thereby purchase the continued possession of the more conveniently situated territories of Belgium and the Luxembourg.  The general, therefore, temporised; content, in the meantime, with draining the exchequers of the governments, and cajoling from day to day the population.  The Directory were with difficulty persuaded to let him follow his own course; but he now despised their remonstrances, and they had been taught effectually to dread his strength.

Napoleon, it is clear enough, had no intention to grant these Italian governments anything but a respite; nor is it to be doubted that their disposition to take part with Austria remained as it had been before they entered into these treaties with France.  That the purpose of deceit was mutual, affords, however, no plea of justification—­least of all to the stronger party.  “It will be well,” says Sir Walter Scott, “with the world, when falsehood and finesse are as thoroughly exploded in international communication as they are among individuals in civilised countries.”

[Footnote 9:  The same who became afterwards Louis XVIII. of France.]

CHAPTER VI

Wurmser supersedes Beaulieu—­Jourdan and Moreau march into Germany, and are forced to retreat again—­The Austrians advance from the Tyrol—­Battle of Lonato—­Escape of Napoleon—­Battle near Castiglione—­Wurmser retreats on Trent, and is recruited—­Battle of Roveredo—­Battle of Primolano—­Battle of Bassano—­Battle of St. George—­Wurmser shut up in Mantua.

The general was now recalled to the war.  The cabinet of Vienna, apt to be slow, but sure to be persevering, had at last resolved upon sending efficient aid to the Italian frontier.  Beulieu had been too often unfortunate to be trusted longer:  Wurmser, who enjoyed a reputation of the highest class, was sent to replace him:  300,000 men were drafted from the armies on the Rhine to accompany the new general; and he carried orders to strengthen himself further, on his march, by whatever recruits he could raise among the warlike and loyal population of the Tyrol.

The consequences of thus weakening the Austrian force on the Rhine were, for the moment, on that scene of the contest, inauspicious.  The French, in two separate bodies, forced the passage of the Rhine—­under Jourdan and Moreau; before whom the imperial generals, Wartensleben and the Archduke Charles, were compelled to retire.  But the skill of the Archduke ere long enabled him to effect a junction with the columns of Wartensleben; and thus to fall upon Jourdan with a great superiority of numbers, and give him a signal defeat.  The loss of the French in the field was great, and the bitter hostility of the German peasantry made their retreat a bloody one.  Moreau, on the other hand, learning how Jourdan was discomfited, found himself compelled to give up the plan of pursuing his march further into Germany, and executed that famous