ページの画像
PDF
ePub

On the same day that Bonaparte obliged Alvinzi to retire from the Adige, Davidowich, rousing himself from his inconceivable inaction, pushed down by Ala on the Adige, drove Vaubois before him, and entered the plains between Peschiera and Verona. But it was now too late: Bonaparte turned against him, and obliged him quickly to retrace his steps to Ala and Roveredo. Thus ended the third campaign of the year 1796.

court of Vienna was preparing a fresh army for the re- danger of being surrounded. He however determined to
covery of Lombardy. Marshal Wurmser, a veteran officer make a last effort to dislodge Alvinzi by turning his position.
of considerable reputation, was detached with 30,000 men | With two divisions under Massena and Augereau he marched
from the Austrian army of the Rhine, and marched into the quietly out of Verona in the night of the 14th, followed the
Tyrol, where he collected the remains of Beaulieu's troops right bank of the Adige, crossed that river at Ronco early
and the Tyrolese levies, forming altogether an army of be- next morning, and moved quickly by a cross road leading
tween 50,000 and 60,000 men. Bonaparte's army was not through a marshy country towards Villanova in the rear of
quite 50,000, of which part was stationed round Mantua to | Alvinzi, where the Austrian baggage, stores, &c., were
blockade that fortress, which was garrisoned by 8000 Aus- stationed. The Alpone, a mountain stream, ran be-
trians. Towards the end of July, Wurmser, with the main tween the French and Villanova. The French attempted
body of his troops, advanced from Trento by the eastern to pass it by the bridge of Arcole, but found it defended,
shore of the Lake of Guarda, towards Verona, while another and this led to the celebrated battle of that name, which
corps under Quosnadowich marched by the western shore lasted three days, and which was unquestionably the hardest
to Salò and Brescia, from which places they drove the fought in all those Italian campaigns. [ARCOLE.] On
French away. Bonaparte, after some hesitation, hastily the 17th Bonaparte succeeded in turning the position of
raised the siege of Mantua, leaving his battering train, Arcole, when Alvinzi thought it prudent to retire upon
and collected the best part of his forces to meet Quosnado- Vicenza and Bassano, where the Austrians took up their
wich as the weaker of the two generals. He attacked winter quarters. Bonaparte wrote to Carnot after the action
him at Lonato, drove him back into the mountains, and of the third day; Never was a field of battle so obstinately
then turned quickly to the right to face Wurmser, who hav- contested: our enemies were numerous and determined. I
ing passed Verona, had entered Mantua, destroyed the French have hardly any general officers left. They were almost
entrenchments, and was now advancing by Castiglione, all killed, wounded, or prisoners.
from whence he had driven away the French under General
Valette. This was a critical moment in Bonaparte's career,
and it is said he was in doubt whether to fall back on the
Po, but was dissuaded by Augereau. On the 3rd of August
the French retook Castiglione after an obstinate combat.
Wurmser however took up a position near the town, where
he was attacked again on the 5th, and completely defeated,
with the loss of his cannon and several thousand men.
Wurmser withdrew beyond the Mincio, and afterwards up
the Adige into the Tyrol, followed by the French, who at
tacked and defeated an Austrian division at Roveredo on the
4th September, and entered the city of Trento. Wurmser then
suddenly crossed the mountains that divide the valley of the
Adige from that of the Brenta, aad entered Bassano, where
he was joined by some reinforcements from Carinthia, intend-
ing to march down again towards Verona and Mantua.
But Bonaparte followed him quickly by the same road, and
attacked and routed him at Bassano. Wurmser had now
hardly 16,000 men left, and his artillery being lost, and his
retreat cut off, he took the bold resolution to cut his way to
Mantua, and shut himself up in that fortress. With a ra-
pidity of movements then unusual in an Austrian army, he
avoided the French divisions moving against him from vari-
ous quarters, surprised the bridge of Legnago, passed the
Adige, marched day and night followed by Bonaparte, beat a
French division at Cerea, cut down several other bodies
who attempted to oppose him, and at last reached Mantua
on the 14th September. Thus, in the course of six weeks,
a second Austrian army was destroyed in detail. The
rapidity of movements of the French divisions, and the
intricacy of their manœuvres, can only be appreciated by
an attentive examination of the map of the country.

