was at St. Petersburg for his betrothal with the Empress's
granddaughter Alexandra. He required as a matter of course that she
should adopt his faith. This was contemptuously refused and the
preparations for the festival went forward to completion as if nothing
had occurred. At the appointed hour for the ceremonial, the groom did
not and would not appear. Consternation gave way to a sense of
outrage, but the "Kinglet," as the great courtiers styled him, stood
firm. The Empress was beside herself, her health gave way, and she
died in less than two months, on November seventeenth. The dangerous
imbecile, her son Paul I, reigned in her stead. Weird figure that he
was, he at least renounced his mother's policy of conquest and
countermanded her orders to Suvoroff, recalling him and his army.
Austria was at bay, but she was undaunted.

Once more Alvinczy, despairing of success, but obedient to his orders,
made ready to move down the Adige from Trent. Great zeal had been
shown in Austria. The Vienna volunteer battalions abandoned the work
of home protection for which they had enlisted, and, with a banner
embroidered by the Empress's own hand, joined the active forces. The
Tyrolese, in defiance of the atrocious proclamation in which
Bonaparte, claiming to be their conqueror, had threatened death to any
one taking up arms against France, flocked again to the support of
their Emperor. By a recurrence to the old fatal plan, Alvinczy was to
attack the main French army; his colleague Provera was to follow the
Brenta into the lower reaches of the Adige, where he could effect a
crossing, and relieve Mantua. He was likewise to deceive the enemy by
making a parade of greater strength than he really had, and thus draw
away Bonaparte's main army toward Legnago on the lower Adige. A
messenger was despatched to Wurmser with letters over the Emperor's
own signature, ordering him, if Provera should fail, to desert Mantua,
retreat into the Romagna, and under his own command unite the garrison
and the papal troops. This order never reached its destination, for
its bearer was intercepted, and was compelled by the use of an emetic
to render up the despatches which he had swallowed.

On January seventh, 1797, Bonaparte gave orders to strengthen the
communications along his line, massing two thousand men at Bologna in
order to repress certain hostile demonstrations lately made in behalf
of the Pope. On the following day an Austrian division which