The Poles, taken unawares by the second part.i.tion of their country, speedily recovered from their surprise and collected all their strength for an energetic opposition. Kosciuszko, who had, together with Lafayette, fought in North America in the cause of liberty, armed his countrymen with scythes, put every Russian who fell into his hands to death, and attempted the restoration of ancient Poland. How easily might not Prussia, backed by the enthusiasm of the patriotic Poles, have repelled the Russian colossus, already threatening Europe! But the Berlin diplomatists had yet to learn the homely truth, that "honesty is the best policy." They aided in the aggrandizement of Russia, drew down a nation"s curse upon their heads for the sake of an addition to the territory of Prussia, the maintenance of which cost more than its revenue, and violated the Divine commands during a period of storm and convulsion, when the aid of Heaven was indeed required. The ministers of Frederick William II. were externally religious, but those of Frederick William I., by whom the Polish question had been so justly decided, were so in reality.
The king led his troops in person into Poland. In June, 1794, he defeated Kosciuszko"s scythemen at Szczekociny, but met with such strenuous opposition in his attack upon Warsaw as to be compelled to retire in September.[1] On the retreat of the Prussian troops, the Russians, who had purposely awaited their departure in order to secure the triumph for themselves, invaded the country in great force under their bold general, Suwarow, who defeated Kosciuszko, took him prisoner, and besieged Warsaw, which he carried by storm. On this occasion, termed by Reichardt "a peaceful and merciful entry of the clement victor," eighteen thousand of the inhabitants of every age and s.e.x were cruelly put to the sword. The result of this success was the third part.i.tion or utter annihilation of Poland. Russia took possession of the whole of Lithuania and Volhynia, as far as the Riemen and the Bug; Prussia, of the whole country west of the Riemen, including Warsaw; Austria, of the whole country south of the Bug, A.D.
1795. An army of German officials, who earned for themselves not the best of reputations, settled in the Prussian division: they were ignorant of the language of the country, and enriched themselves by tyranny and oppression. Von Treibenfeld, the counsellor to the forest-board, one of Bischofswerder"s friends, bestowed a number of confiscated lands upon his adherents.
The ancient Polish feof of Courland was, in consequence of the annihilation of Poland, incorporated with the Russian empire, Peter, the last duke, the son of Biron, being compelled to abdicate, A.D.
1795.
Pichegru invaded Holland late in the autumn of 1794. The duke of York had already returned to England. A line of defence was, nevertheless, taken up by the British under Wallmoden, by the Dutch under their hereditary stadtholder, William V. of Orange, and by an Austrian corps under Alvinzi; the Dutch were, however, panic-struck, and negotiated a separate treaty with Pichegru,[2] who, at that moment, solely aimed at separating the Dutch from their allies; but when, in December, all the rivers and ca.n.a.ls were suddenly frozen, and nature no longer threw insurmountable obstacles in his path, regardless of the negotiations then pending in Paris, he unexpectedly took up arms, marched across the icebound waters, and carried Holland by storm. With him marched the anti-Orangemen, the exiled Dutch patriots, under General Daendels and Admiral de Winter, with the pretended view of restoring ancient republican liberty to Holland and of expelling the tyrannical Orange dynasty.
The British (and some Hessian troops) were defeated at Thiel on the Waal; Alvinzi met with a similar fate at Pondern, and was compelled to retreat into Westphalia. Some English ships, which lay frozen up in the harbor, were captured by the French hussars. A most manly resistance was made; but no aid was sent from any quarter. Prussia, who so shortly before had ranged herself on the side of the stadtholder against the people, was now an indifferent spectator.
William V. was compelled to flee to England. Holland was transformed into a Batavian republic. Hahn, Hoof, etc., were the first furious Jacobins by whom everything was there formed upon the French model.
The Dutch were compelled to cede Maestricht, Venloo, and Vliessingen; to pay a hundred millions to France, and, moreover, to allow their country to be plundered, to be stripped of all the splendid works of art, pictures, etc. (as was also the case in the Netherlands and on the Rhine), and even of the valuable museum of natural curiosities collected by them with such a.s.siduity in every quarter of the globe.
These depredations were succeeded by a more systematic mode of plunder. Holland was mercilessly drained of her enormous wealth. All the gold and silver bullion was first of all collected; this was followed by the imposition of an income-tax of six per cent, which was afterward repeated, and was succeeded by an income-tax on a sliding scale from three to thirty per cent. The British, at the same time, destroyed the Dutch fleet in the Texel commanded by de Winter, in order to prevent its capture by the French, and seized all the Dutch colonies, Java alone excepted. The flag of Holland had vanished from the seas.