A third general and a third army were sent by Austria into Italy in the autumn of the same year. Marshal Alvinzi, an officer of some reputation, advanced from Carinthia by the way of Belluno with 30,000 men, while General Davidowich, with 20,000, descended from the Tyrol by the valley of the Adige. They were to meet between Peschiera and Verona, and proceed to relieve Wurmser at Mantua. Bonaparte, who was determined to attack Alvinzi before he could form his junction, gave him battle at Le Nove, near Bassano, 6th November; but in spite of all the efforts of Massena and Augereau, he could not break the Austrian line, and next day he retreated by Vicenza to Verona. On the same day Vaubois, whom Bonaparte had opposed to Davidowich, was driven away from Trento and Roveredo with great loss, and obliged to fall back to Rivoli and La Corona. Had Davidowich followed up his success, he might have pushed on to the plains on the right bank of the Adige near Verona, and have placed Bonaparte in a very critical position, with Alvinzi in front, Davidowich on his left flank, and Mantua in his rear. Instead of this, Davidowich stayed ten days at Roveredo. Alvinzi meantime had advanced by Vicenza and Villanova to the heights of Caldiero facing Verona, where he waited for Davidowich's appearance. Bonaparte attempted, on the 12th November, to dislodge Alvinzi from Caldiero, but after considerable loss he was obliged to withdraw his troops again into VeHe wrote next day a desponding letter to Paris, in | which he recapitulates his losses, his best officers killed or wounded, his soldiers exhausted by fatigue, and himself in

rona.

|

Bonaparte had now some leisure to turn his attention to
the internal affairs of the conquered countries. The Mi-
lanese in general remained passive, but the people of Mo-
dena and Bologna seemed anxious to constitute themselves
into an independent state. Bonaparte himself had not
directly encouraged such manifestations, but his subalterns
had; and indeed the revolt of Reggio, which was the first
Italian city that proclaimed its independence, was begun by
a body of Corsican pontoneers, who were passing through
on their way to the army. (Count Paradisi, Lettera à Carlo
Botta.) Bonaparte allowed Modena, Reggio, Bologna, and
Ferrara to form themselves into a republic, which was called
Cispadana. As for the Milanese, the Directory wrote that
it was not yet certain whether they should not be obliged to
restore that country to the emperor at the peace. Bona-
parte has clearly stated his policy at that time towards the
North Italians in a letter to the Directory 28th December,
1796. There are in Lombardy (Milanese) three parties:
Ist, that which is subservient to France and follows our
directions; 2nd, that which aims at liberty and a national
government, and that with some degree of impatience;
3rd, the party friendly to Austria and hostile to us.
I sup-
port the first, restrain the second, and put down the third.
As for the states south of the Po (Modena, Bologna, &c.),
there are also there three parties: 1st, the friends of the
old governments; 2nd, the partizans of a free constitution,
though somewhat aristocratical; 3rd, the partizans of pure
democracy. I endeavour to put down the first; I support
the second because it is the party of the great proprietors
and of the clergy, who exercise the greatest influence over
the masses of the people, whom it is our interest to win over
to us; I restrain the third, which is composed chiefly of
young men, of writers, and of people who, as in France and
everywhere else, love liberty merely for the sake of revo-
lution.'

The pope found that he could not agree to a peace with
the Directory, whose conditions were too hard, and conse-
quently, after paying five millions of livres, he stopped all
further remittance. Bonaparte, after disapproving in his
dispatches the abruptness of the Directory, and saying that
it was impolitic to make too many enemies at once while
Austria was still in the field, repaired to Bologna in January,
1797, to threaten the Roman states, when he heard that
Alvinzi was preparing to move down again upon the Adige.
The Austrian marshal had received reinforcements which
raised his army again to 50,000 men. He marched them
in several columns, threatening several points at once of
the French line on the Adige, and Bonaparte for awhile
was perplexed as to where the principal attack would be
made. He learnt however through a spy that the main
body of Alvinzi was moving down from the Tyrol along the
right bank of the Adige upon Rivoli, where Joubert was
posted. On the 13th Bonaparte hurried from Verona with

[ocr errors]

Massena's division to Rivoli, and on the 14th the battle of Rivoli took place. Alvinzi, calculating upon having before him Joubert's corps only, had extended his line with the view of surrounding him. Twice was Rivoli carried by the Austrians, and twice retaken by the French. Massena, and afterwards Rey, with his division, coming to Joubert's assistance, carried the day. Alvinzi's scattered divisions were routed in detail with immense loss. Another Austrian division under General Provera had meantime forced the passage of the Adige near Legnago, and arrived outside of Mantua, when Provera attacked the entrenchments of the besiegers, while Wurmser made a sortie with part of the garrison. Bonaparte hurried with Massena's division from Rivoli, and arrived just in time to prevent the junction of Provera and Wurmser. Provera, attacked on all sides, was obliged to surrender with his division of 5000 men, and Wurmser was driven back into the fortress. Alvinzi, with the remainder of his army, was at the same time driven back to Belluno at the foot of the Noric Alps. Soon after, Wurmser being reduced to extremities for want of provisions, the garrison having exhausted their last supply of horse-flesh, and being much reduced by disease, offered to capitulate. Bonaparte granted him honourable conditions, and behaved to the old marshal with the considerate regard due to his age and his bravery.

