an to those "intriguing and enterprising islanders," to
hold them at bay in their dull northern seas, to exhaust them by
ruinous preparations against expected descents on their southern
coasts, on Ireland, and even on Scotland, while Bonaparte's eastern
conquests dried up the sources of their wealth in the Orient: "Let us
concentrate all our activity on our navy and destroy England. That
done, Europe is at our feet."[95]

But he encountered opposition from the Directory. They still clung to
their plan of revolutionizing Italy; and only by playing on their fear
of the army could he bring these civilians to assent to the
expatriation of 35,000 troops and their best generals. On La
Reveilliere-Lepeaux the young commander worked with a skill that
veiled the choicest irony. This Director was the high-priest of a
newly-invented cult, termed _Theo-philanthropie_, into the dull embers
of which he was still earnestly blowing. To this would-be prophet
Bonaparte now suggested that the eastern conquests would furnish a
splendid field for the spread of the new faith; and La Reveilliere was
forthwith converted from his scheme of revolutionizing Europe to the
grander sphere of moral proselytism opened out to him in the East by
the very chief who, on landing in Egypt, forthwith professed the
Moslem creed.

After gaining the doubtful assent of the Directory, Bonaparte had to
face urgent financial difficulties. The dearth of money was, however,
met by two opportune interventions. The first of these was in the
affairs of Rome. The disorders of the preceding year in that city had
culminated at Christmas in a riot in which General Duphot had been
assassinated; this outrage furnished the pretext desired by the
Directory for revolutionizing Central Italy. Berthier was at once
ordered to lead French troops against the Eternal City. He entered
without resistance (February 15th, 1798), declared the civil authority
of the Pope at an end, and proclaimed the _restoration_ of the Roman
Republic. The practical side of the liberating policy was soon
revealed. A second time the treasures of Rome, both artistic and
financial, were rifled; and, as Lucien Bonaparte caustically remarked
in his "Memoirs," the chief duty of the newly-appointed consuls and
quaestors was to superintend the packing up of pictures and statues
designed for Paris. Berthier not only laid the basis of a large
private fortune, but showed his sense of the object of the expedition
b