had rescued from chaos ; but he preserved his affection for France, which pro claimed the freedom of the blacks, while England kept up slavery in her colonies. He ruled in the name of France, and under the tricolored flag ; in the name of France, he took possession of Spanish San Domingo and united it to the French portion, in conformity with the treaty between France and Spain. He refused the Eng lish offer to acknowledge him king of the island, and, after the annexation of the two parts of San Domingo, published, through a colonial council, a constitution, making him governor-general for life, which constitution he submitted to the approval of France. A great admirer of the genius of Bonaparte, he wrote him a letter on this subject with the following naively egotistical address: " The chief of the blacks to the chief of the whites." This changed, in point of fact, French supremacy to a sort of protectorate ; but Napoleon would have done well to accept it on two conditions : 1st, that France retained her commercial advan tages in San Domingo; 2d, that the black republic should aid France in case of war. But his imperious spirit would not brook conditions: he must be master, or ruin all in the attempt. A stranger to the ideas of the eighteenth century, he regretted the old colonial society, and could not imagine the restoration of the colonies without the restoration of slavery, which he was resolved to maintain in Martinique and the other islands given back to him by England ; he meant to do the same by Guadeloupe, although he denied it, and he decided to begin by putting down the power of the blacks in San Domingo, and retaining the right to go farther when the time came. He therefore determined to send an army of twenty or twenty-five thousand men under his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, to San Domingo, composing the expedition chiefly of veterans from the army of the Rhine, whose republican senti ments troubled him. He added to them many of those brave Poles 184 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. who, after the recent dismemberment of their land, had placed themselves at the service of France, greatly embanassing the First Consul in his relations with Russia and Prussia. He gave Leclerc a letter flattering Toussaint to persuade him to yield, offering him a lieutenant's commission in Leclerc's army, and confirming the rank of black officers and generals and the freedom of the negroes ; but at the same time he ordered Leclerc to bring Toussaint and all the black leaders to France, whether they would or not. The French expedition reached the northern shore of the island in January, 1801, and was desperately resisted by Toussaint and his blacks. The war began by the burning of the lovely town of Cap, which L'Ouverture had built up from ruin. Desolation overspread the land; newly restored prosperity was drowned in blood and flames. The mad daring of the negroes was impotent before the matchless soldiers of the Rhine, and after three months of fierce contest, the black leaders submitted in turn. Toussaint himself laid down his arms at last ; but Leclerc could not obey his orders. To make peace, he was forced to leave Toussaint's officers in command of their troops, simply uniting them to the French army, and the great chief himself remained in the country, going back to private life. He was not, however, resigned to defeat, neither he nor his men having any faith in the promises of Bona parte's lieutenant. News from Guadeloupe confirmed their fears ; the mulattoes who had defended that island against England were shamefully persecuted, and slavery was soon restored, although Bonaparte declared at the opening of the legislative session of 1801 that Guadeloupe " was free, and should remain so." Yellow fever, the scourge of the tropics, broke out in the French army at the Antilles, and raged with great fury. Toussaint foresaw that disease would do what the courage of the blacks could not effect, and prepared to resume arms. Leclerc, advised of his plan, entrapped, arrested, and sent him to France, and the First Consul was cruel enough to imprison this child of the tropics on the snowy peaks of the Jura, where he died a year afterwards. The yellow fever avenged him whom a historian (Lanfrey) justly calls " the 1801.] EXPEDITION TO SAN DOMINGO. 185 hero of the black race." Leclerc, Richepanse, the hero of Hohen- linden, and the flower of the French officers, all perished, sacrificed to an enterprise against which their whole past protested. The blacks rebelled throughout French San Domingo, and Le- clerc's successor, Rochambeau, brave but passionate, and imbued with the old colonial prejudices, made matters worse by maltreating the mulattoes, who, at first faithful to France, ended by joining the blacks. In vain the First Consul doubled the army : whole divis ions melted before the yellow fever like wax in the sun, and their remnants were forced to shut themselves up in a few strongholds ; and when, early in 1803, things grew dark on the English shore, the loss of San Domingo seemed inevitable. While making this expedition, doomed to so fatal an end, Bona parte continued his haughty policy on the European continent. By article second of the Luneville treaty France and Austria mu tually guaranteed the independence of the Dutch, Swiss, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, and their freedom in the adoption of what ever form of government they saw fit to choose. Bonaparte inter preted this article by substituting for independence his own more or less direct rule in those republics. Austria might have pro tested, but was exhausted and reduced to silence for a time, and England was most anxious for peace. Bonaparte, therefore, has tened to cany out his projects at this favorable moment. During the negotiations preceding the Amiens treaty he stined up a revo lution in Holland. That country had a Directory and two Cham bers, as in the French Constitution of year III., and he wished to impose a new constitution on the Chambers, putting them more into his power ; they refused, and he expelled them by means of the Directory, whom he had won over to his side. The Dutch Directory, in this imitation of November 9, was sustained by French troops, occupying Holland under Augereau, now reconciled to Bonaparte (September, 1801). The new Constitution was put to popular vote. A certain number voted against it. The majority did not vote. Silence was taken for consent, and the new Constitu tion was proclaimed October 17, 1801 ; Bonaparte declared a month 186 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. later that the "Dutch desired to change their institutions, and to adopt a new constitution. The government," he added, "rec ognized it perforce, it being the will of an independent people." The English government protested, but did not resist. At the same time he imposed on the Cisalpine republic, but without conflict or opposition, a constitution even more anti-liberal than the French one of year VIIL ; the president who there re placed the First Consul having supreme power. But who was to be that president? The Cisalpines for an instant were simple enough to think that they could choose an Italian : they decided on Count Melzi, well known in the Milanese. They were soon undeceived, when Bonaparte called Cisalpine delegates to Lyons in midwinter. These delegates were landowners, scholars, and mer chants, some hundreds in number, and his agents explained to them that none but Bonaparte " was worthy to govern their republic or able to maintain it." They eagerly offered him the presidency, which he accepted in lofty terms, and took Melzi for vice-president (January 25, 1802). Italian patriots were consoled for this subjec tion by the change of name from Cisalpine to Italian Republic, which seemed to promise the unity of Italy. Bonaparte threw out this hope, never meaning to gratify it. His direct seizure of the Cisalpine government made an impression in England, Austria, and elsewhere ; but he authoritatively waived all question in the matter at the conference opened at Amiens to conclude peace, writing to his envoy that " all such subjects were utterly foreign to the discussion with England." England did not insist, neither wishing to approve nor to oppose. Bonaparte tried to win her recog nition of the new constitutions of states governed by him. She refused. "Since England," he wrote (February 21, 1802), "refuses to recognize these new states, .she loses the right to meddle with their affairs, or to complain of their incorporation with France." And he declared his intention to close the ports of Holland, Italy, and even Spain to such English merchandise as was not received in France. Here were the germs of fresh quarrels with England, and a clear cause for rupture, even before peace was signed. However, 1802.] FRESH TROUBLES WITH ENGLAND. 187 the English minister was really anxious for peace, and Bonaparte wished it too, for a time at least. He agreed to send an agent to England to make a commercial arrangement. It must be confessed that it was a difficult matter ; France had recently introduced the manufacture of cotton and developed the iron trade; Bonaparte refused to sacrifice those branches of industry which were in no state to bear rivalry with England. The English, on their side, refused to receive French silks, for similar reasons, or to sacrifice their connection with Portugal by receiving French wines to rival the Portuguese. Bonaparte was right in protecting home industry, but he exagger ated protection into prohibition, which takes away all stimulus and spirit of progress by forbidding emulation. By his irritable humor he also excited another difference with England. Certain English papers attacked his policy of invasion; French emigrants went further, and published at London slanderous pamphlets against the First Consul and his family, in the style of those formerly issued against Marie Antoinette. Some few royalist bishops who did. not accept the concordat, several great emigrant nobles grouped about Count d'Artois, a handful of Chouan leaders (George Cadoudal and others), intrigued, plotted, and sent agents from London to Nor mandy and Brittany to stir up the natives. These proceedings were quite impotent, and hardly deserved to alarm a government so strong as that of Napoleon. The only serious thing was the discovery, dis cussion, and denunciation by the English journals of all the secret plans of consular ambition. Bonaparte demanded that they should be silenced, that the French pamphleteers should be given over to him in virtue of the extradition law, and that the emigrants should be driven from England. The first claim was senseless. The English government could not and would not suppress the liberty of the press to please him, and replied that newspapers were answerable only to courts of justice. As to the pamphleteers and emigrants, the case was different. It would have been disgraceful to give them up, but it was right to expel them if they abused" English hospitality; but the minister, Addington, dared not or 188 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. would not do this, and thus let loose Pitt's potent party against himself. He dared not even withdraw from Cadoudal and his men the subsidies which they used to plot against France. Haughty notes to the English government, and aggressive articles against England dictated to the Moniteur, and often written by his own hand, attest Bonaparte's rage. Throwing aside all caution, he announced the annexation to France of Piedmont and the island of Elba, by which he ruled the Tuscan Sea (September, 1802). His friendship with Russia and hold on Germany made him bold towards England. It had been agreed, in consequence of the cession of the left bank of the Rhine, that the lay princes of Germany should be repaid for the land thus yielded, at the expense of the kingdoms subject to ecclesiastical princes from the Middle Ages, the latter thus disappearing from the Germanic body. The French Revolution, therefore, did more than the German reform of the six teenth century. The German princes could not agree on any amicable division of their spoils. Austria and Prussia fought for the choice morsels ; Ba varia and the other minor states claimed their part ; and the weak and the small were in danger of destruction in the greedy conflict. Bonaparte excited one prince against another in the hope of being made mediator, which did indeed happen ; and he laid down the law to them, directly joining the Emperor of Russia in his arbitration. Czar Alexander, thus flattered, played a scarcely honorable part. Napoleon favored Prussia against Austria, then made concessions to the latter, and after long and irksome debate the Diet of Ratisbon voted the new Germanic pact (February 25, 1803). France did not guarantee this as formally as she had done that established in 1648 by the peace of Westphalia ; but Bonaparte ruled Germany far more than Richelieu and Mazarin had done. A skilful mediator in Ger many, he acted as master in Switzerland as well as Italy and Hol land. Since Switzerland had ceased to be the scene of war, she had been given over to agitation, fluctuating between revolutionary democracy and the old aristocracy joined to the retrograde democ racy of the small Catholic cantons. Modern democracy was at 1802.] CIVIL WAR IN SWITZERLAND. 189 strife with itself, the moderate party wanting a federative republic and equality of cantons, while the ultras aimed at a unitary republic, for which they were ill adapted. Bonaparte encouraged the strife, that Switzerland might call him in as arbiter. Suddenly, late in July, 1802, he withdrew his troops, which had occupied Switzerland ever since 1798. Civil war broke out at once ; the smaller Catholic cantons and the aristocrats of Berne and Zurich overthrew the government established at Berne by the moderate democrats. The government retired to Lausanne, and the country was thus divided. Bonaparte then announced that he would not suffer a Swiss counter-revolution, and that if the parties could not agree he must mediate between them. He summoned the insurrectional powers of Berne to dissolve, and invited all citizens who had held office in the central Swiss government within three years, to meet at Paris and confer with him, announcing that thirty thousand men under General Ney were ready to support his mediation. The demo cratic government at Lausanne were willing to receive the French ; the aristocratic government at Berne, anxious to restore the Aus trians, appealed to European powers, who replied by silence, England only protesting against French interference. The English minister, urged on by Pitt's party, offered the Bernese government money, and even proposed a secret subsidy to Austria, if she would defend the Swiss. Bonaparte responded to the English protest by so extraordinary a letter that his charge" d'affaires at London dared not communicate it verbatim. It said that, if England succeeded in drawing the continental powers into her cause, the result would be to force France to " conquer Europe ! Who knows how long it would take the First Consul to revive the Empire of the West ? " (October 23, 1802.) Austria did not accept England's offer, and there was slight resistance to Ney's troops in Switzerland. All the politicians of the new democracy and some of the aristocrats went to Paris at the First Consul's summons. He did not treat their country as he had Holland and Italy, but gave her, instead of a vain show of institu tions, a constitution imposing on the different parties a specious 190 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. compromise, preventing alike a return to the old regime and a unitary republic, and forming a federative republic whose central government was reduced to the necessary minimum, each canton governing itself according to its particular customs. Local aristoc racy recovered much of its quondam power, but the populations, once subject, retained their equality with those once supreme. Switzerland was dependent on France in regard to general policy, and was bound to furnish her with troops ; but, at least, she admin istered her own affairs (January, 1803). Meantime there was a debate in London. The speech from the crown at the opening of Parliament (November 23, 1803), though proposing armaments, still spoke of preserving peace. The Pittites attacked the ministry; and Fox, the leader of the old opposition, who had recently visited France, where he was welcomed by Bona parte, came to the latter's defence, showing that events subsequent to the Amiens treaty were but the results of it, and that nothing obliged England to make war. Public opinion in England was not pre pared to resume hostilities ; the ministry struggled to keep peace, and Bonaparte seconded their efforts, having no interest in immediate war. Envoys were sent and well received by both sides, and confi dence revived in both countries. The dark spot in the horizon was Malta, which the English had failed to evacuate as they promised. Hitherto there had been excuses for ' delay ; the Amiens treaty agreed that the order of the Knights of Malta should be restored and the island returned to them. Talleyrand, the skilful but negli gent French minister of foreign affairs, did not press the European powers to give their promised wananty of security to Malta, but at last Russia and Prussia sent in theirs, and England had no pretext left for remaining, until Bonaparte provided one, with strange over sight, unless he wished for war. He published in the Moniteur of January 30, 1803, a report from Colonel Sebastiani, who had been sent on an Egyptian and Syrian mission. The English allies of the Turks were still in Egypt, though the Amiens treaty obliged them to leave, which they soon did, and Sebastiani's report was very severe on them, seeming like the preface to a new French expedi tion to Egypt. 1803.] RUPTURE OF THE PEACE OF AMIENS. 191 All England sent forth a cry. Addington, who had never dreamed of breaking his promise in regard to Malta, refused to surrender that island, unless satisfaction were rendered for so offensive a publica~ ,tion, and guaranties given of Napoleon's intentions towards Egypt. The latter suddenly changed base, sent for the English ambassador, Lord Whitworth, and made him a most singular offer. " You torment me incessantly," said he. " Do you want peace ? Evacuate Malta. Are you for war ? We will fight you until one nation perishes. I will unite one hundred and fifty thousand men in a single flotilla, and bear down on England ! " But at the same time he counted all the difficulties and dangers of such a task, the chances of success being less than those of defeat ; all this to show that he would not attempt this rash scheme unless England forced him to it. He closed : " You have a navy which I could not equal in ten years with every resource at my command; but I have five hundred thou sand men ready to march where I lead them. If you are lord of the seas, I am lord of the land. Let us rather unite than quarrel, and settle the destinies of the world together." (February 18.) Before the impression made on England was known, a fresh event occurred. February 21, 1803, the annual report on the condition of the Republic was presented to the Legislative Corps. The govern ment in it used most lofty language, saying that two parties dis puted the power in England ; that one seemed determined to keep the peace, while the other had sworn deadly hatred to France ; " let us hope for peace, but, if the war party win the day, it shall not drag other nations into new leagues, and, — the government declares it with just pride, — single-handed, England cannot now struggle against France." At the same time, Bonaparte sent to demand a definite explana tion from England in regard to the evacuation of Malta. It was madness to use such terms to a brave and haughty nation, whom he deemed potent enough to divide the world with him, and the unanimous voice of England was : " We will show him that we can struggle single-handed with France!" The English government returned boast for boast, and announced military preparations to 192 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. Parliament in response to those of France (March 8). On hearing this, the First Consul had a violent scene with Lord Whitworth in presence of the diplomatic body, declaring that England had broken her promise to evacuate Malta (March 13). Thenceforth he thought only of war, sending aides-de-camp to Russia and Prussia to dis pose them in his favor, beginning preparations on a vast scale for a descent on England, and giving up his schemes for restoring colonial power, already so compromised at San Domingo, and incompatible with naval war. Against the advice of the secretary of the navy, Admiral Decres, he sold Louisiana to the United States to gain money without a loan, and the splendid Mississippi basin was thus annexed to the American republic, greatly increasing its power. English negotiations were not yet broken off; Talleyrand did his best to prolong them, and Bonaparte, wishing to gain time, agreed. England insisted on keeping Malta, April 13, and, in an ultimatum sent April 23, claimed the French evacuation of Holland and Swit zerland, and an indemnity for the King of Sardinia in place of Piedmont. Talleyrand made a final effort, suggesting a middle course : to put Malta as a deposit in the Czar Alexander's hands, until the conclusion of differences between France and England. The English minister refused. The First Consul offered to grant Malta to England for an indefinite period, on condition of French reoccupation of the Gulf of Taranto in Naples. England refused, and the ambassadors on both sides were recalled. Thus began the war destined to become universal ; it was to im pose on England unheard-of efforts and sacrifices, and to close, after extraordinary success for French arms, by reverses no less prodigious. At first the wrong was wholly on Bonaparte's side ; but in the end it was the wounded pride of England that refused to compromise. For the liberty of otjher nations she cared as little as Bonaparte ; the war having no other object than conquest, and beginning on both sides with violence, contrary to the rights of nations. The English, without any declaration of war, seized French trading- vessels in French waters, and the First Consul ordered the arrest of all Englishmen over eighteen and under sixty found on French soil. 1803.] PREPARATIONS FOR WAR WITH ENGLAND. 