such as bonarietà, bonaccia, &c. This appears in itself a snow, and to perform a sham attack, of which he was the question of little moment, but it has been made the subject leader. of much controversy, to which a sort of national importance There was nothing extraordinary in young Napoleon's has been given, as if the dropping of the u had been school life; he was a clever, steady, studious lad, and nodone for the purpose of Frenchifying the name. (Louis thing more. The school of Brienne was under the direction Bonaparte's Réponse à Sir Walter Scott.) Bonaparte be- of the monks of the order of St. Francis de Paula, called ing a family name, the correctness of the spelling must de-Minimi, and Bourienne speaks rather indifferently of their pend upon custom, and we find that Napoleon after he learning and system of education, though the teacher of became general of the army of Italy always signed his name mathematics seems to have been a favourable exception. without the u, probably, as Bourienne observes, because it Bourienne also states that Napoleon had made more profiwas a shorter way of signing, and probably also because it ciency in history than the report above mentioned gives him was better adapted to French pronunciation; it corresponded credit for: his favourite authors were Cæsar, Plutarch, and likewise to the common way of speaking of most Italians, Arrian; the last two he probably read in Latin, or perhaps who, with the exception of the Tuscans, pronounce in fa- French translations, for he does not appear to have studied miliar conversation bono instead of 'buono. Napoleon's Greek. name first became known to the world as Bonaparte, as such it is registered in his proclamations, dispatches, and other documents, and as such therefore it ought to be written in history. His brothers have likewise adopted the same way of writing it.

Napoleon left Brienne in October, 1784: some say in 1783; but Bourienne is positive as to the date 17th October, 1784, after Napoleon had been five years and six months at Brienne,' and he accompanied him part of the way to Paris, with four of his companions, to proceed to the miliNapoleon's father's family was originally from Tuscany, tary school there, to continue his course of studies, until but had been settled in Corsica for several generations. he had attained the age required for entering the army. There is a comedy written by one of his ancestors, Niccolò The Paris school, and the students' manner of living, were Buonaparte of San Miniato, citizen of Florence, styled La on an expensive footing, which shocked young Napoleon, Vedova, Florence, 1568 and 1592. There is likewise a who wrote to Father Berton, his superior at Brienne, a long narrative of the pillage of Rome under Charles V., written letter, in which he forcibly exposed the error of such a sysby & Jacopo Buonaparte, 'Ragguaglio Storico del Sacco di tem of education, as luxury and comforts were a bad preRoma dell' anno 1527,' Cologne, 1736. Charles, Napoleon's paration for the hardships and privations attendant on father, was educated at Pisa for the profession of the law. the military profession. Bourienne gives a copy of this Some relatives of the family still lived in Tuscany, and one remarkable letter. In the regulations which he afterwards of them was canon of San Miniato in Napoleon's time. drew up for his military school at Fontainebleau, Napo Before the birth of Napoleon, his father had served under leon followed the principles he had thus early manifested. Paoli in the defence of his country against the French, to Napoleon's spirit of observation, his active and inquisitive whom the Genoese had basely sold the island. The entire character, his censorious frankness, would appear to have submission of Corsica to France took place in June, 1769, excited the attention of the superiors of the Paris school, about a month before Napoleon's birth, who therefore, legally who hastened the epoch of his examination, as if anxious to speaking, was born a subject of France. In the following get rid of a troublesome guest. He was likewise remarked September, when Count Marbauf, the French commis- for the wild energy and strange amplifications in his style sioner, convoked by the king's letters patent the States of of expressing himself when excited, a peculiarity which Corsica, consisting of three orders, nobility, clergy, and com- distinguished many of his subsequent speeches and promons, the family of Bonaparte, having shown their titles, clamations. In September, 1785, he left the school, and was registered among the nobility; and Charles, some years received his commission as sub-lieutenant in the regiment after, repaired