85; Stephens, Revolutionary Europe, 73-76; Von Holst, II, Lectures vii, xi; Stephens, French Revolution, I, ch. xiv. - (5) FALL OF THE BASTILLE. Mathews, 125-137; Stephens, French Revolution, I, 128-145; MacLehose, ch. viii; Carlyle, French Revolution, Bk. V, chs. v-vi. · (6) THE MOB AT VERSAILLES. MacLehose, chs. xi-xii; Stephens, French Revolution, I, 219228; Carlyle, Bk. VII, chs. iv-viii. — (7) FLIGHT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. Johnston, ch. viii; Gardiner, 86-91; Stephens, French Revolution, I, ch. xv. -(8) WHY THE FRENCH PEOPLE HATED MARIE ANTOINETTE. Lecky, VI, 545-550; McCarthy, French Revolution, chs. xii-xiv. JACOBIN CLUB. Johnston, 94-95; Farmer, Essays in French History (“The Club of the Jacobins"); Robinson and Beard, Readings, I, 285-287. -(10) THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. Mathews, 195-206; Stephens, French Revolution, II, ch. iv. —(11) TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. Johnston, ch. xi; Carlyle, II, Bk. IV, chs. vi-viii. — (12) THE REIGN OF TERROR. Stephens, French Revolution, II, ch. x; Mathews, 224-233; Gardiner, 163-187.-(13) ROBESPIERRE AND HIS OVERTHROW. Mathews, ch. xxviii; Ten Brink, Robespierre, 129–140, 378-405 (favorable).

(9) THE

General Reading. The histories of the French Revolution by Johnston, Mathews, Mrs. Gardiner, and Belloc are all brief and good. Rose's Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era and Stephens's Revolutionary Europe are brief general histories of Europe in this period. Stephens's History of the French Revolution (2 vols.) is the best account in English to the point at which it stops (1795). Aulard's Political History of the French Revolution (4 vols.) is the work of a master in this field, but is too advanced for high school use. Carlyle's French Revolution is antiquated, but should still be read for its brilliant pictures of Revolutionary scenes. The Cambridge Modern History, vol. VIII, is valuable for advanced students.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE RISE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (1795-1804)

A. EARLY LIFE AND THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

THE time was approaching when (as Burke prophesied) the government of France was to pass into a military despotism

619. Early

life of Bonaparte

under a popular general, — Napoleon Bonaparte. This great soldier was born of a good Italian family, in Corsica, (1769-1795) in 1769,—the year following the annexation of that island to France. He embodied "the typical Corsican temperament, moody and exacting, but withal keen, brave, and constant." At the age of nine young Bonaparte was admitted to a government military school in northeastern France. At sixteen he began his service in the French army as junior lieutenant of artillery. His proud, imperious nature, his poverty, and his foreign birth and speech cut him off from his fellows. He directed his early thoughts and ambitions chiefly toward schemes for the independence of Corsica. Only gradually did the French Revolution "blur his insular sentiments," and cause him to lay aside his local patriotism.

tion (17891795)

For a time Bonaparte was much in the company of Jacobins. But the sight of a Parisian mob invading the Tuileries and 620. Bona- insulting the royal family, in 1791, called forth the sigparte and nificant exclamation: "Why don't they sweep off four or the revolufive hundred of that rabble with cannon? The rest would then run away fast enough!" Trained officers were scarce under the revolution, so his promotion was rapid, in spite of repeated acts of insubordination. In 1793, at Toulon (too-lôN'), he first gave evidence of his energy and genius in directing the artillery in the siege of that rebellious city. In 1795 he was

back in Paris, deprived of his command, without money or friends, and suspected because of his Jacobin connections. His defense of the Convention against the mob in October, 1795, proved a turning point in his career. "From the first," says an eyewitness, "his activity was astonishing. He seemed Thiébault, to be everywhere at once. He surprised people by his Memoires

BONAPARTE IN 1795

laconic, clear, and
prompt orders. Every-
body was struck by the
vigor of his arrange-
ments, and passed from
admiration to confi-
dence, from confidence.
to enthusiasm." In re-
ward for his services he
was appointed by the
Directory to his first im-
portant command, that
of the French army op-
erating against the Aus-
trians and their allies in
Italy.