In August, 1794, the reign of terror in France reached its close. The moderate party which came into power gave hopes of a general peace, and Frederick William II without loss of time negotiated a separate treaty, suddenly abandoned the monarchical cause which he had formerly so zealously upheld, and offered his friendship to the revolutionary nation, against which he had so lately hurled a violent manifesto. The French, with equal inconsistency on their part, abandoned the popular cause, and, after having murdered their own sovereign and threatened every European throne with destruction, accepted the alliance of a foreign king. Both parties, notwithstanding the contrariety of their principles and their mutual animosity, were conciliated by their political interest. The French, solely bent upon conquest, cared not for the liberty of other nations; Prussia, intent upon self- aggrandizement, was indifferent to the fate of her brother sovereigns.
Peace was concluded between France and Prussia at Basel, April 5, 1795. By a secret article of this treaty, Prussia confirmed the French republic in the possession of the whole of the left bank of the Rhine, while France in return richly indemnified Prussia at the expense of the petty German states. This peace, notwithstanding its manifest disadvantages, was also acceded to by Austria, which, on this occasion, received the unfortunate daughter of Louis XVI. in exchange for Semonville and Maret, the captive amba.s.sadors of the republic, and the members of the Convention seized by Dumouriez. Hanover[3] and Hesse-Ca.s.sel partic.i.p.ated in the treaty and were included within the line of demarcation, which France, on her side, bound herself not to transgress.
The countries lying beyond this line of demarcation, the Netherlands, Holland, and Pfalz-Juliers, were now abandoned to France, and Austria, kept in check on the Upper Rhine, was powerless in their defence. In this manner fell Luxemburg and Dusseldorf. All the Lower Rhenish provinces were systematically plundered by the French under pretext of establishing liberty and equality.[4] The Batavian republic was permitted to subsist, but dependent upon France; Belgium was annexed to France, A.D. 1795.
On the retreat of the Prussians, Mannheim was surrendered without a blow by the electoral minister, Oberndorf, to the French. Wurmser arrived too late to the relief of the city. Quosdanowich, his lieutenant-general, nevertheless, succeeded in saving Heidelberg by sheltering himself behind a great abatis at Handschuchsheion, whence he repulsed the enemy, who were afterward almost entirely cut to pieces by General Klenau, whom he sent in pursuit with the light cavalry. General Boros led another Austrian corps across Na.s.sau to Ehrenbreitstein, at that time besieged by the French under their youthful general, Marceau, who instantly retired. Wurmser no sooner arrived in person than, attacking the French before Mannheim, he completely put them to the rout and took General Oudinot prisoner.
Clairfait, at the same time, advanced unperceived upon Mayence, and unexpectedly attacking the besieging French force, carried off one hundred and thirty-eight pieces of heavy artillery. Pichegru, who had been called from Holland to take the command on the Upper Rhine, was driven back to the Vosges. Jourdan advanced to his aid from the Lower Rhine, but his vanguard under Marceau was defeated at Kreuznach and again at Meissenheim. Mannheim also capitulated to the Austrians. The winter was now far advanced; both sides were weary of the campaign, and an armistice was concluded. Austria, notwithstanding her late success, was, owing to the desertion of Prussia, in a critical position. The imperial troops also refused to act. The princes of Southern Germany longed for peace. Even Spain followed the example of Prussia and concluded a treaty with the French republic.
The consequent dissolution of the coalition between the German powers had at least the effect of preventing the formation of a coalition of nations against them by the French. Had the alliance between the sovereigns continued, the French would, from political motives, have used their utmost endeavors to revolutionize Germany; this project was rendered needless by the treaty of Basel, which broke up the coalition and confirmed France in the undisturbed possession of her liberties; and thus it happened that Prussia unwittingly aided the monarchical cause by involuntarily preventing the promulgation of the revolutionary principles of France.
Austria remained unshaken, and refused either to betray the monarchical cause by the recognition of a revolutionary democratical government, or to cede the frontiers of the empire to the youthful and insolent generals of the republic. Conscious of the righteousness of the cause she upheld, she intrepidly stood her ground and ventured her single strength in the mighty contest, which the campaign of 1796 was to decide. The Austrian forces in Germany were commanded by the emperor"s brother, the Archduke Charles; those in Italy, by Beaulieu.
The French, on the other hand, sent Jourdan to the Lower Rhine, Moreau to the Upper Rhine, Bonaparte to Italy, and commenced the attack on every point with their wonted impetuosity.
