or-general by the Polish Diet. In 1791 he joined with
enthusiasm in the formation of the Constitution which was proclaimed on
May 5th of that year.--ED.

THE RISE OF NAPOLEON

THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY

A.D. 1796

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Napoleon, regarded by many as the most remarkable man of
modern times, took control of the forces of the French
Revolution and directed them toward purposes little dreamed
of by the earlier leaders of the uprising. The excesses of
the Reign of Terror had caused such a reaction that even in
Paris men began to talk of restoring the monarchy, and in
1795 a new tumult began, due in part to the efforts of the
Royalists. Once more a mob marched against the hall of the
National Convention; and the general of the national troops
in the city, uncertain what to do, gladly left affairs in
the hands of a subordinate, one of the few remaining French
officers who had received a regular military training under
the old _regime_. This lesser general, a young man of
twenty-six, was Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already won
repute as a military engineer. Bonaparte met the mob as no
Paris mob had yet been met. He had a row of cannon loaded
with grape-shot, and these were fired to kill. Many of the
rabble fell, the rest fled in dismay. "That whiff of
grape-shot," says Carlyle, "ended the Revolution."

Bonaparte, made much of by the Convention he had defended,
was appointed commander of the army fighting on the Italian
frontier. Ever since Valmy, Revolutionary France had been
compelled to defend herself against civil war within and the
attacks of the foreign monarchs, friends and relatives of
Louis XVI, from without. The tremendous energy of her
aroused people had made her equal to the task. She had
conquered Holland and the German lands west of the Rhine,
she had forced both Prussia and Spain to sue for peace. But
England from her island throne, and Austria, the most
powerful of France's continental foes, the most closely
related to the murdered Queen Marie Antoinette, were still
threatening the French borders. The Austrians held most of
Italy and it was against them that Napoleon was despatched.
He was the first to carry the war away from the French
border line and into the heart of the countries of her foes.

France