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 IX.] THE GREAT REVOLUTION. 177 1 795 : Spain and Tuscany also made peace about the same time. This was the state of things when, at the beginning of 1796, the Committee of PubUc Safety determined to send t hree armies against Austria t one by the valley of the Maine, another by the valley of the Danube, and the third by way of Lombardy. The command of the army in Italy was given to General Buonaparte. Buonaparte had his head^^uarters on the coast-road, between Nice and Genoa. The allied armies of Austria anjj Sardinia held~the mountains rising north of the coast-road, so as to block Buonaparte's way from the sea towards the plain of Lombardy. Everything de2en ded on separating the allied armies, for if Buona- parte could once force his way between them, the Sar- dinians would have to fall back westward towards Turin, and the Austrians eastward towards Milan, so that they could no longer help one another. Buonaparte did separate the two armies by an attack at Montenotte , April loth, and the result which he had expected followed. The Sardinians retired towards Turin. Buona- parte pursued and defeated them, leaving part of his army to watch the Austrians. The king of Sardinia, terrified at the approach of the French to Turin, made an armistice, and gave up to Buonaparte the great fortresses which guard the entrance of Italy. Buofiaparte could now safely turn against the Austrians. He made them think that he was about to attack them at Valenza. on the river Po ; but as soon as Beaulieu, the Austrian general, had brought his troops to this point, Buonaparte suddenly marched down the south bank of the Po to Piacenza, and there crossed it quite in the rear of the Austrian general. Beaulieu, to prevent himseh from being altogether cut off from Austria, had to abandon Milan, and fall baek on the river Adda. Here Buona- parte attacked and defeated him, leading the charge of his grenadiers^ over the bridge of Lodi under a heavy fire. Beaulieu retreated to the Mincio ; he was again defeated and forced to take refuge in ManM, ia.. Having thus crippled the Austrians, Buonaparte was free to turn against the Italian States. The Dukes of Modena and Parma, as well as the pope, bought peace of the French by heavy fines, and by giving up their finest works of art. These Buonaparte insisted on carrying off to adorn the museum which the Directory had set up in the Louvre, and which throughout his cnreer he continued to fill with N