193 The first consequence of the war was the loss of San Domingo. English squadrons went to the aid of the blacks against the remnant of French troops, and after an obstinate and vain struggle, the last posts of French San Domingo yielded, and the ships which tried to escape with the few remaining troops fell into the hands of the English, or were swallowed up by the sea. In this wicked and un reasonable attempt to restore the old colonial rule, twenty generals and more than thirty thousand men perished. Ferrand, a French general, held his own in the Spanish portion of the island, until 1810, when he was forced to submit to the black leader, Christophe. Bonaparte's sole thought was to realize his threat to Lord Whit worth. Not aspiring to make the French fleet rival the English, he resolved to risk life and fortune in the rash scheme, as he him self called it, of a descent on England. His plan of attack was, to build in the chief French rivers and canals a multitude of flatboats, for oars and sails, capable of carrying one hundred and fifty thou sand men, ten thousand horses, and four hundred cannon to send these boats down to the sea, skirt the coast in them, and collect them at the point nearest England; then to set sail with his army on this vast flotilla, choosing a favorable moment either in summer weather or winter fogs. There were perhaps nine chances out of ten that the winds, waves, and English fleets would ruin this expedition, but the tenth chance remained, and Bonaparte risked his fortune on it. Once resolved, he did all that human skill could do to perfect his plan. While the transport-ships were building, six divisions of twenty-five thousand men each, who were to form the attacking army, were encamped on the sea-coast from Holland to Bayonne. The French army was increased to four hundred and eighty thousand men, to enable' it to oppose any diversion that England might excite on the Continent. Great sums of money were of course requisite to defray such operations, and the budget was increased by eighty-nine millions in March, 1803, but that was hot enough; it was evident that at least one hundred millions would be required annually. The sale of Louisiana provided a part, for sixty millions were to be paid within two years by the United 13 VOL II. 194 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. States, and the administration procured a number of patriotic gifts from various departments and towns, amounting to thirty or forty millions in money and naval supplies, to be spread through two years. The First Consul thus reaped the first-fruits of the concordat; the bishops sided with the prefects, and their charges against England were issued simultaneously with the administra tive addresses, those of them fed and lodged by English bounty during their emigration being most bitter against that land. The movement, forced at first, soon gained strength. By dint of repeat ing that all the wrongs were on England's side, the people ended by believing it. The First Consul, unwilling to increase the taxes, procured the surplus funds needed at the expense of his allies and proteges. Spain owed him military aid by treaty ; this was not required, but was changed to a subsidy of seventy-two millions. The Spanish government resisting the demand, the First Consul employed to wards the weak King Charles IV. and Godoy, the queen's favorite and the real king, violent and offensive measures, which succeeded for a time, but must needs have evil results. Portugal was forced to pay a subsidy of sixteen millions. As for Holland, she was obliged to take an active share in the war, to maintain an army of eighteen thousand French and sixteen thousand Dutch, and furnish a squadron and transport-fleet. Genoa was to give money, soldiers, and sailors ; Tuscany was also engaged in the war; Switzerland was poor, and Bonaparte required no money from her, but twenty thousand men. A French corps entered Naples, and occupied the Gulf of Taranto, and the King of Naples was obliged to support them. Another corps, numbering thirty thousand, invaded Hanover, the domain of the Elector of Hanover (that is, George III. of England), and lived on that country. By thus imposing sacrifices on his neighbors, Bona parte contrived not sensibly to augment the expenses of France, or to contract a loan ; but he sowed seeds of discord throughout Europe, and completed the disaffection of his allies. He still hoped to obtain not only the neutrality of the great powers, but the sup port of Russia and the alliance of Prussia. He again tried to flatter 1803.] PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 195 the czar ; and when Alexander offered to mediate for him, he replied by asking him to act, not as simple mediator, but as arbiter, declar ing himself ready for great concessions, if hostilities were instantly suspended (June 18, 1803). But Alexander required him not to meddle with Naples or Hanover, not then invaded, to which he answered that he must comply with the necessities of the war ex cited against him. The czar maintained his protests, and repeated his offer of simple mediation, which Bonaparte refused, and they remained on cool terms (August, 1803). His relations with Prussia also became less friendly, as her government witnessed the invasion of Hanover with much displeasure. The Prussian king offered German neutrality in return for the reduction of the French army in Hanover to the smallest number possible, and the evacuation of the port of Cuxhaven, occupied by France, although it was a dependency of Hamburg, not Hanover. Bonaparte needed that port to close the Elbe to English trade, and already united to his scheme for invading England a plan for a " continental blockade," to close all Europe to English commerce, and therefore refused, offering to cede Hanover to Prussia in return for her alliance. Prussia wanted nothing so much as the annexation of Hanover ; but she could not decide to engage so rashly or so deeply in French alliance against a possible triple alliance of England, Austria, and Prussia. Bonaparte thus failed in all his negotiations. England, meantime, made the same vast preparations for defence which France did for attack. She already had one hundred and thirty thousand regular troops and seventy thousand militia, to whom she added a reserve of fifty thousand men by conscription, a new method for her; a Parliamentary bill then granted the ministry power to enlist all able-bodied men between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five. These men, called volunteers, but really answering to the French draft of 1793, amounted by the end of 1803 to three hundred and eighty thousand in England, and more than eighty thousand in Ireland. As for the navy, it was limited to one hundred and twenty thousand sailors. The ships of the line numbered more than one hundred ; the frigates, corvettes, and brigs, 196 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. several hundred ; and a swarm of gunboats and advice-boats guarded the coast, and bore the admiralty's orders from place to place. The government contracted a loan of three hundred millions, and Parlia ment added an equal sum to the excise and income tax. Bonaparte lost no time ; Boulogne was still his point of attack, and here vast works were carried on with feverish zeal. A dock was dug, and the bed of the Liaue (the river whose mouth forms the harbor of Boulogne) deepened, to receive more than half the fleet ; other docks being provided for transports hard by at Ambleteuse, Mincreux, and Etaples. Three forts were built, — two upon rocky points, and the third, mid-water, to protect the harbor of Boulogne. Five hundred cannon, distributed thickly along the hills, com manded the far-off sea, and kept the enemy at a distance. The troops were put to work as they arrived, and skilful measures were taken to unite the two thousand and some hundred transport-ships built at various points. Late in September, 1803, two divisions of transports sailing from Dunkirk repulsed an English attack, and gained the port of Boulogne with the aid of a third- division which came out to meet them. This good beginning encouraged them, and other transports set out from all the Channel ports between St. Malo and St. Valery-sur-Somme, protected by flying batteries, fixed batteries, and detachments of cavalry stationed along the shore, one thousand vessels reaching Boulogne in safety between October and December. The troops feared nothing, and even the most experi enced began to hope. The First Consul expected to take the field in the spring of 1804, but important events turned his attention to France. The two great foes, the First Consul and the English government, — which had returned to Pitt's way of thinking, although he had no official position, — employed secret as well as open weapons against each other, Bonaparte being in correspondence with Irish malcontents, and trying to renew the revolt of the " United Irish men," and the English favoring the emigrant plots now springing up in a new form. While the Pretender, "Louis XVIIL," lived in retirement at Versailles, content to watch and wait, his brother, 1804] CONSPIRACY AGAINST BONAPARTE. 197 Count d'Artois, was at London, active, away from danger, and sur rounded by the boldest spirits of his party. Whatever their dreams may have been, they did not extend to the possibility of renewing the Vendean war, but limited themselves to another idea : unable to resist the First Consul's government in France, they resolved to attack his person. Among them was a man who had 'shown as much intelligence as daring in the partisan war, — Cadoudal, the Breton leader. It was probably he who planned the assembling in Paris of a band of desperate men, to attack the First Consul and his usual cavalry escort on their way to Malmaison or St. Cloud. He always denied that he suggested the use of the infernal ma chine, piquing himself on a sort of chivalry. He wished to slay the First Consul in open combat, and declared that one of the princes, either D'Artois or his young son, the Duke of Berri, worked with him. Even if the strange plan succeeded, Bonaparte's mur derers would not be masters of France. They must think for the morrow. The royalist conspirators could not hide the fact that the republicans in Paris were stronger than they, unless they could win some illustrious general or noted statesman to their side. An ex-Septembrist, Mehde by name, who had been proscribed at the time of the infernal machine, but whose sentence was commuted to imprisonment at Oleron, and who had escaped to England, now suggested an alliance between the royalists and revolutionary foes of Bonaparte. But the conspirators did not address themselves to the few remaining Jacobins. They aimed higher. The only general whose military fame approached that of Bonaparte, Moreau, lived in retirement, soured and discontented, at odds with the First Consul, and bitterly regretting his share in November 9. The emigrants had in hand Pichegru, who had escaped from Guiana to England, and plotted to reconcile these two and draw the former into their alliance. Moreau's only faults were his share in November 9 and his pre vious delay to lay his proofs of Pichegru's treachery before the Directory ; the latter he did not repent like the former. But it is a negative vice not to hate evil, and when skilful agents mentioned 198 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. Pichegru, he seemed to have forgotten that man's crimes, and only to remember his own obligations to him, his military services and his misfortunes, saying that he would gladly open the way for his return to France. An intriguing spirit, named Lajolais, amplified and altered Moreau's words, and told the emigrant leaders that he was disposed to treat with Pichegru for the Bourbon restoration. They thought all won, and sent off Cadoudal and a few picked men to prepare the blow. All accessible points of the coast were carefully guarded, but an English brig landed them at night at the foot of the steep cliff of Biville, between Dieppe and Treport, and accom plices lowered a rope from above, by which Georges and his com panions clambered to the top (August 21, 1803), and reached Paris safely. Once there, he found that things did not look so well as they imagined in London. He remained there for some months, and Pichegru, with some of the emigrant leaders, at last resolved to try the same plan (January 16, 1804). It was agreed that the signal for the princes to follow should be given by one of the party, Marquis de Riviere. The police were in the secret, Mehee being in their service, and several emigrant agents were arrested and kept in prison without trial lest the rest should take the alarm. Proceedings were opened against them shortly after Pichegru landed, and one of them revealed the landing-place, which M^hee had not known. The First Consul at once sent a trusty man, Colonel Savary, to watch the Biville cliffs and arrest any who landed. He was deter mined to terrify his enemies by a great example, and to shoot every Bourbon who set foot in France. The princes were doubtless warned, for none landed. This plot occupied Bonaparte's whole attention, and to discover all its branches he employed a vast system of spies at home and abroad ; Fouche, no longer minister of police, devoting himself to the matter. The ex-director of La Vendee, the negotiator of the concordat, Bernier, now bishop of Orleans, watched his old friends the Chouans for Bonaparte ; and Meh^e, who had gone into Germany, labored to extract the secrets of the emigrants from the English ministers at petty German courts. 1804.] TRIAL OF MOREAU. 199 Bonaparte was enraged at missing the prince for whom he lay in wait at Biville, but he was still more anxious about another foe. Letters seized on some of the captured emigrant agents betrayed indirect relations between Pichegru and Moreau ; and though there was nothing compromising the latter, Bonaparte was seized with a wild desire to ruin him. Cadoudal's under-officer, Bouvet de Lozier, was now arrested ; he tried to kill himself, and failing, made full confession. He declared that Lajolais told " the prince " (D'Artois) that Moreau was ready to work for the Bourbons ; but that Piche gru was in Paris, and had had several interviews with Moreau, who refused to stir for any king, intending, if the First Consul were put out of the way, to take the reins of government himself. This resolve, he said, showed Cadoudal and the royalists that there was no hope for them. Bonaparte at once convened in secret council the consuls his colleagues and the ministry. Moreau was arrested next day. Regnier, the minister of justice, urged him to seek the First Consul and confess, but he refused, and on the 17th of February, Regnier read a report on his anest to the Senate, Legis lature, and Tribunal. His brother, a member of the Tribunal, indig nantly protested against the " slander '' lavished on his brother, and demanded his trial "by his natural judges and not by a special court." The assembly preserved a gloomy silence. The First Consul was at first disposed to grant the request ; but he found that public opinion was for Moreau, and feared that he might be acquitted. He did not refer the case to a council of war, but sought a medium course. The special law in which Daunou denounced the restoration of tyranny, authorized the sus pension of jury de Senatus-Consultum. This law was used, and Moreau was tried, without jury, by the criminal court of the Seine (February 25). The administrative machine was set in motion against him as it had been against England. The state bodies expressed their devotion to the First Consul ; the Tribunal alone, maimed as it was, retaining its dignity. Its president plainly ex pressed his doubts of the " denunciation " of which Moreau was the object. Bonaparte betrayed great anger at this step. Addresses 200 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. were instigated in the army as well; the majority of military leaders inveighing against Moreau. But all this was factitious, and had no echo in public opinion. February 28, a law was passed condemning to death any who should shelter Pichegru, Cadoudal, or their accomplices. The bar riers were closed, and orders were issued to shoot any one attempt ing to pass. Pichegru was arrested that very day, and soon after, the two brothers Polignac and the Marquis de Riviere. Cadoudal, the first to arrive, was the last to be captured. As wily as he was daring, he outwitted the police a hundred times, and none of his protectors betrayed him. The 9th of March, the house in which he was concealed being sunounded, he jumped into a carriage and fled, pursued by the police. He shot two, but passers-by seized and arrested him. Two days previous, Moreau wrote to the First Consul, telling him the true story of his relations with Pichegru, and his firm refusal to enter into the royalist conspiracy ; a friend of Bonaparte explaining that such a letter to his old companion in arms would stop proceedings against him. Bonaparte sent the letter into court as evidence. He wished to lower Moreau and to destroy him as a politician, but not to kill him. He insisted on tenifying the royalist party by the execution of one of their princes; and though he missed the one who was to come from England, he had his hand on another in Germany, in the shape of the Duke d'Enghien, the grandson of the old prince of Conde\ who had lived for some time at Ettenheim, in Baden, with a young Princess de Rohan, whom he had secretly married. The First Con sul sent an under-officer of gendarmes in disguise to spy upon him, who reported that he went several times to Strasburg in com pany with Dumouriez. Bonaparte decided to arrest him on the soil of Baden and condemn him by a council of war. The Second Consul, Cambac^res, usually so yielding, vainly remonstrated, point ing out the dangerous effect at home and abroad of such a breach of the rights of nations. Bonaparte did not heed him, but sent a regiment of dragoons to anest the duke. His papers revealed no relations with the French conspirators, nor was Dumouriez with DONJON" OF VINCENNES. 1804.] MURDER OF D'ENGHIEN. 201 him, but a certain Marquis de Thumery, so that this attack on international law had no excuse. But Bonaparte had gone too far. to draw back, and D'Enghien was taken to Paris and imprisoned at Vincennes (March 20) ; Murat, commander of the Parisian forces, being ordered by consular decree to form a military commission for his trial. Bonaparte shut himself up at Malmaison to escape prayers in his victim's favor. . Murat hastened thither and tried to make him recall his decision, but Bonaparte rebuffed him, and even repulsed the petitions of his wife, Josephine, telling her that she knew noth ing about politics, and that women ought to hold their tongues. He charged his tool, Colonel Savary, with the execution of the fatal affair, ordering that, if the prisoner asked to see him, the request should be refused, and sentence carried out at once. D'Enghien was questioned towards midnight and demanded, as Bonaparte foresaw, to be brought before him. Bonaparte's story at St. Helena, that the duke wrote offering to serve under him and that Talleyrand intercepted the letter, is utterly false, and invented by him to remove responsibility from himself. At two o'clock in the morning the prisoner was taken before the military commis sion at Vincennes, composed of colonels of the garrison of Paris and presided over by General Hullin, one of the takers of the Bas tille. The prisoner's attitude was dignified; he briefly denied all complicity with Dumouriez and Pichegru, but acknowledged, what every one knew, that he had held a command in the emigrant corps. Hullin, anxious to save him, suggested reticence or promises for the future ; but D'Enghien declared that he was ready to repeat what he had done, and his judges sentenced him, ignorant of the fact that what would have been a severe but legal sentence had he been taken in France or in battle, was murder when he was fraudulently seized on foreign soil. He renewed his request to see Napoleon, and his judges consented ; but Savary told them that they had played their part, and led the prisoner away to the castle-moat, where a platoon of gendarmes was posted. His sentence was read aloud close by a ready-made grave. He gave an officer a lock of 202 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. his hair for his beloved wife, and bared his breast to the balls. This piece of cold-blooded barbarity, recalling the Reign of Ter ror, without the sincerity and dangers of '93, produced a feeling of amazement and anger in Paris; Bonaparte was enraged that public opinion should turn against him, and burst into invectives against the Parisians at the State Council. He never liked Paris, which he felt could not be reconciled to despotism, and often betrayed his dream of changing the capital to Lyons, as in the time of Roman Gaul. A few days later Pichegru was found dead in prison (April 6). The Moniteur announced that he had strangled himself by twist ing his cravat round his neck with a small stick ; but the strange circumstances of his death led many to believe that he was slain at Napoleon's order by the Mamelukes brought from Egypt. Still, it is impossible to see the motive for this fresh murder, as there was nothing to be feared from Pichegru, who was unpopular and sure of conviction. Not so Moreau, for even the suppression of jury did not put Bonaparte at ease in regard to the issue of this trial, which opened May 8. It was a sad sight to see the great general who won so many battles for the Republic, sitting on the criminal-bench among those emigrants and Chouans who never ceased to conspire against it. He was to blame for consenting to renew relations unworthy of him and to see " the traitor Pichegru," as the president of the Tribunal told him; but he was innocent before the law, there being ample evidence of his refusal to join Pichegru and CadoudaL As for the charge that he aspired to the dictatorship, he certainly detested the government of the First Consul and would gladly have seen its downfall ; but as certainly he never plotted against it. He pleaded his own cause with great power and dignity ; his defence consisting of a faithful history of his life, in which he judged himself without pride and without false modesty, and recalled, to refute the charge of ambition, his refusal to join Sieves in accomplishing what Bonaparte afterwards effected. " I never," said he, " had any political genius : I was made to command armies, not the Republic." The audience burst into 1804.] EXECUTION OF ROYALISTS. 