this army to reinforce the army of Italy; but when Bonaparte in
April penetrated into Styria and Carinthia, he was ordered to Vienna as a
second in command of the levy 'en masse'.

Real military characters had already formed their opinion of this
officer, and saw a presumptuous charlatan where others had admired an
able warrior. His own conduct soon convinced them that they neither had
been rash nor mistaken. The King of Naples demanding, in 1798, from his
son-in-law, the Emperor of Germany, a general to organize and head his
troops, Baron von Mack was presented to him. After war had been declared
against France he obtained some success in partial engagements, but was
defeated in a general battle by an enemy inferior in number. In the
Kingdom of Naples, as well as in the Empire of Germany, the fury of
negotiation seized him when he should have fought, and when he should
have remembered that no compacts can ever be entered into with political
and military earthquakes, more than with physical ones. This imprudence,
particularly as he was a foreigner, excited suspicion among his troops,
whom, instead of leading to battle, he deserted, under the pretence that
his life was in danger, and surrendered himself and his staff to our
commander, Championnet.

A general who is too fond of his life ought never to enter a camp, much
less to command armies; and a military chief who does not consider the
happiness and honour of the State as his first passion and his first
duty, and prefers existence to glory, deserves to be shot as a traitor,
or drummed out of the army as a dastardly coward. Without mentioning the
numerous military faults committed by General von Mack during this
campaign, it is impossible to deny that, with respect to his own troops,
he conducted himself in the most pusillanimous manner. It has often been
repeated that martial valour does not always combine with it that courage
and that necessary presence of mind which knows how to direct or repress
multitudes, how to command obedience and obtain popularity; but when a
man is entrusted with the safety of an Empire, and assumes such a
brilliant situation, he must be weak-minded and despicable indeed, if he
does not show himself worthy of it by endeavouring to succeed, or perish
in the attempt. The French emigrant, General Dumas, evinced what might
have been done, even with the dispirited Neapolitan troops, whom he
neither deserted, nor with whom he offered to capitulat