EARLY DAYS OF NAPOLEON. 351 CHAPTER XXVIII NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE was born in Corsica, on the 15th Ch. 28 of August, 1769. His parents were respectable, and he A. D. was early sent to a royal military school at Brienne. He was 1795. chiefly distinguished for his attainments in mathematics; he was studious, reserved, and cold; and always exhibited an Early youth of inflexible will,—a peculiarity which proved to be the great Napodistinguishing quality of his mind. At the age of fourteen, in leon. consequence of his superior attainments, he was removed to the military school at Paris, and at the age of seventeen, received his commission as second lieutenant in a regiment of artillery. When the Revolution broke out, Toulon, one of the arsenals of France, took a more decided part in favor of the King and the Constitution than either Marseilles or Lyons, and invited the support of the English and Spanish squadrons. The Committee of Public Safety resolved to subdue the city; and Bonaparte, at that time a brigadier-general, with the command of the artillery at the siege, recommended a course which led to the capture of that important place. vices. For his distinguished services and talents, he was appointed His ser. second in command by the Directory, when that body was threatened and overawed by the rebellious National Guard. Having saved the State, and defended the authorities, he was appointed second in command of the great army of the interior, and, finally, General-in-chief, in the place of Barras, who found his new office as Director incompatible with the duties of a general. 352 Ch. 28 A. D. 1796. The tory. HIS SERVICES TO THE REPUBLIC. The other Directors who now enjoyed the supreme command were Reubel, Laréveillère Lépeaux, Le Tourneur, and Carnot. Sièyes, a man of great talent, had been elected, but had declined. Among these five men, Carnot was the only one who had genius; it was through his exertions that France, Direc- under the Committee of Public Safety, had been saved from the torrent of invasion. But Barras, though inferior in some respects to Carnot, had greater influence, and it was through his favor that Bonaparte received his appointments. That a young man of twenty-five should have been entrusted with the command of the army of the interior, is as remarkable as the victories which subsequently showed that his elevation was not the work of chance, but of a providential hand. 1830 phine. The acknowledged favorite of Barras was a young widow, by birth a Creole of the West Indies, whose husband, a general in the army of the Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Her name was Josephine Beauharnois; and being a woman of sense, of warm affections, and of rare accomplishments, she won the heart of Bonaparte, and was married to him on the 9th of March, 1796. Her dowry was the command of the army of Italy, which, through her influence, the young general received. Army This army was composed of but forty-two thousand men, of Italy. while the forces of the Italian States numbered one hundred and sixty thousand, and could with ease be increased to three hundred thousand. But Bonaparte felt sure of victory. His soldiers were young men, inured to danger and toil; and among his officers were Berthier, Massena, Marmont, Augereau, Serrurier, Jubert, Lannes, and Murat. They were not then all generals, but they all became afterwards marshals of France. The campaign of 1796 in Italy was successful beyond ant precedent in the history of war; and the battles of Montenotte, paign. Millesimo, and Dego, the passage of the bridge of Lodi, the siege of Mantua, and the victories at Castiglione, Caldicro Arcola, Rivoli, and Mantua, extended the fame of Bonaparte throughout the world. The Austrian armies were every Brilli cam RELATIVE POSITION OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 353 where defeated, and Italy was subjected to the rule of the Ch.28 French. "With this invasion commenced tyranny under the A. D. name of liberty, rapine under the name of generosity, the 1797. stripping of churches, the robbing of hospitals, the levelling gress of of the palaces of the great, and the destruction of the cottages Proof the poor; all that military license has of most terrible, the war. all that despotic authority has of most oppressive." While Bonaparte was subduing Italy, another French army under Moreau was contending, on the Rhine, with the Austrians under the Archduke Charles. Several great battles were fought, and masterly retreats were made, but without decisive results. state of It is surprising that either England or France should have been able to endure the expense of this great contest for more than twenty years. The French Directory, on its accession to Perpower, found the finances in a state of inextricable confusion. plexed Assignats had fallen to almost nothing, and taxes were col- finanlected with such difficulty, that there were arrears to the ces. amount of fifteen hundred millions of francs. The armies were destitute and ill paid, the artillery without horses, and the infantry depressed by suffering and defeat. In England, the Government of Mr. Pitt was violently assailed for carrying on