to Paris as member of a deputation of his of artillery de la Fere, and was soon after promoted to a first order to Louis XVI. He was soon after appointed assessor lieutenancy in the artillery regiment of Grenoble, stationed at to the judicial court of Ajaccio. He was then in straitened Valence. His father had just died at Montpellier of a scirrhus circumstances, as he had spent most of his little property in the stomach. An old great uncle, the Archdeacon Lucien in a bad speculation of some salt-pans, after having pre- of Ajaccio, now acted as father to the family; he was rich, viously lost a lawsuit against the Jesuits about an in- and Charles had left his children poor. Napoleon's elder heritance which he claimed. Through Count Marbouf's brother Joseph, after receiving his education at the College of interest he obtained the admission of his son Napoleon Autun in Burgundy, returned to Corsica, where his mother, to the military school of Brienne as a king's pensioner. sisters, and younger brothers resided, as well as a half-brother Napoleon left Corsica for Brienne, when he was in his of his mother, of the name of Fesch, whose father had been tenth year, in April, 1779. At Brienne, where he passed an officer in a Swiss regiment in the Genoese service, formerly five years and a half, he made great progress in mathe. stationed in Corsica. Napoleon, while at Valence with his matics, but showed less disposition for literature and the regiment, was allowed 1200 francs yearly from his family, study of languages. Pichegru was for a time his monitor probably from the archdeacon, which, added to his pay, in the class of mathematics. The annual report made enabled him to live comfortably and to go into company. to the king by M. de Keralio, inspector general of the He appears to have entered cheerfully into the sports and military schools of France, in 1784, has the following re- amusements of his brother officers, while at the same time marks on young Napoleon:-Distinguished in mathe- he did not neglect improving himself in the studies conmatical studies, tolerably versed in history and geography, nected with his profession. While at Valence he wrote a much behind in his Latin and in belles lettres, and other dissertation in answer to Raynal's question, What are the accomplishments; of regular habits, studious and well be- principles and institutions by which mankind can obtain haved, and enjoying excellent health. (Bourienne's Me- the greatest possible happiness? He sent his MS. anony moirs.) Much has been said of young Napoleon's taci-mously to the Academy of Lyons, which adjudged to him turnity and moroseness while at school. Bourienne, who the prize attached to the best essay on the subject. Many was his school fellow, states the facts very simply. Napoleon years after, when at the height of his power, he happened was a stranger, for the French considered the Corsicans as to mention the circumstance, and Talleyrand having sought such; he spoke his own dialect, until he learnt French at the forgotten MS. among the archives of the Academy, prethe school; he had no connexions in France, he was com- sented it to him one morning. Napoleon, after reading a paratively poor, and yet proud-minded, as Corsicans gene- few pages of it, threw it into the fire, and no copy having rally are; the other boys, more fortunate or more lively in been taken of it, we do not know what his early ideas might their disposition, teszed him and taunted him, and therefore have been about the happiness of mankind. (Las Cases he kept himself distant and was often alone. But that he Journal, vol. i.) Napoleon had become acquainted with was susceptible of social and friendly feelings towards those Raynal while at Paris. Having made an excursion from who showed him sympathy, his intimacy with Bourienne Valence to Mont Cenis, he designed writing a sentimental sufficiently proves. Many stories have also been told of his journey, in imitation of Sterne's work, translations of which assuming an authority over his comrades, showing a pre- were much read in France at the time, but he ultimately cocious ambition, and an instinct for command; but these resisted the temptation. The first outbreaking of the Revoare flatly contradicted by Bourienne, with the exception that lution found him at Valence with his regiment. He took in one instance when the snow had fallen very thick on the a lively interest in the proceedings of the first National ground, and the boys were at a loss what to do to amuse Assembly. The officers of his regiment, like those of the themselves, he proposed to make entrenchments with the army in general, were divided into royalists and democrats;

