Napoleon I 1769-1821

His army consisted of thirty thousand starving soldiers, in want of everything. He issued to them the famous proclama tion :—"You are badly fed and all but naked. . . . I am about to lead you into the most fertile plains in the world. Before you are great cities and rich provinces; there we shall find honour, glory, and riches." He entered Italy on April io. His plan of campaign—the separation of the Piedmontese from the Austrians —was very simple ; he executed it successfully after severe actions at Montenotte, Millesimo and Dego.

While he was conducting the campaign, he did not forget that he was a general of the Revolution, and issued to the Italian people proclamations which, while treating the Catholic religion with respect, spoke the language of liberty. The king of Sardinia took fright, and, on the advice of the Archbishop of Turin, sued for peace to an army "with neither artillery, cavalry, nor shoes to its feet." The pope and the dukes of Parma, Modena and Tuscany were not long in following the example of Victor Ama deus. Great political schemes were taking shape in Bonaparte's mind, but first he had to beat the Austrians. This was, indeed, his first experience of large-scale operations. The crossing of the bridge of Lodi was a bold achievement which made his name known in a day all over France and indeed all over Europe. That day, by an old camp custom, his soldiers dubbed him corporal, and another nick-name, the "petit caporal," stuck to him.

New Republics.

In May, some weeks after the setting out of his ragged army, he entered Milan in, triumph. He could write to the directory : "The republic holds all Lombardy." At that same moment he received from Paris orders which upset all his plans. Sure that his resignation would not be accepted, he sent it in, and, while waiting for the answer, harried the Austrians, whose generals "faithful to the old system of warfare, scattered their troops in small detachments before a man who practised mass-movement." The further Bonaparte advanced with so small an army, the greater was the need for skill and boldness. At Arcola he suffered in his own person, by falling into a swamp. These "miracles of genius and courage" were crowned by the victory of Rivoli, fol lowed by the preliminary negotiations of Leoben (April 18, 1797). "No other general could show such fourteen months." He had forced Austria to sue for peace. He had founded the Cispadane, the Cisalpine, and the Ligurian republics, which brought a large part of Italy under the same regime as France, and preparations were begun for its annexation. He had been able to provide for his

army by requisitioning; to conquer without costing the treasury anything, and had even sent money to Paris. Finally when the Republicans, having lost their majority in the Councils, were in need of help, Bonaparte, though he had cause for complaint against the directory, sent them his subordinate Augereau, for the coup de force of Fructidor (Sept. 1797) directed against the royalists and the moderates. True, the royalists and moderates wanted peace, while Bonaparte agreed with the Jacobins, and aspired to secure France's "natural frontiers." He was able to congratulate himself on fulfilling both desires by the Treaty of Campo-Formio (Oct. 17, 1797). By it the emperor ceded to France both Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. Glorious as it was, however, and in keeping with Revolu tionary foreign policy, the treaty, far from ending the war, per petuated it. To assure the permanence of these conquests the goodwill of England was necessary, and England was not in a position to give it; compulsion was therefore necessary. The whole story of Napoleon up to Waterloo turns on this. Hence forth he was to struggle against England, and in that struggle he was in the end to be vanquished.

England and

brusqueness of his manner, and still more his popularity with the masses made him an object of suspicion, in spite of the services which he had rendered the Republic. He, on his side, despised the corrupt government of the directory, "a government of lawyers," whether Jacobin or moder ate. He soon realised that their plans for an invasion of England had no chance whatever of success. In any case he thought it prudent to quit France for a time. The East had always fascinated him. "Only in the East can one do great things," he said. Read ing and reflection had convinced him that Egypt was one of the keys of the world. This idea had already emerged in the days of Louis XIV., and was taken up again during the 18th century wars between France and England ; there too Napoleon had his f ore runners. He planned to strike at the power of England through Egypt and the route to India, and to stir the imagination of his own country-men. The directory accepted the scheme.