e
larger grant. Thugut, the Austrian minister, accepted. Cobenzl, the
Austrian ambassador at St. Petersburg, arranged affairs with Catherine
concerning Bavaria, the French royalists under Conde bribed Pichegru
into a promise of yielding the fortresses of the north to their
occupation, the Austrian army on the Rhine was strengthened. In retort
Jourdan was stationed on the lower and Moreau on the upper Rhine,
each with eighty thousand men, Bonaparte was despatched to Italy, and
Hoche made ready a motley crew of outlaws and Vendeans wherewith to
enter Ireland, join Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen, and thus let
loose the elements of civil war in that unhappy island. Europe at
large expected the brunt of the struggle north of the Alps in central
Germany: the initiated knew better.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Bonaparte on a Great Stage[66].

[Footnote 66: The state of Europe may be studied in the
Correspondence of Mallet du Pan and in the Archives
Woronzoff; in Vivenot: Thugut and Clerfayt; Daudet: Les
Bourbons et la Russie; La Conspiration de Pichegru;
Sorel: L'Europe et la Revolution Francaise; Lecky:
England in the XVIII century; Stanhope's Life of Pitt;
the memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski; also the
diplomatic papers of Thugut, Clerfayt, Hermann, and
Sandoz.]

Bonaparte and the Army of Italy -- The System of Pillage --
The General as a Despot -- The Republican Armies and French
Politics -- Italy as the Focal Point -- Condition of Italy
-- Bonaparte's Sagacity -- His Plan of Action -- His Army
and Generals -- Strength of the Army of Italy -- The
Napoleonic Maxims of Warfare -- Advance of Military Science
-- Bonaparte's Achievements -- His Financial Policy --
Effects of His Success.

[Sidenote: 1796.]

The struggle which was imminent was for nothing less than a new lease
of national life for France. It dawned on many minds that in such a
combat changes of a revolutionary nature--as regarded not merely the
provisioning and management of armies, as regarded not merely the
grand strategy to be adopted and carried out by France, but as
regarded the very structure and relations of other European
nations--would be justifiable. But to be justifiable they must be
adequate; and to be adequate they must be unexpected and thorough.
What should they be? The OEdi