The remaining objects of the campaign were soon accomplished. The Pope was easily intimidated into submission, and the most humiliating terms were imposed upon him. He was compelled to close his ports against the Allies, to cede Avignon and the Venaisin to France, to abandon Bologna, Ferrara, and the whole of the Romagna, to their allies in the Milanese, to admit a garrison of French troops into Ancona, till the conclusion of a general peace, and to pay a contribution of 30,000,000 of franks to the victorious republic.

"Besides this, he was obliged to surrender a hundred of his principal works of art to the French Commissioners; the trophies of ancient and modern genius were seized on with merciless rapacity; and in a short time the Apollo Belvidere, the Laocoon, the transfiguration of Raphael, and the St. Jerome of Dominichino, were placed on the banks of the Seine."

Such was the campaign of 1796, in which Buonaparte first acquired his European reputation, and which may well be pronounced unparalleled for the extent, the rapidity, and the brilliancy of its achievements, in the previous history of the world.

"Certainly on no former occasion had successes so great been achieved in so short a time, or powers so vast been vanquished by forces so inconsiderable. From maintaining a painful contest on the mountain ridges of their own frontier, from defending the Var and the maritime Alps, the Republicans found themselves transported to the Tyrol and the Tagliamento, threatening the hereditary states of Austria, and subduing the whole southern powers of Italy. An army which never mustered 50,000 men in the field, though maintained by successive reinforcements

nearly at that amount, had not only broken through the barrier of the Alps, subdued Piedmont, conquered Lombardy, humbled the whole Italian states, but defeated, and almost destroyed, four powerful armies which Austria raised to defend her possessions, and wrenched the keys of Mantua from her grasp, under the eyes of the greatest array of armed

men she had ever sent into the field.

Successes so immense, gained against forces so vast, and efforts so indefatigable, may almost be pronounced unparalleled in the annals of war."

In this campaign it was that Buonaparte first introduced that new system of tactics which he afterwards brought to such perfection, and by the skilful application of which he achieved his most brilliant victories. This consisted chiefly in accumulating forces in a central situation, striking with the whole mass the detached wings of the enemy, separating them from each other, and thus compensating by rapidity of movement for inferiority of numbers. For the success of such a system, Mr. Alison well observes, that it is indispensable that the troops who undertake it should be superior in bodily activity and moral courage to in chief should feel such confidence in their adversaries; and that the general his men, as that he may leave a slender force to cope with the enemy in one quarter, while he is accumulating masses to overwhelm them in another. But the composition of the French army was at that time such as might well inspire a less sanguine temperament than Napoleon's with a persuasion that it could not easily be overcome.

"The world had never seen an array framed of such materials. The terrible

whirlwind which had overthrown the fabric of society in France, the patriotic spirit which had brought its whole population into the field, the grinding misery which had forced all its activity into war, had formed a union of intelligence, skill, and ability, among the private soldiers, such as had never before been witnessed in modern warfare. The middling-even the higher ranks were to be seen with a musket on their shoulders; the great levies of 1793 had spared neither high nor low; the career of glory and ambition could be entered only through the humble portals of the bivouac. Hence it was that the spirit which animated them was

so fervent, and their intelligence so remarkable, that the humblest grenadiers anticipated all the designs of their commanders, and knew of themselves, in every situation of danger and difficulty, what should be done. When Napoleon spoke to them, in his proclamations, of Brutus, Scipio, and Tarquin, he was addressing men whose hearts thrilled at

the recollections which these names

awaken; and when he led them into action after a night-march of ten leagues,

he commanded those who felt as tho

roughly as himself the inestimable importance of time in war. With truth might Napoleon say that his soldiers had surpassed the far-famed celerity of Cæsar's legions."

It cannot be doubted that the operations of the Austrian generals were greatly clogged by the Aulic council, which exercised an influence over them in the field, which Napoleon refused to yield to the directory under whom he held his command, and which, had he yielded, might have rendered the campaign as disastrous to the French army as it was glorious. But the Austrian commanders knew that the views of their cabinet were pacific, and they were, on that account, the more liable to be deceived by the stratagems of Napoleon, who always endeavoured to lure them with the hope of peace when he was on the point of striking some decisive blow, by which advantages were to be gained, such as must throw all hopes of a favourable termination of hostilities at a farther distance. They seemed determined to make their diplomacy the regulator of their military success, while he was resolved to make his military success the foundation of his diplomacy. Under ordinary circumstances, their steadiness and skill might have propped the fortunes, and sustained the reputation of the monarchy. But a crisis had arrived when new elements of strife were introduced into European warfare, and when, if the revolutionary fervour by which the French armies were animated was not encountered by an antirevolutionary spirit, with which, at that period, the old governments were not as yet sufficiently imbued, it must eventually prove successful. When to this is added the genius of Napoleon, we must cease to wonder at the prodigies that were achieved. He saw at a