Bonaparte was now
but twenty-seven years
old. He was below the

middle height in stature, excessively thin, and very pale. Some of the ablest generals of the revolutionary army 621. The served under him. All yielded to the indomitable will Italian campaign revealed in his flashing eye, to the brilliancy of his (1796-1797) plans, and to the clearness and decision of his orders. The rank and file were thrilled by the burning words of his first proclamation: "Soldiers, you are ill-fed and almost naked. The Correspongovernment owes you much, but can do nothing for you. poléon, 1, Your patience and courage do you honor, but procure you 107 neither glory nor profit. I am about to lead you into the most fertile plains of the world. There you will find great cities and

dance de NaI,

mary of results

rich provinces. There you will win honor, glory, and riches. Soldiers of the Army of Italy, will you lack courage?"

The Italian campaign which followed was one of the most brilliant in history, and well illustrates Bonaparte's military genius. His quick mind seized upon every geographical detail which might help or hinder his operations. He was prompt to guess the plans of his enemies, while he bewildered them by the rapidity and daring of his own well-calculated maneuvers. His favorite device was to meet the detachments of the enemy separately, rapidly concentrating upon each the whole of his effective force. In this campaign his first step was to separate the troops of Sardinia-Piedmont from the Austrians. Then he defeated the Piedmontese five times in eleven days, menaced their capital (Turin), and forced their king to sign a treaty of peace. He next skillfully turned the flank of the Austrian army, and compelled it to fall back. He forced the passage of the bridge of Lo'di in the face of a galling fire (an exploit which won from his admiring soldiers his lifelong nickname of "the Little Corporal"), and occupied Milan. A part of the Austrian army took refuge in the strong fortress of Man'tua, and was there besieged by Napoleon. Four times the Austrian government poured its armies across the Alps to relieve the beleaguered fortress; but in February, 1797, Mantua fell. The results of the year of fighting were summed up by Bonaparte in a proclamation to his army (here somewhat shortened): — "The capture of Mantua has put an end to a campaign which has given you lasting claims to the gratitude of the Fatherland.

You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles leon's sum- and in seventy combats. You have taken more than one hundred thousand prisoners, five hundred fieldpieces, two thousand heavy cannon, and four pontoon trains. The contributions laid upon the lands you have conquered have fed, maintained, and paid the army during all the campaign. Besides this, you have sent thirty million francs to the Minister of Finance for the relief of the public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with three hundred

Correspondance de Na

poléon, II,

372-373

masterpieces of ancient and modern Italy, which it has required thirty centuries to produce. The kings of Sardinia and Naples, the Pope, and the duke of Parma have abandoned the coalition of our enemies and sought our friendship. You have expelled the English from Leghorn, Genoa, and Corsica. Of all the enemies who combined to stifle the Republic at its birth; only the Emperor remains before us. There is no hope for peace save in seeking it in the heart of the hereditary states of the house of Austria."

The invasion of Austria, announced in this proclamation, presented few difficulties. By April, 1797, Bonaparte had advanced to within eighty miles of Vienna. Preliminaries 623. Peace of Campo of peace were then signed, which in October were con- Formio verted into the treaty of Campo For'mio. In the interval (1797) between the preliminaries and the final treaty, Bonaparte found pretexts for treacherously conquering the once glorious republic of Venice; and the treaty provided, among other things, for its partition. By this treaty

1. The Emperor granted Belgium (the Austrian Netherlands) to France.

2. He accepted the Rhine as the eastern frontier of the republic. 3. He gave up Milan, to which were joined lands taken from the Pope and Venice to form the Cisalpine Republic.

4. In return Austria received most of the Venetian territories.

In his diplomatic negotiations, as in his military operations, Bonaparte acted as though he were practically independent. His services were too important, however, to permit the Directors to take offense. With the French people his popularity was increased as much by the treaties which he dictated as by his victories in the field. Upon his return to Paris he was given a triumphal reception such as was accorded to no other French general. Already the way was opening for him to seize political power.

With England alone called by one of the Directors the "giant corsair that infests the 'seas" the war still continued.