. His sincerity was
no greater, as the event showed, concerning the very existence of
Venice herself. The terms he had made were considered at Vienna most
favorable, and there was great rejoicing in that capital. But it was
significant that in the routine negotiations the old-school
diplomatists had been sadly shocked by the behavior of their military
antagonist, who, though a mere tyro in their art, was very hard to
deal with. At the outset, for instance, they had proposed to
incorporate, as the first article in the preliminaries, that for which
the Directory had long been negotiating with Austria, a recognition of
the French republic. "Strike that out," said Bonaparte. "The Republic
is like the sun on the horizon--all the worse for him who will not see
it." This was but a foretaste of ruder dealings which followed, and of
still more violent breaches with tradition in the long negotiations
which were to ensue over the definitive treaty.

The very day on which the signatures were affixed at Leoben, the
Austrian arms were humbled by Hoche on the Rhine. Moreau had not been
able to move for lack of a paltry sum which he was begging for, but
could not obtain, from the Directory. Hoche, chafing at similar
delays, and anxious to atone for Jourdan's failure of the previous
year, finally set forth, and, crossing at Neuwied, advanced to
Heddersdorf, where he attacked the Austrians, who had been weakened to
strengthen the Archduke Charles. They were routed with a loss of six
thousand prisoners. Another considerable force was nearly surrounded
when a sudden stop was put to Hoche's career by the arrival of a
courier from Leoben. Though, soon after, the ministry of war was
offered to him, he declined. It was apparently prescience of the fact
that the greatest laurels were still to be won which led him to
refuse, and return to his headquarters at Wetzlar. There a mysterious
malady, still attributed by many to poison, ended his brief and
glorious career on September eighteenth, 1797. His laurels were such
as adorn only a character full of promise, serene and generous alike
in success and defeat. In the Black Forest, Desaix, having crossed the
Rhine with Moreau's army below Strasburg, was likewise driving the
Austrians before him. He too was similarly checked, and these
brilliant achievements came all too late. No advantage was gained by
them in the terms of peace, and the glory of humiliating Austria
remained to Bonaparte. Desaix was