glance the importance of securing the barrier fortresses as a base for his operations; and, accordingly, he made it his first object, setting at nought the instructions which he received from home, to seize upon Coni, Alexandria, and Tortona. Had he not obtained possession of these Piedmontese citadels, he would not, Mr. Alison obvantages beyond the Po; "but for the serves, have been able to push his adbastions of Mantua, he might have carried them, as in the succeeding campaign, to the Danube." But, whatever may have been the deficiencies of

the Austrian generals, or the errors of the Aulic council, it cannot be denied that the Austrian government and people evinced a heroic and unconquerable tenacity in the prosecution of this disastrous contest.

"It is impossible to contemplate, without admiration, the vast armies which they successively sent into the field, and the unconquerable courage with which they returned to a contest where so many thousands of their countrymen had perished before them. Had they been guided by greater, or opposed by less ability, they unquestionably would have been successful; and even against the soldiers of the Italian army, and the genius of Napoleon, the scales of fortune repeatedly hung equal. A nation, capable of such sacrifices, can hardly ever be permanently subdued; a government, actuated by such steady principles, must ultimately be triumphant. Such, accordingly, has been the case in the present instance: aristocratic firmness in the end asserted its wonted superiority over democratic vigour; the dreams of Republican equality have been forgotten, but the Austrian government remains unchanged; the French eagles have retired over the Alps; and Italy, the theatre of so much bloodshed, has finally remained to the successors of the Cæsars."

While Buonaparte was thus splendidly triumphant in Italy, his contemporary, Moreau, was unsuccessful in Germany, but signalized his military reputation by retreats, in the presence of the Archduke Charles, which might be deemed equivalent to victories. The details, which are too lengthened for our pages, will well repay the reader.

At home, the directory were still embarrassed by the lingering contest in

La Vendee; but it was soon subdued by the vigour and the ability of Hoche, and the hopes of the insurgents finally crushed by the unhappy fate of the gallant Charette, the last of the royalist leaders. So anxious was the directory to get quit of so formidable an enemy, that they offered him "a safe retreat into England with his family, and such of his followers as he might select, and

a million of franks for his own maintenance."

"Charette replied I am ready to die with arms in my hands; but not to fly and abandon my companions in misfortune. All the vessels of the republic would not be sufficient to transport my brave soldiers into England. Far from fearing your menaces, I will myself come to seek you in your own camp. The royalist officers, who perceived that farther resistance had become hopeless, urged him to retire to Britain, and await a more favourable opportunity of renewing the contest at the head of the princes and nobility of France. Gentlemen,' said he, with a severe air, I am not here to judge of the orders which my sovereign has given me: I know them; they are the same which I myself have solicited. Preserve towards them the same fidelity which I shall do; nothing shall shake me in the discharge of my duty.'

This indomitable chief, however, could not long withstand the immense bodies which were now directed against him. His band was gradually reduced from 700 to 50, and at last, ten followers. With this handful of heroes he long kept at bay the republican forces; but at length, pursued on every side, and tracked out like a wild beast by blood-hounds, he was seized, after a furious combat, and conducted, bleeding and mutilated, but unsubdued, to the Republican headquarters.

"General Travot, with the considera

tion due to illustrious misfortune, treated him with respect and kindness, but could

not avert his fate. He was conducted to Angers, where he was far from experiencing from others the generous treatment of this brave Republican general. Maltreated by the brutal soldiery, conducted along, yet dripping with blood from his wounds, before the populace of the town, weakened by loss of blood, he had need of all his fortitude of mind to sustain his courage; but, even in this extremity, his firmness never deserted him. On the 27th March he was removed from the prison of Angers to that of Nantes. He

entered into the latter town, preceded by a numerous escort, closely guarded by gens-d'armes and generals glittering in gold and plumes; himself on foot, with his clothes torn and bloody, pale and extenuated; yet more an object of interest than all the splendid throng by whom he was surrounded. Such was his exhaustion from loss of blood, that he fainted on leaving the Quarter of Commerce; but no sooner was his strength revived by a glass of water, than he marched on, enduring for two hours, with heroic constancy, the abuse and imprecations of the populace. He was immediately conducted to the military commission. His examination lasted two hours; but his answers were all clear, consistent and dignified; openly avowing his Royalist principles, and resolution to maintain them to the last. Upon hearing the sentence of death, he calmly asked for the succours of religion, which were granted him, and slept peaceably the night before his execution.