203 applause, and the judges were deeply moved. When they retired to deliberate, Thuriot, the examining magistrate and ex-president of the Convention, said that Moreau's acquittal would be the con demnation of the head of the state; that they might be assured Moreau would be pardoned in the end. "And who will pardon us if we condemn an innocent man ? " cried Clavier, another jud^e. Seven out of twelve judges acquitted Moreau, but the president, Hemart, an ally of Bonaparte, refused to close the debate. Bona parte, warned of the course of events, sent the attorney-general to say that fresh proofs of guilt had been discovered, and Hemart and Thuriot declared that the government would be forced to disavow the sentence. Judge Lecourbe, brother of the general, resisted; another magistrate proposed a middle course ; the majority yielded, and agreed to sentence Moreau to two years' imprisonment (June 10). Twenty of the royalist conspirators were condemned to death. Bonaparte, mad with rage at his inability, not to kill Moreau, but to crush and humiliate by pardoning him, changed the sentence to exile in America. Some time after, Judge Lecourbe, appearing with his colleagues at the Tuileries, Bonaparte drove him from his presence, calling him a "lying judge." Cadoudal and twelve other royalist conspirators were executed June 26. Cadoudal displayed unconquerable spirit during the trial, and preserved it on the scaffold. The Marquis de Riviere, the brothers Polignac, and five others were pardoned ; and it was noticed with some bitterness that nobles were forgiven and their accom plices of obscure birth sent to death. When this great trial came to an end, Bonaparte had a new title ; a political trick, long pre pared, now came to a head, the plot against his person affording a pretext. The watchword to the official world was, that as the First Consul's life was threatened, the stability of the government must be insured by a law of succession. As was his wont, he hid his own share in the movement and acted through Fouche\ who had been banished to the Senate in semi-disgrace for his slight opposition to Napoleon's tendencies in favor of men of the old regime, but had restored his credit by his active share in unmasking the emigrant 204 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. plot. He now strained every nerve to restore the monarchy in Bonaparte's person, aided by some of the ancient tenorists. In slaying D'Enghien, Bonaparte gave a pledge to the slayers of Louis XVI., and voluntarily allied his cause to theirs, thus gaining such revolutionists as were ruled by passion and interest and not by prin ciple. Addresses were instigated from the electoral colleges, muni cipal councils, and military bodies, the first being presented to the First Consul, March 25, four days after the Duke d'Enghien's death, and requiring the power to be perpetuated in the hands of the First Consul and his family. The Senate, usually led by Cambac^res, must next be set in mo tion, but Cambaceres resisted, as in D'Enghien's case : he had not much character, but great judgment and penetration. He showed Napoleon that a change of title would entail fresh difficulties and dangers without adding to his power, which was really unlimited ; that it was wise and safe to keep the name of Republic, the thing being suppressed. But Bonaparte was firm ; vanity and imagination prevailed over his real positive interest. On leaving him, Cam baceres said to the Third Consul, Lebrun : " It 's all over, the mon archy is restored ; but I feel that it will not last." But Cambacdres was not a man to make active opposition, and Sidyes had retired from the political field ; the Senate, though uneasy, yielded to its leaders, some being persuaded that the Senate must hasten to crown Napoleon, lest the army should forestall them, and others hoping to win office at court or senatorships under the new monarchy. The First Consul had created a number of rich endowments with sump tuous mansions under this title in the various departments, intending to give them to such senators as served him best. When the form of address indicating the restoration of the law of succession was read, some of the senators murmured, but the majority accepted it. Bonaparte replied that he must take time for ripe reflection be fore he could give a final answer (March 27). Fouche and his allies were too hasty, for Bonaparte did not care to take this decided step until he was sure of the army, in which there were many republicans, and until he was certain of his recognition as hereditary 1804.] PROTESTS OF FOREIGN POWERS. 205 monarch, at least by Prussia and Austria, he being on very bad terms with Russia. The seizure of the Duke d'Enghien on foreign soil, and his death, produced a terrible sensation throughout Europe, and excited public opinion against Bonaparte. The German states were too close neighbors of France to protest, but Russia burst forth : the czar put his court in mourning, and sent a double protest to the Germanic Diet and the French government against such a violation of the soil of Baden, to which the First Consul replied by recalling the murder of Alexander's father, inveighing against the ill deeds of Russia, and declaring that if she wanted war, she had but to say so ; that he did not desire it, but neither did he fear it. As for the matter of the Duke d'Enghien, he had simply used his legal right of self-defence: "the complaint now raised by Russia leads one to ask whether when England plotted to murder Paul I., if the authors of the plot had been known to be but a league away from the frontier, they would not at once have been seized." This sarcastic allusion to the impunity enjoyed by Paul's assassins was a flagrant insult to Alexander, as well as a fresh defiance to Eng land, a new proof that this great military and administrative genius lacked real political talent. Great politicians are masters of them selves, and never compromise their plans or their destiny for the vain pleasure of a boast or a sarcasm. Relations were broken be tween the two powers, though without recourse to hostilities. The czar's message to the Diet had no results, the German states daring to do nothing. Prussia played a double game. Her government, whose support Napoleon could not gain, soon made a secret treaty with Russia for defensive alliance in case new encroachments should be made (May 24). Meantime the king continued to assure the First Consul of his peaceful intentions, and hastened to declare his recognition of the change from consulate to hereditary monarchy. As for Austria, to whom it really belonged to protest against this violation of German soil, her ruler being Emperor of Germany, she said not a word, being occupied with a swarm of petty usurpa tions in Southern Germany, nor did she care a whit, profiting to 206 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. the best of her ability by the anarchy prevailing in the German Empire. As she foresaw that her ruler would sooner or later lose the title of Emperor of Germany, she agreed to recognize the new French monarchy, on condition that Bonaparte would promise recog nition of the imperial title of the Chief of Austrian Monarchy. Bonaparte thought the. time had now come to act. He was far from finding unanimous approval about him, the State Council being, at bottom, unfavorable to the projected change. The ex- conventionalists Berlier, Treilhard, and others, even Boulay de la Meurthe, the apologist for the coups d'e'tat of September and Novem ber, spoke against a law of succession in open council. Bonaparte himself was not for unconditional succession in the style of the bygone monarchy. He meant to keep the right he had claimed, as consul for life, to choose his successor ; and no longer expecting children from Josephine, after thinking of divorce, he now desired to adopt the son of his brother Louis and his wife's daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais ; but Louis angrily protested. The First Consul's strange attachment to the child renewed rumors which had been current of criminal relations between Napoleon and his young step-daughter, whom he had, in a measure, forced his brother to many ; the marriage being very unhappy. Napoleon's eldest brother, Joseph, joined Louis in his angry refusal of a scheme which removed himself and his children from the throne. Thus this family wran gled for France in advance like beasts for their prey ! The First Consul, finding his family so averse, changed his plan without renouncing it, and promised to bring Joseph and Louis into the line of succession to the prejudice of the other brothers, Lucien and Jerome, with whom he was displeased, and the question of heredi tary monarchy was settled, April 23, at a private council of the chief men in the government. It was decided that he should take the title of Emperor, the only one he would accept ; the title of King savored too strongly of ancient France, while he wished to recall only the Roman Empire. It was agreed that he should be consecrated and crowned like the French emperors who preceded the kings. Nothing now remained but to- call in the great state bodies and let them appear to decide what was already fixed. The same day, 1804.] BONAPARTE PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 207 that there might be a show of public discussion, a motion was pre sented to the Tribunal, to establish a hereditary empire in favor of Napoleon Bonaparte and his family. Two days after, the First Consul sent his official reply to the senatorial address of March 27. "You deem," said he, "the hereditary transmission of the chief magistracy needful to insure the French people against hostile plots and rival ambitions. You also consider that some of our institu tions should at the same time be perfected to assure the triumph of public liberty and equality I invite you to speak your mind freely I desire that we may say to France on the 14th of July : ' Fifteen years ago, you spontaneously rushed to arms ; you won liberty, equality, and glory. To-day those great national prizes are secured to you and your children.' " While the Senate prepared a final proposition, an ex-revolutionist, Curee, sustained the motion presented to the Tribunal, for the estab lishment of hereditary monarchy. A throng of speakers accepted the measure, among them some who at first opposed it. Only one spoke against it ; but that one was Carnot. ' This was his justifica tion for accepting a seat in the Tribunal. He presented an admi rable defence of the Republic, showing that between the example of America and a return to the Roman Empire, France should not choose the latter, and easily establishing the fact that the creation of an empire would be anything but a warrant of peace. But the Tribunal expressed the wish, by a large majority, that Napoleon Bonaparte should be made Emperor, — the title to descend in his family ; the rights of the people to be at the same time preserved entire (May 3). The Senate received the request. " We too, citizen tribunes," said the president, " would raise a new dynasty. We too desire to prevent the backward movement of liberty, equal ity, and enlightenment." The president of the Senate was a former member of the Directory, Francois de Neufchateau by name, who tried to delude himself as well as others. The Senate proposed to the First Consul the bases of another Senatus-Consultum ; taking its president in earnest, it wished to claim guaranties in return for its assistance: it claimed a veto on laws or acts contrary to the spirit of French institutions, and the right to guard freedom of 208 THE CONSULATE. [Chap. IX. the press and individual liberty. Bonaparte was enraged at such boldness, and declared that he would not suffer the Senate to claim such "monstrous" power. The Senate yielded, and the Senatus- Consultum, drawn up by a commission of the four senators, three con suls, and the ministry, was all that he could wish. Imperial dignity was conferred on him and his descendants, real or adopted. Lack ing such, the title fell to his brothers Joseph and Louis ; Jerome and Lucien being excluded for having contracted marriages against his will. A civil list of twenty-five millions (equal to at least fifty now) was granted the Emperor, with the use of the royal palaces and estates of the crown. The " French princes " (members of the imperial family) also received an endowment of a million each, and the throne was sunounded by great dignitaries, loaded down with titles and rewards. " Prince " Joseph Bonaparte was Grand Elector ; Cambaceres was Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, his opposition being thus destroyed; "Prince" Louis Bonaparte was Lord High Constable ; and there were countless other officers, such as figured in former courts. As for the famous institutions which, in Napoleon's own words, were to "insure the triumph of equality and public liberty," they were limited to a few trifling changes in the regulation of the state bodies, and the formation of two commissions in the Senate, to guard freedom of the press and individual liberty. As a conective to the first clause, it was understood that the newspapers were to remain under police supervision, and that the Senate could only interfere in favor of books, which it hardly cared to do. As for the second, it only legalized the Senate's right, dating from the life Consulate, to decide whether the government could detain, without trial, persons arrested on charge of conspiracy against the state. In point of fact, the arbitrary arrests of the old regime (lettres de cachet) were restored : Napoleon celebrated the capture of the Bas tille, but silently replaced the one prison by twenty more. The Senate was not strong enough to use the right accorded it. The Senatus-Consultum was read to the Council of State, who listened in silence ; the hearers foreseeing future perils, but well aware of the futility of resistance. It was sent back to the Senate, who passed it 1804.] BONAPARTE PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 209 unanimously, with three exceptions, Gregory, Garat, and Lanjuinais (May 18). The senators flocked to St. Cloud, and the ci-devant Second Consul, now Lord High Chancellor, Cambac^res, opened the meeting, consenting to explain the resolution he had tried to oppose. His flattery won pardon for his resistance. When Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of France, the applause, says an eyewitness, State Councillor Miot, was "faint." The new Em peror replied with the solemn brevity he affected on great occasions : " I accept the title which you deem useful to the nation's glory. I submit the law of succession to popular sanction. .... My spirit will forsake my posterity when they cease to merit the love and confi dence of the great nation ! " There were no illuminations or public demonstrations of any kind. " There seemed," says Miot, " to be no interest taken in the event." Even the army, contrary to the rumors spread abroad, was not disposed to proclaim the Empire. The soldiers were fond of Bonaparte for his great military triumphs ; but the old title of emperor, borrowed from Roman history, did not appeal to their imagination, and did not become popular until Napoleon won fresh victories. The Moniteur announced the restoration of the titles " Lord " and " Highness " for princes and great dignitaries, and " Ex cellency " for ministers. The term " Citizen " was suppressed, and that of "Monsieur" restored. The emblem of the Republic, a woman standing, leaning on a pike, crowned with a liberty-cap, disappeared. The cock was proposed as a national emblem, it being erroneously supposed to be the emblem of Gaul (which was a wild boar), but the Emperor chose the Roman eagle. The Republic, for four years, had been but a name ; the name now disappeared with the thing. Peace with European monarchies was no easy task for the Re public, but would have been possible with moderation and firm ness, and the suppression of the propagandist army. To the Empire, peace was impossible. The new dynasty aimed to sweep away and replace the old ones, and to attack nations as well as ruling fam ilies ; it must needs provoke the coalition, no longer of kings alone, but of nations, and draw down ruin on France. Napoleon could only delay by the marvels of his military genius the consequence of his political enors. 210 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. CHAPTER X. THE EMPIRE. — CORONATION OF NAPOLEON. — THIRD COALITION. — CA PITULATION OF ULM. — NAVAL DEFEAT AT TRAFALGAR. — VICTORY OF AUSTERLITZ. — PEACE OF PRESBURG WITH AUSTRIA. Messidor, Tear XIII., to Nivose, Tear XIV. — June, 1804, to January, 1806. AT the moment that Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor, the prevailing sentiment in France as well as abroad was one of expectation and deep anxiety. The eyes of all Europe were fixed on the camp at Boulogne ; but prudent men in France looked to wards the Continent as well, fearing some diversion on the part of the powers whom England's downfall would place at Napoleon's feet. The new Emperor also thought of this, and arranged to protect him self on every hand. Expenses increasing, he set himself to work to swell his resources, and restored under the name of " united duties " the indirect taxes abolished by the Revolution. It was natural to re turn to this system of taxation, the most convenient if not the most equitable hitherto devised. But Napoleon did not at once restore the tax on salt. He resumed his preparations for attack with fresh ardor, employing every means, whether good or ill, to achieve his end, and even borrowed from England her tyrannical custom of "pressgangs" for recruiting sailors. The great work at Boulogne was ended, and the Dutch fleet formed in the Scheldt reached Dunkirk and Calais with slight loss. Napoleon altered and in creased his plans ; thinking that if the transport fleet assumed the whole labor, it would run too great a risk, he resolved to summon his ships of the line, which were to gather suddenly in such fashion as to gain momentary superiority over the English in the Channel. La Touche-Trdville was put in command of this bold scheme, 1804.] PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 211 perhaps the only man capable of success. He was to leave Toulon with ten vessels, feign to sail for Egypt to deceive Nelson, who was cruising about Toulon, then turn towards the Straits of Gibraltar, enter the Atlantic Ocean, rally a naval division at Rochefort, and proceed thence to the Channel to join the fleet. The English ships were widely scattered on posts of observation and blockade duty, and there was a prospect of French triumph before they could be reassembled. Napoleon planned to make his descent in August and September, 1804; and July 14, he distributed to the chief civil and military magnates the decorations of the upper grades of the Legion of Honor. This was the last time that he celebrated the taking of the Bastille, such a revolutionary festival contrasting too strongly with the new state of things. He then set out for Boulogne, where he made a fresh distribution of decorations, but of quite another character. In presence of one hundred thousand men in battle array between the cliff's and the sea, he gave the cross of knight hood to all soldiers who had distinguished themselves in action. He cunningly calculated the effect which he would produce by the democratic character of this ceremony, every one rejoicing to see the- private and the officer wear the same mark of honor on their breast in token of their bravery. Meantime the cannon were growling at sea. Another division of the fleet came up from Havre and repulsed the attack of English cruisers by the way (August 16, 1804). A few days later, Napoleon, inspecting the naval works in a cutter, witnessed a sharp engagement between his gunboats and some of the English cruisers, which were forced to retreat. England, though at first scorning the French flotilla, felt a growing alarm, and public opinion forced George III. to recall Pitt to the ministry. He began by asking and receiving sixty millions of secret-service money, to stir up Europe and buy friends for England. Just at this time, Napoleon received sad news ; La Touche-Treville was dead, another victim to the fatal San Dominican expedition. He never recovered from the disease contracted there, and was an irrep arable loss. The attack was again postponed. The most famous 212 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. sailor left to France, Bruix, was necessary to the fleet he had formed, but his ruined health would not permit a long voyage. Napoleon hesitated ; then by the advice of Decres, secretary of the navy, he replaced TrevUle by Villeneuve. The latter's conduct at Aboukir was no recommendation, and the choice was not a happy one. Napoleon again modified his plan of naval operations, making it larger and more complex, then left Boulogne for the Rhine prov inces. Suspending his attack on England once more, he tried his influence with Germany. Austria, having delayed her promised recognition of the new French Empire, was rudely threatened, and sent her official recognition to him at Aix-la-Chapelle. Francis II., as was agreed between himself and Napoleon, had declared himself hereditary emperor of Austria (August 10). At Aix-la-Chapelle, the residence of Charlemagne, Napoleon assumed to be the suc cessor of that great emperor of the Franks, whose memory was the only one admitted with that of the Roman emperors. The history of France since Charlemagne's time was a dead letter to him, and never to be mentioned. The ministers of all the German courts crowded about him at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the princes of Southern and Western Germany hastened to salute him at Mayence, as if he were their sovereign, and he began to hint to them that a group of states might be formed independent of either Austria or Prussia. Prussia heard of this, and was wounded and alarmed. Napoleon then materially and brutally insulted Prussia, as he had Germany ; he arrested by French gendarmes the English charge-d'affaires in the free and neutral town of Hamburg. Prussia sharply protested, and Napoleon released the man. It was not worth while thus to violate anew the rights of nations for a mere caprice. Napoleon returned to Paris to continue his favorite role of Char lemagne. It was decided in his privy council, before the Empire was proclaimed, that he should be crowned and consecrated. This was a sequence of the concordat, and he chose to be consecrated by the Pope, but at Paris, to outdo Charlemagne ; for no emperor had ever been consecrated outside of Rome. It was a great thing for the Holy Father to consent to such an innovation, and there was much 1804.] CORONATION OF NAPOLEON. 