The Austrians had again extended their lines as far as the Lower Rhine. A corps under Prince Ferdinand of Wurtemberg was stationed in the Bergland, in the narrow corner still left between the Rhine and the Prussian line of demarcation. Marceau forced him to retire as far as Altenkirchen, but the Archduke Charles hastening to his a.s.sistance encountered Jourdan"s entire force on the Lahn near Kloster Altenberg, and, after a short contest, compelled it to give way. A great part of the Austrian army of the Rhine under Wurmser having been, meanwhile, drawn off and sent into Italy, the archduke was compelled to turn hastily from Jourdan against Moreau, who had just despatched General Ferino across the Lake of Constance, while he advanced upon Strasburg.
A small Swabian corps under Colonel Raglowich made an extraordinary defence in Kehl (the first instance of extreme bravery given by the imperial troops at that time), but was forced to yield to numbers. The Austrian general, Sztarray, was, notwithstanding the gallantry displayed on the occasion, also repulsed at Sasbach; the Wurtemberg battalion was also driven from the steep pa.s.s of the Kniebes,[5]
across which Moreau penetrated through the Black Forest into the heart of Swabia, and had already reached Freudenstadt, when the Austrian general, Latour, marched up the Murg. He was, however, also repulsed.
The Archduke Charles now arrived in person in the country around Pforzheim (on the skirts of the Black Forest), and sent forward his columns to attack the French in the mountains, but in vain; the French were victorious at Rothensol and at Wildbad. The archduke retired behind the Neckar to Cannstadt; his rearguard was pursued through the city of Stuttgard by the vanguard of the French. After a short cannonade, the archduke also abandoned his position at Cannstadt. The whole of the Swabian circle submitted to the French. Wurtemberg was now compelled to make a formal cession of Mumpelgard, which had been for some time garrisoned by the French,[6] and, moreover, to pay a contribution of four million livres; Baden was also mulcted two millions, the other states of the Swabian circle twelve millions, the clergy seven millions, altogether twenty-five million livres, without reckoning the enormous requisition of provisions, horses, clothes, etc. The archduke, in the meantime, deprived the troops belonging to the Swabian circle of their arms at Biberach, on account of the peace concluded by their princes with the French, and retired behind the Danube by Donauwoerth. Ferino had, meanwhile, also advanced from Huningen into the Breisgau and to the Lake of Constance, had beaten the small corps under General Frhlick at Herbolsheim and the remnant of the French emigrants under Oonde at Mindelheim,[7] and joined Moreau in pursuit of the archduke. His troops committed great havoc wherever they appeared.[8]
Jourdan had also again pushed forward. The archduke had merely been able to oppose to him on the Lower Rhine thirty thousand men under the Count von Wartensleben, who, owing to Jourdan"s numerical superiority, had been repulsed across both the Lahn and Maine. Jourdan took Frankfort by bombardment and imposed upon that city a contribution of six millions. The Franconian circle also submitted and paid sixteen millions, without reckoning the requisition of natural productions and the merciless pillage.[9]
The Archduke Charles, too weak singly to encounter the armies of Moreau and Jourdan, had, meanwhile, boldly resolved to keep his opponents as long as possible separate, and, on the first favorable opportunity, to attack one with the whole of his forces, while he kept the other at bay with a small division of his army. In pursuance of this plan, he sent Wartensleben against Jourdan, and, meanwhile, drew Moreau after him into Bavaria, where, leaving General Latour with a small corps to keep him in check at Rain on the Lech, he recrossed the Danube at Ingolstadt with the flower of his army and hastily advanced against Jourdan, who was thus taken unawares. At Teiningen, he surprised the French avant-garde under Bernadotte, which he compelled to retire. At Amberg, he encountered Jourdan, whom he completely routed, A.D. 1796. The French retreated through the city, on the other side of which they formed an immense square against the imperial cavalry under Wernek; it was broken on the third charge, and a terrible slaughter took place, three thousand of the French being killed and one thousand taken prisoner. The peasantry had already flown to arms, and a.s.sisted in cutting down the fugitives. Jourdan again made a stand at Wurzburg, where Wernek stormed his batteries at the head of his grenadiers and a complete rout ensued, September 3.
The French lost six thousand dead and two thousand prisoners. The peasantry rose _en ma.s.se_, and hunted down the fugitives.[10] On the Upper Rhone, Dr. Roder placed himself at the head of the peasantry, but, encountering a superior French corps at Mellrichstadt, was defeated and killed. The French suffered most in the Spessart, called by them, on that account, La pet.i.te Vendee. The peasantry were here headed by an aged forester named Philip Witt, and, protected by their forests, exterminated numbers of the flying foe. The imperial troops were also unremitting in their pursuit, again defeated Bernadotte at Aschaffenburg and chased Jourdan through Na.s.sau across the Rhine.