During these hard-fought campaigns the condition of the unfortunate inhabitants of North Italy, and especially of the Venetian provinces, where the seat of war lay, was miserable in the extreme: both armies treated them as enemies. The Austrian soldiers, especially in their hurried retreats, when discipline became relaxed, plundered and killed those who resisted: the French plundered, violated the women, and committed murder too. This happened in the villages and scattered habitations; the towns were laid under a more regular system of plunder by the French commissaries, by requisitions of provisions, clothes, horses and carts, and forced contributions of money. At the same time the greater part of these enormous exactions contributed little to the comforts of the soldiers, but went to enrich commissaries, purveyors, contractors, and all the predatory crew that follows an invading army. Bonaparte, although he resorted to the system of forced contributions, was indignant at the prodigal waste of the resources thus extorted from the natives, while his soldiers were in a state of utter destitution. Four millions of English goods,' he wrote to the Directory in October and November, 1796, from Milan, 'have been seized at Leghorn, the Duke of Modena has paid two millions more, Ferrara and Bologna have made large payments, and yet the soldiers are without shoes, in want of clothes, the chests without money, the sick in the hospitals sleeping on the ground. ... The town of Cremona has given 50,000 ells of linen cloth for the hospitals, and the commissaries, agents, &c., have sold it: they sell every thing one has sold even a chest of bark sent us from Spain; others have sold the mattresses furnished for the hospitals. I am continually arresting some of them and sending them before the military courts, but they bribe the judges; it is a complete fair; every thing is sold. An employé, charged with having levied for his own profit a contribution of 18,000 francs on the town of Salò in the Venetian states, has been condemned only to two months' imprisonment. It is impossible to produce evidence; they all hold together. ...' And he goes on naming the different commissaries, contractors, &c., concluding, with very few exceptions, that they are all thieves.' He recommends the Directory to dismiss them and replace them by more honest men, or at least more discreet ones. 'If I had fifteen honest commissaries, you might make a present of 100,000 crowns to each of them and yet save fifteen millions.... Had I a month's time to attend to these matters, there is hardly one of these fellows but I could have shot; but I am obliged to set off to-morrow for the army, which is a great matter of rejoicing for the thieves, whom I have just had time to notice by casting my eyes on the accounts.' The system of plunder however went on during the whole of those and the following campaigns until Bonaparte became First Consul, when he found means to repress, in some degree, the odious abuse; still the commissariat continued, even under the empire, to be the worst-administered department of the French armies.

Bonaparte being now secure from the Austrians in the north turned against the pope, who had refused the heavy terms imposed upon him by the Directory. The papal troops,

to the number of about 8000, were posted along the river Senio between Imola and Faenza, but after a short resistance they gave way before the French, who immediately occupied Ancona and the Marches. Bonaparte advanced to Tolentino, where he received deputies from Pius VI., who sued for peace. The conditions dictated were fifteen millions of livres, part in cash, part in diamonds within one month, and as many again within two months, besides horses, cattle, &c., the possession of the town of Ancona till the general peace, and an additional number of paintings, statues, and MSS. On these terms the pope was allowed to remain at Rome a little longer. The Directory wished at first to remove him altogether, but Bonaparte dissuaded them from pushing matters to extremes, considering the spiritual influence which the pope still exercised over the Catholics in France and other countries. Bonaparte manifested in this affair a cool and considerate judgment very different from the revolutionary fanaticism of the times; he felt the importance of religious influence over nations, and he treated the pope's legate, Cardinal Mattei, with a courtesy that astonished the freethinking soldiers of the republic.

Austria had meantime assembled a new army on the frontiers of Italy, and the command was given to the Archduke Charles, who had acquired a military reputation in the campaigns of the Rhine. But this fourth Austrian army no longer consisted of veteran regiments like those that had fought under Beaulieu, Wurmser, and Alvinzi ; it was made up chiefly of recruits joined with the remnants of those troops that had survived the disasters of the former campaigns. Bonaparte, on the contrary, had an army now superior in number to that of the Austrians, flushed with success, and reinforced by a corps of 20,000 men from the Rhine under the command of General Bernadotte.

