ve, partly to overawe the newly annexed department of which Nice
was the capital.

Genoa now stood in a peculiar relation to France. Her oligarchy,
though called a republic, was in spirit the antipodes of French
democracy. Her trade was essential to France, but English influence
predominated in her councils and English force worked its will in her
domains. In October, 1793, a French supply-ship had been seized by an
English squadron in the very harbor. Soon afterward, by way of
rejoinder to this act of violence, the French minister at Genoa was
officially informed from Paris that as it appeared no longer possible
for a French army to reach Lombardy by the direct route through the
Apennines, it might be necessary to advance along the coast through
Genoese territory. This announcement was no threat, but serious
earnest; the plan had been carefully considered and was before long to
be put into execution. It was merely as a feint that in April, 1794,
hostilities were formally opened against Sardinia and Austria. Massena
seized Ventimiglia on the sixth. Advancing by Oneglia and Ormea, in
the valley of the Stura, he turned the position of the allied
Austrians and Sardinians, thus compelling them to evacuate their
strongholds one by one, until on May seventh the pass of Tenda,
leading direct into Lombardy, was abandoned by them.

The result of this movement was to infuse new enthusiasm into the
army, while at the same time it set free, for offensive warfare, large
numbers of the garrison troops in places now no longer in danger.
Massena wrote in terms of exultation of the devotion and endurance
which his troops had shown in the sacred name of liberty. "They know
how to conquer and never complain. Marching barefoot, and often
without rations, they abuse no one, but sing the loved notes of '_Ca
ira_'--'T will go, 't will go! We'll make the creatures that surround
the despot at Turin dance the Carmagnole!" Victor Amadeus, King of
Sardinia, was an excellent specimen of the benevolent despot; it was
he whom they meant. Augustin Robespierre wrote to his brother
Maximilien, in Paris, that they had found the country before them
deserted: forty thousand souls had fled from the single valley of
Oneglia, having been terrified by the accounts of French savagery to
women and children, and of their impiety in devastating the churches
and religious establishments.

Whether the phenomenal success of this short campaign, which lasted
but a