nglish fleet had
been more or less unfortunate since the spring of 1796: Bonaparte's
victories, being supplemented by the activity of the French cruisers,
had made it difficult for it to remain in the Mediterranean; Corsica
was abandoned in September; and in October the squadron of Admiral
Mann was literally chased into the Atlantic by the Spaniards.
Ferdinand, therefore, could expect no help from the British. As to the
papal mercenaries, they had long been the laughing-stock of Europe.
They did not now belie their character. Not a single serious
engagement was fought; at Ancona and Loretto twelve hundred prisoners,
with a treasure valued at seven million francs, were taken without a
blow; and on February nineteenth Bonaparte dictated the terms of peace
at Tolentino.

The terms were not such as either the Pope or the Directory expected.
Far from it. To be sure, there was, over and above the first ransom, a
new money indemnity of three million dollars, making, when added to
what had been exacted in the previous summer, a total of more than
seven. Further stipulations were the surrender of the legations of
Bologna and Ferrara, together with the Romagna; consent to the
incorporation into France of Avignon and the Venaissin, the two papal
possessions in the Rhone valley which had already been annexed; and
the temporary delivery of Ancona as a pledge for the fulfilment of
these engagements; further still, the dispersion of the papal army,
with satisfaction for the killing in a street row of Basseville, the
French plenipotentiary. This, however, was far short of the
annihilation of the papacy as a temporal power. More than that, the
vital question of ecclesiastical authority was not mentioned except to
guarantee it in the surrendered legations. To the Directory Bonaparte
explained that with such mutilations the Roman edifice would fall of
its own weight; and yet he gave his powerful protection to the French
priests who had refused the oaths to the civil constitution required
by the republic, and who, having renounced their allegiance, had found
an asylum in the Papal States. This latter step was taken in the role
of humanitarian. In reality, this first open and radical departure
from the policy of the Directory assured to Bonaparte the most
unbounded personal popularity with faithful Roman Catholics
everywhere, and was a step preliminary to his further alliance with
the papacy. The unthinking masses began to compare the capt