believed that negotiations were certain,
and Thomas Grenville was chosen to attend the congress.

But Bonaparte's diplomatic resources were not exhausted. He declared
that if the continental armistice with Austria was to be prolonged, it
must be supplemented by a naval armistice with Great Britain, and in
September he employed an agent named Otto to negotiate this armistice
and to propose a separate peace between France and England. Bonaparte's
project would have enabled France to revictual Malta and to send
supplies and reinforcements to her army in Egypt, and would thus have
robbed England of the most powerful means of enforcing her demands in
the proposed congress. The king was for rejecting the project
absolutely. The cabinet was divided: Dundas and some others were for
making a separate peace; Pitt and Grenville were determined to maintain
the alliance with Austria, to insist that all negotiations should be for
a general peace, and to refuse to throw away the advantages which
England derived from her naval supremacy, but, as a speedy termination
of the armistice would have been fatal to Austria, they hoped to modify
Bonaparte's demands. Pitt, of course, had his way, and the government,
after sending Bonaparte a counter-project which he refused, finally
rejected his proposal. Bonaparte was enraged and stormed against
England's usurpation of the lordship of the sea. Determined to isolate
her, he pressed the emperor's ministers to negotiate separately. They
foresaw that they might be forced to yield, but so long as they were not
assured of advantageous terms, decided to remain united to England; for
they were unwilling to stand alone, to lose the money of England, or to
risk a possible alliance between England and Prussia.

[Sidenote: _AUSTRIAN POWER CRUSHED._]

While the proposed naval armistice was still in debate, the blockade of
Valetta came to an end. England's supremacy in the Mediterranean
prevented France from relieving the garrison. The only two ships which
remained to France of the fleet defeated in Abukir bay were captured,
one of them by Nelson himself. The blockade was kept up until September
15, when the place was surrendered after a siege of two years, and Malta
passed into the possession of Great Britain. About the same time the
Dutch island of Curacao put itself under the king's protection. Earlier
in the year Goree was surrendered to a British squadron. Elsewhere
British ships were less profitably