213 hesitation and resistance from both Pope and cardinals, the Duke d'Enghien's death, which terrified Pius VII., increasing his aversion. Both hope and fear were brought to bear on him. He was given to understand that if he quanelled with the omnipotent Emperor, the Empire might take possession of Rome as easily as the Republic did. On the other hand, without positive promises, his desire to obtain concessions of the organic articles which he had unwillingly added to the concordat, and to regain the legations, was artfully flattered. Bishop Bernier, Napoleon's ecclesiastical agent, was busy again. Half deceived and half deceiving himself as to what he should find in Paris, Pius VII. decided, or rather submitted, to go. He was well received by the French people ; the piety of some and the curiosity of others leading crowds to follow in his wake. The presence of a Pope was a rare event, and his reverend and kindly face contributed much to his welcome. To escape all question of etiquette, the Emperor met the Pope on the highway, as if by chance, in the forest of Fontainebleau, and took him to the castle in his own carriage. Also, as if by chance, Napoleon took the seat of honor, to the right of his guest ; a char acteristic feature of that pride as stubborn in small things as in great. Questions of etiquette, in which he was resolved to make no concessions to the Pope, occasioned a strange scene in the imperial family, in regard to the rank to be held by the Empress and the Emperor's sisters in the ceremony. One of the latter, Pauline, widow of General Leclerc, now remanied to the Roman Prince Borghese, made such pretensions, that the Empress, usually ami able, lost her temper, and let fall suspicions against Pauline similar to those entertained against her daughter Hortense. Napoleon, in turn, flew into a passion, and vowed he would be divorced from Jose phine. Her children, Hortense and Eugene, took their mother's part. Josephine burst into tears ; Napoleon grew calm, and yield ing to Josephine and her children, decided that she should be consecrated and crowned with him. The consecration ceremony took place at Notre Dame, Decem ber 2, with theatrical magnificence. David, the friend of Marat and 214 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. Robespierre, now painter to the Emperor, arranged this imperial festival, as he had those of the Republic, and designed the costumes, which did him no honor, being an odd mixture of the dress of Caesar, Charlemagne, and Henry IV. Napoleon and Josephine looked strangely enough in their long mantles, whose trains were borne by princes and princesses of the imperial family. The " princess sisters " were furious at being thus sacrificed to the Empress ; and the audience, as the Archbishop of Mechlin, M. de Pradt, reports, with great difficulty restrained their laughter. There was more reason for tears than smiles, if they had known how all this would end. The Pope supposed that all would pro ceed according to the ancient ceremonial; after anointing the Emperor's brow and hands with consecrated oil, and blessing the sword which he girt about him, he was about to crown him, when Napoleon snatched the crown from the hands of Pius and placed it on his own head. The Pope was much wounded by this varia tion from ancient custom ; but Napoleon did not intend to have it said that he received the imperial crown from the Church. Another matter offended the Holy Father quite as much, although he had been warned on that point. The oath which Napoleon took was by no means a copy of the ancient coronation-oath taken by French kings. Instead of swearing to put down heresy, he vowed to maintain liberty of worship, with equality of rights, civil and political freedom, and the inevocability of the sale of national goods. This was the only echo of the Revolution in this antiquated ceremony, and it was in singular discord with the rest. The Pope and his representatives made vain efforts to suppress this clause ; Cardinal Consalvi writing, that " a Catholic should not take such an oath, nor could a Pope authorize it by his pres ence. The very essence of Catholicism is its intolerance." How ever, the Pope was forced to content himself with an alleged distinction between the liberty accorded to other sects and the approbation withheld from "heretical dogmas." The Pope remained in Paris for several months, but all his hopes faded ; he obtained neither the repeal of the organic articles 1805.] FOREIGN POLICY OF NAPOLEON. 215 which withdrew the Gallican church from ultramontane rule, nor the restoration of the acts of civil state to the clergy, nor the lega tions. He only succeeded in putting down the republican calendar, — the calendar of tradition being brought back before the close of the fourteenth year of the republican era, that is, January 1, 1806. Pius VII. went home in March, 1805, discontented, imbit- tered, and undeceived. Napoleon, on the contrary, was quite satis fied ; he had gained from the papacy all he wanted, without giving anything in exchange, and now prepared to pursue the consequences of the Empire in the countries dependent on him. The report on the condition of the Empire was presented in glowing colors to the state bodies, at the opening of the session for the Year XIII. (December 27, 1804). While declaring that no state should here after be incorporated with the Empire, it announced that the Italian and Dutch republics demanded, like France, a " final organ ization " ; that was to say, that Napoleon would soon change their constitutions again. In its review of the European powers, it stated that Russia required the friendship of France; that, "being so remote, she could neither trouble nor attack French repose." This was a most useless and impolitic defiance of a great state, with whom diplomatic relations were broken off, and might have been renewed to the common advantage. Having decided to establish monarchy in name as well as in fact in Italy, Napoleon determined, with lingering regard for Austria, to give the crown to his brother Joseph instead of taking it himself. Joseph refused from ambition, not modesty; although Napoleon's elder, he dreamed of the chance of succeeding him, and would not give up that prospect. Napoleon then adjudged himself the crown by an official decree, lest the electoral colleges of Italy should not yield, as they did to the preceding constitution ; and the kingdom of Italy was proclaimed to the Senate, March 18, 1805, — Napoleon promising to transmit the crown to one of his heirs whenever Meditenanean peace should be assured. He set out for Italy in April, feeling certain of success, and wishing to act on the people by his presence. He had again postponed the descent on England. 216 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. After a brief dream of sending an army and fleet to India, he con cluded to collect his squadrons in American waters, at the West Indies, to proceed thence to the English Channel. They were to be strengthened by Spanish naval forces ; for the English, disturbed by Spanish neutrality, which only profited France, assumed the offensive, and with their usual breach of the rights of nations car ried off, without any declaration of war, galleons with vast sums in Mexican gold. The Spanish fleet was in such bad condition that it availed but little to France; and fresh misfortunes soon befell the French navy. Admiral Bruix, who had expended his feeble strength in completing the great flotilla, died of exhaustion. Napoleon worked too hard in Europe for the great states long to remain inactive. The King of Prussia was uncertain, and his minis ters and court divided ; Austria had been so rudely shaken by war that she hesitated to. engage in fresh risks ; but the young czar, who was the least exposed from the distance and the special con ditions of his vast empire, was the most anxious to act and assume a great part in the history of the world. He dreamed not of con quest, but the influence of lofty mediation and the glory of peace maker for Europe. Although raised to power by another's crime, he was kindly and humane, a mixture of contradictory qualities and defects, — romantic and insincere, capable alike of generosity and ambition, voluptuous yet religious almost to mysticism, more zealous than persistent in well-doing, and a frequent backslider. Educated by a Swiss republican, Colonel La Harpe, he retained some of his master's ideas, — regretting the division of Poland, as unjust and unfortunate, and not detesting, as his grandmother, Catherine, did, the France of 1789. Surrounded by youthful advisers of bold spirit and lively imagination, — the most eminent of whom was Adam Czartoryski the Pole, — he conceived with them a grandiose plan for a European confederation to impose peace on the two powerful rivals, France and England. The first idea was most equitable, leaving France all that she could reasonably wish, — the frontier of the Rhine and Alps, — and restoring their independence to Holland and Switzerland. France was to give up 1805.] THIRD COALITION. 217 Piedmont, Austria, Venice, and confederate Italy would be free. England was to restore Malta and the colonies taken from French allies, and a new maritime law was to put an end to English tyr anny on the high seas. If this plan, which neither Napoleon, England, nor Austria would accept, was an idle dream, it honored those who conceived it. How much evil its realization would have spared the world ! In case England accepted and Napoleon refused, Alexander planned to take the head of a coalition against France; but even if France were conquered, he did not mean to go to extremes with her. He sent one of his young friends, Novosiltzoff, to inform the English prime minister of his projects. But there was a gulf between this Utopia and the national egotism of William Pitt, who knew no other interests than English interests, no other rights than England's rights. However, he affected to consider the czar's plan and to enter into his views ; but he so clearly showed the impossi bility, " for the present," of forcing such arrangements on Austria and Prussia, that the Russian envoy consented to postpone that part of the project, and to begin by proposing to Napoleon the con ditions relating to France. This was all that Pitt wanted, for he knew that they would be rejected. Napoleon would never give up Italy unless Austria renounced Venice. Pitt proposed, in case the coalition against France succeeded, to make a different anangement of frontiers, — to give Prussia the provinces on the left of the Rhine, thus keeping up the struggle with France. This plan was realized in 1815, to the misfortune of Europe. Pitt made no promises, but gained many from Prussia, and Rus sian diplomacy thenceforth aided English efforts. Prussia resisted all attempts to draw her beyond her defensive treaty with Russia of May, 1804. As for Austria, she had signed, November 6, 1804, a secret convention with Russia, similar to that of Prussia, and dared not exceed it, though she began to arm when Napoleon assumed the title of King of Italy. Pitt seemed to have gained his chief point ; the coalition was based on an agreement between France and England, — the apparent object being to make the 218 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. French quit Hanover, Northern Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy; thus establishing an order of things in Europe war ranting all the states against French invasion (April 11, 1805). It was agreed that if Prussia finally refused to enter the coalition, her tenitory should be invaded by Russia. Alexander's Polish adviser, Czartoryski, longed to break with Prussia, she having seized War saw and all the country west of the Vistula, in the last division of Poland, and he hoping to wrest them from her and make the czar king of Poland. Alexander still tried to linger on the brink of war. He took in earnest what Pitt meant for a mere manoeuvre, the proposition to Napoleon, and he resolved to send to Paris the same Novosiltzoff so skilfully outwitted by Pitt. There was no longer any question of European reorganization ; but, in return for the evacuation of Northern Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, and the Neapolitan territory, the Russian envoy was empowered to permit France to retain Piedmont ; giving the kingdom of Upper Italy to one of the Bonapartes. This was a return, contrary to Pitt's policy, to a very acceptable offer, provided the English evacuation of Malta were added, — Alexander so understood it ; but England had not yet consented. It was difficult and dangerous for her to refuse; if she refused and Napoleon accepted, Alexander might change his mind and the coalition be even more serious than in the time of Paul I. Relations between France and Russia being broken off, passports for Novosiltzoff were asked through the medium of Prussia. Napo leon had no idea of making peace ; his one thought was to take all Italy, and begin the creation of kingdoms vassal to the new Empire. He was well received in Italy, where he won the popular imagina tion by pompous feasts, reviews, skilfully projected public works, and useful administrative measures. He was consecrated, May 26, 1805, in the Cathedral of Milan, by the archbishop of that city, and assumed the " iron crown " of the old Lombard kings, kept in the monastery of Monza. There he was told of Novosiltzoff s French mission, and replied that he would receive the czar's envoy on his return to Paris in July. The approach of so important a negotia- 1805.] THIRD COALITION. 219 tion should have inspired him with some prudence ; but it was not so. The Neapolitan court venturing to protest against the title of King of Italy, which seemed to announce claims to the whole peninsula, he burst into public threats against Queen Caroline, and declared that he would drive her from Naples. He did yet worse : in violation of his recent promise to France and Europe, he annexed a new state, the Ligurian republic, to his empire. There was a show of universal suffrage after the Genoese senate had voted for the union (June 4). More than that, he gave the little republic of Lucca to his sister Eliza (Princess Baciocchi), with the title of principality. This was making the coalition inevitable. The annexation of Genoa had the most serious results. At that very time England refused the czar's request to leave Malta, and the Russian cabinet was in distress ; the coalition was about to dissolve when the news from Genoa arrived. The general cry was that there could be no, treaty with a government that committed fresh usurpations every day. Novosiltzoff was recalled, and the treaty with England confirmed; Austria agreed to it, and the plan for the coming campaign was arranged by the allied powers. The mysterious part of Napoleon's conduct was, that at the moment he thus provoked a coalition, he resumed his plan for a descent on England even more ardently than before. Having trav ersed Upper Italy in great state, he suddenly left incognito ; giving the vice-royalty of Italy to his step-son, Eugene Beauharnais, whom he now treated as his adopted child and called Eugene Napoleon. He reached France early in July, and was at Boulogne, August 3. Shortly before (July 18) the Dutch fleet doubled Cape Gris-Nez and reached Boulogne, under fire from an English squadron. All the forces destined to attempt the passage were now assembled at Boulogne and the three neighboring ports of Ambleteuse, Mincreux; and Etaples. Napoleon awaited with feverish impatience the arrival of the fleet which was to protect the flotilla. After many changes, he had settled on a plan which would have been good, though complex, had he had a well-organized, well-commanded, and well-rigged navy. But if the flotilla was all that it could be, 220 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. the same could not be said for the ships of the line. Years would be required to bring them up to the English standard. All had been hastily done ; materials were bad, sailors inexperienced, the leaders lacking in confidence. Villeneuve, successor to La Touche- TreVille, was a brave and skilful sailor, but unable to face responsi bility. His conduct at Aboukir alone should have kept him out of office. Leaving Toulon, January 8, 1805, and returning in con sequence of a storm, he set out again March 30, made Nelson think that he was going to Egypt, skirted Spain, added six Spanish ves sels to his own twelve, and proceeded to the West Indies. Admiral Missiessy had preceded him with five vessels from Rochefort, and done much mischief to the English ; and Admiral Ganteaume was to join the two with twenty-one vessels from Brest, if he could escape the English squadron cruising in sight of that port. But they did not meet. Missiessy, giving up all hope of Ganteaume, returned to Rochefort, and prolonged calms prevented the latter from leaving Brest. Napoleon then ordered Villeneuve to return to Europe, raise the blockade of the Spanish port of Fenol (Galicia), where a Franco-Spanish squadron was stationed, to meet Missiessy at Rochefort, proceed thence to raise the blockade of Brest, and join Ganteaume, then sailing with his companion admirals for Boulogne ; but the English began to suspect the French plans. Nel son, at first deceived by Villeneuve, followed him too late to the Antilles. By a second mistake he went thence to Cadiz, thinking that Villeneuve would go that way ; but a small vessel sent with news to England met the latter midway. The English admiralty, thus advised, sent a squadron to meet him, and a battle ensued, July 22, between Villeneuve and this squadron, under Admiral Calder, not far from the coast of Galicia. The French lost two Spanish vessels; but the English could not prevent Villeneuve from reaching Fenol and there rallying several more. Leaving behind the worst sailers of his fleet, he then had twenty-nine ships of the line to take to Brest, and might be joined by five more, hard by. But he ran a great risk ; he knew that Nelson had returned, and feared to meet the three English squadrons under Nelson, 1805.] THIRD COALITION. 221 Calder, and Cornwallis that were blockading Brest. However, if he were attacked and overwhelmed by a hostile fleet, without aid from Ganteaume and the squadron at Brest, by sacrificing himself he could free the former; who, having nothing before him, could reach Boulogne and cover the descent. Napoleon was still at Boulogne ; his anxiety increased, but he lost no time. Everything was ready, and more than ready for at tack, and he prepared to turn upon Austria if the blow against England failed. The outposts on the heights of Boulogne vainly watched the horizon, no fleet appeared ; Villeneuve, crestfallen and discouraged, losing sight of the general plan to think of the safety of his own fleet alone, turned not to Brest, but to Cadiz. Napoleon, beginning to lose hope, wrote to Talleyrand : " If my admirals do not decide or succeed, I will break up my ocean camps, enter Ger many with two hundred thousand men, and never pause until I reach Vienna, take Venice and all she still holds in Italy from Austria, and drive the Bourbons from Naples. I will not permit the Austrians and Russians to meet; I will strike them before their junction" (August 23). This was a brief summary of his campaign for the last three months of 1805. The man whom we have seen so unreasonable, so fiercely chimerical in his policy, almost ridiculous in his revival of superannuated etiquette and operatic consecration, now that the time for military action came, rose in all his native grandeur. He divined his enemy's continental campaign-plan, which was a bad one. The allies scattered their forces instead of concentrating them, and Austria's chief army and best general (Archduke Charles) were sent to Italy, which was not the seat of war. Napoleon provided for everything, reinforcing the corps in the Gulf of Taranto, commanded by General Gouvion St. Cyr, and ordering him to attack Naples at the first signal. He gave the young Vice-regent of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais, Marshal Massena as military director, enjoining him to bring all the forces of Upper Italy to bear on Verona and the Adige. Two such men as St. Cyr and Massena were able to dispute the field victoriously, with far superior numbers. Napoleon was a little uneasy about the 222 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. army formed by the coalition in Pomerania, and that which was to threaten France. He hoped that Prussia might stop these forces, as he again offered her Hanover, and that Russia would hesitate to attack her, but in any case he hoped to finish elsewhere before there was any serious trouble in that quarter. The decisive point, as shown by previous wars, was the Danube valley, and thither he resolved to lead the mass of the French army. The concentric march of all the divisions of the grand French army was admirably combined ; the body occupying Hanover under Marshal Bernadotte, and the Dutch division under General Marmont, were ordered to advance to Central Germany and join at. Wurtzburg on the Main, about the 20th of September. The troops in and around Boulogne turned their back on the sea late in August, and marched towards the Rhine, leaving a large body of infantry and artillery to guard the flotilla. They were to fall into line between Mayence and Strasburg, from the 21st to the 24th of September, and leaving the Black Forest on their right to proceed towards the Danube by the Main and Neckar valleys ; Napoleon hoped to reach the heart of Germany in time to prevent the Austrian invasion of Bavaria. He had gained the Bavarian alliance by secret engagement, and with rather more diffi culty that of Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Hesse-Darmstadt, and there fore hoped to meet with no obstacles to his entry into the hereditary states of Austria, which would be equal to one campaign won before the campaign opened. To deceive the Austrians, he spread a re port that he had sent only thirty thousand men to the Rhine, while he marched thither with one hundred and fifty thousand. He passed through Paris early in September, to settle on the necessary measures with his ministers and councillors. Finances were em- banassed ; there was a deficit of eighty millions, which was made up by various expedients — by ceasing the deposits in the sinking fund, delaying to pay contractors, and finally paying them in na tional property taken from the Senate and Legion of Honor, which had been thus endowed. All this shook public credit ; coin was out of circulation, commerce in distress, and the Emperor was coldly VILLAGE IN THE BLACK FOREST. 