ition of whatever treasures it
still retained; the most valuable articles had already been packed up
and sent to Rome for safety.[16]--Victor then turned westwards from
Ancona, with the design to unite with another French column which had
advanced into the papal dominion by Perugia.

The panic which the French advance had by this time spread was such,
that the Pope had no hope but in submission. The peasants lately
transformed into soldiers abandoned everywhere their arms, and fled in
straggling groups to their native villages. The alarm in Rome itself
recalled the days of Alaric.

The conduct of Buonaparte at this critical moment was worthy of that
good sense which formed the original foundation of his successes, and of
which the madness of pampered ambition could alone deprive him
afterwards. He well knew that, of all the inhabitants of the Roman
territories, the class who contemplated his approach with the deepest
terror were the unfortunate French priests, whom the Revolution had made
exiles from their native soil. One of these unhappy gentlemen came forth
in his despair, and surrendering himself at the French headquarters,
said he knew his fate was sealed, and that they might as well lead him
at once to the gallows. Buonaparte dismissed this person with courtesy,
and issued a proclamation that none of the class should be molested; on
the contrary, allotting to each of them the means of existence in
monasteries, wherever his arms were or should be predominant.

This conduct, taken together with other circumstances of recent
occurrence, was well calculated to nourish in the breast of the Pope the
hope that the victorious general of France had, by this time, discarded
the ferocious hostility of the revolutionary government against the
church of which he was head. He hastened, however, to open a
negotiation, and Napoleon received his envoy not merely with civility,
but with professions of the profoundest personal reverence for the holy
father. The Treaty of Tollentino (Feb. 12, 1797) followed. By this the
Pope conceded formally (for the first time), his ancient territory of
Avignon. He resigned the legations of Ferrara, Bologna, and Romagna, and
the port of Ancona; agreed to pay about a million and a half sterling,
and to execute to the utmost the provisions of Bologna with respect to
works of art. On these terms Pius was to remain nominal master of some
shreds of the patrimony of St. Peter.

The French Directory h