several of the former emigrated to join the Prince of Condé. | known as a good artillery officer, he was sent to join the Napoleon however refused to follow the same course: he besieging army before Toulon, with the rank of lieutenanttook the popular side, and his example and his arguments colonel of artillery, and with a letter for Cartaux, the repubinfluenced many of his brother officers in the regiment. In lican general, a vain, vulgar, and extremely ignorant man. 1792 Napoleon became a captain in the regiment of Gre- Napoleon himself has given, in Las Cases' journal, a most noble artillery (Las Cases, vol. i.), his promotion being amusing account of his first interview with Cartaux, of the favoured probably by the emigration of so many officers. wretched state in which he found the artillery, of the total By others it is stated that he was made a captain in want of common sense in the dispositions that had been July, 1793, after his return from Corsica. He however made for the attack, of his own remonstrances, of his diffiwas at Paris in 1792, and there met his old friend Bou-culty in making Cartaux understand the simplest notions rienne, with whom he renewed his intimacy. He appears concerning a battery, &c. At last, luckily for him, Gasto have been then unemployed, probably unattached, while parin, a commissioner from the Convention, arrived at the the army was undergoing a new organization. Napoleon camp. He had seen a little service, and understood Bonaand Bourienne happened to be, on the 20th of June, 1792, parte's plain statements. A council of war was assembled, at a coffee-house in the street St. Honoré, when the mob and although the orders of the Convention were to attack from the fauxbourgs (a motley crowd armed with pikes, Toulon and carry the town, Napoleon succeeded in persticks, axes, &c.) were proceeding to the Tuileries. Let suading them to attack first the outer works that comus follow this canaille, whispered Napoleon to his friend. manded the harbour, the taking of which would insure the They went accordingly, and saw the mob break into the surrender of the place. It was decided that Bonaparte's palace without any opposition, and the king afterwards ap- plan should be adopted, even at the serious risk of incurring pear at one of the windows with the red cap on his head. the displeasure of the Convention. Soon after, Cartaux It is all over henceforth with that man! exclaimed Na- was recalled, and another mock general, a physician, was poleon; and returning with his friend to the coffee-house to sent in his place, but he was soon frightened away by the dinner, he explained to Bourienne all the consequences he whistling of the shots. Dugommier, a brave veteran, then foresaw from the degradation of the monarchy on that fatal came to command the besieging army, and he and Bonaday, now and then exclaiming indignantly, How could parte agreed perfectly. Napoleon constructed his batteries they allow those despicable wretches to enter the palace! with great skill, and having opened his fire with great effect, why, a few discharges of grape-shot amongst them would the works which commanded the harbour were carried by have made them all take to their heels; they would be the French, after a sharp resistance from the English, in running yet at this moment!' He was collected and ex- which the British commander, General O'Hara, was taken tremely grave all the remainder of that day; the sight had prisoner, and Bonaparte received a bayonet wound. Upon this made a deep impression upon him. He witnessed also the the evacuation of the place was resolved upon by the allies, scenes of the 10th of August, after which he left Paris to as Bonaparte had foreseen. A scene of confusion, destruereturn to his family in Corsica. General de Paoli then tion, and conflagration took place, which it is not within our held the chief authority in that island from the king and object to dwell upon the English, Spanish, and Neapolitan the French National Assembly, and Napoleon was appointed fleets sailed out of the harbour, carrying along with them by him to the temporary command of a battalion of national about 14,000 of the inhabitants, whose only safety was in guards. Paoli had approved of the constitutional monarchy flight. The deputies of the Convention, Barras, Freron, in France, but not of the excesses of the Jacobins, nor of Fouché, and the younger Robespierre, entered Toulon, and the attempts to establish a republic. Factions had broken exercised their vengeance upon the few that remained, 400 out in Corsica also, which Paoli endeavoured to repress. In of whom were assembled in the square and exterminated January, 1793, a French fleet, under Admiral Truguet, by grape-shot. Bonaparte says that neither he nor the sailed from Toulon, for the purpose of attacking the island regular troops had anything to do with this butchery, which of Sardinia. Napoleon, with his battalion, was ordered to was executed by what was called 'the revolutionary army,' make a diversion by taking possession of the small islands a set of wretches, the real sans culottes of Paris and other which lie on the northern coast of Sardinia, which he towns, who followed the army as volunteers. effected; but Truguet's fleet having been repulsed in the attack upon Cagliari, Napoleon returned to Corsica with Paoli had now openly renounced all obedience to the French Convention, and called upon his countrymen to shake off its yoke. Napoleon, on the contrary, rallied with the French troops under Lacombe St. Michel and Saliceti, and he was sent with a body of men to attack his native town Ajaccio, which was in possession of Paoli's party. He however did not succeed, and was obliged to return to Bastia. The English fleet soon after appeared on the coast, landed troops, and assisted Paoli, and the French were obliged to quit the island. Napoleon also left it about May, 1793, and his mother and sisters with him. After seeing them safe to Marseilles, he went to join the 4th regiment of artillery, which was stationed at Nice with the army intended to act against Italy. So at least his brother Louis says, but from Las Cases account it would appear that he repaired to Paris to ask for active employment. It was during his short residence at Marseilles and in the neighbourhood, that he wrote a political pamphlet, called Le Souper de Beaucaire, a supposed conversation between men of different parties: a Marseillese, a man of Nismes, a military man, and a manufacturer of Montpellier. Bonaparte speaks his own sentiments as the military man, and recommends union and obedience to the Convention, against which the Marseillese were then in a state of revolt. This curious pamphlet became very rare afterwards. Napoleon was said to have suppressed it. Bourienne gives a copy of it from a MS. given to him by Bonaparte in 1795. His language was then strongly republican, though not of that turgid absurd strain which was then so much in vogue, and of which some specimens, signed Brutus Bonaparte, appeared in the papers of the day. Napoleon, in his memoirs, disavows these, and says that perhaps they were the productions of his brother Lucien, who was then a much more violent democrat than himself.'

