ch for double-dealing transcended the conceptions of men even in
that age of duplicity and selfishness.

Not far from Milan, on a gentle rise, stands the famous villa, or
country-seat, of Montebello. Its windows command a scene of rare
beauty: on one side, in the distance, the mighty Alps, with their
peaks of never-melting ice and snow; on the other three, the almost
voluptuous beauty of the fertile plains; while in the near foreground
lies the great capital of Lombardy, with its splendid industries, its
stores of art, and its crowded spires hoary with antiquity. Within
easy reach are the exquisite scenes of an enchanted region--that of
the Italian lakes. To this lordly residence Bonaparte withdrew. His
summer's task was to be the pacification of Europe, and the
consolidation of his own power in Italy, in France, and northward
beyond the Alps. The two objects went hand in hand. From Austria, from
Rome, from Naples, from Turin, from Parma, from Switzerland, and even
from the minor German principalities whose fate hung on the
rearrangement of German lands to be made by the Diet of the Empire,
agents of every kind, both military and diplomatic, both secret and
accredited, flocked to the seat of power. Expresses came and went in
all directions, while humble suitors vied with one another in homage
to the risen sun.

The uses of rigid etiquette were well understood by Bonaparte. He
appreciated the dazzling power of ceremony, the fascination of
condescension, and the influence of woman in the conduct of affairs.
All such influences he lavished with a profusion which could have been
conceived only by an Oriental imagination. As if to overpower the
senses by an impressive contrast, and symbolize the triumph of that
dominant Third Estate of which he claimed to be the champion against
aristocrats, princes, kings, and emperors, the simplicity of the
Revolution was personified and emphasized in his own person. His
ostentatious frugality, his disdain for dress, his contempt for
personal wealth and its outward signs, were all heightened by the
setting which inclosed them, as a frame of brilliants often heightens
the character in the portrait of a homely face.

Meantime England, grimly determined to save herself and the Europe
essential to her well-being, was not a passive spectator of events in
Italy. To understand the political situation certain facts must be
reiterated in orderly connection. At the close of 1796, Pitt's
administ