Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/511

 Napoleon Bo)iaparte 473 opening my window I perceived the mountains covered with 422. How snow. The previous night had been superb, and the autumn, Bona P ar te till then, had promised to be fine and late. I proceeded, as S ign the I always did at seven o'clock in the morning, to the gene- Treaty of ral's chamber. I awoke him and told him what I had seen. ~ampo- Formio. He feigned at first to disbelieve me, then leaped from his bed, ran to the window, and, convinced of the sudden change, he calmly said, " What ! before the middle of Octo- ber ? What a country! Well, we must make peace." While he hastily put on his clothes I read the journals to him, as is my daily custom. He paid but little attention to them. Shutting himself up with me in his closet, he reviewed with the greatest care all the returns from the different corps of his army. " Here are," said he, "nearly eighty thousand effective men. I feed, I pay them ; but I can bring but sixty thousand into the field on the day of battle. I shall gain it, but afterwards my force will be reduced by twenty thousand men, — by killed, wounded, and prisoners. How then shall I oppose all the Austrian forces that will march to the protection of Vienna? It would be a month before the armies could support me, if they should be able to do it at all ; and in a fortnight all the roads and passes will be covered deep with snow. It is settled — I will make peace. Venice shall pay for the expense of the war and the bound- ary of the Rhine; let the Directory and the lawyers say what they like." He wrote to the Directory in the following words : " The summits of the hills are covered with snow; I cannot, on account of the stipulations agreed to in regard to the recom- mencement of hostilities, open them again for twenty-five days, and by that time we shall be overwhelmed with snow." . . . It is well known that by the Treaty of Campo-Formio Provisions the two belligerent powers made peace at the expense of the republic of Venice, which had nothing to do with the quarrel Formio. in the first instance, and which only interfered at a late period, probably against her own inclination, and impelled by the force of inevitable circumstances. But what has been the result of this great political spoliation ? A portion of the