XXII. BOOK on that river, the Imperialists again suffered a total discomfiture; but by rapid and incessant 1796. marches general Wurmser, fighting his way Wurmser through the enemy, succeeded in gaining the takes refuge city of Mantua, into which he threw himself and the remnant of his wearied and shattered General in Mantua. army. Genoa, after repeated efforts to maintain her neutrality, was compelled to yield to the menaces of the French; and, by a convention signed October 9, agreed to shut up her ports against the English. Treaties of peace were formally ratified with Naples and Parma; but it was found difficult to conclude a final settlement with the pope, of whom very hard conditions were exacted. He was required to set at liberty all persons, whether French or natives, who were held in confinement on account of political opinions; to desist from all persecu tion on account of religious opinions; to abolish the tribunal of the Inquisition; to renounce all title to Avignon and the Venaissin; to pay 300,000 livres per month during the war; to leave Ferrara and Bologna, with their legations, to the disposal of the French; to concede various specified commercial advantages; and to give to all these conditions a prompt and unreserved assent. The pope held a congregation of cardinals to deliberate on the terms thus XXII. offered, who unanimously agreed that they were BOOK subversive both of the rights of religion and sovereignty; and a rejection immediately fol- 1796. lowed. At this period all Italy seemed to be heaving from its political basis. The government of Naples, to which such favorable conditions of peace had been recently granted, because it did not .suit the views or interests of the French to carry their arms into that distant quarter, was known to be sunk to the lowest pitch of imbecility and depravity. The tyranny of papal Rome, consolidated by the ignorance and folly of successive ages, now manifestly tottered to its fall; and Lombardy, divided amidst a number of petty despots, catching the strong contagion of the revolutionary spirit, aspired to the rank and dignity of a free and independent nation. The Cispadane whole country south of the Po, Genoa excepted, confederacy. now in possession of the French, appointed delegates, to the number of one hundred, to meet in convention at the city of Modena.; the ducal government being previously dissolved, and the duke of Modena himself, notwithstanding his armistice with France, having abandoned his territory, and virtually abdicated his sovereignty. The Convention met on the 16th of October, 1796, and immediately decreed that there should be a sincere and indissoluble union between the XXII. 1796. BOOK four states of Bologna, Reggio, Modena, and Ferrara-the new federation taking, from its geographical situation, the name of the Cispadane Republic. And, with the approbation of the French general, a delegation was sent to Milan, styled by analogy the Transpadane Republic, in order to establish between the two powers the bands of political union and fraternity. In return, the administrators of the provisional government of Milan were permitted to send deputies to the general congress of the Cispadane Confederacy, now removed to Reggio, and which, about the end of the year, resolved themselves henceforth into a republic, one and indivisible, on the model of France. In the mean time the emperor, anxious to the last degree for the fate of general Wurmser and the numerous garrison inclosed in the fortress of Mantua, ordered field-marshal Alvinzi, an officer of high reputation, and the third commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces in Italy during this campaign, to assemble an army on the borders of the Tyrol, descending thence in two grand divisions along the Adige and Piava to Verona, which was the head-quarters of the French army. Marshal Alvinzi, who commanded in person the latter division, having passed the Piava and Brenta, encountered the van of the French, conducted also in person by general ב XXII. Battle of Bonaparte, who, after a sharp conflict, com- BOOK Arcole. XXII. BOOK artillery and baggage. The way being now open, on the 6th of November, at day-break, the 1796. French commenced a general action: the centre of the Austrians soon gave way, but, the wings being secured by the strength of their position, no material impression could be made. In the night, general Bonaparte caused bridges to be thrown over the impracticable parts of the morass, and the next morning the battle was renewed with tenfold fury; but, by a series of skilful manœuvres, the French having turned the flanks of the Austrian army, and a corps placed in ambuscade falling upon their rear, a general confusion took place, and the Austrians fled on all sides, and a complete though bloody victory was gained. "Never (said general Bonaparte in his dispatches) was field of battle so valorously disputed as that of Arcole." The other division under general Davidovitch, which had obtained signal advantages over general Vaubois, and had advanced within a short distance of Mantua, were now obliged, by general Bonaparte, who joined Vaubois in person with reinforcements, to fall back with considerable loss into the mountains of the Tyrol. General Alvinzi re- Alvinzi now again repassed the Brenta, leaving the Brenta. Mantua to its fate; but the gallant veteran, Wurmser, continued to defend that important fortress with invincible pertinacity. General tires beyond |