his men.

Bonaparte was at Paris in September, 1793, Being

Throughout that frightful period which has been styled the reign of terror, it was not, generally speaking, the officers of the regular army, but the civilians, the deputies of the Convention attached to the armies, who directed and presided at the massacres. There is an atrocious letter by Fouché to Collot d'Herbois, testifying his joy at the extermination of the rebels; and another from Saliceti, Barras, and Freron, jointly expressing the same sentiments. (See Napoleon's Memoirs, by Gourgaud, vol. i. Appendix.)

In consequence of his services at the taking of Toulon, Bonaparte was recommended by General Dugommier for promotion, and was accordingly raised to the rank of brigadier-general of artillery, in February, 1794, with the chief command of that department of the army in the south. In this capacity he inspected the coasts, ordered the weak points to be fortified, strengthened the fortifications already existing, and displayed his ability in these matters. He then joined the army under General Dumorbion, which was stationed at the foot of the Maritime Alps, and with which he made the campaign of 1794 against the Piedmontese troops. In that campaign, the French disregarding the neutrality of Genoa, and advancing by Ventimiglia and San Remo, turned the Piedmontese position at Saorgio, obtained possession of the Col de Tende, and penetrated into the valleys on the Piedmontese side of the Alps. A battle was fought at Cairo, in the valley of the Bormida, 21st September, in which the French had the advantage. But the rainy season coming on, terminated the campaign, in which Bonaparte had taken an important part, together with Massena.

Previous however to the battle of Cairo, Bonaparte had run considerable risk from the factions that divided France. On the 13th July, 1794, the Deputies of the Convention who were superintending the operations of the army gave him a commission to proceed to Genoa, with secret instructions to examine the state of the fortifications as well as the nature of the country, and also to observe the conduct of the

Genoese government towards the English and other belli- assemblies of the departments, and protested against the gerent powers. These instructions were dated Loano, and attempt of the Convention to perpetuate its own power. signed Ricord. Ricord and the younger Robespierre were They declared they would no longer obey the orders of that then commissioners. Bonaparte went to Genoa and ful- body. It was said that the sections were urged or encoufilled his commission. Meantime, the revolution of the 9th raged in their resistance by the royalists, who hoped to and 10th Thermidor (27th and 28th July) took place, derive benefit from it. But it is also well known that the Robespierre fell, and his party was proscribed. Albitte, Convention, many of whose members were implicated in Saliceti, and Laporte, were the new commissioners ap- the bloodshed and atrocities of the reign of terror, was pointed to the army of Italy. On Bonaparte's return from odious to the Parisians. On the other side the members of Genoa to head-quarters, he was placed under arrest, his the Convention for this very reason were afraid of returning papers were seized, and an order was issued by the commis- to the rank of private citizens. They determined therefore sioners, stating that he had lost their confidence by his to risk every thing in order to carry their object by force. suspicious conduct, and especially by his journey to Genoa; They had at their disposal about 5000 regular troops in or he was suspended from his functions of commander of the near Paris, with a considerable quantity of artillery, and a artillery, and ordered to proceed to Paris under an escort body of volunteers from the suburbs. The command of to appear before the committee of public safety. This order these forces was given to Barras, a leading member of the was dated Barcelonnette, 6th August, and signed by the Convention, who had mainly contributed to the fall_of three commissioners, and countersigned by Dumorbion, Robespierre. Barras, who had become acquainted with Bogeneral-in-chief. Bonaparte remained under arrest for a naparte at the siege of Toulon, proposed to intrust him with fortnight. He wrote a pithy remonstrance, which he ad- the actual direction of the troops for the defence of the dressed to Albitte and Saliceti, without taking any notice Convention. Bonaparte was also known to Carnot and of the third commissioner Laporte. In it he complains of Tallien, and other members of the Convention, as an able being disgraced, and having his character injured without artillery officer. The choice being unanimously approved, trial: he appeals to his known patriotism, his services, his Bonaparte quickly drew his line of defence round the Tuilattachment to the principles of the revolution; he appealseries where the Convention was sitting, and along the adjointo Saliceti, who had known him he says for five years, &c. ing quay on the north bank of the Seine. He depended mainly This remonstrance induced the commissioners to make a upon his cannon loaded with grape-shot, which he had placed more precise investigation of the affair, and the result was at the head of the various avenues through which the naa counter order from them, dated Nice, 20th August, tional guards, the force of the citizens, must advance. The stating that citizen Bonaparte had been arrested in conse- national guards had no cannon. They advanced on the quence of measures of general safety after the death of the morning of the 13th Vendemiaire (4th October, 1795), traitor Robespierre; but that the commissioners having nearly 30,000 in number, in several columns, along the examined his conduct previous to his journey to Genoa, quays and the street of St. Honoré. As soon as they were and also the report of that mission, had not found any po- within musket-shot, they were ordered to disperse in the sitive reason to justify the suspicions they might have en- name of the Convention; they answered by discharging tertained of his conduct and principles, and that considering their firelocks, and their fire was returned by discharges of moreover the advantage derived from his military information grape-shot and canister, which did great execution among and knowledge of localities to the service of the republic, the thick masses, cooped up in narrow streets. They they, the commissioners, order him to be restored provision- however returned several times to the charge, and attempted ally to liberty, and to remain at head-quarters until further but in vain to carry the guns; the fire of the cannon instructions from the committee of public safety. This cu- swept away the foremost, and threw the rest into disrious document serves to show the kind of justice dealt out order. Foiled at all points, after two hours' fighting, the by the French republic in those times. Bonaparte however national guards withdrew in the evening to their respective seems to have had no further annoyance on the subject. districts, where they made a stand in some churches and The real grounds of his accusation have never been known, other buildings; but being followed by the troops of the and he himself, at the close of his life, professed himself to Convention, their disunited resistance was of no avail; they be ignorant of them. (Bonaparte's Memoirs dictated to were obliged to surrender, and were disarmed in the night. Gourgaud and Montholon.) By the next morning all Paris was subdued. The Convention and its troops did not use their victory with cruelty; except those who were killed in the fight, few of the citizens were put to death, and only two of the leaders were publicly executed, others being sentenced to transportation. General Berruyer, Verdier, and others, served with Bonaparte on the occasion, but to Bonaparte chiefly the merit of the victory was justly attributed. He was appointed by a decree of the Convention second in command of the army of the interior, Barras retaining the nominal chief command himself; and soon after the new constitution coming into operation, Barras being appointed one of the directors, resigned his military command, and Bonaparte became general of the interior.

