er one. The duke, therefore, was graciously allowed to
purchase an armistice by an enormous but yet possible contribution of
two million francs in money, together with provisions and horses in
quantity. The famous St. Jerome of Correggio was among the twenty
paintings seized in Modena. The archduke repeatedly offered to ransom
it for one million francs, the amount at which its value was
estimated, but his request was not granted. Next came Bologna and its
surrounding territory. Such had been the tyranny of ecclesiastical
control that the subjects of the Pope in that most ancient and famous
seat of learning welcomed the French with unfeigned joy; and the
fairest portion of the Papal States passed by its own desire from
under the old yoke. The successor of St. Peter was glad to ransom his
capital by a payment nominally of twenty-one million francs. In
reality he had to surrender far more; for his galleries, like those
of Modena, were stripped of their gems, while the funds seized in
government offices, and levied in irregular ways, raised the total
value forwarded to Paris to nearly double the nominal contribution.
All this, Bonaparte explained, was but a beginning, the idleness of
summer heats. "This armistice," he wrote to Paris on June
twenty-first, 1796, "being concluded with the dog-star rather than
with the papal army, my opinion is that you should be in no haste to
make peace, so that in September, if all goes well in Germany and
northern Italy, we can take possession of Rome."

[Illustration: Josephine, Empress of the French. From the painting by
Francois Gerard. In the Museum of Versailles.]

In fact, this ingenious man was really practising moderation, as both
he and the terrified Italians, considering their relative situations,
understood it. Whatever had been the original arrangement with the
directors, there was nothing they did not now expect and demand from
Italy; they wrote requiring, in addition to all that had hitherto been
mentioned, plunder of every kind from Leghorn; masts, cordage, and
ship supplies from Genoa; horses, provisions, and forage from Milan;
and contributions of jewels and precious stones from the reigning
princes. As for the papal power, the French radicals would gladly have
destroyed it. They had not forgotten that Basseville, a diplomatic
agent of the republic, had been killed in the streets of Rome, and
that no reparation had been made either by the punishment of the
assassin or oth