"On the following morning, he was brought out to the scaffold. The rolling of drums, the assembly of all the troops and national guard, a countless multitude which was approaching. At length the of spectators announced the great event hero appeared, descended with a firm step the stairs of the prison, and walked to the Place des Agriculteurs, where the execution was to take place. A breathless silence prevailed. Charette advanced to the appointed place, bared his breast, took his yet bloody arm out of the scarf, and without permitting his eyes to be bandaged, himself gave the command, uttering, with his last breath, the words—

"Vive le Roi!"

While France was engaged in a death struggle with Germany, Prussia was intently occupied upon those objects of territorial aggrandizement hibited an eager selfishness in availing which she never lost sight of, and exherself of every facility which was presented for securing to herself some advantages from the war, which was strikingly contrasted with the self renouncing generosity which was evidenced by Great Britain during every The French period of the contest. minister at Berlin found it easy to induce that mercenary and unprincipled cabinet to enter into a secret treaty, by which they recognised the extension of France to the Rhine, and the principle that the dispossessed German

princes were to be provided for at the expense of the empire. An infamous convention! which divided between France and Prussia the guilt of the robber, and the mean conniver at robbery; with this difference, indeed, that the one was only supporting consistently the character which she assumed, the other was compromising the character, and deserting the station which she was called upon to maintain amongst the states of Europe.

"Such was the secret convention,' says Hardenbergh, which in a manner put the cabinet of Berlin at the mercy of France in the affairs of Germany. It may be added, such was the commencement of that atrocious system of indemnifying the greater powers at the expense of the lesser, and providing for the rapacity of temporal powers by the sacrifice of the Church, which soon after not only shook to its foundation the constitution of the Germanic empire, but totally overturned the whole balance of power and system of public rights in Europe."

The close of the year 1796 was signalized by the death of Catherine. Her character is here given, with graphical fidelity, by our historian.

"The close of this year was marked by the death of the Empress Catherine, and the accession of the Emperor Paul to the Russian throne; an event of no small importance to the future fate of the war, and destiny of the world. Shortly before her death, she had by art and flattery contrived to add Courland to her immense dominions: she had recently made herself mistress of Derbent in Persia; and the

alliance with Great Britain and Austria secured to her the concurrence of these powers in her favorite project of dismembering the Turkish dominions, and placing her youngest son on the throne of Constantine. She thus seemed to be fast approaching the grand object of her ambition, and might have lived to see the cross planted on the domes of St. Sophia, when death interrupted all her schemes of ambition, in the sixty-seventh year of her age, and the thirty-sixth of her reign. Her latest project was the formation of a powerful confederacy for the defence of Europe against the French Republic; and she had given orders for the levy of 150,000 men, destined to take a part in the German campaigns; a design which, if carried into effect by her firm and intrepid hand, might have accelerated by

nearly twenty years the catastrophe which closed the war.

"Few sovereigns will occupy a more conspicuous place in the page of history, or have left in their conduct on the throne a more exalted reputation. Prudent in council, and intrepid in conduct; cautious in forming resolutions, but vigorous in carrying them into execution; ambitious, but of great and splendid objects only; passionately fond of glory, yet without a tincture of selfish or unworthy inclination; discerning in the choice of her counsellors, and swayed only in matters of state by lofty intellects; munificent in public, liberal in private, firm in resolution, she dignified a despotic throne by the magnanimity and patriotism of a more virtuous age. In the lustre of her administration, the career of her victories, and the rapid progress of her subjects under so able a government, mankind forgot her dissolute manners, the occasional elevation of unworthy favorites, frequent acts of tyranny, and the dark transaction which signalized her accession to the throne; they overlooked the frailties of the woman in the dignity of the princess; and paid to the abilities and splendour of the Semeramis of the north that involuntary homage which commanding qualities on the throne never fail to acquire, even when stained by irregularities in private life."

The commencement of 1797 was marked in England by a degree of embarrassment and gloom, such as had not, since the commencement of the war, perplexed or darkened her councils. The extraordinary loans to the imperial government had caused a drain of the specie of the country, such as materially obstructed its financial operations, and caused such a run in council suspending all payments in upon the bank, as produced an order cash, until the sense of parliament could be taken upon the best means of Of this the restoring public credit. malcontents did not fail to take full advantage; and nothing was left unsaid which could stir up a spirit of revolt against the government, or increase

the alarm and the discontent of the people. Happily without effect. The sound good sense and loyal feeling of England was then undebauched, and Lord (then Mr.) Grey, found the project of reform, which more than thirty years afterwards he was enabled to accomplish, treated with the derision which