an ever. Prussia was consolidating herself into a
great power likely in the end to destroy Austrian influence in the
Germanic Diet, which controlled the affairs of the empire. Both in
Italy and in Germany her rival's fortunes were in the last degree of
jeopardy. Thugut might well exclaim that Catherine's death was the
climax of Austria's misfortunes.

The hour was dark indeed for Austria; and in the crisis Thugut, the
able and courageous minister of the Emperor, made up his mind at last
to throw, not some or the most, but all his master's military strength
into Italy. The youthful Archduke Charles, who had won great glory as
the conqueror of Jourdan, was accordingly summoned from Germany with
the strength of his army to break through the Tyrol, and prevent the
French from taking the now open road to Vienna. This brother of the
Emperor, though but twenty-five years old, was in his day second only
to Bonaparte as a general. The splendid persistence with which Austria
raised one great army after another to oppose France was worthy of her
traditions. Even when these armies were commanded by veterans of the
old school, they were terrible: it seemed to the cabinet at Vienna
that if Charles were left to lead them in accordance with his own
designs they would surely be victorious. Had he and his Army of the
Rhine been in Italy from the outset, they thought, the result might
have been different. Perhaps they were right; but his tardy arrival at
the eleventh hour was destined to avail nothing. The Aulic Council
ordered him into Friuli, a district of the Italian Alps on the borders
of Venice, where another army--the sixth within a year--was to
assemble for the protection of the Austrian frontier and await the
arrival of the veterans from Germany. This force, unlike the other
five, was composed of heterogeneous elements, and, until further
strengthened, inferior in numbers to the French, who had finally been
reinforced by fifteen thousand men, under Bernadotte, from the Army of
the Sambre and Meuse.

When Bonaparte started from Mantua for the Alps, his position was the
strongest he had so far secured. The Directory had until then shown
their uneasy jealousy of him by refusing the reinforcements which he
was constantly demanding. It had become evident that the approaching
elections would result in destroying their ascendancy in the Five
Hundred, and that more than ever they must depend for support on the
army. Accordingly they had