1805.] CAPITULATION OF ULM. 223 received in Paris. A great and prompt success was indispensable. He saw this, and said : " Before a fortnight is over, I will conquer the Russians, the Austrians, and the speculators for a decline " (bears). He collected his forces, summoned all the remaining con tingent from the year IX. to XIII. to rally round the flag, and fore stalled the levy of year XIV. The Legislative Corps not having met, he made the Senate give him power to make this levy, contrary to the Constitution of the Empire (September 23), and did something even more opposed to his habits and tendencies : he returned in this crisis to one of the chief institutions of 1789, now fallen into disuse; he ordered the national guard to be reorganized in the Northern and Western departments, reserving to himself the choice of officers. With the remaining contingent and the conscripts for the year, he formed a reserve of one hundred and fifty thousand men, which he spread between Boulogne, Mayence, and Strasburg. The national guards were to protect the coast. September 26, he reached Strasburg and learned that the Austrian army had crossed the Inn, September 7, and occupied Ulm on the 18th. The Elector of Bavaria, with his little army of twenty-five thousand men, had withdrawn to Wurtzburg to await French succor. Napoleon's police were as active in Germany as in France ; generals in disguise had reconnoitred the country in which they were to act, and Napoleon knew the state of the Austrian army as well as the Viennese cabinet itself. When he learned that the Austrians had traversed Bavaria, and were awaiting him at Ulm, beyond the Suabian mountains, he felt sure of them. They barely numbered eighty thousand under Mack, formerly Cobourg's chief of staff, and whom Championnet defeated so severely at Rome and Naples. Napoleon had more than two hundred thousand men at his disposal ; for the two divis ions sent from Hanover and Holland had joined the Bavarians at Wurtzburg, and formed an army of at least sixty thousand men ready to aid the grand army, which had reached the Rhine from the English Channel within three weeks. This was the best-drilled and finest army in the world. Napoleon had recently given them 224 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. a new organization, which Hoche first conceived and canied out : each corps (there were seven without the imperial guard when they entered Germany) had the minimum of light horse and artil lery; the reserve cavalry, cuirassiers, and dragoons were united under Murat in a formidable mass of twenty-two thousand horse supported by a numerous light artillery, and Napoleon kept them within reach, for decisive shocks. The Austrian general was unaware of the vast danger which threatened him. Although he knew that a consider able force was at Wurtzburg to his extreme right, he did not sup pose himself seriously menaced in flank or rear, and fancied that the grand army would march straight towards him, through the Black Forest. Napoleon kept up this delusion by sending a few detachments into the forest, while the main body crossed the Rhine farther north, skirted the Suabian mountains, and came out at Donauworth on the Danube, behind Ulm and the Austrian army, the passage of the Danube being forced at Donauworth by Marshal Soult, October 7. October 8, he occupied Augsburg ; October 12, Bernadotte and the Bavarians, crossing the Danube at Ingolstadt, entered Munich, and reinstated the Elector of Bavaria in his capital. Bernadotte and Davout, established in the heart of Bavaria, barred the way to the Russians, whose aid the Austrians awaited, and Napoleon marched on Mack in person. The latter did not see his danger until the main French body was between him and Austria. He was then unable to return to Vienna or even to the Tyrol, for the French cut off his retreat. For a moment he thought of escaping to Bohemia by the northern shore of the Danube, which he might have done, as the mass of the French army had passed to the south of the river ; but he allowed himself to be stopped at Hasslach near Ulm, by a few thousand French under General Dupont, who began with glory a career destined to wretched failure. A handful of heroes held the whole Austrian army at bay (October 11). Mack did not renew his efforts, but quietly awaited the Russians. He did not even centre his forces at Ulm, his last faint chance, but sent two large detachments to re-establish communication with the Tyrol. One was entrapped and taken; COLONNADE, POTSDAM. 1805.] CAPITULATION OF ULM. 225 the other forced to fly to the Tyrol. October 14, Marshal Ney carried the bridge and fortified convent of Elchingen, the outpost of Ulm, the Austrian main body being driven back and hemmed in at that town. Discord prevailed in the luckless army. Mack's lieutenants reproached him with his blindness and obstinacy in re maining at Ulm, and Archduke Ferdinand, the Austrian emperor's brother, left the town on the night of October 14, in spite of the commanding general, with a large body of cavalry and some infan try, taking the road to Bohemia. The event proved retreat no longer possible ; despite their rapid march, they were overtaken, put to the sword, and imprisoned or scattered by Murat's cavalry. October 15, Ney and Lannes took the heights of Michelsberg and Frauenburg, overlooking Ulm, and the next day Napoleon sum moned Mack to surrender. He declared to the envoy sent by Mack, that " if he took the town by assault, he should have to do as he did at Jaffa, where the whole garrison was put to the sword." The Austrian troops were utterly demoralized ; the place, ill fortified, could not resist a siege ; the wretched Mack surrendered October 19, and on the 20th, the remnant of the Austrian army laid down their arms before Napoleon near Michelsberg. The soldiers were sent prisoners to France, the officers allowed to go home on parole. In less than a fortnight the French army thus captured nearly sixty thousand men, two hundred cannon, and eighty flags, with very trifling loss themselves. The day after the surrender of Ulm (Oc tober 21, 1805), Napoleon issued a proclamation to the " soldiers of the grand army," giving a simple and rapid review of the fortnight's campaign. The results were so great that words could add nothing to facts. The Austrian army was annihilated : a second campaign must now be begun against the Russian army, and the same fate be dealt to it. The very day on which Napoleon congratulated his men on a first victory, a great maritime defeat made sad atonement for French triumphs on the Continent. Napoleon, though extremely annoyed by Villeneuve's retreat to Cadiz, had not deprived him of command, but ordered him to leave that port, rally the Spanish fleet at Car- 15 VOL. II. 226 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. thagena, send reinforcements to Gouvion Saint-Cyr at Naples, and re turn thence to Toulon, and also bade him attack the English wher ever he met them in inferior numbers (September 14). At the same time, foreseeing that Villeneuve would hesitate to carry out his orders, he sent Admiral Rosily to replace him. Villeneuve, hearing of Rosily's approach, left Cadiz, October 20, resolved to show that he was no coward, but convinced that he was steering straight to ruin. He had thirty-three ships of the line, French and Spanish, — the latter being for the most part in bad repair and badly manned. The French ships were in better condition, but still inferior to the English, whose admirals, particularly Nelson, had won the same supremacy by sea which Napoleon and the French leaders enjoyed on shore. Nelson himself now met Villeneuve with twenty-seven vessels well equipped and commanded, among them seven fine three-deckers. Villeneuve deployed his forces in a long . line, keeping no reserve. Nelson formed two columns, intending to break the French line at two points, and overwhelm one part before the other could come to the rescue. He and his first lieu tenant, Collingwood, led the columns, and fell upon the French and Spanish in advance of the other English ships. While Collingwood attacked the rear-guard, Nelson with his flag-ship, the Victory, pene trated the French centre, first cannonaded Villeneuve's flag-ship, the Bucentaur, and then attacked the French ship Redoubtable, com manded by the brave Captain Lucas, boarding it in a sort of hand- to-hand fight. In so close a contest Nelson lost the advantage of his superior ordnance. The French swept his deck with a hail of shot and shell from the tops and shrouds of the Redoubtable. Suddenly Nelson was seen to totter and fall ; a ball had pierced his body and broken his spine. " I 'm done for ! " said he ; " the French triumph at last ! " He just escaped the grief of seeing his flag-ship taken prisoner. Captain Lucas and his crew were on the point of boarding the Victory, when the English ship Teme>aire, coming to the Victory's aid, poured a frightful volley of grape into the French ship. A third English vessel joined the Victory and T^m4- raire, and the Redoubtable, conquered by numbers, yielded only 1805.] NAVAL DEFEAT AT TRAFALGAR. 227 when her whole crew was wounded or dead. Nelson was fatally wounded ; but his idea lived and triumphed. His two attacking columns cut off and surrounded a part of the Franco-Spanish line, and with a less number of vessels than the foe, the English proved superior in power at the decisive points, while at least a third of the Franco-Spanish fleet, the advance-guard, took no part in the action. The French vessels engaged fought with desperate courage : the English carried the day by the rapidity with which they aided each other, and by the superiority of their fire. The wretched Villeneuve, overpowered by several English ships, after four hours' struggle yielded, his ship being but a wretched hulk strewn with the dead and dying. Rear-Admiral Magon, after heroic efforts, was killed on his ship, the Algesiras. Other French ships, the Fougeux and the Pluto, distinguished themselves in action. The latter, under the brave Breton Cosmao, was the only one to escape the enemy, and aided the escape of the Spanish admiral Gravina, who was mortally wounded at the close of the fight. The French ship Achilles, invaded by flames, was blown up sooner than surrender. Towards five in the evening seventeen French and Spanish ships were in the enemy's power. Nelson lived to know that England had won the day, and his last thoughts were shared between joy over the victory, memories of the teachings of his father, a pious English clergyman, and recollections of the fatal woman who pol luted his life and reigned over him even in death. This terrible day is known as the battle of Trafalgar, from the cape hard by. Eleven French and Spanish ships regained Cadiz, and four French vessels escaped by the Strait of Gibraltar. The Eng lish did not keep the trophies of their bloody triumph, for a tempest succeeded the fight and forced them to abandon the captive ships in tow. The French flag-ship Bucentaur, without Villeneuve, and the Algesiras, carrying brave Magon's body, captured the small English crews in charge of them, and reached Cadiz as best they could. The Bucentaur split upon a rock at the entrance of the harbor, the men being taken on board one of the uncaptured vessels, the Indomitable ; which was cast upon the same rock by the storm soon 228 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. after, and both crews were swallowed up by the sea. Three other of the ships taken by the English also perished on that gloomy night. The next day, Cosmao, captain of the Pluto, seeing the Eng lish in the offing, beaten about by the wind with their remaining prizes, took command of the French fleet, boldly set sail with five ships and five frigates, and recovered two of the Spanish vessels, — Nelson's successor, Collingwood, burning or sinking his remaining prizes. The particulars of this great catastrophe were long kept from the French public, for Napoleon — his pride wounded by such bad news received during his triumphal march through Austria — imposed silence on the newspapers, and the fatal conflict was vaguely mentioned as a rash attack, in which France suffered rather from the storm than from the foe. The wretched Villeneuve, released on parole by the English, returned to France in the spring of 1806, to justify himself to the Emperor; but a letter from the Minister of the Marine informed him that he was condemned in advance, and he dealt himself six wounds. Napoleon might have censured him and deprived him of command on his retreat to Cadiz; but for the Trafalgar disaster Napoleon had only himself to blame : Villeneuve did his best, and died innocent. However, Napoleon took a more glorious means to stifle the echoes of Trafal gar, by pursuing his victorious Austrian campaign with increasing brilliancy. A cloud now rose in Prussia. King Frederick William, who personally favored France, but was drawn in an opposite direction by his lovely wife, Queen Louisa, and by his court, had long tried to keep up his neutrality ; chance weighed down the scales on the side of the coalition. In the concentric march of the French to the Danube, Napoleon sent Bernadotte's division through the margra- viate of Anspach, Prussian tenitory south of the Main, and this breach of Prussian neutrality, coming at an inopportune moment, was presented to the king as an affront which his honor required him to resent. The Czar of Russia took speedy and skilful advan tage of this, and hastened to Berlin ; where, seconded by the queen, the ramparts op ulm. 1805.] VICTORY OF AUSTERLITZ. 229 the court, and staff officers, he urged on the king. A dramatic scene occurred between them at Frederick the Great's tomb in Potsdam: Alexander swore eternal friendship on the great king's coffin, and made Frederick William do the same; and the latter permitted the Russians to pass through Silesia to atone for the French passage of Anspach, promising to send troops to occupy Hanover, which the French had evacuated, with the exception of Hamelin. Alexander led him to hope for the much-desired Eng lish cession of Hanover, for which Pitt was quite ready ; but King George clung to that family heirloom, and England offered Holland to Prussia instead. This shows the value set on international rights by Pitt and his colleagues. Napoleon and the English government had nothing to reproach each other with in that quarter. The King of Prussia yielded hesitatingly and cautiously ; the news of the sur render of Ulm disturbed him much, and he wished before joining the coalition to offer his mediation to the French Emperor ; but he was persuaded to ask for the boundary of the Mincio for Austria, and indemnity for Sardinia in return for Piedmont. It was very plain that Napoleon would not consent; and Prussia demanded a month's delay of military action, after the offer of mediation, if Napoleon refused, being unable to prepare sooner. The agreement between Alexander and Frederick William was signed November 3, and kept secret ; but Napoleon received official notice of the Rus sian entry into Silesia, and guessed the rest. He therefore hastened his movements, hoping to finish with the Russians before the Prus sians were in battle array. The news from Italy was good, and permitted his pushing for ward. Massdna had assumed the offensive, although he had to deal with an army far superior in numbers, and with a great general. He attacked, with fifty thousand French, eighty thousand Austrians under Archduke Charles. The Adige, since the treaty of Lun^ville, so exactly divided what we may call French Italy and Austrian Italy, that tne old Venetian town of Verona, through which the river runs, belonged half to each party. On the night of October 17, Massena crossed the Adige and took the Austrian part of Verona by surprise. 230 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. He then waited some days, and hearing of the victory at Ulm, pressed forward and boldly attacked Archduke Charles in his in- trenchments at Caldiero. This would have been madness had not the Austrians been shaken by events in Germany. Massena could not force the Austrian camp; but the archduke sallying out to attack the French, Massena repulsed them with great loss (Octo ber 30), and the next night the archduke began a retreat. Pur sued and harassed by Massena, he took up his march for the heredi tary states of Austria, to go to Vienna's aid. Napoleon had set out again directly after the sunender of Ulm ; charging Ney to drive from the Tyrol the twenty-five thousand Austrians stationed there, and thus securing his rear, he marched in person with the main army from Munich to Vienna. He had no one before him but the Russian Kutusoff with sixty odd thousand men ; and that general, unable to rescue Mack, was still less able to defend the entrance to Austria. He retired hastily from post to post before the overwhelming French forces, who crossed the Inn without serious obstacle, as also all the watercourses flowing from the Alps to the Danube. The Russians, after a skirmish of the rear guard at the entry to the mountainous and wooded country pro tecting the western approach to Vienna, made no attempt to defend that capital, but crossed the Danube at Krems, to rejoin the second army of their compatriots in Moravia under the czar himself (November 9). A French division of several thousand men under Marshal Mortier having crossed to the left bank of the Danube, attacked the enemy, regardless of numbers. The whole Russian army sunounded them. Mortier fought bravely all day, resolved to die rather than surrender. At nightfall he was succored by Dupont's division, the same which withstood Mack's whole army at Ulm, and the Russians retired. Murat was already at the gates of Vienna with his cavalry, and Napoleon ordered him to take the great bridge crossing the Danube, just outside the town, hoping himself to outstrip Kutusoff in Moravia, and surround him as he had Mack, before he could join the czar. The Emperor of Aus tria authorized his capital to receive the French without resistance. 1805.] VICTORY OF AUSTERLITZ. 