ty, but
quite as fine as any in the human mind. Mantua was yet to be captured;
Rome and the Pope were to be handled so as to render the highest
service to himself, to France, and to Europe. In both these labors he
meant to be strengthened and yet unhampered. The habit of compliance
was now strong upon the Directory, and they continued to yield as
before.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua.

The Diplomatic Feint of Great Britain -- Clarke and the
Directory -- Catherine the Great and Paul I -- Austria's
Strategic Plan -- Renewal of Hostilities -- The Austrians at
Rivoli and Nogara -- Bonaparte's Night March to Rivoli --
Monte Baldo and the Berner Klause -- The Battle of Rivoli --
The Battle of La Favorita -- Feats of the French Army --
Bonaparte's Achievement -- The Fall of Mantua.

[Sidenote: 1797.]

The fifth division of the Italian campaign was the fourth attempt of
Austria to retrieve her position in Italy, a position on which her
rulers still believed that all her destinies hung. Her energy was now
the wilfulness of despair. Events in Europe were shaping themselves
without regard to her advantage. The momentary humiliation of France
in Jourdan's defeat, the deplorable condition of British finances as
shown by the fall of the three per cents to fifty-three, the unsettled
and dangerous state of Ireland, with the menace of Hoche's invasion
impending, these circumstances created in London a feeling that
perhaps the time was propitious for negotiating with France, where too
there was considerable agitation for peace. Accordingly, in the autumn
of 1796, Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris under rigid cautionary
instructions. The envoy was cold and haughty; Delacroix, the French
minister, was conceited and shallow. It soon appeared that what the
agent had to offer was either so indefinite as to be meaningless, or
so favorable to Great Britain as to be ridiculous in principle. The
negotiations were merely diplomatic fencing. To the Englishman the
public law of Europe was still that of the peace of Utrecht,
especially as to the Netherlands; to the Frenchman this was
preposterous since the Low Countries were already in France by
enactment and the rule of natural boundaries. About the middle of
November, Malmesbury was informed that he must either speak to the
point or leave. Of course the point was Belgium; if France would
abandon her claim to Antwerp she coul