Marceau, who had vainly besieged Mayence, again made stand at Allerheim, where he was defeated and killed.[11]
Moreau, completely deceived by the archduke, had, meanwhile, remained in Bavaria. After defeating General Latour at Lechhausen, instead of setting off in pursuit of the archduke and to Jourdan"s aid, he was, as the archduke had foreseen, attracted by the prospect of gaining a rich booty, in an opposite direction, toward Munich. Bavaria submitted to the French, paid ten millions, and ceded twenty of the most valuable pictures belonging to the Dusseldorf and Munich galleries.
The news of Jourdan"s defeat now compelled Moreau to beat a rapid retreat in order to avoid being cut off by the victorious archduke.
Latour set off vigorously in pursuit, came up with him at Ulm and again at Ravensberg, but was both times repulsed, owing to his numerical inferiority. A similar fate awaited the still smaller imperial corps led against the French by Nauendorf at Rothweil and by Petrosch at Villingen, and Moreau led the main body of his army in safety through the deep narrow gorges of the Hollenthal in the Black Forest to Freiburg in the Breisgau, where he came upon the archduke, who, amid the acclamations of the armed peasantry (by whom the retreating French[12] were, as in the Spessart, continually hara.s.sed in their pa.s.sage through the Black Forest), had hurried, but too late, to his encounter. Moreau had already sent two divisions of his army, under Ferino and Desaix, across the Rhine at Huningen and Breisach, and covered their retreat with the third by taking up a strong position at Schliesgen, not far from Freiburg, whence, after braving a first attack, he escaped during the night to Huningen. This retreat, in which he had saved his army with comparatively little loss, excited general admiration, but in Italy there was a young man who scornfully exclaimed, "It was, after all, merely a retreat!"
[Footnote 1: The following trait proves the complete stagnation of chivalric feeling in the army. Szekuli, colonel of the Prussian hussars, condemned several patriotic ladies, belonging to the highest Polish families at Znawrazlaw, to be placed beneath the gallows, in momentary expectation of death, until it, at length, pleased him to grant a reprieve, couched in the most offensive and indecent terms.]
[Footnote 2: A most disgraceful treaty. William"s enemies, the fugitive patriots, had promised the French, in return for their aid, sixty million florins of the spoil of their country. William, upon this, promised to pay to France a subsidy of eighty millions, in order to guarantee the security of his frontier, but was instantly outbid by the base and self-denominated patriots, who offered to France a hundred million florins in order to induce her to invade their country.]
[Footnote 3: Von Berlepsch, the councillor of administration, proposed to the Calemberg diet to declare their neutrality in defiance of England, and, in case of necessity, to place "the Calemberg Nation"
under the protection of France.--Havemomn.]
[Footnote 4: "Wherever these locusts appear, everything, men, cattle, food, property, etc., is carried off. These thieves seize everything convertible into money. Nothing is safe from them. At Cologne, they filled a church with coffee and sugar. At Aix-la-Chapelle, they carried off the finest pictures of Rubens and Van Dyck, the pillars from the altar, and the marble-slab from the tomb of Charlemagne, all of which they sold to some Dutch Jews."--_Posselt"s Annals of 1796_.
At Cologne, the nuns were instantly emanc.i.p.ated from their vows, and one of the youngest and most beautiful afterward gained great notoriety as a barmaid at an inn. This scandalous story is related by Klebe in his Travels on the Rhine. In Bonn, Gleich, a man who had formerly been a priest, placed himself at the head of the French rabble and planted trees of liberty. He also gave to the world a decade, as he termed his publication.--_Muller_, _History of Bonn_.
"The French proclaimed war against the palaces and peace to the huts, but no hut was too mean to escape the rapacity of these birds of prey.
The first-fruits of liberty was the pillage of every corner."-- _Schwaben"s History of Siegburg_. The brothers Boisseree"e afterward collected a good many of the church pictures, at that period carried away from Cologne and more particularly from the Lower Rhine. They now adorn Munich and form the best collection of old German paintings now existing.]
[Footnote 5: "Had Wurtemberg possessed but six thousand well-organized troops, the position on the Roszbuhl might have been maintained, and the country have been saved. The millions since paid by Wurtemberg, and which she may still have to pay, would have been spared."-- _Appendix to the History of the Campaign of 1796._]
[Footnote 6: The duke, Charles, had, in 1791, visited Paris, donned the national c.o.c.kade, and bribed Mirabeau with a large sum of money to induce the French government to purchase Mumpelgard from him. The French, however, were quite as well aware as the duke that they would ere long possess it gratis.]