231 Seven or eight thousand Austrian soldiers, who had left the city, occupied the left bank of the Danube, and prepared to blow up the bridge at the French approach ; but hearing rumors of a truce, the vigilance of their leaders was relaxed. Murat and Lannes treated with them, while the French troops advanced unseen, by the small bridges and wooded islands preceding the main bridge. The Aus trians saw their mistake too late, and when they turned to blow up the bridge, the French were upon them and disarmed them (Novem ber 13). The French army then entered Vienna, finding in the arsenal two thousand cannon and one hundred thousand guns. While the grand army took possession of Vienna, where strict discipline was maintained, Ney and Augereau entered Tyrol by the steepest Alpine passes, and surprised and surrounded the Austrian troops scattered through that region, two entire divisions laying down their arms. The Austrian army despairing of rescuing Vienna, and fearing to be entrapped between Massena and Napoleon, turned towards Hungary to make a long circuit and join the Russians in Moravia. Massena did not long pursue the archduke, but halted in Carinthia to form the right wing of the grand army. Napoleon had already begun to act on the left shore of the Danube. Provid ing for any offensive return of the archduke to the south of the Danube, by posting Massena and others between Vienna and Styria, he hastened to profit by the capture of the bridge at Vienna to try to prevent the meeting of the two Russian armies at the north of the river. Murat and his cavalry sent forward, and met Kutusoff on his way to Moravia, he having been delayed at Krems. But Murat was caught in the trap which he spread for the Austrians at Vienna. Kutusoff alleged a feigned treaty for peace at Napoleon's headquar ters, and a truce was arranged during which both parties should remain in the positions then occupied. On hearing this, Napoleon bitterly reproached Murat, and ordered him to attack at once, but it was too late. Kutusoff, masking his movements by a line of stationary troops, had fled to Moravia with the main body, Prince Bagration with a rear-guard of seven or eight thousand men sacri ficing himself to save his chief. This Russian corps equalled in 232 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. bravery the French troops under Mortier and Dupont, holding back the far superior forces of Murat and Lannes for a whole night, and then succeeding in joining Kutusoff (November 16). The Russians hastened their retreat to Olinutz, and the French entered Briinn, the capital of Moravia, November 19, Napoleon establishing his headquarters there next day. He deemed it im prudent to move farther away from Vienna, his base of operations, lest Archduke Charles should take it from him. He also suspected the secret alliance of Prussia with Austria and Russia, which threat ened his left wing ; and, unable to prevent the union of the Russian armies, he now aimed at forcing them to attack him in Moravia. His interest being to fight at once, his foes accordingly desired to gain time, and not to give battle until they were joined by the arch duke and by fresh Russian and perhaps Prussian troops. So thought Francis II. and old Kutusoff ; but Czar Alexander was surrounded by ardent and daring young men, who only dreamed of the glory of conquering the great conqueror, and listened to but one counsellor, the German Weirother, general of staff, and a great inventor of strategic plans on paper, after the manner of Mack. Alexander yielded, and it was decided to attack Napoleon at Briinn, with forces scarcely exceeding his eighty odd thousand and fifteen thousand Austrians. The Russian effective force was much diminished, and Napoleon, obliged to occupy so much conquered ground, had but a small army with him, who, however, hailed the enemy's approach with delight. Napoleon had assumed a fine position for defence, between the town of Briinn and the castle of Austerlitz, destined to such fame. The Emperors of Austria and Russia made their head quarters at the castle, and the attack was planned for December 2. It was not until the evening of December 1, that Napoleon gathered sufficient troops to enable him to pass at will from the defensive to the offensive, and this was owing to the devotion and unequalled speed of his men. Bernadotte came up during the day with his division from Bohemia, and the Friant division arrived at night from Vienna, having travelled thirty-six leagues in two days. The French army then numbered from seventy to eighty thousand men. That 1805.] VICTORY OF AUSTERLITZ. 233 evening Napoleon announced the events of the following day to his men. " Soldiers," said he, " the Russian army stands before you to avenge the Austrian army of Ulm Our positions are strong, and as the hostile battalions march to turn my right wing, they must expose their own flank Victory is secure It will conclude the campaign, and the peace I make shall be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself." He guessed the enemy's plan so well, that many afterwards fool ishly insisted that it was betrayed to him. For his part, he took his whole army into his confidence, thus winning the hearts of those heroes. He traversed the camp by night to judge of the feeling of the troops, and the soldiers, recognizing him, made torches of the straw on which they slept, a long line of flame lighting up his path. One old soldier ran up to him, saying, " I promise you that we will take the Russian flags and cannon to-monow to celebrate the anniversary of your coronation." " The republican spirit," says Lanfrey, Napoleon's latest historian, " still lingered in the ranks, and the soldiers regarded Napoleon less as a master than as an equal, in crowning whom they seemed to glorify themselves." The object of the coalition was to cut off the French from the road to Vienna. Napoleon had taken up his position between that road and the one leading to Olmiitz, resting his left wing on the heights, and covering his front by a brook bordering on several ponds. Had he occupied the plain of Pratzen beyond the brook and extended his right wing to the ponds, the foe could not have blocked his way to Vienna. A prudent general, seeing a man like Napoleon commit so evident a blunder, would have suspected a trap and avoided it ; but the allies fell into it, marching before day light, and intending to issue in the rear of the French right wing near the ponds, thus rashly exposing their flank. All Napoleon's predictions were verified. The Austro-Russian left wing at first drove back the handful of French holding the neighboring villages ; but General Friant hurried up with his men, who took only a few hours to rest from their incredible march of thirty-six leagues in two days, and the villages of Telnitz and Sokolnitz were captured 234 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. and recaptured. Ten thousand French under Davout defended Golds- bach brook all the morning against thirty thousand foes. While the allies thus assailed his extreme right, Napoleon made the de cisive attack on their centre, which divided their army, sending Marshal Soult to storm the plain of Pratzen, and sustaining him in person with his reserves. The hostile corps at Pratzen with the Emperors of Russia and Austria were defeated and driven towards Austerlitz. The Russian Imperial guard, coming to the rescue, was conquered in turn by the French Imperial guard. The enemy's right wing could not aid the centre ; its infantry was defeated by Lannes, and the main body of the cavalry was routed and chased towards Austerlitz by Murat's men. Napoleon finished the day by taking in the rear, with his victorious centre, the enemy's left wing, which would otherwise have crushed Davout and Friant. A fearful rout ensued ; part of the Russian troops tried to escape over the frozen ponds, but French cannon-balls broke the ice, and thousands were drowned. The Russian General Doktoroff with great courage and presence of mind contrived to retire with a few men by a narrow causeway between the ponds ; the rest perished, disbanded, or were taken. The triumph was complete and decisive : the foe lost thirty thousand men, one hundred and thirty-three cannon, innumerable flags, and vast supplies. The allies were utterly disabled. They sub mitted to their fate, and at evening the Austrian emperor requested a truce and an interview. Napoleon received him next day at the outpost. Such a proceeding showed indeed that the humbled heir of so many potent emperors surrendered at discretion to this new Caesar. Napoleon granted him a truce for himself and Alexander, on condition that the Russians left the Austrian states at once, and that Austria sent envoys to Briinn with power to sign a separate peace with France. " While the war of the first coalition," says Thiers in his " His tory of the Consulate and Empire," "lasted five years, and that of the second coalition two, the war which excited the third only lasted three months ; so great had become the power of Revolution ary France, centred in one man, and so skilful and prompt was 1805.] PEACE OF PRESBURG WITH AUSTRIA. 235 that man in striking those whom he wished to attack." Napoleon's first political act was a wise one, — forcing Austria, Russia, and Prussia to treat separately. Haugwitz, the envoy sent to offer Prus sian mediation, reached the French camp three days before the battle of Austerlitz, and Napoleon had sent him to Vienna to await his answer ; he now charged Talleyrand to negotiate at Briinn with the Austrians ; sought out the Prussian envoy in Vienna, and ex plained to him, with much feigned anger, that he knew of his king's secret engagements with Austria and Russia; then, when he had frightened him well, again offered Hanover to Prussia in return for an alliance, offensive and defensive. The choice lay between a fine province gained without a blow and war with the victor of Auster litz. Haugwitz chose Hanover, assured that his king would not dare disavow him. The treaty with Prussia was signed December 15, at the palace of Schoenbriinn, near Vienna, the Austrian Ver sailles. Matters arranged with Prussia, the grave question of Austria remained. At the point to which she was reduced there were but two measures to choose between, — either to crush her once and for all, or to treat her so generously that alliance with her would be possible. The latter was Talleyrand's idea. Talleyrand's advice was rejected, and he became the tool of a policy that he disap proved, working first at Briinn, then at Presburg, whither negotia tions were shifted, to impose on Austria the hard requirements of a merciless victor. Austria was to give up not only Venice and her possessions in Suabia, but Austrian Friuli, Dalmatia, and the entrance to Cattaro ; that is, — excepting Trieste and Istria, where she granted military passage, — all that she owned on the Adriatic, and which was to be added to the kingdom of Italy. She ceded the Tyrol, that nursery of soldiers, which hereditary affection bound to the house of Austria. The Emperor was to renounce all feudal rights to the states of Southern Germany, and Austria lost four million out of her twenty-four million subjects, with all her posi tions in the Upper Alps and most of her seaports, and was forced to pay a contribution of seventy millions to endow the officers and 236 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. X. men of the grand army and pension the widows and children of those killed in the campaign. This was the beginning of what was called the army treasury, set apart as its collective property. The treaty was signed at Presburg, December 26, 1805 (Nivose 6, Year XIV), and was the last great date of the republican era ; for on the 1st of January, 1806, the old Gregorian calendar took the place of the republican one. Austria was humbled and maimed, but not sufficiently crushed to lose all hope of rising and avenging herself. A few days previous (December 10, 12, and 20), Napoleon signed treaties of alliance with the Electors of Bavaria, Wiirtem- berg, and Baden, conferring the title of King on the first two, and obliging Austria to acknowledge them. He gave the Tyrol to the new King of Bavaria, and divided the Austrian possessions in Suabia between Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden. Under the name of allies, he planned to make vassals of these princes of Southern Germany, and thought to bind them indissolubly to him by joining their families in marriage with his own. The King of Bavaria was forced to break off his daughter's marriage with the heir of Baden, and give her to Napoleon's adopted son, Eugene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy ; and the King of Wurtemberg was obliged to give his daughter to Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother. The heir of Baden married one of the Beau harnais family. Napoleon then left Vienna, sending orders to Massena and Gouvion Saint-Cyr to march on Naples and drive from the kingdom Queen Caroline of Austria, who had persuaded her husband to renew the war with France. The English and Rus sians, in accordance with the campaign-plan of the coalition, had reached Naples by sea, but soon re-embarked, and the foolhardy enterprise of the court of Naples only resulted in the rapid conquest of the Neapolitan provinces by the French and the flight to Sicily of the king and queen. Napoleon returned to Paris, January 26, 1806, preceded by one hundred and twenty Russian and Austrian flags, which were borne in triumph to Notre Dame, the Senate, Tribunal, and Hotel de Ville. He was received with universal enthusiasm, such marvel- 1806.] PEACE OF PRESBURG WITH AUSTRIA. 237 lous victories exciting the public imagination to the wildest pitch. The Empire became popular. The Tribunal proposed and the Senate ordered the erection of a triumphal monument to "Napoleon the Great." This monument was the famous column in imitation of the Trajan and Antonine columns at Rome, and was cast from the bronze cannon captured from the foe. 238 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL CHAPTER XI. WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. — BATTLE OF JE*NA. — RATTLE OF EYLAU. — BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND. TREATY OF TILSIT. January, 1806, to July, 1807. THE year 1806 opened with unequalled splendor for the new Empire. France, dazzled and intoxicated, hoped to rest after the gigantic efforts exacted from her to conquer this unexampled height. The account of the condition of the Empire presented to the Legislature, March 5, 1806, announced that the Emperor pro jected no more conquests : " He has exhausted military glory ; he desires no more of the bloody laurels which he has been forced to pluck; to perfect the government and make it a source of ever-increasing prosperity for his people, to make his deeds an example and lesson of lofty morals, to merit the blessing of pres ent and future generations, — such is the glory which he desires." These were fine promises, but in strange contrast to the ideas expressed by Napoleon at the very same time, regarding the char acter of the festivities to be held in Paris in honor of the victo rious army. He wished to renew the wild-beast fights of Roman amphitheatres ; but the army not returning to Paris, on account of approaching war, Napoleon never realized this imitation of the worst of ancient customs, but borrowed from the Middle Ages a superannuated institution, creating principalities and duchies in Italy for his marshals and high officials, not giving them feudal rights, but large endowments at the expense of the cities and coun tries whose titles they bore. This new form of exaction was not likely to please the Italians. He then restored order to the home treasury, which had been 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA 239 greatly embanassed before the Austrian campaign. Victory swept away the pecuniary difficulties of the previous year, and arrears were paid, partly by lucky speculation, partly by the violent dis possession of a company of contractors, who had done good service, but compromised the treasury by dangerous and inegular trans actions. Napoleon would suffer no loans in peace or war ; govern ment stock never having risen above sixty, a loan would have cost too much. He required in time of war eight hundred and twenty millions a year, costs of collection included ; to secure this sum, he increased the indirect taxes, established a tax on malt liquors, and restored the duty on salt with improvements which did away with the old abuses. The increase in taxes was in some measure atoned for by the abolition of tolls which had proved very unpopular. He also began great works, some of mere pomp and luxury, but others of real public utility. To the Column of the Grand Army, recently ordered, he added the small but elegant triumphal arch in the Carrousel, and designed a colossal arch to form the western end of a street two leagues long; this street was to be called Rue Imperiale, and to issue from the east, from the old Place du TrSne. The street was never built, but the Arc de l'Etoile was resumed and finished under Louis Philippe. Napoleon also built bridges at the two extremes of Paris, one of which was called the Austerlitz bridge, and the other soon received the name of J^na, from a fresh victory. He ordered a canal to be made from the. Rhone to the Rhine, and one from the Scheldt to the Rhine, and planned an other from Nantes to Brest. He built the beautiful Corniche road from Nice to Genoa, and branch roads to the Rhine and Moselle. The great administrator thus stood on a par with the great wanior; but Napoleon was not content with this double glory, — he desired to rule supreme over spiritual as well as material things. We have seen his work under the Consulate in regulating schools and altering the Convention's work. He organized houses of educa tion and scholars ; he organized teachers in a great lay body des tined to replace the clerical teachers. Just as it was well to educate 240 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL young people in common without distinction of birth or religion, it was well to form the masters into a vast association, but on condi tion that the free spirit of modern society animated the masters and formed the pupils. This was not Napoleon's aim ; he put the scholars into barracks, not to make citizens of them, but merely military apprentices : he meant to make a body of civil officers of the teachers, the tool of his absolute power, like everything else, and the temporary law of May 6, 1806, resulted after four years' trial in a law for the permanent establishment of his corps of teachers under the name of Imperial University. By means of instruction in lyceums and colleges, Napoleon hoped to influence the younger members of the wealthy classes, but did nothing for primary schools, seeking other modes of acting on the children of the poor. He still used the concordat to make religion the tool of the government, and hired theologians to make a catechism, which was approved, contrary to the will of Pius VII., by the papal legate in France, Cardinal Caprara, who belonged to the Emperor rather than to the Pope. This catechism enumerated the duties of all Frenchmen towards their Emperor; namely, love, duty, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, and the tributes ordered for the defence of the Empire and its throne. " God established our sov ereign, and formed him in his own image. To honor and serve him is therefore to serve and honor God himself. He became the anointed of the Lord by the consecration received from the supreme pontiff. .... Those who fail in duty to the Emperor are worthy of eternal damnation." But the imperial catechism did not attain its end : the Revolution was still too recent ! It was by glory, not by the fear of hell, that Napoleon fascinated the people. While striving to enchain the rustics by his catechism, he tried to act on the more opulent classes, not only by education in the future, but by literature and the arts in the present. He dreamed of a literary and artistic age like that of Augustus, Leo X., and Louis XIV., and even of surpassing them by dictating subjects to writers, painters, and poets, and substituting his mind for theirs. He desired that the Institute, under his inspiration, should become the official critic 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. 241 of all literary work, and succeeded in rendering literature almost barren. The fine arts, not requiring such absolute liberty, survived, but gradually declined : the elegant architecture of the latter half of ¦the eighteenth century turned to a cold and dry pseudo-classicism : it was the same with painting, and there was something stiff and clumsy even in furniture. Among the new artists, but one (Gros) struggled against these tendencies ; as for David and Prudhon, they were relics of better days, and David's scholars exaggerated his faults without possessing his genius. In literature it was even worse. The few remaining newspapers trembled under the eye of the police, and were allowed to live only because they were mere ciphers. The theatre bowed to a tyranny which caused it bit terly to regret the more liberal despotism of Louis XIV. Even books were submitted to the most offensive censorship; history, phi losophy, poetry, all the higher walks of literature and science, were crushed. The insignificance of the literature of the Empire is pro verbial : if some few great writers of the French language survived, such as Madame de Stael, Chateaubriand, and Joseph de Maistre, they were out of the official world, and hostile to the Empire. Su premacy in art and letters had passed from victorious and omnipo tent France to conquered Germany. Beyond the Rhine were now found the philosophers and poets, the successors of Voltaire, Rous seau, and Buffon, together with the great musicians who equalled in their art the French architects of the Middle Ages and the Italian painters of the Renaissance. Nor had the material gran deur and power which made France for a moment forget her former intellectual grandeur any solid or European foundation, Napoleon having formed no system of alliance. The Prussian alliance was not serious, and he did nothing to make it so. Prussia was both pleased to gain Hanover, and mortified at being bought so scornfully, and forced to turn upon her recent allies : she did not accept the treaty signed at Schoenbriinn by her envoy Haug witz without conditions. She did not wish her alliance with France to be called offensive, and she demanded, besides Hanover, the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, to calm her 16 VOL. II. 242 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL scruples by an increased bribe. From this conduct, Napoleon con cluded that he could not count on Prussia, which was true, but also that he could treat her without circumspection, which was im politic. He did not insist on the offensive alliance, but neither did he give up the Hanseatic cities, not because he respected their in dependence, but because he chose to keep them for commercial reasons ; and he imposed fresh obligations on Prussia, making her close the mouths of the Weser and Elbe to the English, and forcing the King of Prussia to dismiss his minister Hardenberg, who was in favor of the Austro-Russian alliance, and to recognize the fall of the Bourbons at Naples, and the establishment of a Bonaparte on the throne, as he intended to give it to his eldest brother Joseph. Prussia yielded to these demands in a treaty signed February 15, 1806. Her position was rendered worse: her alliance was there fore the less sincere, and she resumed her secret negotiations with Russia, also trying to palliate her acceptance of Hanover to Eng land, and to persuade her that she had taken King George's spoil reluctantly. England replied by a declaration of war, the blockade of the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, and the seizure of Prussian and German ships. However, the fury of the struggle between France and England seemed to abate, and negotiations could not be long delayed. Wil liam Pitt died January 23, 1806, at the age of forty-seven, having wielded the power for twenty years. Worn out by work and broken by the tenible blow of Austerlitz, he died a vanquished man. His successors, though greatly his inferiors, were destined to obtain from Napoleon's errors the triumph refused to him. He was succeeded by a ministry of the coalition party, formed of his adversary Fox, and those of his former colleagues most bitter against France ; but Fox was made minister of foreign affairs, which promised a con ciliatory policy. The first measures of the new ministry were to reinforce the regular army by legalizing the ' draft of volunteers, and to provide a budget of more than two millions for the vigorous prosecution of the war, if necessary; but, at the same time, Fox offered to reopen negotiations for peace on conditions suited to the 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. 