now desperate and at bay his operations fell
into four divisions, each resulting in an advance--the first, of nine
days, against Wurmser and Quasdanowich; the second, of sixteen days,
against Wurmser; the third, of twelve days, against Alvinczy; and the
fourth, of thirty days, until he captured Mantua and opened the
mountain passes to his army. Within fifteen days after beginning
hostilities against the Pope, he forced him to sign the treaty of
Tolentino; and within thirty-six days of their setting foot on the
road from Mantua to Vienna, the French were at Leoben, distant only
ninety miles from the Austrian capital, and dictating terms to the
Empire. In the year between March twenty-seventh, 1796, and April
seventh, 1797, Bonaparte humbled the most haughty dynasty in Europe,
toppled the central European state system, and initiated the process
which has given a predominance apparently final to Prussia, then
considered but as a parvenu.

It is impossible to estimate the enormous sums of money which he
exacted for the conduct of a war that he chose to say was carried on
to emancipate Italy. The soldiers of his army were well clad, well
fed, and well equipped from the day of their entry into Milan; the
arrears of their pay were not only settled, but they were given
license to prey on the country until a point was reached which seemed
to jeopardize success, when common pillage was promptly stopped by the
severest examples. The treasury of the Directory was not filled as
were those of the conquering officers, but it was no longer empty. In
short, France reached the apex of her revolutionary greatness; and as
she was now the foremost power on the Continent, the shaky monarchies
in neighboring lands were forced to consider again questions which in
1795 they had hoped were settled. As Bonaparte foresaw, the destinies
of Europe had indeed hung on the fate of Italy.

Europe had grown accustomed to military surprises in the few preceding
years. The armies of the French republic, fired by devotion to their
principles and their nation, had accomplished marvels. But nothing in
the least foreshadowing this had been wrought even by them. Then, as
now, curiosity was inflamed, and the most careful study was expended
in analyzing the process by which such miracles had been performed.
The investigators and their readers were so overpowered by the
spectacle and its results that they were prevented by a sort of
awe-stricken credulity from