[Footnote 7: Moreau generously allowed all his prisoners, who, as ex-n.o.bles, were destined to the guillotine, to escape.]
[Footnote 8: Armbruster"s "Register of French Crime" contains as follows: "Here and there, in the neighboring towns, there were certainly symptoms of an extremely favorable disposition toward the French, which would ill deserve a place in the annals of German patriotism and of German good sense. This disposition was fortunately far from general. The appearance of the French in their real character, and the barbarous excesses and heavy contributions by which they rendered the people sensible of their presence, speedily effected their conversion." The French, it is true, neither murdered the inhabitants nor burned the villages as they had during the previous century in the Pfalz, but they pillaged the country to a greater extent, shamefully abused the women, and desecrated the churches.
Their license and the art with which they extorted the last penny from the wretched people surpa.s.sed all belief. "Not satisfied with robbing the churches, they especially gloried in giving utterance to the most fearful blasphemies, in destroying and profaning the altars, in overthrowing the statues of saints, in treading the host beneath their feet or casting it to dogs.--At the village of Berg in Weingarten, they set up in the holy of holies the image of the devil, which they had taken from the representation of the temptation of the Saviour in the wilderness. In the village of Boos, they roasted a crucifix before a fire."--_Vide Hurter"s Memorabilia, concerning the French allies in Swabia, who attempted to found an Alemannic Republic. Schaffhausen, 1840_. Moreau reduced them to silence by declaring, "I have no need of a revolution to the rear of my army."]
[Footnote 9: Notwithstanding Jourdan"s proclamation, promising protection to all private property, Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Bamberg, etc., were completely pillaged. The young girls fled in hundreds to the woods. The churches were shamelessly desecrated. When mercy in G.o.d"s name was demanded, the plunderers replied, "G.o.d! we are G.o.d!"
They would dance at night-time around a bowl of burning brandy, whose blue flames they called their etre supreme.--_The French in Franconia, by Count Soden._]
[Footnote 10: "They deemed the a.s.sa.s.sination of a foreigner a meritorious work."--_Ephemeridae of 1797._ "The peasantry, roused to fury by the disorderly and cruel French, whose excesses exceeded all belief, did not even extend mercy to the wounded; and the French, with equal barbarity, set whole villages on fire."--_Appendix to the Campaign of 1796_].
[Footnote 11: When scarcely in his twenty-seventh year. He was one of the most distinguished heroes of the Revolution, and as remarkable for his generosity to his weaker foes as for his moral and chivalric principles. The Archduke Charles sent his private physicians to attend upon him, and, on the occasion of his burial, fired a salvo simultaneously with that of the French stationed on the opposite bank of the Rhine.--_Mussinan_.]
[Footnote 12: The peasants of the Artenau and the Kinzigthal were commanded by a wealthy farmer, named John Baader. Besides several French generals, Hausmann, the commissary of the government, who accompanied Moreau"s army, was taken prisoner.--_Mussinan, History of the French War of 1796_ etc. A decree, published on the 18th of September by Frederick Eugene, Duke of Wurtemberg, in which he prohibited his subjects from taking part in the pursuit of the French, is worthy of remark.]
CCL. Bonaparte
This youth was Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer in the island of Corsica, a man of military genius, who, when a mere lieutenant, had raised the siege of Toulon, had afterward served the Directory by dispersing the old Jacobins with his artillery in the streets of Paris, and had been intrusted with the command of the army in Italy.
Talents, that under a monarchy would have been doomed to obscurity, were, under the French republic, called into notice, and men of decided genius could, amid the general compet.i.tion, alone attain to power or retain the reins of government.
Bonaparte was the first to take the field. In the April of 1796, he pushed across the Alps and attacked the Austrians. Beaulieu, a good general, but too old for service (he was then seventy-two, Napoleon but twenty-seven), had incautiously extended his lines too far, in order to preserve a communication with the English fleet in the Mediterranean. Bonaparte defeated his scattered forces at Montenotte and Millesimo, between the 10th and 15th of April, and, turning sharply upon the equally scattered Sardinian force, beat it in several engagements, the princ.i.p.al of which took place at Mondovi, between the 19th and 22d of April. An armistice was concluded with Sardinia, and Beaulieu, who vainly attempted to defend the Po, was defeated on the 7th and 8th of May, at Fombio. The bridge over the Adda at Lodi, three hundred paces in length, extremely narrow and to all appearance impregnable, defended by his lieutenant Sebottendorf, was carried by storm, and, on the 15th of May, Bonaparte entered Milan. Beaulieu took up a position behind the Mincio, notwithstanding which, Bonaparte carried the again ill-defended bridge at Borghetto by storm. While in this part of the country, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by a party of skirmishers, and was compelled to fly half-naked, with but one foot booted, from his night quarters at St. Georgio.