Bonaparte attacked the archduke on the river Tagliamento, the pass of which he forced; he then pushed on Massena, who forced the pass of La Ponteba in the Noric Alps, which was badly defended by the Austrian General Ocksay. The archduke made a stout resistance at Tarvis, where he fought in person; but was at last obliged to retire, which he did slowly and in an orderly manner, being now intent only on gaining time to receive reinforcements and to defend the road to Vienna. Bonaparte's object was to advance rapidly upon the capital of Austria and to frighten the emperor into a peace. He was not himself very secure concerning his rear, as he could not trust in the neutrality of Venice which he had himself openly violated. He was also informed that an Austrian corps in the Tyrol under General Laudon, after driving back the French opposed to it, had advanced again by the valley of the Adige towards Lombardy. Had this movement been supported by a rising in the Venetian territory, Bonaparte's communications with Italy would have been cut off. He therefore, dissembling his anxiety, wrote to the archduke from Klagenfurth a flattering letter, in which, after calling him the Saviour of Germany, he appealed to his feelings in favour of humanity at large. This is the sixth campaign,' he said, 'between our armies. How long shall two brave nations continue to destroy each other? Were you even to conquer, your own Germany would feel all the ravages of war. Cannot we come to an amicable understanding? The French Directory wishes for peace.... To this note the archduke returned a civil answer, saying he had no commission for treating of peace, but that he had written to Vienna to inform the emperor of his (Bonaparte's) overtures. Meantime Bonaparte continued to advance towards Vienna and the archduke to retire before him, without any regular engagement between them. It would appear that the archduke's advice was to draw the enemy farther and farther into the interior of the hereditary states, and then make a bold stand under the walls of Vienna, while fresh troops would have time to come from Hungary and from the Rhine, and the whole population would rise in the rear of the French army and place Bonaparte in a desperate situation. But there was a party at the court of Vienna anxious for peace. Bonaparte had now arrived at Iudenburg in Upper Styria, about eight days' march from Vienna. The citizens of that capital, who had not seen an enemy under their walls for more than a century, were greatly alarmed. The cabinet of Vienna resolved for peace, and Generals Bellegarde and Meerfeldt were sent to Bonaparte's head-quarters to arrange the preliminaries. After a suspension of arms was agreed upon on the 7th April, 1797, the negotiations began at the village of Leoben, and the preVOL. V.-R

liminaries of the peace were signed by Bonaparte on the 18th. Of the conditions of this convention some articles only were made known at the time, such as the cession by the emperor of the Austrian Netherlands and of Lombardy. The secret articles were that Austria should have a compensation for the above losses out of the territory of neutral Venice. This is a transaction which has been loudly stigmatized as disgraceful to all parties concerned in it, in spite of the palliation attempted by Bonaparte's advocates, who pretend that the Venetian senate had first violated their neutrality, and that they had organized an insurrection in the rear of the French army while Bonaparte was engaged with the Archduke Charles in Carinthia. This matter will be best investigated in treating of Venice. [VENICE.] Meantime we can only refer our readers to the Raccolta di documenti inediti che formano la Storia diplomatica della rivoluzione e caduta della Repubblica di Venezia, 2 vols. 4to. Florence, 1800, which Daru himself quotes in his Histoire de Venise. A careful attention to dates is sufficient to refute every attempt to palliate the dishonesty of the French Directory and of Bonaparte in their conduct towards Venice. The correspondence of Bonaparte, published by Panckoucke, serves to confirm this view of the subject. He says that he seized upon the opportunity of the Austrians having entered Peschiera by stratagem, and without the Venetian senate's consent, in order to frighten the senate into submission to his will. If your object,' he said to the Directory, is to draw five or six millions from Venice, you have now a fair pretence for it. If you have further views respecting Venice, we may protract this subject of complaint until more favourable opportunities. This was written in June, 1796. He then seized upon the castles of Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, and other fortified places of the Venetian state, he made the country support his army, and meantime he favoured the disaffected against the senate, who at last, assisted by the Lombards and Poles in his army, revolted at Bergamo and Brescia and drove away the Venetian authorities. When the senate armed to put down the insurrection, the French officers stationed on the Venetian territory obstructed its measures, and accused it of arming against the French. They dispersed by force the militia who assembled in obedience to the senate. At last the conduct of the French having driven the people of Verona to desperation, a dreadful insurrection broke out in April, 1797, which ended by Verona being plundered by the French, Bonaparte now insisted upon a total change in the Venetian government, and French troops being surreptitiously introduced into Venice, the Doge and all authorities resigned.

A provisional government was then formed, but meantime Bonaparte bartered away Venice to Austria, and thus settled the account with both aristocrats and democrats. He wrote to the Directory that the Venetians were not fit for liberty, and that there were no more than 300 democrats in all Venice. By the definitive treaty of peace signed at Campoformio near Udine on the 17th October, 1797, the emperor ceded to France the Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine with the city of Mainz; he acknowledged the independence of the Milanese and Mantuan states under the name of the Cisalpine republic; and he consented that the French republic should have the Ionian Islands and the Venetian possessions in Albania, The French republic on its part consented (such was the word) that the emperor should have Venice and its territory as far as the Adige, with Istria and Dalmatia. The provinces between the Adige and the Adda were to be incorporated with the Cisalpine republic. The emperor was also to have an increase of territory at the expense of the elector of Bavaria, and the Duke of Modena was to have the Brisgau.

