The History of Napoleon Buonaparte eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The History of Napoleon Buonaparte.

The History of Napoleon Buonaparte eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The History of Napoleon Buonaparte.
forces.  This was a gross and ungenerous insult, and it was a gratuitous one; for he had a far better argument behind.  The imperial general had, as we have seen, neglected the reclamations of the Doge, when it suited his purpose to occupy Peschiera.  “You are too weak,” said Buonaparte, when the Venetian envoy reached his headquarters, “to enforce neutrality on hostile nations such as France and Austria.  Beaulieu did not respect your territory when his interest bade him violate it; nor shall I hesitate to occupy whatever falls within the line of the Adige.”  In effect, garrisons were placed forthwith in Verona, and all the strong places of that domain.  The tricolor flag now waved at the mouth of the Tyrolese passes; and Napoleon, leaving Serrurier to blockade Mantua, returned to Milan, where he had important business to arrange.

The King of Naples, utterly confounded by the successes of the French, was now anxious to procure peace, almost on whatever terms, with the apparently irresistible Republic.  Nor did it, for the moment, suit Buonaparte’s views to contemn his advances.  A peace with this prince would withdraw some valuable divisions from the army of Beaulieu; and the distance of the Neapolitan territory was such, that the French had no means of carrying the war thither with advantage, so long as Austria retained the power of sending new forces into Italy by the way of the Tyrol.  He concluded an armistice accordingly, which was soon followed by a formal peace, with the King of the Two Sicilies; and the Neapolitan troops, who had recently behaved with eminent gallantry, abandoning the Austrian general, began their march to the south of Italy.

This transaction placed another of Napoleon’s destined victims entirely within his grasp.  With no friend behind him, the Pope saw himself at the mercy of the invader; and in terror prepared to submit.  Buonaparte occupied immediately his legations of Bologna and Ferrara, making prisoners in the latter of these towns four hundred of the papal troops, and a cardinal, under whose orders they were.  The churchman militant was dismissed on parole; but, being recalled to headquarters, answered that his master, the Pope, had given him a dispensation to break his promise.  This exercise of the old dispensing power excited the merriment of the conquerors.  The Vatican, meanwhile, perceived that no time was to be lost.  The Spanish resident at the Roman court was despatched to Milan; and the terms on which the holy father was to obtain a brief respite were at length arranged.  Buonaparte demanded and obtained a million sterling, a hundred of the finest pictures and statues in the papal gallery, a large supply of military stores, and the cession of Ancona, Ferrara, and Bologna, with their respective domains.

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The History of Napoleon Buonaparte from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.