After the close of the campaign of 1794, Bonaparte repaired to Marseilles, where his family then was. It would seem that he had been superseded in his command of the artillery, for we find him early in the following year at Paris soliciting employment. Aubry, an old officer of artil lery, was then president of the military committee. Bonaparte was coldly received by this officer, who made some remarks on his youth, which Bonaparte resented; Aubry then appointed him general of a brigade of infantry, in the army of La Vendée, an appointment which he refused, considering it a sort of degradation. He remained therefore without active employment, retaining his rank of general of brigade. He now took lodgings in the Rue du Mail, near the Place des Victoires, and led a private life. Bourienne states, that he had then some idea of going into the Turkish service, and gives a copy of a project which Bonaparte laid before the war-office, showing the advantages that would result to France by forming a closer connexion with the Porte, and sending officers of artillery with a body of gunners to instruct the troops of the sultan. Meantime, a new crisis arrived in the affairs of France. The Convention had framed a new constitution, establishing a council of elders, a council of juniors, and an executive directory of five members. This is known by the name of the constitution of the year 11., and was in fact the third constitution proclaimed since the beginning of the revolution. But the Convention, previously to its own dissolution, passed a resolution to the effect, that at least two-thirds of the members of the two legislative councils should be taken from the members of the actual Convention. This resolution was laid before the primary assemblies of the departments, and every kind of influence, legal and illegal, was used to ensure its approbation. The department of Paris however refused, and the sections or districts of that city being assembled, demanded a strict scrutiny of the returns of the votes of the

About this time, Bonaparte became acquainted with Josephine Beauharnois, a native of Martinique, and the widow of the Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnois. This lady had suffered imprisonment, but was liberated at the fall of Robespierre. The Director Barras, an old acquaintance of her husband, frequented her society, and she was also intimate with Madame Tallien, and other persons of note and influence at that time. She was amiable, elegant, and accomplished. Bonaparte saw her often, and became attached to her. She was several years older than he was. He was now rapidly rising in his fortunes, and his marriage with a lady of rank and fashion (for rank, although nominally proscribed, began again to exercise a sort of influence in society), who was upon terms of intimacy with the political leaders of that period, could not but prove advantageous to him. Such was the advice given to him by his friends, and particularly, it is reported, by Talleyrand. Barras, having heard of the projected marriage, approved of it also. Meantime, Bonaparte had been applying to Carnot, the then minister at war, for active employment. The directors had at that time turned their attention towards Italy, where the French army, under General

Scherer, was making no great progress. After gaining a victory over the Austrians at Loano, in November, 1795, the French were still cooped up in the western Riviera of Genoa, between the mountains and the sea, without being able to penetrate into Piedmont; and this was the fourth year of that war carried on at the foot or in the defiles of the Alps and the Ligurian Apennines. Barras and Carnot agreed to give Bonaparte the command of the army of Italy, and the other directors approved of it. This appointment was signed the 23rd February, 1796; on the 9th of March following he married Josephine, and a few days after parted from his bride to assume the command of the army of Italy. The stories that have been propagated about his marriage being made the condition of his appointment, and all the inuendos built upon that assumption, appear to have no foundation. He was appointed to the army of Italy, because he was thought capable of succeeding, because he was already acquainted with the ground, perhaps also it was thought that his Italian origin might afford him facilities with the people of that country; and lastly, because the directors were not sorry to have a general at the head of one of their armies who was a man of their choice, and seemingly dependent upon their favour, one whose growing reputation might serve as a counterpoise to the widely-extended popularity of Moreau, Pichegru, Hoche, and the other generals of the first years of the Republic.