243 state of affairs by land and sea. Napoleon received these over tures politely, and seemed disposed to leave to England Malta and the important post (the Cape of Good Hope) taken from Holland, on condition of England's recognition of his conquests, including Naples. He promised to restore their independence to Holland and Switzerland on the signing of peace, keeping his alliances, that is, his supremacy in Southern Germany, and intimating that Hanover might be recovered from Prussia for a good indemnity. But peace was not possible unless some limit were put to Napoleon's boundless power. At the very moment that he proposed to free Holland, he was preparing to impose his brother Louis upon her as king. May 24, 1806, a treaty, signed only by a Dutch govern mental council at Napoleon's disposal, and which he dared not offer for the nation's acceptance, proclaimed Louis Bonaparte heredi tary King of Holland, to the great consternation of that country. Nor was that all. Napoleon held Naples in his brother Joseph's name ; he now desired Sicily, whither the ex-king and ex-queen of Naples had fled under the protection of the English. Sicily, he said, was indispensable to complete his brother Joseph's kingdom ; and, although he promised Fox not to meddle with it, when a Russian envoy arrived in Paris and reconciliation with the czar became probable, he broke his word and claimed Sicily (June 19, 1806). To be sure, it was no easy matter to persuade England to give him Sicily, where no French soldier had set foot ; but he had still other visions. Now that he had dethroned the Neapolitan Bourbons, he plotted to dethrone the Spanish Bourbons, and replace Bourbons by Bonapartes throughout the Empire of the West, which now assumed real proportions. With such designs, no peace was possible with England or with any other country. Matters in Germany led Napoleon to take another step towards the goal, the boldest yet made. Order had not been restored in Germany by the state of things established by the First Consul's mediation in 1803, the strong having interpreted the conditions of the new regime to the detriment of the weak. Things were even worse in Southern Germany since the recent treaties, the Kings of 244 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL Bavaria and Wurtemberg and the Elector of Baden laying claim to all the rights, imperial or feudal, of the house of Austria in Bavaria and Suabia; they usurped the lands and castles of the petty lords who depended directly on the Empire, and even of the petty princes whose domains lay within their own, and invaded the few remaining free cities. The pensions of princes of the church, robbed of their estates, were not paid, and the Germanic diet and German emperor were reduced to equal impotence, or rather there were, in point of fact, no diet and no emperor. Princes and towns, great and small, throughout Southern and Western Germany called for Napoleon. The Lord High Chancellor of the Germanic Empire, the ex-Elector of Mayence, who, having lost his electorate, was transferred to Ratisbon, addressed a memorial to the French Emperor, April 9, 1806, declaring that he alone could draw Germany from anarchy and regenerate her constitution. He spoke of Austria as having played out her part in Germany. " May the Emperor of Austria," he said, "become Emperor of the East, to resist the Turks, and may the Empire of the West revive in the Emperor Napoleon, as it was under Charlemagne, composed of Italy, France, and Germany!" All this confirmed Napoleon in his fatal ambition, and persuaded him that no greater obstacles would oppose him beyond the Rhine than beyond the Alps, and he accordingly prepared, not to declare himself Emperor of the West, but-to act as such by dissolving the Germanic Empire and grouping the German princes of the South and West under his pro tectorate. Still, he felt it would be rash to drive both Austria and Prussia to despair by so decisive an act, without first' insuring peace with England or Russia ; and he promised the English envoy through Talleyrand, that if peace were made "the changes pro jected in Germany" should not be canied out (July 9). Three days after, however, the consent of the Russian envoy, D'Oubril, to the terms proposed by Napoleon seeming secufe, the compact destroying the German Empire was published. This treaty, ar ranged with the Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg and the Grand Duke of Baden, then passively accepted by the other princes in- 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. 245 eluded in it, made a new union of states, under the name of Confederation of the Rhine, — a title of sham modesty, since it comprised not only the Rhine, but the Upper Danube as far as the Austrian frontier, — the grand duchies of Berg and Hesse-Darm stadt, the duchies of Nassau, and some other petty principalities being added to the kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurtemberg and the grand duchy of Baden. The confederates of the Rhine declared themselves forever divided from the German Empire, and the other German princes managed to join the league later on. The affairs of the Confederation were to be regulated by a diet held at Frankfort, under the presidency of Archbishop and Lord High Chancellor Dalberg, transferred from Ratisbon to Frankfort ; the former city, with the free cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg, being given to Bavaria. The Emperor of the French was declared Protector of the Confederation, which made a perpetual offensive and defensive alliance with France. Napoleon was not content with thus enslaving the German states; he introduced among them a new French prince, having just made his brother-in-law, Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, which comprises that part of Westphalia stretching along the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Cologne, with the stronghold of Wesel. The Emperor of Austria freely renounced the vain title of Emperor of Germany, and thus ended the ancient Germanic Empire. This was the most dangerous thing Napoleon had yet done. To put so large a part of Germany under French rule, was to pave the way for an inevitable reaction among the German people, and to unite against France, at some future time, in war to the death, Prussia and Austria, upheld by England and Russia. Fox, who had entered so sincerely and cordially into the hopes of peace, was deeply wounded by Napoleon's conduct, and despatched a new envoy to France to insist upon the unconditional maintenance of each in his actual possessions, save as regarded Hanover, whose restoration to King George was absolutely insisted upon. But Napoleon, though keeping up negotiations, paid less heed to England, since he had induced the Russian envoy to sign a peace, July 20 ; 246 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL D'Oubril agreeing that he should take Sicily in return for the cession of the Balearic Isles to the ex-sovereigns of Naples, and Napoleon disposing of those islands without deigning to consult Spain, to whom they belonged. This strange treaty was only pro visional until the czar should sign it, — a fact of which Napoleon was not sufficiently mindful. Austria, whose chief aim was to recruit, took no note of the great changes accomplished in Germany; but matters grew more and more complicated between France and Prussia. The French government made advances to mollify Prussia's humiliation and calm the anxiety she felt at Napoleon's vast encroachments in Germany. Talleyrand wrote to the Prussian minister that Na poleon would gladly see Prussia bring all the states of Northern Germany under her influence, by means of a confederation similar to that of the Rhine. These states included electoral Saxony, the Saxon duchies of Thuringia, Hesse-Cassel, Mecklenburg, the Han seatic cities, and some petty principalities. If Prussia could have coerced the princes and cities of. the North, and kept Hanover, she would have been content, at least for a time ; but Saxony and Hesse-Cassel would only join Prussia on terms which did not suit the latter, she suspecting that Napoleon had instigated them. As for the rich commercial Hanseatic cities, Napoleon was re solved never to allow them to return to Prussian sway. Meantime a despatch from the Prussian ambassador at Paris informed the cabinet at Berlin that Napoleon had offered to re store Hanover to the English king. Napoleon, hearing of this despatch through his police agents, denied it with insulting insinu ations against the ambassador; but the effect was produced: the Prussian court believed, not only that it was tricked, but threat ened in its very existence. The foolish boasts of the French gen erals quartered in the heart of Germany ever since the battle of Austerlitz contributed to enrage the Prussian court and army. At a government council held at Potsdam, August 10, it was decided to put the army once more on a war footing. IThe national pride which had animated this military nation since the days of 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. 247 Frederick the Great had long been wounded and humiliated: it now burst forth and demanded war. A contemptible act raised public wrath to its height and provoked a feeling of pain and anger throughout Germany. " The deep debasement of Germany," denounced in eloquent and impassioned pages, excited the minds of men against foreign rule, and Napoleon sent orders to Major- General Berthier to arrest in all provinces occupied by French troops any who should sell pamphlets hostile to his empire. "I intend," he declared, "to have them taken before a military commission and shot within twenty-four hours." This barbarous order was executed at Nuremberg against a bookseller named Palm, who died courageously and was extolled as a martyr (Au gust 26, 1806). Napoleon thought he was sowing fear, but he sowed rage and hate. He cared not, knowing himself to be the stronger in the present, and not heeding the future. The chances of peace vanished one after another. The Czar of Russia refused to confirm the treaty signed by D'Oubril, and for bade him to resume negotiations save in concert with England, and on condition that the ex-King of Naples retained Sicily and was given Dalmatia. A few days after this news reached Paris, Fox died (September 13), — the two great rivals, Pitt and Fox, becoming extinct in the same year. But peace with England would have failed, even had Fox lived. The Prussian minister, Haugwitz, always desirous of French alliance, made a last effort at concilia tion, and asked that the French troops should quit the positions which they occupied in Franconia, on the borders of the Saxon prov inces and close to Prussia, Napoleon replied that Prussia must first lay down arms. Negotiations with England were broken off. Napoleon started for Mayence, reaching it September 28, and the Prussian army entered Saxony to compel the elector and Saxon dukes to join forces with the King of Prussia. This Napoleon regarded as a declaration of war, as he did the Austrian entry into Bavaria the year before. He at once ordered the grand army to gather on the Main, whence he could lead it in a few marches to the entrance of the defiles leading to the small Saxon duchies of Thuringia. 248 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL Prussia's imprudence was inconceivable, her position being far worse than that of Austria in 1805. The French were at her gates in great strength; Russia was in no state to help her in time to avoid invasion, and her own forces were quite insufficient to con tend against those of Napoleon. The king, his ministers, and the old generals who fought in 1792 and 1793, and knew the danger, were led away by Queen Louisa, the princes and younger nobles, and by public opinion. The checks of the Revolutionary war were not decisive enough to have changed the Prussian army's sense of superiority. The soldiers imagined that they would conquer the French as the latter conquered the Austrians and Russians. The truth was that they had not kept pace with the military progress of the age, and although well drilled, they were unaccustomed to military action, were encumbered with baggage, and had everything against them, even numbers. Napoleon had been ready ever since the battle of Austerlitz, having taken full precautions against any attempt at diversion from Austria or England. French troops occupied Italy, Dalmatia, and Holland ; a camp was still maintained at Boulogne, as a threat and a protection, and a reserve corps was formed at Mayence to support the grand army, which had been quartered in Germany for a year, being divided into six divisions, besides Murat's reserve cavalry and a body of picked men, made up from the imperial guard and a splendid company of grenadiers under General Oudinot. This was a transformation of the famous companies of grenadiers once commanded by La Tour d'Auvergne. All the French positions being well guarded from Holland and the British Channel to the borders of Turkey and the Sicilian Strait, there remained in Napo leon's immediate command, and ready to attack Prussia, at least one hundred and seventy thousand men, whom the speedy arrival of the body of picked men would bring up to one hundred and ninety thousand. The Prussians had not more than one hundred and sixty thousand men in all, including twenty thousand Saxons, furnished by the Elector of Saxony and a feeble Prussian reserve formed at Magdeburg on the Elbe. The Prussian army, in two divisions, advanced from the Elbe to the Saale, a river flowing from 1806.] WAR WITH PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. 249 the hills that divide Franconia and Saxony. The French concen trated their forces on the Main, on the other side of the hills. Prussia's first movements showed that she meant to assume the offensive ; war, in itself, was most foolhardy on her part : the plan which she adopted was even more so. Instead of gaining time by a defensive campaign and avoiding general action .until the Russians came up, she threw forward her troops, exposing them to be crushed at a blow, and preventing any co-operation from Russia. Dumou riez, who formerly arrested the Prussians in Argonne, now advised them to retard Napoleon's march as much as possible without ac cepting the brunt of war. They would not listen to him. Dumou- riez's foe of 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, led the Prussian army into invaded Germany as he did at the time of the attempt to invade France. He had not hoped for success in 1792, and had still less confidence now, yielding as before to the popular impulse, and being on bad terms with his chief officer, Prince Hohenlohe, who was full of bravado and presumption. The Prussian court and staff officers fancied that they could surprise the French before the latter had rallied their forces, and drive them back from the Main to the Rhine, and thought themselves far in advance, when Brunswick gave the order for a general movement, October 10. Napoleon had been at Wurtzburg ever since the 2d, and his forces, gathering rapidly, marched towards the mountains among which the Saale takes its rise. On the 7th, he received a final message from the Prussian cabinet, giving him its ultimatum of complete evacuation of Germany by the French, and a promise from Napoleon to put no obstacles in the way of the confederation of Northern Germany. Napoleon replied by a proclamation calling on his men to force Prus sia to repent her provocations by making her soldiers experience on German soil the same fate that they had sought fourteen years before on the fields of Champagne. Next day, October 8, the French columns crossed the mountains and reached the left bank of the Upper Saale. Confusion reigned in the Prussian council of war, who no longer hoped to surprise the French army. The gen erals could not agree, and King Frederick William had neither the 250 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL spirit nor the moral authority necessary to compel them to do so. Brunswick, ill seconded, hesitated, full of dark' forebodings ; uncer tain as to Napoleon's course, he did the very worst thing possible ; he massed his main body around Weimar, on the left bank of the Saale, instead of disputing the mountain passes and passage of the Upper Saale with, the French. October 9, the French rear-guard under Murat and Bernadotte, after crossing the Saale, defeated a Prussian corps at Schleitz, Napoleon manoeuvring to cut off the Prussian army from the Elbe and electoral Saxony. A second contest occurred the next day at Saalfeld, a short dis tance from Schleitz, between Marshal Lannes' division and a Prus sian corps commanded by Prince Louis of Prussia, nephew of Frederick the Great. Prince Louis, more brave than prudent, had joined the queen in urging on all sorts of temerities. He could not conquer, but could die; seeing his troops in utter rout and sur rounded by French hussars, he allowed himself to be slain sooner than sunender. On hearing of the defeat at Saalfeld, Prince Ho- henlohe's great Prussian division, of which Prince Louis's detach ment was the advance, fell back in disorder to Jena, and the Duke of Brunswick, at last understanding that Napoleon meant to cut off his retreat, gave up the idea of fighting beyond the Saale and sub mitted to leave Saxony and make an effort to regain Prussia and the Elbe by way of Magdeburg. Leaving some distance behind him Hohenlohe's division, which had a rear-guard to rally, he marched from Weimar, October 13, towards Naumburg, where he intended to cross the Saale, but was forestalled by Marshal Davout, whom Napoleon had ordered Bernadotte to support. As for Hohenlohe, who was on the road from Jena to Weimar, he had not even taken the precaution to put a strong garrison into the town of J^na, which Lannes and Augereau seized with very little resistance as they crossed the Saale. Meantime Napoleon, who at first held himself in readiness to bear down upon either Naumburg or Jena with the corps of Soult and Ney, was falsely advised that the enemy's main body was between Jena and Weimar. Hither he accordingly marched, October 13, summoning Murat's cavalry to follow, and 1806.] BATTLE OF JENA. 251 ordering Bernadotte to occupy an intermediate position between J^na and Naumburg. Napoleon joined Lannes and Augereau in the afternoon, and spent the night of the 13th in preparing for the next day's battle. He cut a path in the rock to establish his artil lery on the hill- nearest Jena, the Landgrafenberg, commanding all the region round about, and which the Prussians had never thought of defending. Before daylight, Lannes' division, scaling this height, attacked and carried two villages occupied by part of Hohenlohe's troops. Augereau's men and the divisions of Soult and Ney next fell into line, and the intrepid Ney, rushing forward with three thousand men, received without flinching the shock of Hohenlohe's cavalry, renewing the famous infantry squares of the Pyramids against these much vaunted Prussian squadrons. He was soon succored by Lannes and Augereau, Soult advancing on the other wing and the reserves and guard also coming up. The whole line charged, and the Prussian infantry was shaken. The cavalry strove to succor it ; but in the absence of Murat's cuirassiers the French chasseurs and hussars made head against the enemy's cavalry. All was confusion. The Prussian rear-guard, eagerly awaited by Hohen- lohe, only arrived to be drawn into the general rout, its general, Ruckel, being killed. Murat appeared at last with his cuirassiers and dragoons to complete the disaster, the French horse pursuing the scattered foe as far as Weimar. Twelve thousand Prussians and Saxons were killed or wounded ; fifteen thousand prisoners and two hundred cannon were taken by the French. While the sixty thousand men led by Hohenlohe were thus crushed by the main body of the grand army, numbering more than one hun dred thousand, by no means all of whom took part in the action, a second battle was raging hard by at Naumburg. The (main body of the Prussians under Brunswick and the king himself, sixty odd thou sand, fell upon twenty-six thousand French under Davout. The king's army, weighed down by their baggage and unaccustomed to travel, had spent the whole day of the 13th in traversing the five or six leagues between Weimar and the hills opposite Naumburg. The Prussians' aim was to occupy the Naumburg bridge and Kosen 252 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL pass, thus assuring their retreat and preventing Davout from cross ing the Saale and attacking their flank. Brunswick had not even the forethought to send an advance guard to hold this important point, and during the night Davout crossed the river and seized the pass and the heights above. Warned that he was to deal with the King of Prussia in person, he begged Bernadotte to join forces with him ; but the latter kept to the letter