All this time the democrats of Venice were still thinking of a republic and independence; they had planted, with great solemnity, the tree of liberty in the square of St. Mark, and the French garrison graced the show. Bernadotte, who knew the conditions of the treaty, forbade a similar pageant at Udine, where he commanded; but another French commander put a heavy contribution on a small town of the Paduan province, because the inhabitants had cut down their tree of liberty. At last the time approached when the French were to evacuate Venice. Bonaparte wrote to Villetard, the French secretary of legation, a young enthusiastic republican, who had been a main instrument of the Venetian revolution, that all the Venetian democrats who chose to emigrate would find a refuge at

Milan, and that the naval and military stores and other objects belonging to the late Venetian government might be sold to make a fund for their support. Villetard cummunicated this last proposal to the municipal council, but it was at once rejected; they had not accepted,' they said, a brief authority for the sake of concurring in the spoliation of their country. They had been too confiding, it was true, but they would not prove themselves guilty also; and they gave in their resignation. Villetard, sincere in his principles, wrote a strong letter to Bonaparte, in which he made an affecting picture of the despair of these men, who had trusted in him and now found themselves cruelly deceived. This drew from Bonaparte an answer which has been often quoted for its unfeeling sneering tone. I have received your letter, but do not understand its contents. The French republic does not make war for other people. We are under no obligation to sacrifice 40,000 Frenchmen, against the interest of France, to please a band of declaimers whom I should more properly qualify as madmen, who have taken a fancy to have a universal republic. I wish these gentlemen would try a winter campaign with me. . . . And then he went on quibbling on the words of the treaty, that the French republic did not deliver Venice into the hands of Austria; that when the French garrison evacuated the place and before the Austrians came, the citizens might defend themselves if they thought proper, &c. And this after the troops were disbanded, the Sclavonians sent home, the cannons and other arms removed, the fleet carried off by the French to Corfu, Istria, and Dalmatia already occupied by the Austrians, and the country drained of all resources. However, Serrurier was ordered by Bonaparte to complete the sacrifice of Venice. Having emptied the arsenal, and the stores of biscuit and salt, having sent to sea the ships of war, sunk those that were not fit for sea, and stripped the famous state barge called Bucintoro of all its ornaments and gold, he departed with the French garrison, and the next day the Austrians entered Venice. The Venetian senator Pesaro came as imperial commissioner to administer the oaths. The late Doge Manin while tendering his oath fell into a swoon, and died soon after. Thus ended the republic of Venice, after an existence of nearly fourteen centuries. With it the only naval power of Italy became extinct, and Italy lost the only colonies which she still possessed.

During the several months that the negociations for the peace lasted, Bonaparte had time to effect other changes in Italy. He began with Genoa. That republic ever since the time of Andrea Doria had been governed by patricians, but the patrician order was not exclusive as at Venice, and new families were admitted into it from time to time. A club of democrats secretly encouraged by Saliceti, Faipoult, and other agents of the French Directory, conspired against the senate, and effected an insurrection. The lower classes of the people, however, rose in arms against the democrats, and routed them: several Frenchmen were also killed in the affray. Bonaparte immediately wrote threatening letters to demand satisfaction, the arrest of several patricians, the liberty of the prisoners, the disarming of the people, and a change in the constitution of the republic. All this was done; a sum of four millions of livres was paid by the principal nobles to the Directory, the French placed a garrison within Genoa, and a constitution modelled upon that then existing in France, with councils of elders and juniors, a Directory, &c., was put in operation. The people of the neighbouring valleys, who did not relish these novelties, revolted, but were put down by the French troops; and many of the prisoners were tried by court martial, and shot.

The king of Sardinia, by a treaty with the French Directory, remained for the present in possession of Piedmont. Bonaparte showed a marked favour towards that sovereign; he spoke highly of the Piedmontese troops, and wrote to the Directory that the king of Sardinia with one regiment was stronger than the whole Cisalpine republic. Insurrections broke out in several towns of Piedmont, which Bonaparte however openly discountenanced, professing, at the same time, a deep regard for the House of Savoy. His letters to the Marquis of St. Marsan, minister of the king, were made public, and the insurgents having thus lost all hope of support from him, were easily subdued by the king's troops, and many of them were executed. Thus at one and the same time the democrats of Genoa were encouraged by Bonaparte, those of Piedmont were abandoned to the severity of the king, those of Venice were

