vibrating with the word _Liberty_. If he would capture
France--which was what he intended to do--he must move along the line
of political freedom. The note to be struck was the liberation of the
oppressed. Where would he find chains more galling, more unnatural,
than in Italy, held by the iron hand of Austria? And was not Austria
the leader of the coalition against France?

Without money or supplies, and with an unclothed army, he obeyed the
inspiration, audaciously planning to make the invaded country pay the
expenses of the war waged against it. Pointing to the Italian cities,
he said to his soldiers: "There is your reward. It is rich and ample,
but you must conquer it!" Like Caesar, he knew how, in words brief and
concise, to address his followers, and to inspire enthusiasm as few
have ever done before or since. He also knew how to confound the enemy
with new and unexpected methods which made unavailing all which
military science and experience had taught them.

With the suddenness of a tornado he swept down upon the plains of
Lombardy. The battles of _Lodi_, _Arcola_, _Rivoli_, were won, and in
ten months Napoleon was master of Italy. By the treaty of Campo
Formio, October 17, 1797, northern Italy was divided into four
republics, with their capitals respectively at Milan, Genoa, Bologna,
and Rome. And in return for her acquiescence in this redistribution of
her Italian territory, Austria received Venice. After fourteen
centuries of independence, Venetia, the queen of the Adriatic, was in
chains!

[Illustration: Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, January 14, 1797.
From the painting by Philippoteaux.]

Not satisfied with this, Napoleon intended that Paris should wear the
jewels which had adorned the fair Italian cities. The people whose
chains he had come to break were at once required to surrender money,
jewels, plate, horses, equipments, besides their choicest art
collections and rarest manuscripts. In a private letter to a member of
the Directory he wrote: "I shall send you twenty pictures by some of
the first masters, including Correggio and Michael Angelo." A later
letter said: "Join all these to what will be sent from Rome, and we
shall have all that is beautiful in Italy, except a small number of
objects in Turin and Naples." Pius VI., without a protest, surrendered
his millions of francs, and ancient bronzes, costly pictures, and
priceless manuscripts.

Austria had lost fourteen battles, a