of his orders and marched on Dorn- burg early on the 14th, taking no part in either battle, for which he was afterwards severely censured. Bernadotte and Davout dis liked each other, and the rivalries of French generals now began to cause sad results. Davout's isolated position won him glory, how ever, for he resolved to block the enemy's passage if his whole army died in the attempt. He took his post beyond the Kosen pass on the plain of Hassenhausen, where he bore the successive charges of the foe with heroic firmness, but must have yielded if the Prussians had made a general assault ; as they attacked by divis ions, they were shattered and broken by the invincible French infantry. Old Brunswick, in despair, led the grenadiers against the village of Hassenhausen and was laid low by a musket-ball. Another of the old generals of Frederick the Great, Marshal Mol- lendorf, was also killed ; the king charged in person, and his horse was slain under him. Prince William of Prussia then rallied ten thousand horsemen, whom he hurled like a hurricane against the French squares ; but they were greeted by a running fire at thirty paces. Men and horses rolled over each other ; Prince William was wounded and his squadrons were routed. The Prussian reserve of two divisions had not yet acted, and the bold Blucher, a cavalry general, destined to win many laurels, proposed to unite his men to these divisions and make a desperate effort. The king hesitated, then decided to fall back and join Hohenlohe. The royal army withdrew to Auerstadt, which gave its name to the battle, closely pressed by the French troops, and leaving one hundred and fifteen cannon to the victorious little army that fought with forty-four. There is no finer feat of arms in the military history of France than this battle of Auerstadt. The field on which it was fought borders 1806.] BATTLE OF JENA. 253 on Rosbach, where Frederick the Great once routed a large body of French and Germans. Such are the vicissitudes of war. This splen did effort cost France dear : the Prussians lost twelve thousand men ; the French, seven thousand. ' Instead of meeting Hohenlohe as he expected, the king soon en countered the few stragglers who were all that was left of Hohen lohe's division. The royal army, seeing that all was lost, disbanded in general panic, thousands of distracted fugitives never pausing till they reached the Hartz mountains and Thuringian forest. This double victory of J^na and Auerstadt was the most complete yet won since the beginning of the wars of the Revolution, and against the army which had long passed for the best in Europe. Na poleon followed it up with rare activity, occupying Hesse-Cassel in his rear, dethroning the elector, and punishing the Elector of Hesse for his neutrality. At the same time, pursuing his plan of mak ing war self-supporting, he imposed a contribution of one hun dred and fifty millions on the conquered countries, and decreed that all English goods found in Northern Germany belonged to the army (October 16). This was a great piece of injustice towards German merchants, but no worse than the English treat- ment of neutral ships. Harsh as he was towards the Elector of Hesse and those merchants trading with England, he was very gentle with the Elector of Saxony, sending back his officers and men who had been captured, on condition that they would not resume arms against France, and that their leaders should proceed to Dresden to propose peace and alliance to their master. Napo leon, not caring for Saxony as he did for Hesse, whose central posi tion gave it importance, wished to gain its friendship, and the Elector of Saxony gladly accepted the victor's terms. Military and political operations marched or rather hurried forward. The day after the double battle, Murat took fifteen thousand Prussians at Erfurt, some wounded, others exhausted and demoralized. Murat and Soult continued to pursue the confused mass of fugitives towards the Hartz and Magdeburg, picking up men and cannon as they went. Meantime Bernadotte went down the Saale, intending to 254 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL attack Halle on the Elbe, and there his advance guard under Du pont met the Prussian reserve of fifteen thousand men, who had formed at Magdeburg and were trying to join the conquered army, of whose fate they were ignorant. Dupont's division attacked and overthrew this force of thrice its own number, October 17, and on the 20th three French corps crossed the Elbe, at Barby, Dessau, and Wittenberg ; but the very same day, the remnant of the Prussian army rallied by Hohenlohe crossed the same river at Magdeburg on their own side. Nothing was left them but to fly, without hoping to defend Berlin. With his usual promptitude, Napoleon took all needful precau tions before continuing his triumphal march beyond the Elbe. He put on a firm footing his depots, hospitals, and halting- places for reinforcements, and fresh supplies of conscripts, turning, as he ad vanced, the resources of the conquered country against the govern ment which he was aiming to destroy. He paused but a single day at Wittenberg to draw up his plans, and on the 24th of October, ten days after the double battle, he was at Potsdam, the residence of Frederick II. He took the sword of the great king from his tomb and sent it to the Invalides at Paris. " Our veterans," he wrote, " will rejoice when they behold the sword of him who conquered them at Rosbach ! " It would have been wiser and more generous to respect that sword and tomb, after effacing the victory of the great leader lying at Potsdam by a more glorious triumph. Next day, October 25, Davout took bloodless possession of Berlin, King Fred erick William having imitated the Austrian emperor by authorizing his capital to surrender, and Napoleon having granted Davout the well-earned honor of entering Berlin first. When he occupied Vienna, Napoleon avoided everything that might humble his vic tims, but with Prussia it was quite different ; he made a triumphal entry into Berlin, October 27, surrounded by his guard and the flower of the army, and took up his abode in the king's palace. This was the custom of war; but his bulletins to the Moniteur were without excuse. Not content with boasting of his rare suc cess, he heaped insults on the conquered foe, treated King Frederick ROTAL PALACE. BERLIN. 1806.] SURRENDER OF MAGDEBURG. 255 William with contemptuous pity, and Queen Louisa with indignity, declaring that she had hurried her kingdom on to ruin by her guilty passion for the Czar Alexander, and not fearing to compare this brave, generous, and universally respected, though perhaps imprudent woman, to the vile Lady Hamilton, who impelled Nelson to crime. Spandau, the fortress protecting the approach to Berlin, having sunendered, Napoleon used it to store his supplies, sending thither three hundred cannon and one hundred thousand guns taken from the Berlin arsenal. The day after the triumphal entry of the French into Berlin, Prince Hohenlohe's handful of men, who were trying to reach the Oder at Stettin, were joined and surrounded at Benzlaw by Murat and Lannes. Sixteen thousand prisoners were taken, and several thousand more were captured at Passewalk. The stronghold of Stettin, commanding the Lower Oder and occupied by a garrison of six thousand men and powerful artillery, surrendered, October 29, to the summons of General Lasalle of the light horse. The only troop left of the Prussian army, that under Bliicher, escaped the French by making a long circuit ; unable to gain the line of the Oder held by the French, Bliicher turned westward, and hastened to the free city of Lubeck, which he entered, much against the inhabitants' will, intending to seize trading-vessels and sail for Eastern Prussia with his men. But he could not escape the com mon fate ; Soult and Bernadotte came up and forced him to sur render with twenty thousand men, November 7. The following day, the important post of Magdeburg, blockaded in the rear of the French army by Ney, although it might have withstood a long siege, yielded to the first bombardment, with an army of at least twenty thousand men, the people having risen to force the governor to capitulate. Stunned by such rapid and overwhelming blows, the Prussians gave way as if struck by lightning. One hundred and eighty thou sand men were killed, captured, or scattered, there being at least one hundred thousand prisoners. The Prussian monarchy was crushed in a month. Nothing was left to Frederick William but the provinces beyond the Oder and Silesia, with a few thousand 256 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL soldiers, nor could he hope long to retain this remnant of royalty. He had tried to treat with his victor, parleys having been opened at Wittenberg, October 20, .before the French entry of Berlin. Napo leon had intimated that he would grant peace if Prussia would give up all her possessions between the Elbe and the Rhine, promise to meddle no more with German affairs, and recognize the new princes whom he established on German soil. Frederick William sub mitted to these terms, whereupon Napoleon broke his promise and refused to treat. In the interval, the Prussian army was destroyed, Magdeburg sunendered, and the Polish subjects of Prussia offered to aid the French by a national insurrection. Prussian Poland then extended much farther than it does now, and comprised the left bank of the Vistula as far as Pilica, including Warsaw. Napo leon saw new means of action here, and was no longer willing to lay down his arms at the Oder. His excitement grew from day to day. He ordered a temple to Glory to be built at Paris on the model of the old Greek temples and dedicated to the grand army. It was to contain the flags taken in battle, the statues of French generals, and the names of French heroes and martyrs inscribed on tablets of gold and marble. It is now the Church of the Madeleine. He also named the new bridge of the Military School for the field of J^na. These honors to the grand army were not merely the reward of merit, but an incitement to fresh efforts towards a constantly receding goal : the overwhelming triumphs of the last two campaigns convinced him that absolutely nothing could resist him on the Continent, and that he could mould it at his will. No longer content to rule Germany from North to South and to tear Prussia limb from limb, he resolved to keep all that he had or could gain on the Con tinent, until England should yield and he dictate general peace. In refusing peace with Prussia, he offered truce on condition of the sunender of the line of the Vistula, that is, all Prussian Poland, where he wished to spend the winter. The King of Prussia refused, determined to wait the result of the arrival of Russian troops. Na poleon then ordered his men into Prussian Poland. / / 1806.] INCREASING THE ARMY. 257 He continued his struggle with England, and the latter declaring the coasts of France and Germany in a state of blockade, and confis cating all neutral vessels attempting to trade with those countries, Napoleon responded by a decree dated at Berlin, November 21, de claring the British Isles in a state of blockade, forbidding all trade with England, and ordering the confiscation of all English goods or importations. This was known as the Continental blockade, and the double tyranny of England and France was equally iniquitous ; but odious as was the English violence, Napoleon outdid it, his orders extending not only to the coast, but far inland and making the French Empire unpopular throughout Europe. The Hanseatic cities, which transacted all the maritime trade of Germany, were held by the French, the English arrested and their goods everywhere seized. Prussia conquered, a fresh campaign began against the Russians in Poland, Napoleon considering that nothing was done until Russia was reduced to the level of Prussia and Austria. He prepared for the indefinite extension of the war ; having long since left the legal paths of conscription, he called in advance for the recruits of 1807 as he had done before, increasing his battalions and regiments, and swelling the army to five hundred and eighty thousand men. The grand army in Germany was increased to nearly three hundred thousand, including the auxiliaries who had taken no part in the Saxon and Prussian campaign. The Confederation of the Rhine was obliged by treaty to furnish sixty odd thousand men, and the Elector of Saxony, so lately a foe, now entered the confederation and added his contingent. A contribution of two hundred millions was levied on Prussia, Hesse-Cassel, Hanover, the duchy of Bruns wick, and the Hanseatic cities also paying heavy sums. Napoleon thus avoided any increase of French contributions. An active diplomatic measure coincided with these military and financial acts. Napoleon was treating with Austria to gain her friendship, or at least to alarm her into a promise of neutrality, and he sent a mili tary ambassador, General Sebastiani, to Constantinople, with orders to excite Turkey against England and Russia, and to aid in the 17 VOL II. YTrt a 258 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL reformation of the Turkish army. He even sent to Persia to engage the Shah to make a diversion in Asia against Russia. The cam paign opened early in the winter. The 1st of November, the Rus sians and French marched towards the Vistula, the former from the Memel, the latter from the Oder. Fifty thousand Russians pressed forward under General Benningsen ; a second and equal army fol lowed at a distance with a reserve force. Some of the Russian forces on the Turkish frontier were recalled, but were still re mote. The first two Russian armies, with the remaining Prussians, numbered about one hundred and twenty thousand. England made many promises and kept few of them, thinking more of con quering Spanish and Dutch colonies than of helping her allies. Her aid was limited to a small reinforcement of the Swedes guard ing Swedish Pomerania, the only portion of Northern Germany not yet in French power. Gustavus II., the young King of Sweden, weak and impulsive, rushed headlong, without a motive, into the Austro-Russian alliance, destined to be so fatal to Sweden. Napoleon sent a division of troops towards Pomerania, to prevent the English from landing on the Lower Oder; another corps was ordered to take Silesia and occupy the upper course of the Oder. Eighty thousand men under Murat crossed the Oder and entered Prussian Poland, and an equal number stood ready to sustain them. November 9, Davout's division entered Posen, the principal town of the Polish provinces still preserving the national sentiment, and whose people detested Prussian rule and resented the treachery with which Prussia dismembered Poland after swearing alliance with her. All along the road, the peasants hastened to meet the French ; and at Posen, Davout was hailed with an enthusiasm which moved even him, cold and severe as he was, and he urged Napoleon/ to justify the hopes of Poland, who looked to him as her savior. The Russian vanguard reached Warsaw before the French, but made no effort to remain there, and recrossed the Vistula. Novem ber 28, Davout and Murat entered the town, and public delight knew no bounds. It would be a mere illusion to fancy that senti ments of right and justice had any share in Napoleon's resolve, and; 1806.] NAPOLEON AT WARSAW. 259 that he was stirred by a desire to repair great wrongs. His only question was whether the resurrection of Poland would increase his greatness or not ; and if he told the Sultan that he meant to restore Poland, it was because he thought Turkey would assist him the more willingly against Russia. He also offered part of Silesia to Austria, if she would aid him in the restoration of Poland by the cession of her Polish provinces ; but it was not a sufficient offer, and therefore not serious. The truth was that he wanted promises from the Poles before he made any to them. He desired them to help him by a general insunection, repaying them only with vague hopes, and reserving a right to^act as circumstances and his own interest should direct. There is no doubt that if Napoleon had proclaimed the independence of Poland, her nobility, citizens, and many of the country people would have flocked to his standard ; but the solemn declaration, so ardently implored, was not forthcoming. Napoleon flattered and encouraged the Poles, but promised nothing ; many, however, persisted in trusting him, and this illusion still survives. Others had less confidence, especially among the men who had witnessed the rule of Imperial France from behind the scenes. Kosciusko, the last hero of independent Poland, the gen eral who disputed the remnant of his country with Prussia and Russia, was in France at this time, in intimate relations with La Fay ette. Napoleon would have summoned him to Poland to make use of his popularity, hut Kosciusko refused unless his country's liberty could be assured. He felt that the man who robbed France of lib erty would never bestow it on Poland. Thousands of Poles enlisted under the French flag and joined the Polish legions left from the Italian war. Napoleon estab lished a provisional government of well-known Poles in Warsaw, and required nothing but volunteers of the country. He had seized without a blow that line of the Vistula which the Prussian king would not barter for a truce, and might have gone into winter- quarters there ; but the Russians were close at hand on the opposite shore, in two great divisions one hundred thousand strong, in a wooded and marshy country forming a sort of triangle, whose point 260 THE EMPIRE. [Chap. XL touches the union of the Narew and Ukra rivers with the Vistula, a few leagues below Warsaw. The Russians communicated with the sea by a Prussian corps stationed between them and Dantzic. Napoleon would not permit them to hold this post, and resolved to strike a blow, before going into winter-quarters, which should cut them off from the sea and drive them back towards the Memel and Lithuania. He crossed the Vistula, December 23, and attacked the Russians between the Narew and the Ukra. A series of bloody battles followed in the dense forests and deep bogs of the thawing land. Napoleon said that he had discovered a fifth element in Poland, — mud. Men and horses stuck in the swamp and the can nons could not be extricated. Luckily the Russians were in the incompetent hands of General Kamenski, and both parties fought in the dark, the labyrinth of swamps and woods preventing either army from guessing the other's movements. The Russians were finally driven, with great loss, beyond the Narew towards the for ests of Belostok, and a Prussian corps striving to assist them was driven back to the sea. If the frost had returned, the Russian army would have perished ; but the impossibility of acting on such miry ground, and the sufferings of his men, prevented Napoleon from following the foe to the Memel, and he took up his winter-quarters, not on the left bank of the Vistula as he proposed, but on the right bank, in Russian Poland. While he thus repulsed the Rus sians, the Prussian strongholds in Silesia surrendered, in the rear of the grand army, to the German allies of the Confederation of the Rhine, and a body of French and Poles began to surround the great seaport of Dantzic at the mouth of the Vistula. The grand army did not long enjoy the rest it so much needed ; for the Russians, whose losses were more than made up by the arrival of their reserves, suddenly resumed the offensive. General Benningsen, who gave a fearful proof of his sinister energy by the murder of Paul I., had been put in command in Kamenski's place. Marching round the forests and traversing the line of lakes which divide the basin of the Narew from those watercourses flowing di- rectly to the sea, he reached the maritime part of old Prussia, intend- 1807.] BATTLE OF EYLAU. 261 ing to cross the Vistula and drive the French from their position in Poland. He had hoped to surprise the French left wing, lying between the Passarge and Lower Vistula, but anived too late. Ney and Bernadotte rapidly concentrated their forces and fought with a bravery which arrested the Russians (January 25 and 27). Napo leon came to the rescue, and having once driven the enemy into the woods and marshes of the interior, now strove to turn those who meant to turn him, by an inverse action forcing them to the sea- coast. All the French troops between Warsaw and Dantzic were ordered to act accordingly, and the Russian army must have been crushed, if a despatch from Napoleon to Bernadotte, captured by the Cossacks, had not revealed his danger to Benningsen (Feb ruary 1). He at once retreated, closely followed by Napoleon, and tried to reach Konigsberg, the capital of old Prussia ; but on the 6th of February his rear-guard was broken by the French advance at Hoff, which made a stand next day on a height just outside the little town of Eylau. It was driven from the height and from the city. Benningsen then halted beyond Eylau, and massed his forces to receive battle next day. He had about seventy thousand men, twice the artillery of Napoleon (four hundred guns against two hundred), and hoped to be joined betimes by a Prussian corps. Napoleon could only dispose of sixty thousand out of his three hundred thousand men, — Ney being some leagues away and Bernadotte out of reach, — in consequence of the sufferings of the army, the many posts to be occupied, the vast extent of the scene of war, and the scattering caused by endless marches. Napoleon was not the man to shrink from a decisive shock ; he had a fine body of cavalry to aid his infantry, the frozen ground permitting them full action, and his artil lery made up for its inferior numbers by its superior manoeuvring. The battle of February 8 opened with a long and fierce cannonade on both sides. The French were partly protected by the town of Eylau and the village of Rothenen, but the Russians, exposed to their murderous fire, lost patience and attacked the French left, which repulsed them, Soult and Augereau facing them, and Davout takin