given up to Austria, and those of Lombardy were despised. I a plan which opened to his view the prospect of an inde-
Bonaparte wrote to the Directory that he had with him pendent command, while visions of an Eastern empire
only 1500 Cisalpine soldiers, the refuse of the towns, that floated before his mind. He had in his composition some-
no reliance could be placed on the democrats, who were but thing of that vague enthusiasm of the imagination for
a handful, and that were it not for the presence of the remote countries and high-sounding names. At the same
French they would be all murdered by the people. (Bona- time he saw there was nothing at present in France to
parte's Correspondence.) He however thought proper to satisfy his excited ambition, for he does not seem to have
consolidate the Cisalpine republic, and to give it a constitu- thought as yet of the possibility of his attaining supreme
tion after the model of France. The installation of the new power. He was still faithful to the Republic, though he
authorities took place at Milan on the 9th of July with great foresaw that its government must undergo further changes.
solemnity. Bonaparte appointed the members of the legis- The expedition having been got ready, partly with the
lative committees, of the Directory, the ministers, the magis- treasures that the French seized at Bern in their invasion
trates, &c. His choice was generally good; it fell mostly of Switzerland in March, 1798, in which Bonaparte took no
upon men of steady character, attached to order, men of active part, Bonaparte repaired to Toulon, from whence he
property, men of science, or men who had distinguished sailed on board the admiral's ship l'Orient in the night of
themselves in their respective professions. The republic the 19th May, while Nelson's blockading fleet had been
consisted of the Milanese and Mantuan territories, of that forced by violent winds to remove from that coast. The
part of the Venetian territory situated between the Adda destination of the French fleet was kept a profound secret :
and the Adige, of Modena, Massa, and Carrara, and of the 30,000 men, chiefly from the army of Italy, composed the
papal provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Faenza, and land force.
Rimini, as far as the Rubicon. Tuscany, Parma, Rome,
and Naples remained under their old princes; all, however,
with the exception of Naples, in complete subjection to
France.

In all these important transactions Bonaparte acted almost as if he were uncontrolled by any authority at home, and often at variance with the suggestions of the French Directory, though he afterwards obtained its sanction to all that he did. He was in fact the umpire of Italy. He at the same time supported the power of the Directory in France by offers of his services and addresses from his army, and he sent to Paris Augereau, who sided with the Directory in the affair of the 18th Fructidor. Bonaparte, however, evinced on several occasions but an indifferent opinion of the Directory, calling it a government of lawyers and rhetoririans, unfit to rule over a great nation. (Bourienne, and Napoleon's Memoirs by Gourgaud, &c.) He flatly refused, after his first Italian victories, to divide his command with Kellerman; he strongly censured the policy of the Directory with the Italian powers; he signed the preliminaries of Leoben, and withdrew his army from the hereditary states, without waiting for the Directory's ratification. He insisted upon concluding peace with the emperor, and threatened to give in his resignation if not allowed to do so; he made that peace on his own conditions, though some of those were contrary to the wishes expressed by the Directory, and in the end the Directory approved of all he had done. It was a peace worthy of Bonaparte. The Italians may perhaps break out into vociferations, but that is of little consequence. Such were the words of the Directory's minister for foreign affairs, Talleyrand. (Bonaparte's Correspondence and Botta, Storia d'Italia.)

After the treaty of Campoformio Bonaparte was appointed minister plenipotentiary of the French republic at the congress of Rastadt for the settlement of the questions concerning the German Empire. He now took leave of Italy and of his fine army, who had become enthusiastically attached to him. His personal conduct while in Italy had been marked by frugality, regularity, and temperance. There is no evidence of his having shown himself personally fond of money; he had exacted millions, but it was to satisfy the craving of the Directory, and partly to support his army and to reward his friends.

On his way to Rastadt Bonaparte went through Switzerland, where he showed a haughty, hostile bearing towards Bern, and the other aristocratic republics of that country. He did not stop long at Rastadt, but proceeded to Paris, where he arrived in December, 1797. He was received with the greatest honour by the Directory: splendid public festivals were given to the conqueror of Italy; and writers, poets, and artists vied with each other in celebrating his triumphs. Great as his successes were, flattery contrived to outstrip truth. He however appeared distant and reserved. He was appointed general in chief of the Army of England, but after a rapid inspection of the French coasts and of the troops stationed near them, he returned to Paris. The expedition of Egypt was then secretly contemplated by the Directory. A project concerning that country was found in the archives among the papers of the Duke de Choiseul, minister of Louis XV., and it was revived by the ministers of the Directory. The Directory on their part were not sorry to remove from France man whose presence in Paris gave them uneasiness; and Bonaparte warmly approved of