Beaulieu now withdrew into the Tyrol. Sardinia made peace, and terms were offered by the pope and by Naples. Leghorn was garrisoned with French troops; all the English goods lying in this harbor, to the value of twelve million pounds, were confiscated. The strongly fortified city of Mantua, defended by the Austrians under their gallant leader, Canto d"Irles, was besieged by Bonaparte. A fresh body of Austrian troops under Wurmser crossed the mountains to their relief; but Wurmser, instead of advancing with his whole force, incautiously pressed forward with thirty-two thousand men through the valley of the Adige, while Quosdanowich led eighteen thousand along the western sh.o.r.e of the Lake of Garda. Bonaparte instantly perceived his advantage, and, attacking the latter, defeated him on the 3d of August, at Lonato. Wurmser had entered Mantua unopposed on the 1st, but, setting out in search of the enemy, was unexpectedly attacked, on the 5th of August, by the whole of Bonaparte"s forces at Castiglione, and compelled, like Quosdanowich, to seek shelter in the Tyrol. This senseless mode of attack had been planned by Weirotter, a colonel belonging to the general staff. Wurmser now received reinforcements, and Laner, the general of the engineers, was intrusted with the projection of a better plan. He again weakened the army by dividing his forces. In the beginning of September, Davidowich penetrated with twenty thousand men through the valley of the Adige and was defeated at Roveredo, and Wurmser, who had, meanwhile, advanced with an army of twenty-six thousand men through the valley of the Brenta, met with a similar fate at Ba.s.sano. He, nevertheless, escaped the pursuit of the victorious French by making a circuit, and threw himself by a forced march into Mantua, where he was, however, unable to make a lengthy resistance, the city being over-populated and provisions scarce. A fresh army of twenty-eight thousand men, under Alvinzi, sent to his relief[1] through the valley of the Brenta, was attacked in a strong position at Arcole, on the river Alpon. Two dams protected the bank and a narrow bridge, which was, on the 15th of November, vainly stormed by the French, although General Augereau and Bonaparte, with the colors in his hand, led the attack. On the following day, Alvinzi foolishly crossed the bridge and took up an exposed position, in which he was beaten, and, on the third day, he retreated. Davidowich, meanwhile, again advanced from the Tyrol and gained an advantage at Rivoli, but was also forced to retreat before Bonaparte. Wurmser, when too late, made a sally, which was, consequently, useless. The campaign was, nevertheless, for the fifth time, renewed. Alvinzi collected reinforcements and again pushed forward into the valley of the Adige, but speedily lost courage and suffered a fearful defeat, in which twenty thousand of his men were taken prisoners, on the 14th and 15th of January, A.D. 1797, at Rivoli. Provera, on whom he had relied for a.s.sistance from Padua, was cut off and taken prisoner with his entire corps. Wurmser capitulated at Mantua with twenty-one thousand men.
The spring of 1797 had scarcely commenced when Bonaparte was already pushing across the Alps toward Vienna. Hoche, at the same time, again attacked the Lower and Moreau the Upper Rhine. Bonaparte, the nearest and most dangerous foe, was opposed by the archduke, whose army, composed of the remains of Alvinzi"s disbanded and discouraged troops, called forth the observation from Bonaparte, "Hitherto I have defeated armies without generals, now I am about to attack a general without an army!" A battle took place at Tarvis, amid the highest mountains, whence it was afterward known as "the battle above the clouds." The archduke, with a handful of Hungarian hussars, valiantly defended the pa.s.s against sixteen thousand French under Ma.s.sena, nor turned to fly until eight only of his men remained. Generals Bayalich and Ocskay, instead of supporting him, had yielded. The archduke again collected five thousand men around him at Glogau and opposed the advance of the immensely superior French force until two hundred and fifty of his men alone remained. The conqueror of Italy rapidly advanced through Styria upon Vienna. Another French corps under Joubert had penetrated into the Tyrol, but had been so vigorously a.s.sailed at Spinges by the brave peasantry[2] as to be forced to retire upon Bonaparte"s main body, with which he came up at Villach, after losing between six and eight thousand men during his retreat through the Pusterthal. The rashness with which Bonaparte, leaving the Alps to his rear and regardless of his distance from France, penetrated into the enemy"s country, had placed him in a position affording every facility for the Austrians, by a bold and vigorous stroke, to cut him off and take him prisoner.
