Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/200

 176 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. The boy was found in a horrible state. Ever since he had found that his words were used against his mother, he had never opened his Hps, and his keeper Simon, after growing weary of maltreating him, had shut him up in a room which was never cleaned, nor his linen changed, for nearly two years, so that the poor child was found in the very depth of loathsomeness and misery. Kindness came too late to save him, and he died on the 8th of June, 1795. His sister, Maria Theresa, was shortly after set at liberty, and sent to join her uncle the Count of Provence, who had taken refuge in Italy, and who was now, on the death of his nephew, acknowledged by royalists as Lewis XVIII. The royalists were offended at the rule about choosing two-thirds of the Council from the old Convention, and in Paris they rose in revolt. Troops had to be called in to keep them down, but to send soldiers upon the city was so dangerous a step that it was felt that the charge could only be given to an officer of more than common prudence and courage. " I have the man," cried Barras, the member appointed by the Convention to suppress the revolt, " a little Corsican officer, who will not stand on ceremony." This little Corsican was Napoleon Buonaparte, the third son of a lawyer at Ajaccio, where he was born on the 15th of August, 1769. He had been bred to arms in the college of Brie)inc, and had first become known to Barras as an artillery officer at the siege of Toulon. The instinct which had fixed on him proved right. He planted his guns so as to sweep the chief thoroughfares leading to the Tuille- ries. The revolt was suppressed (October 5, 1795), and (on October 25) the National Convention broke up, and was succeeded by the Directory and the two Councils. 16. The Italian Campaigns, 1795 — 1797 . — Meanwhile the war with the allies was going on vigorously. Belgium was reconquered by the battle of Flcurus, won by Jourdan in June, 1794. Pichegru, who succeeded Jourdan in command, carried the war into Holland, drove the English arniy before him, and finall> captured the Dutch licet with a regiment of cavalry, by riding over the frozen waters of the Texcl. Holland was turned into the Bata%>ian Republic, and became the dependent ally of France. All the country was conquered up to the Rhine ; the Spaniards were beaten in the Psrencc^, and a French army pushed along the coast-road into Italy, between Nice and Genoa. Prussia made peace with France at Basle in