The fleet arrived before Malta on the 9th of June. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, as it was called, had never acknowledged the French republic, and were therefore considered at war with it. The grand master Hompesch, a weak old man, made no preparations against an attack; yet the fortifications of La Valette were such that they might have buffled the whole power of the French fleet and army, even supposing that Bonaparte could have spared time for the siege. But he was extremely anxious to pursue his way to Egypt, expecting every moment to be overtaken by Nelson and the English fleet, who having received information of his sailing from Toulon were eagerly looking out for him. Every moment was therefore of value to Bonaparte. With his usual boldness, he summoned the Grand Master to surrender on the 11th, and the Grand Master obeyed the summons. It is well known that there were traitors among the knights in high offices, who forced the Grand Master to capitulate. As the French general and his staff passed through the triple line of fortifications, General Caffarelli observed to Bonaparte that 'It was lucky there was some one within to open the massive gates to them, for had the place been altogether empty they would have found it rather difficult to get into it. After the usual spoliation of the churches, the albergni, and other establishments of the Order, the gold and silver of which were melted into bars and taken on board the French fleet, Bonaparte left a garrison at Malta under General Vaubois, and embarked on the 19th for Egypt. As the French fleet sailed by the island of Candia it passed near the English fleet, which having been at Alexandria, and hearing nothing of the French there, was sailing back towards Syracuse. Denon says the English were seen by some of the French ships on the 26th, but the French were not seen by Nelson's fleet, owing to the hazy weather. On the 29th of June Bonaparte came in sight of Alexandria, and landed a few miles from that city without any opposition. France was at peace with the Porte, its chargé d'affaires, Ruffin, was at Constantinople, and the Turkish ambassador, Ali Effendi, was at Paris; the Turks of Egypt therefore did not expect the invasion. When they saw the French marching towards Alexandria, the garrison shut the gates and prepared for defence. The town, however, was easily taken; when Bonaparte issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Egypt, in which he told them that he came as the friend of the Sultan to deliver them from the oppression of the Mamelukes, and that he and his soldiers respected God, the Prophet, and the Koran. On the 7th of July the army moved on towards Cairo. They were much annoyed on the road by parties of Mamelukes and Arabs, who watched for any stragglers that fell out of the ranks, and immediately cut them down, without the French being able to check them, as they had no cavalry. At last, after a harassing march, the French on the 21st arrived in sight of the great pyramids, and saw the whole Mameluke force under Mourad and Ibrahim Beys encamped before them at Embabeh. The Mamelukes formed a splendid cavalry of about 5000 men, besides the Arab auxiliaries; but their infantry, composed chiefly of Fellahs, was contemptible. The Mamelukes had no idea of the resistance of which squares of disciplined infantry are capable. They charged furiously, and for a moment disordered one of the French squares, but succeeded no further, having no guns to support them. The volleys R 2

1

of musketry and grape shot made fearful havoc among them; and after losing most of their men in desperate attempts to break the French ranks, the remnants of this brilliant cavalry retreated towards Upper Egypt; others crossed the Nile, and retreated towards Syria. This was called the battle of the Pyramids, in which victory was cheaply bought over a barbarian cavalry unacquainted with European tactics. Bonaparte two days after entered Cairo without resistance, and assembled a divan or council of the principal Turks and Arab sheiks, who were to have the civil administration of the country. He professed a determination to administer equal justice and protection to all classes of people, even to the humblest Fellah, a thing unknown in that country for ages. He established an institute of sciences at Cairo; and he endeavoured to conciliate the good will of the Ulemas and of the Imams, and to some extent he succeeded. It is not true however that he or any of his generals, except Menou, made profession of Islamism. The report originated in a desultory conversation he had with some of the sheiks, who hinted at the advantages that might result to him and his army from the adoption of the religion of the country. It was however a wild idea, unsuited both to him and the sort of men he commanded. It would have made him ridiculous in the eyes of his soldiers, and would not probably have conciliated the Moslem natives. While he was engaged in organizing the internal affairs of Egypt, the destruction of his fleet by Nelson took place in the roads of Aboukir on the 1st and 2nd of August. He was now shut out from all communication with Europe. The sultan at the same time issued an indignant manifesto, dated 10th September, declaring war against France for having invaded one of his provinces, and prepared to send an army for the recovery of Egypt. A popular insurrection broke out at Cairo on the 22nd of September; and the French found scattered in the streets were killed. Many however, and especially the women and children, were saved in the houses of the better sort of inhabitants. (Denon's account of that event.) Bonaparte, who was absent, returned quickly with troops; the insurgents were killed in the streets, and the survivors took refuge in the Great Mosque, the doors of which they barricaded. Bonaparte ordered them to be forced with cannon. A dreadful massacre ensued within the mosque, even after all resistance had been abandoned; five thousand Moslems were killed on that day. Bonaparte then issued a proclamation, in which, imitating the Oriental style, he told the Egyptians that he was the man of fate who had been foretold in the Koran, and that any resistance to him was impious as well as unavailing, and that he could call them to account even for their most secret thoughts, as nothing was concealed from him.

In the month of December Bonaparte went to Suez, where he received deputations from several Arab tribes, as well as from the shereef of Mekka, whom he had propitiated by giving protection to the great caravan of the pilgrims proceeding to that sanctuary. From Suez he crossed, at ebb tide, over the head of the gulf to the Arabian_coast, where he received a deputation from the monks of Mount Sinai. On his return to Suez he was overtaken by the rising tide, and was in some danger of being drowned. This he told Las Cases at St. Helena.