They had garrisoned Trieste and Fiume on the Adriatic and formed an alliance with the republic of Venice, at that time well supplied with men, arms, and gold. A great insurrection of the peasantry, infuriated by the pillage of the French troops, had broken out at Bergamo. The gallant Tyrolese, headed by Count Lehrbach, and the Hungarians, had risen en ma.s.se. The victorious troops of the Archduke Charles were en route from the Rhine, and Mack had armed the Viennese and the inhabitants of the thickly-populated neighborhood of the metropolis.
Bonaparte was lost should the archduke"s plan of operations meet with the approbation of the Viennese cabinet, and, perfectly aware of the fact, he made proposals of peace under pretence of sparing unnecessary bloodshed. The imperial court, stupefied by the late discomfiture in Italy, instead of regarding the proposals of the wily Frenchman as a confession of embarra.s.sment, and of a.s.sailing him with redoubled vigor, acceded to them, and, on the 18th of April, Count Cobenzl, Thugut"s successor, concluded the preliminaries of peace at Leoben, by which the French, besides being liberated from their dangerous position, were recognized as victors. The negotiations of peace were continued at the chateau of Campo Formio, where the Austrians somewhat regained courage, and Count Cobenzl[3] even ventured to refuse some of the articles proposed. Bonaparte, irritated by opposition, dashed a valuable cup, the gift of the Russian empress, violently to the ground, exclaiming, "You wish for war? Well! you shall have it, and your monarchy shall be shattered like that cup." The armistice was not interrupted. Hostilities were even suspended on the Rhine. The archduke had, before quitting that river, gained the _tetes de pont_ of Strasburg (Kehl) and of Huningen, besides completely clearing the right bank of the Rhine of the enemy. The whole of these advantages were again lost on his recall to take the field against Napoleon. The Saxon troops, which had, up to this period, steadily sided with Austria, were recalled by the elector. Swabia, Franconia, and Bavaria were intent upon making peace with France. Baron von Fahnenberg, the imperial envoy at Ratisbon, bitterly reproached the Protestant estates for their evident inclination to follow the example of Prussia by siding with the French and betraying their fatherland to their common foe, but, on applying more particularly for aid to the spiritual princes, who were exposed to the greatest danger, he found them equally lukewarm. Each and all refused to furnish troops or to pay a war tax. The imperial troops were, consequently, compelled to enforce their maintenance, and naturally became the objects of popular hatred.
In this wretched manner was the empire defended! The petty imperial corps on the Rhine were, meanwhile, compelled to retreat before an enemy vastly their superior in number. Wernek, attempting with merely twenty-two thousand men to obstruct the advance of an army of sixty-five thousand French under Hoche, was defeated at Neuwied and deprived of his command.[4] Sztarray, who charged seven times at the head of his men, was also beaten by Moreau at Kehl and Diersheim. At this conjuncture, the armistice of Leoben was published.
A peace, based on the terms proposed at Leoben, was formally concluded at Campo Formio, October 17, 1797. The triumph of the French republic was confirmed, and ancient Europe received a new form. The object for which the sovereigns of France had for centuries vainly striven was won by the monarchless nation; France gained the preponderance in Europe. Italy and the whole of the left bank of the Rhine were abandoned to her arbitrary rule, and this fearful loss, far from acting as a warning to Germany and promoting her unity, merely increased her internal dissensions and offered to the French republic an opportunity for intervention, of which it took advantage for purposes of gain and pillage.
The princ.i.p.al object of the policy of Bonaparte and of the French Directory, at that period, was, by rousing the ancient feelings of enmity between Austria and Prussia, to eternalize the disunion between those two monarchies. Bonaparte, after effectuating the peace by means of terror, loaded Austria with flattery. He flattered her religious feelings by the moderation of his conduct in Italy toward the pope, notwithstanding the disapprobation manifested by the genuine French republicans, and her interests by the offer of Venice in compensation for the loss of the Netherlands, and, making a slight side-movement against that once powerful and still wealthy republic, reduced it at the first blow, nay, by mere threats, to submission; so deeply was the ancient aristocracy here also fallen. The cession of Venice to the emperor was displeasing to the French republicans. They were, however, pacified by the delivery of Lafayette, who had been still detained a prisoner in Austria after the treaty of Basel. Napoleon said in vindication of his policy, "I have merely lent Venice to the emperor, he will not keep her long." He, moreover, gratified Austria by the extension of her western frontier, so long the object of her ambition, by the possession of the archbishopric of Salzburg and of a part of Bavaria with the town of Wa.s.serburg.[5] The sole object of these concessions was provisionally to dispose Austria in favor of France,[6] and to render Prussia"s ancient jealousy of Austria implacable.[7] Hence the secret articles of peace by which France and Austria bound themselves not to grant any compensation to Prussia.
