One object of the campaign was to make the armies live on foreign territories. Bonaparte's lieutenants in Italy were already experienced generals. He assembled them and unfolded his plans, which silenced the jealousy naturally caused by his appointment. To the soldiers he issued the first of his rousing proclamations: °You are ill-fed,' he said, °and almost naked; the government owes you much, and can give you nothing. I am about to lead you to the most fertile plains in the world, and to opulent cities where you will find honor, glory and riches.* During four years the army had been struggling against the Sardinian and Austrian troops, without decisive success, on the southern slopes of the Alps and Apennines. The Sardin ians stretched from the Bormida to the Stura, with an entrenched camp at Ceva. The Aus trians were cantoned in the neighborhood of Alessandria and Tortona, commanding the roads to Genoa and Milan. Napoleqp threat ened an attack on Genoa by Voltri, Tut made his real advance through the valley of the Bormida. Toward the end of March 1796 he set out from Nice and after defeating the allies at Montenotte (11 April) seized that town and thus placed himself in thir centre. Having first repulsed the Austrians he pursued the Sardinian army, beat it at Millesimo (13-14 April) and at Mondavi (22 April), and drove them before him to Cherasco, where an armis tice was concluded (28 April), which was con verted, on 15 May, into a definite treaty, by which Sardinia renounced the coalition and ceded Savoy and Nice to France. In the interim Napoleon sent Masse.na and La Harpe against the Austrian army and they defeated it at Dego, 14-15 April. Napoleon then, by forced marches to Piacenza, compelled Beaulieu to re treat toward the Tyrol. He crossed the Po at Piacenza, stormed the Bridge of Lodi (10 May) which was held by the Austrians to cover their retreat, and entered Milan on 15 May. Brescia was entered on the 28th; the passage of the Mincio forced at Borghetto on the 30th; and the Austrians, after garrisoning Mantua, retired into the Tyrol. The English were dis lodged from Leghorn and Corsica; and Venice, Genoa and Piedmont gave in.
Napoleon followed up his successes by ne gotiations with the Italian princes and the Pope, upon whom he levied contributions. The king of Naples signed an armistice on 5 June. Besides money, so much wanted by the direct ory, Napoleon provided a pleasing tribute to French vanity by stipulating for the surrender of pictures, manuscripts and works of art. On Lombardy he levied a contribution of $400, 000,000; the Pope promised $420,000,000. He sent $200,000,00 to the directory, which had not been able to defray the expenses of his cam paign. While he besieged Mantua, a fresh army of Austrians under Wurmser advanced against him in three divisions. Here Napoleon's ability to grasp a situation quickly and to discover the critical point in a campaign were remark ably displayed and served him well. He raised the siege of Mantua, beat one division under Quosdanovich at Salo and Lonato, 3 Aug. 1796,
and another under Wurmser at Castiglione, on the 5th. Wurmser, reinforced to 50,000 men, again attempted to relieve Mantua. Napoleon, who had entered the Tyrol and had reached Trent on his way to Innsbruck, after defeating 25,000 Austrians under Davidovich at Roveredo, on 4 September and winning the battle of Cal liano, descended the valley of the Brenta after Wurmser, defeated him at Bassano (8 Septem ber), at La Favorita and at Saint George and about the middle of that month shut him into Mantua.
On the other hand the same success had not attended the armies of the north. The Arch duke Charles had defeated Jourdan, and forced Moreau, who had penetrated into Bavaria, to retreat by the Black Forest to Alsace which he reached in October. Thus any relief for Na poleon was checked. At this time also a great expedition to Ireland tinder Hoche failed and that general was recalled to France to serve with one of the other armies. These events enabled the Austrians to send a fresh army after Napoleon, consisting of 50,000 men, tinder Alvinczy and Davidovich. In vain, however. After sustaining remises at Rivoli and Caldiero, he outmanoeuvred Alvinczy and defeated him at Arcola 15-17 November. In January 1797 Alvinczy, with large reinforcements, again ad vanced from Roveredo to the relief of Mantua. The French were driven in at La Carona but Napoleon defeated Alvinczy on the 14th at Rivoli, and on 2 February received the surren der of Mantua from Wurmser. On the same day he put an end to his armistice with the Pope and invaded the States of the Church, de feating the papal troops at Scnio, and in rapid succession capturing Facnza, Ancona, Loretto and Tolentino. A speedy understanding was reached by the Treaty of Tolentino (19 Feb. 1797). The Pope surrendered Avignon, Bo logna, Ferrara and the Romagna to •France. These were added to the provinces of Modena and Reggio, taken from the Duke, and formed the Cispadane Republic, -as, after the battle of Lodi, Lombardy had been proclaimed the Transpadane Republic.
The Austrians, however, were preparing for another invasion of Italy under the Archduke Charles, and Napoleon resolved to anticipate them before they should receive their reinforce ment& from the armies on the Rhine. He there fore entered the Tyrol, driving the Archduke before him, and, crossing the Noric Alps and penetrating as far as Leoben hi Styria, he had reached Judenburg, a few days' march from Vienna, when an armistice was accepted (7 April 1797) and preliminaries were signed at Leoben on the 18th, ceding the Austrian Netherlands and Lombardy to France, and in - demitifying Austria with Venetia. These pre liminaries were confirmed by the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed 17 October. While Na poleon was carrying on these stupendous oper ations, Hoche and Moreau had conducted equally glorious but less successful campaigns 'against the Austrians in southern Germany and had pushed them back into the Black Forest when they received the news from Leoben of armistice and suspended active operations.