The army at Bonaparte's disposal consisted of about 50,000 men, of whom only two-thirds were fit for the field. It was in a wretched state as to clothing, and ill supplied with provisions; the pay of the soldiers was in arrears, and the army was almost without horses. The discipline also was very relaxed. The Piedmontese and Austrian combined army was commanded by Beaulieu, a gallant veteran, past seventy years of age: it was posted along the ridge of the Apennines, at the foot of which the French were advancing. Bonaparte, in his despatches to the Directory, stated the allied armies at 75,000 men, and his own effective troops at 35,000. On the 27th of March he arrived at Nice, and immediately moving his head-quarters to Albenga, pushed his advanced guard as far as Voltri, near Genoa. Beaulieu, with the Austrians' left, attacked Voltri and drove the French back; he at the same time ordered D'Argenteau, who commanded his centre, to descend by Montenotte upon Savona, and thus take the French in flank. On this road the French Colonel Rampon was posted with 1500 men on the heights of Montelegino. He was repeatedly attacked on the 10th April by D'Argenteau, but stood firm, and all the assaults of the Austrians could not dislodge him from the redoubt. This gave time to Bonaparte to collect his forces, and to march round in the night by Altare to the rear of D'Argenteau, whom he attacked on every side on the following day, and obliged to make a disorderly retreat beyond Montenotte after losing the best part of his division, before Beaulieu, on the left, or Colli, who commanded the Piedmontese at Ceva on the right, could come to his support. Bonaparte had now pushed into the valley of the Bormida, between the two wings of the allied army. Beaulieu and Colli hastened to repair this disaster, and re-establish their communications by Millesimo and Dego. On the 13th April, Bonaparte sent Augereau to attack Millesimo, which he carried; but the Austrian General Provera, with 2000 men, threw himself into the old castle of Cossaria on the summit of a hill, where he withstood all the assaults of the French for that day. Two French general officers were killed in leading the attack, and another, Joubert, was severely wounded. On the 14th the whole of the two armies were engaged. Colli, after an unsuccessful endeavour to relieve Provera, was driven back towards Ceva, while Massena attacked Beaulieu at Dego, and forced him to retire towards Acqui. Provera, without provisions or water, was obliged to surrender. The Piedmontese were now completely separated from the Austrians, which was the great object of Bonaparte's movements. The French remained for the night at Magliani, near Dego. All at once, early in the morning of the 15th, an Austrian division 5000 strong under General Wukassowich, coming from Voltri by Sassello, and expecting to find their country men at Dego, were astonished to find the French there, who were equally surprised at seeing the Austrians, whom they had driven far away in their front, reappear in their rear. Wukassowich did not hesitate; he charged into the village of Magliani, and took it. Massena hurried to the spot

to drive away the Austrians; Laharpe came also with reinforcements, but they could not succeed, until Bonaparte himself came and led a fresh charge, and at last obliged Wukassowich to retire. This was called the battle of Dego, but more properly of Magliani, the last of a series of combats which opened to Bonaparte the road into the plains of North Italy.

Beaulieu retired to the Po with the intention of defending the Milanese territory, leaving Colli and the Piedmontese to their fate. Bonaparte turned against Colli, drove him from Ceva, and afterwards from Mondovì, and beyond Cherasco. Colli withdrew to Carignano, near Turin, The provinces of Piedmont, south of the Po, were now open to the French; the king, Victor Amadeus III., became alarmed, and asked for a truce, which Bonaparte granted on condition that the fortresses of Cuneo and Tortona should be placed in his hands. A peace was afterwards made between the king and the Directory, by which the other Piedmontese fortresses and all the passes of the Alps were given up to the French, and Piedmont in faet was surrendered at discretion. This defection of the king of Sardinia ensured the success of the French army. From his head quarters at Cherasco Bonaparte issued an order to his soldiers, in which, after justly praising their valour, and recapitulating their successes, he promised to lead them on to further victory, but enjoined them at the same time to desist from the frightful course of plunder and violence which had already marked their progress into Italy.