Prussia was on her part, however, resolved not to be the loser, and, in the summer of 1797, took forcible possession of the imperial free town of Nuremberg, notwithstanding her declaration made just three years previously through Count Soden to the Franconian circle, "that the king had never harbored the design of seeking a compensation at the expense of the empire, whose const.i.tution had ever been sacred in his eyes!" and to the empire, "He deemed it beneath his dignity to refute the reports concerning Prussia"s schemes of aggrandizement, oppression, and secularization." Prussia also extended her possessions in Franconia[8] and Westphalia, and Hesse-Ca.s.sel imitated her example by the seizure of a part of Schaumburg-Lippe. The diet energetically remonstrated, but in vain. Pamphlets spoke of the Prussian reunion- chambers opened by Hardenberg in Franconia. An attempt was, however, made to console the circle of Franconia by depicturing the far worse sufferings of that of Swabia under the imperial contributions. The petty Estates of the empire stumbled, under these circ.u.mstances, upon the unfortunate idea "that the intercession of the Russian court should be requested for the maintenance of the integrity of the German empire and for that of her const.i.tution"; the intercession of the Russian court, which had so lately annihilated Poland!
Shortly after this, A.D. 1797, Frederick William II., who had, on his accession to the throne, found seventy-two millions of dollars in the treasury, expired, leaving twenty-eight millions of debts. His son, Frederick William III., placed the Countess Lichtenau under arrest, banished Wollner, and abolished the unpopular monopoly in tobacco, but retained his father"s ministers and continued the alliance, so pregnant with mischief, with France.--This monarch, well-meaning and destined to the severest trials, educated by a peevish valetudinarian and ignorant of affairs, was first taught by bitter experience the utter incapacity of the men at that time at the head of the government, and after, as will be seen, completely reforming the court, the government, and the army, surrounded himself with men, who gloriously delivered Prussia and Germany from all the miseries and avenged all the disgrace, which it is the historian"s sad office to record.
Austria, as Prussia had already done by the treaty of Basel, also sacrificed, by the peace of Campo Formio, the whole of the left bank of the Rhine and abandoned it to France, the loss thereby suffered by the Estates of the empire being indemnified by the secularization of the ecclesiastical property in the interior of Germany and by the prospect of the seizure of the imperial free towns. Mayence was ceded without a blow to France. Holland was forgotten. The English, under pretext of opposing France, destroyed, A.D. 1797, the last Dutch fleet, in the Texel, though not without a heroic and determined resistance on the part of the admirals de Winter and Reintjes, both of whom were severely wounded, and the latter died in captivity in England. Holland was formed into a Batavian, Genoa into a Ligurian, Milan with the Valtelline (from which the Grisons was severed) into a Cisalpine, republic. Intrigues were, moreover, set on foot for the formation of a Roman and Neapolitan republic in Italy and of a Rhenish and Swabian one in Germany, all of which were to be subordinate to the mother republic in France. The proclamation of a still-born Cisrhenish republic (it not having as yet been const.i.tuted when it was swallowed up in the great French republic), in the masterless Lower Rhenish provinces in the territory of Treves, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Cologne, under the influence of the French Jacobins and soldiery, was, however, all that could at first be done openly.
The hauteur with which Bonaparte, backed by his devoted soldiery, had treated the republicans, and the contempt manifested by him toward the citizens, had not failed to rouse the jealous suspicions of the Directory, the envy of the less successful generals, and the hatred of the old friends of liberty, by whom he was already designated as a tyrant. The republican party was still possessed of considerable power, and the majority of the French troops under Moreau, Jourdan, Bernadotte, etc., were still ready to shed their blood in the cause of liberty. Bonaparte, compelled to veil his ambitious projects, judged it more politic, after sowing the seed of discord at Campo Formio, to withdraw a while, in order to await the ripening of the plot and to return to reap the result. He, accordingly, went meantime, A.D. 1798, with a small but well-picked army to Egypt, for the ostensible purpose of opening a route overland to India, the sea-pa.s.sage having been closed against France by the British, but, in reality, for the purpose of awaiting there a turn in continental affairs, and, moreover, by his victories over the Turks in the ancient land of fable to add to the wonder it was ever his object to inspire. On his way thither he seized the island of Malta and compelled Baron Hompesch, the grand-master of the order of the Knights of Malta, to resign his dignity, the fortress being betrayed into his hands by the French knights.