Meantime the Turks were assembling forces in Syria, and Djezzar Pacha of Acre was appointed seraskier or commander. Bonaparte resolved on an expedition to Syria. In February, 1799, he crossed the desert with 10,000 men, took El Arish and Gaza, and on the 7th March he stormed Jaffa, which was bravely defended by several thousand Turks. A summons had been sent to them, but they cut off the head of the messenger. A great number of the garrison were put to the sword, and the town was given up to plunder, the horrors of which Bonaparte himself in his dispatches to the Directory acknowledges to have been frightful. Fifteen hundred men of the garrison held out in the fort and other buildings, until at last they surrendered as prisoners. They were then mustered, and the natives of Egypt being separated from the Turks and Arnaouts, the latter were put under a strong guard, but were supplied with provisions, &c. Two days after, on the 9th, this body of prisoners was marched out of Jaffa in the centre of a square battalion commanded by General Bon. They proceeded to the sand-hills S.E. of Jaffa, and there being divided into small bodies, they were put to death in masses by volleys of musketry. Those who fell

|

wounded were finished with the bayonet. The bodies were heaped up into the shape of a pyramid, and their bleached bones were still to be seen not many years since. Such was the massacre of Jaffa, which Napoleon at St. Helena pretended to justify by saying that these men had formed part of the garrisons of El Arish and Gaza, upon the surrender of which they had been allowed to return home on condition of not serving against the French ;-on arriving at Jaffa however, through which they must pass, their countrymen retained them to strengthen the defence of that place. It may be safely doubted whether the whole of these men were the identical men of El Arish or Gaza. But however this may be, it is true that the Turks did not at that time observe the rules of war among civilized nations, and therefore, it may be said, were liable to be treated with the extreme rigour of warfare. Still it was an act of cruelty, because done in cold blood and two days after their surrender. The motive of the act however was not wanton cruelty, but policy, in thus getting rid of a body of determined men, who would have embarrassed the French as prisoners, or increased the ranks of their enemies if set at liberty. This is the only apology, if apology it be, for the deed. Another and a worse reason was, the old principle of Bonaparte of striking terror into the country which he was invading. But this system, which succeeded pretty well with the North Italians or the Fellahs of Egypt, failed of its effect when applied to the Turks or the Arabs; it only made them more desperate, as the defence of Acre soon after proved. Miot in his Memoirs has, it seems, made a mistake as to the number of the victims, whom he states at two or three thousand; they were about 1200.

At Jaffa the French troops began to feel the first attack of the plague, and their hospitals were established in that town. On the 14th the army marched towards Acre, which they reached on the 17th. Djezzar Pacha, a cruel but resolute old Turk, had prepared himself for a siege. Sir Sidney Smith, with the Tiger and Theseus English ships of the line, after assisting him in repairing the old fortifications of the place, brought his ships close to the town, which projects into the sea, ready to take part in the defence. The Theseus intercepted a French flotilla with heavy cannon and ammunition destined for the siege, and the pieces were immediately mounted on the walls and turned against the French. Colonel Philippeaux, an able officer of engineers, who had been Bonaparte's schoolfellow at Paris, and afterwards emigrated, directed the artillery of Acre. Bonaparte was compelled to batter the walls with only 12-pounders: by the 28th of March however he had effected a breach. The French went to the assault, crossed the ditch, and mounted the breach, but were repulsed by the Turks led on by Djezzar himself. The Turks, joined by English sailors and marines, made several sorties, and partly destroyed the French works and mines. Meantime the mountaineers of Naplous and of the countries east of the Jordan, joined by Turks from Damascus, had assembled a large force near Tiberias for the relief of Acre. Bonaparte, leaving part of his forces to guard the trenches, marched against the Syrians, defeated their undisciplined crowds at Nazareth and near Mount Tabor, and completely dispersed them: the fugitives took the road to Damascus. Bonaparte quickly returned to his camp before Acre, when the arrival of several pieces of heavy ordnance from Jaffa enabled him to carry on his operations with redoubled vigour. The month of April was spent in useless attempts to storm the place. Philippeaux died on the 2nd of May, of illness and over-exertion, but was replaced by Colonel Douglas of the marines, assisted by Sir Sidney Smith and the other officers of the squadron. The French, after repeated assaults, made a lodgment in a large tower which commanded the rest of the fortifications, upon which the Turks and the British sailors, armed with pikes, hastened to dislodge them. At this moment the long-expected Turkish fleet arrived with fresh troops, under the command of Hassan Bey, and the regiment Tchifflik, of the Nizam or regular infantry, was immediately landed. Sir Sidney Smith, without losing time, sent them on a sortie against the French trenches, which the Turks forced, seizing on a battery and spiking the guns. This diversion had the effect of dislodging the French from the tower. After several other attempts Bonaparte ordered an assault on a wide breach which had been effected in the curtain. General Lannes led the column. Djezzar gave orders to let the French come in, and then close upon them man against man, in which sort of combat the Turks were sure to have the ad

« 前へ次へ »