Being now safe with regard to Piedmont, Bonaparte advanced to encounter Beaulieu, who had posted himself on the left bank of the Po, opposite to Valenza, his troops extending eastwards as far as Pavia. Bonaparte made a feint of crossing the river at Valenza, while he dispatched a body of cavalry along the right bank into the state of Parma, where they met with no enemy, seized some boats near Piacenza, crossed over to the Milanese side, and dispersed some Austrian piquets who were posted there; Bonaparte, quickly following with a chosen body of infantry, crossed the river nearly thirty miles below Pavia. Beaulieu was now obliged to fall back upon the Adda after a sharp engagement at Fombio, on the road from Piacenza to Milan. Milan was evacuated by the Austrians with the exception of the castle. Bonaparte resolved to dislodge Beaulieu from his new position, and accordingly be attacked the bridge of Lodi, on the Adda, which the Austrians defended with a numerous artillery. He carried it by the daring bravery of his grenadiers and the bad dispositions of the Austrian commander, who had not placed his infantry near enough to support his guns. The Austrian army was panic-struck. Beaulieu attempted to defend the line of the Mincio, but he had only time to throw a garrison into Mantua, and then withdraw behind the Adige into the Tyrol. Bonaparte took possession of Milan and of all Lombardy, with the exception of Mantua, which he blockaded. Thus ended the first Italian campaign of 1796.

At the first entrance of the French the people of Lombardy showed a quiet, passive spirit. There was no enthusiasm among them either for or against the invaders; they had enjoyed half a century of peace under the administra tion of Austria, which under Maria Theresa and Joseph had effected many useful reforms, and acted in an enlightened, liberal spirit. The country was rich and thriving, as it always must be from its natural fertility as long as it enjoys peace and security to property. The Milanese looked upon the French invasion rather with wonder than either satisfaction or hostility. Ideas of a republic existed only in a few speculative heads; but there were many who sided with the French, in order to share their superiority and advantages as conquerors. The people of the towns behaved hospitably to the French troops, who on their side maintained a stricter discipline than they had done in passing through Piedmont. But the army was to be supported, equipped, and paid by the conquered countries; such was the system of the Directory and of Bonaparte. The Directory, besides, wished to receive a share of the golden harvest to recruit its own finances, and its orders were to draw money from all the Italian states. Bonaparte accordingly put upon Lombardy a contribution of twenty millions of francs, which fell chiefly on the rich proprietors and the ecclesiastical bodies. Meantime he authorized the commissaries to seize provisions, stores, horses, and other things required, giving cheques to be paid out of the contributions. This was done in the towns with a certain regularity, but in the country

hostages to France. Four of the leaders of the insurrection were publicly executed, and about 100 had been killed on the first irruption of the French into the city. The university and the houses of some of the professors, Spallanzani's in particular, were exempted from pillage. General Haquin, who was sent after this to Pavia as governor, endeavoured to heal the wounds of that fatal day.

places, away from the eyes of the general, the commissaries and soldiers often seized whatever they liked without any acknowledgment. The owners who remonstrated were insulted or ill used; and many of the Italians calling themselves republicans assisted the French in the work of plunder, of which they took their share. The horses and carriages of the nobility were seized because it was said they belonged to the aristocrats. All property belonging, Bonaparte imposed on the Duke of Parma, who had not or supposed to belong, to the archduke and the late govern- yet acknowledged the French Republic, a sort of peace, on ment, was sequestrated. But an act which exasperated condition of his paying to France a million and a half of the Milanese was the violation of the Monte di Pietá of francs, besides giving provisions and clothes for the army, Milan, a place of deposit for plate, jewels, &c., which were and twenty of his best paintings to be sent to Paris. The either left for security, or as pledges for money lent upon Duke of Modena, alarmed for his own safety, fled to Venice them. The Monte was broken into by orders from Bona- with the greater part of his treasures, leaving a regency at parte and Saliceti, who accompanied the army as commis- Modena, who sent to Bonaparte to sue for peace. Modena sioner of the Directory. They seized upon this deposit of had committed no hostilities against France, but the duke private property, took away the most valuable objects, and was allied to the house of Austria by the marriage of his sent them to Genoa to be at the disposal of the Directory. daughter with one of the archdukes: he was also considered Many of the smaller articles belonged to poor people; many as a feudatory of the emperor of Germany. He was required were placed there by the parents of young girls as a dowry to pay six millions of francs in cash, besides two millions when they came to be married. Although these smaller more in provisions, cattle, horses, carts, &c., and fifteen objects were not intended by Bonaparte to be detained, yet of his choice paintings; but as he was not quick enough in in the disorder of the seizure many of them disappeared, paying the whole of the money his duchy was taken from and a report spread through Milan that all had been him a few months after. The Directory wanted cash, and seized. The same thing had been practised at Piacenza Bonaparte says that he sent during his first Italian camwhen Bonaparte and Saliceti passed through it; and after-paigns fifty millions of frañes from Italy to Paris. wards the plunder, either partial or entire, of the Monte di Pieta, became a common practice of the French army in all the towns they entered.

