354 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION sion of Milan. Naples was also supposed to be an ally of Austria, but at once followed the example of Sardinia. Bona- parte conducted his operations with very little regard for the instructions he received from Paris, and while the Austrians were shut up in Mantua he asserted the French supremacy over North Italy, levying contributions and taking toll of the art- treasures of every city, and making his own arrangements. Austrian reinforcements poured into Italy from the Tyrol, but again Bonaparte shattered them while they were in separate divisions. More reinforcements came at the end of the year ; they met with the same fate at the battles of Areola and 1 79 _ Rivoli. Mantua was forced to surrender, the pope had to accede to the treaty of Tolentino, by which he ceded some of the papal states already occupied by French troops, and the ' Cispadane Republic ' was established in North Italy. Meanwhile the other campaign in Germany had been foiled ; before it was possible for another general to Treaty of advance and deprive him of his laurels, Bonaparte Campo was on his way to Austria j and at Leoben, Austrian Formio. commissioners signed a treaty which was confirmed with some alterations later in the year at Campo Formio. Austria ceded Belgium and Lombardy, but received a slice of Venetian territory, for which Bonaparte found a sufficient excuse in an emeute which had taken place in Venice, though that power was nominally neutral. ' In the meantime, the British command of the sea had been threatened by Spain and Holland joining France ; but the Spanish fleet was shattered by Admiral Jervis off Cape St. Vincent in February, and the Dutch by Admiral Duncan at Camperdown in October. In Paris, political plots and counterplots drove Carnot into exile and removed two of the generals who might have been Bonaparte's rivals, while, un- happily for France, the ablest of them all and infinitely the noblest, Hoche, also died. When Bonaparte returned to Paris after Campo Formio, it was obvious that he was com- Bonaparte's pletely master of the situation. But the hour for Scheme. which he was waiting had not yet arrived. He had conceived the idea of capturing Egypt and Syria, and with
