of diplomacy and would not
yield. In his designs upon Corsica he had little to fear from European
opposition. He knew how hampered England was by the strength of
parliamentary opposition, and the unrest of her American colonies. The
Sardinian monarchy was still weak, and quailed under the jealous eyes
of her strong enemies. Austria could not act without breaking the
league so essential to her welfare, while the Bourbon courts of Spain
and Naples would regard the family aggrandizement with complacency.
Moreover, something must be done to save the prestige of France: her
American colonial empire was lost; Catherine's brilliant policy, and
the subsequent victories of Russia in the Orient, were threatening
what remained of French influence in that quarter. Here was a
propitious moment to emulate once more the English: to seize a station
on the Indian highroad as valuable as Gibraltar or Port Mahon, and to
raise high hopes of again recovering, if not the colonial supremacy
among nations, at least that equality which the Seven Years' War had
destroyed. Without loss of time, therefore, the negotiations were
ended, and Buttafuoco was dismissed. On May fifteenth, 1768, the price
to be paid having been fixed, a definitive treaty with Genoa was
signed whereby she yielded the exercise of sovereignty to France, and
Corsica passed finally from her hands. Paoli appealed to the great
powers against this arbitrary transfer, but in vain.

The campaign of subjugation opened at once, Buttafuoco, with a few
other Corsicans, taking service against his kinsfolk. The soldiers of
the Royal Corsican regiment, which was in the French service, and
which had been formed under his father's influence, flatly refused to
fight their brethren. The French troops already in the island were at
once reinforced, but during the first year of the final conflict the
advantage was all with the patriots; indeed, there was one substantial
victory on October seventh, 1768, that of Borgo, which caused dismay
at Versailles. Once more Paoli hoped for intervention, especially that
of England, whose liberal feeling would coincide with his interest in
keeping Corsica from France. Money and arms were sent from Great
Britain, but that was all. This conduct of the British ministry was
afterward recalled by France as a precedent for rendering aid to the
Americans in their uprising against England.

The following spring an army of no less than twenty thousand men was
despa