These excesses led to insurrections in different parts of the country, in which French soldiers were killed by the peasantry. The inhabitants of Binasco, a large village between Milan and Pavia, rose and killed a number of the French and their Italian partizans. The country people ran towards Pavia, and were joined by the lower classes of that town, who had been irritated at the hoisting of a tree of liberty in one of their squares, where an equestrian statue of an emperor had been thrown down by the republicans. On the 23rd of May Pavia was in open insurrection. The French soldiers took refuge in the castle; those scattered about the town were seized and ill treated; some were killed, but most had their lives saved by the interference of the municipal magistrates and other respectable people. General Haquin, who happened to pass through on his way to Milan, was attacked by the frantic populace and wounded, but the magistrates, at their own risk, saved his life. In all this tumult the country people were the chief actors, by the acknowledgment of Haquin himself. Bonaparte, alarmed by this movement in his rear, and at the possibility of its spreading, determined to make an example, and strike terror into the people,' a sentence which was afterwards frequently carried into effect in the progress of his arms. A strong body of French troops marched on Binasco, killed or dispersed the inhabitants, burned the place, and then marched against Pavia, which being a walled town was capable of making some defence. Bonaparte sent the archbishop of Milan, who, from the balcony of the town-house, addressed the multitude, and exhorted them to lay down their arms and quietly to disperse, explaining to them the futility of their attempts at resistance. The ignorant and deluded people would not listen to his advice; the French soon forced one of the gates, and the cavalry entering the town, cut down all they met in the streets. The country people ran away by the other gates, and left the unfortunate city to the conqueror. Bonaparte then deliberately ordered Pavia to be given up to plunder for twenty-four hours, as if Pavia had been a fortified town taken by storm, and while it was well known that the great majority of the inhabitants had taken no part in the insurrection, and had made no resistance to the French. This order was publicly signified to the inhabitants and the troops, and during the rest of that day, 25th May, and the whole of that night, the soldiers rioted in plunder, debauchery, and every sort of violence within the houses of the unfortunate Pavese. Murder however was not added to pillage and rape, and it is recorded that several of the French officers and soldiers spared the honour and property of those who were at their mercy, and screened them at the risk of their lives from their more brutal companions. Next morning (the 26th) at twelve o'clock the pillage ceased, but Pavia for a long time felt the effects of this cruel treatment. It is not true, as has been stated by some, that the municipal magistrates were shot; they were only sent for a time as

The Grand Duke of Tuscany, although brother to the Emperor of Austria, was an independent sovereign; he had long acknowledged the French Republic, and kept an ambassador at Paris; but the Directory ordered Bonaparte to seize Leghorn, and confiscate the property of the English, Austrians, Portuguese, and other enemies of the republic. Bonaparte executed the order, took Leghorn without any opposition, put a garrison in it, seized the English, Portuguese, and other goods in the warehouses, which were sold by auction, and insisted upon the native merchants delivering up all the property in their hands belonging to the enemies of the French republic. The Leghornese merchants, to avoid this odious act, agreed to pay five millions of francs, as a ransom for the whole. The pope's turn came next. That sovereign was really in a state of hostility towards the French republic, which he had never acknowledged, in consequence of the abolition of the Catholic church in France. On the 18th of June the French entered Bologna, whence Bonaparte ordered away the papal authorities, and established a municipal government. He did the same at Ferrara; and at the same time laid heavy contributions on both those provinces. The Monte di Pietá of Bologna shared the same fate as that of Milan, only the deposits or pledges (not exceeding 200 livres each, 87. sterling) were ordered to be returned to the owners. The people of Lugo, a town between Imola and Ravenna, rose against the invaders. Augereau was sent against Lugo: after three hours' fight, in which 1000 of the natives and 200 French soldiers fell, Lugo was taken, given up to plunder, and partly burnt: the women and children were spared. Proclamations were then issued that every town or village that took up arms against the French should be burnt, and that every individual not a regular soldier taken with arms in his hands should be put to death; and yet the French had loudly exclaimed against the Duke of Brunswick for using a similar threat when he entered France in 1792.

The court of Rome was now in great alarm, and Pius VI. sent envoys to Bonaparte to sue for terms. An armistice was signed on the 23rd of June, preparatory to a definitive treaty of peace between the pope and the Directory. The conditions of the armistice were, that the pope should give up the provinces of Ferrara and Bologna, and the citadel of Ancona, should close his ports against the enemies of France, should pay fifteen millions of livres in gold or silver, and six millions in goods, provisions, horses, cattle, &c., besides surrendering a certain number of paintings, statues, vases, and 500 manuscripts, at the choice of the commissaries sent by the Directory. This new species of spoliation, unprecedented in modern history, was brought into a regular system, and carried on in all countries conquered by the French armies until the fall of Napoleon. Some of the scientific and learned men of France, among whom were Monge and Berthollet, went in succession to Parma, Milan, Bologna, Rome, and afterwards to Venice and Naples, to take an inventory of the works of art, from among which they chose the best, and sent them to Paris.

While these things were going on south of the Po, the