war against a country which sought simply to revolutionize its own institutions, and which all the armies of Europe had thus far failed to subdue. Mr. Fox, and others in the opposition, were perpetually urging the folly of a contest which had already added one hundred millions of pounds to the national debt. Mr. Pitt, in reply, argued that the French must be nearly exhausted by their great exertions, and would soon be unable to continue the warfare. The nation, generally, took this latter view of the case, and Parliament voted immense supplies. success The year 1797 opened gloomily for England. The French French had gained immense successes. Bonaparte had subdued Italy; Hoche had suppressed the rebellion in La Vendée; Austria was preparing to defend her last barriers in the passes of the 854 BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT. Ch. 28 Alps; Holland was virtually incorporated with Republican France; Spain had also joined its forces; the whole Continent 1797. was, in fact, arrayed against Great Britain. England, it was A. D. funds. said, had interfered in a contest in which she was not conFall of cerned, and she was now paying the penalty. The funds fell English from ninety-eight to fifty-one; and petitions for a change of ministry were transmitted from almost every city of note in the kingdom. The Bank of England had suspended cash payments, and the country was overburdened by taxation. Nevertheless, in spite of all these difficulties, Parliament voted new supplies, and made immense preparations, especially for the increase of the navy. One hundred and twenty-four ships of the line, one hundred and eighty frigates, and one hundred and eighty-four sloops, were put in commission, and sent to the various quarters of the globe. Mutiny of the Nore. Soon after this occurred the memorable mutiny in the English fleet, which, for a time, produced great alarm. It was, however, finally suppressed by the vigorous measures which the Government adopted, and by that happy union of firmness and humanity, justice and concession, which Mr. Pitt exercised. The mutiny resulted from real grievances which then existed in the navy; grievances which, to the glory of Pitt, were candidly considered and promptly redressed. The temporary disgrace, which rested on the navy in consequence of this affair, was soon wiped away by the battle of Battle Cape St. Vincent, in which Admiral Jervis, seconded by of Care Nelson and Collingwood, with fifteen ships of the line and six frigates, defeated a Spanish fleet of twenty-seven ships of the line and twelve frigates. This important naval victory delivered England from all fear of invasion, and inspired her people with fresh courage to bear the heavy taxes which the war occasioned. Before the season closed, the Dutch fleet, of fifteen ships of the line and eleven frigates, was defeated by an English one, under Admiral Duncan, consisting of sixteen ships of the line and three frigates. The battles of Camperdown and Cape St. Vincent, in which the St. Vin rent. CONQUEST OF VENICE BY NAPOLEON. 355 genius of Duncan and Nelson were signally exhibitea, were Ch. 28 among the most important fought at sea during the war, A. D. and diffused unexampled joy throughout Great Britain. The 1797. victors were all rewarded. Jervis became Earl St. Vincent, Admiral Duncan became a viscount, and Commodore Nelson was made a baronet. Soon after these victories, Mr. Burke died, urging the ministry, as his end approached, to persevere in the great struggle to which the nation was committed. ries of While the English were victorious on the water, the French Victoobtained new triumphs on the land. In twenty days after Napo the opening of the campaign of 1797, Bonaparte had driven leon. the Archduke Charles, with an army equal to his own, over the Julian Alps, and had occupied Carniola, Carinthia, Trieste, Fiume, and the Italian Tyrol; while a force of fortyfive thousand men, flushed with victory, was on the northern declivity of the Alps, within fifty leagues of Vienna. In the midst of these successes, an insurrection broke out in the Venetian territories; and as Bonaparte, partly in consequence of the jealousy of the Directory, was not supported, as he expected, by the armies of the Rhine, he resolved to forego all thoughts of dictating peace under the walls of Vienna, and contented himself with making as advantageous terms as possible with the Austrian Government. quest of Having accomplished this object, he directed his attention. to the subjugation of Venice, no longer the "Queen of the ConAdriatic, throned on her hundred isles," but degenerate, Venice. weakened, and divided. The Venetian Senate made every effort to avert the storm, but in vain. Bonaparte declared war against Venice, and her fall was not long delayed. The French seized all the treasure they could find, obliged the ruined capital to furnish heavy contributions, and compelled the surrender of its choicest works of art. Soon after, the youthful conqueror established himself in the beautiful chateau of Montebello, near Milan, and there dictated peace to the assembled ambassadors of Germany, Rome, Genoa, Venice, Naples, Piedmont, and the Swiss Republic. The treaty of Campo |