y
1798, she sought to incite him to take the offensive. Her close
friendship with Lady Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador at Naples,
also enabled her to gain complete ascendancy over Nelson, who, with his
usual hatred of "the French villains," counselled open and immediate
war. For abetting this design, Sir William Hamilton received a sharp
rebuke from Downing Street. Francis II and Thugut were even more
annoyed. They repulsed the Neapolitan emissary who begged for help, and
roundly accused the Pitt Ministry of inciting Naples to war in order to
drag in Austria. Their anger was not appeased by the successes of the
Neapolitans near Rome, which the French evacuated on 29th November. The
counter-stroke soon fell. The French, rallying in force, pushed the
Bourbon columns southwards; and the early days of 1799 witnessed in
swift succession the surrender of Naples, the flight of its Court and
the Hamiltons to Palermo on Nelson's fleet, the foundation of the
Parthenopean Republic, and the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius in sign of divine benediction on the new _regime_.[510]

Nevertheless, Nelson and the royal fugitives had set in motion forces
which elsewhere made for triumph. Paul, re-assured as to England's
desire to re-establish the Order of St. John at Malta, entered into an
alliance with her on 29th December 1798, whereby the two Powers agreed
to reduce France within her old boundaries, Russia furnishing to England
an army of 45,000 men, mainly with a view to the support of Prussia, on
condition of receiving L75,000 per month and three months' subsidies in
advance. She also promised to send 3,000 men to help in the siege of the
French garrison at Malta and others to assist England in the defence of
the Neapolitan lands. Austria, resentful towards Pitt and fearful of
Prussia's designs, still held back, though the events in Italy,
especially the dethronement of Charles Emmanuel IV of the House of Savoy
by the French should have spurred her to action. Probably she waited
until the needs of England and Russia should enable her to dictate her
terms. The cupidity of Thugut had been whetted by Pitt's speech as to
the wealth of England; and the efforts of Cobenzl at St. Petersburg led
Whitworth to sign a compact on terms so onerous to the British Treasury
as to draw on him a sharp disclaimer and reprimand from London.[511] So
matters dragged on far into the year 1799, when plans for the ensuing
campaign ought to