iers were young men, inured to danger and toil; and among his
officers were Berthier, Massena, Marmont, Augereau, Serrurier,
Joubert, Lannes, and Murat. They were not then all generals, but they
became afterwards marshals of France.

[Sidenote: The Italian Campaign.]

The campaign of 1796, in Italy, was successful beyond precedent in the
history of war; and the battles of Montenotte, Millesimo, and Dego,
the passage of the bridge of Lodi, the siege of Mantua, and the
victories at Castiglione, Caldiero, Arcola, Rivoli, and Mantua,
extended the fame of Bonaparte throughout the world. The Austrian
armies were every where defeated, and Italy was subjected to the rule
of the French. "With the French invasion commenced tyranny under the
name of liberty, rapine under the name of generosity, the stripping of
churches, the robbing of hospitals, the levelling of the palaces of
the great, and the destruction of the cottages of the poor; all that
military license has of most terrible, all that despotic authority has
of most oppressive."

While Bonaparte was subduing Italy, the French under Moreau were
contending, on the Rhine, with the Austrians under the Archduke
Charles. Several great battles were fought, and masterly retreats were
made, but without decisive results.

It is surprising that England, France, and the other contending
powers, were able at this time to commence the contest, much more so
to continue it for more than twenty years. The French Directory, on
its accession to power, found the finances in a state of inextricable
confusion. Assignats had fallen to almost nothing, and taxes were
collected with such difficulty, that there were arrears to the amount
of fifteen hundred millions of francs. The armies were destitute and
ill paid, the artillery without horses, and the infantry depressed by
suffering and defeat. In England, the government of Pitt was violently
assailed for carrying on a war against a country which sought simply
to revolutionize her own institutions, and which all the armies of
Europe had thus far failed to subdue. Mr. Fox, and others in the
opposition, urged the folly of continuing a contest which had already
added one hundred millions of pounds to the national debt, and at a
time when French armies were preparing to invade Italy; but Pitt
argued that the French must be nearly exhausted by their great
exertions, and would soon be unable to continue the warfare. The
nation, generally, took this l