n from Genoa to the French armies. Moreover, while the Genoese
senate presumed to claim from the British fleet all the rights of a
neutral state, they allowed all their roadsteads, bays, harbours, and
even the well-defended port of the city of Genoa itself, to be crowded
with French privateers, and men were enlisted in the city for the
French army. Thus re-enforced and supported, Massena, who commanded
the republicans, at length made a general attack on the confederates,
assisted by Generals Scherer and Serrurier. The allies were so supine
that they were not aware of his movements till a cannon-ball, at sunrise
of the 23rd of November, aroused them from their lethargy. The French
general's great object was to get between the Austrians and Piedmontese,
to cut them off from one another, and then to defeat them in detail: no
very difficult task, as both armies were indiscreetly scattered over a
wide extent of mountainous country. The battle took place among rocks
and precipices, and in the midst of a storm of hail and snow. The
republicans were everywhere successful: the centre and the right wing
were beaten from post to post, and at last put to flight; and the left
wing, though it withstood the shock of assault bravely, was compelled
to flee likewise. It is said that many thousands took to flight who
had never seen the enemy, and some of whom were thirty miles from the
advanced posts. The retreat, indeed, became a rout, and the republicans
captured 5000 prisoners, all the artillery of the allies, and an immense
store of ammunition. This terminated "the campaign of the Alps," for the
Austrians and the Piedmontese were driven from all that coast, and the
French triumphantly wintered in Vado and Savone.

AFFAIRS OF LA VENDEE.

During this year the pacification of the Vendee was effected. Charette
with a few thousand royalists had, in the winter of 1794, maintained the
contest there, and the princes of Europe looked up to him as the only
man capable of restoring the royal cause. After some slight reverses,
however, Charette listened to overtures made by secret agents of the
convention; and at the end of February, 1795, a treaty of peace was
concluded and signed. It seems probable that Charette was the more
induced to take this step from the moderation recently displayed by the
French government. It soon became evident, however, that neither party
was sincere, that each suspected the other, and that both were preparing