CHAPTER VII.

POLICY AND AMBITION OF NAPOLEON--REBELLION IN IRELAND--ATTEMPTS AT INVASION--THE WHOLE WORLD OF EUROPE IN A BLAZE.

By the genius and strategy of Napoleon, coupled with a certain dash and _élan_ that never forsook him till the very last, Austria was driven from Italy. By the end of March he had even carried the mountain passes that guard Carinthia, and pursued the enemy to within eighty miles of Vienna. The Emperor sued for peace, and the kind of peace made was one dictated by Napoleon himself, and to his own advantage as much as that of France.

In fact, Napoleon Bonaparte was a capital map-maker. What was Italy one day, would be Austria the next, and French territory soon after. Treaties, in those days, were as often abrogated as not. They were all very well so long as they suited the convenience of those who had made them. When they failed to do so, nations tore them up and made war; then the victor made another treaty, and the self-same fate probably awaited that.

Napoleon was probably one of the most graspingly ambitious men that ever lived, and one of the cleverest. Like a shepherd's collie, he seemed to sleep--if ever that great brain of his did sleep--with one eye open, ready to come down like a wolf on the fold, whenever he saw an opening. He played at the great game of war. He played for high stakes, too; he cared nothing how many crowns or sovereigns he threw down, or how many kings, queens, and knaves opposed him. Talking of kings and queens, by the way, there were a good many about in those days, and some were hardly distinguishable from knaves.

"A prince can mak' a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that, But an honest man's aboon his might, Guid faith he mauna fa' that!"

Well, I don't suppose the great Napoleon himself ever attempted to make an honest man. An honest man might have stood in his way. He preferred fools. As to Marquises and that kind of folks, he could turn them out by the score, and he could make kings too--or mar them. It was all the same to Napoleon. He dreamt that, like Alexander the Great, he had conquered the world, and he was going to do his best to make that dream come true. But he didn't mean to imitate Alexander any further; he wouldn't sit down and cry because there were no more worlds to conquer. No, those he had conquered and trampled under foot, might do the weeping, he should sit on high and play at being a god.

On second thought, I beg to retract that wee word "sit."

No ambitious man ever did or could sit. Sitting only belongs to the happy and contented. The brain of ambition is always in a turmoil and a whirl.

Ambition is the tower of Babel, which a man builds for himself, and the higher he builds it, the farther from the heaven and the haven of contentment does he place himself. Because contentment rests on earth, and happiness is its twin brother.

However, it was Napoleon's very successes that made him popular with the French. Some people are driven "daft" by good luck, and some nations are of the same temperament. Our Gallic neighbours are, for example. They possess but little of the bull-dog courage, the steadiness and staying power, of the British. So long as luck favours them, then "Pah!" they cry, "We vill fight till all is blue." But when reverses come, their hearts cool down. They are like the steam that rises, from a burning house as the firemen play on it, on a hard-frosty night in winter. It rises high in air, as steam, but it soon gets chilled and descends as snow.

But the ovation that General Napoleon received in December, 1797, from, this excited people in the great Hall of Legislature, would have turned many a modest head. Perhaps no young conqueror, ever before, faced so great and enthusiastic an audience. We are told that the flags and trophies of all the battles of the Republic were displayed in the Audience Hall that evening.

The "glories" were set forth in inscriptions such as the following:

"A hundred and seventy captured flags.

"A hundred and fifty thousand prisoners taken in battle.

"Six hundred field guns.

"Five hundred and fifty siege guns.

"Five pontoon bridges.

"Nine 64-gun ships, twelve frigates, and twelve corvettes.

"Armistice with the King of Sardinia.

"Convention with Genoa.

"Armistice with the King of Naples and the Pope of Rome.

"Preliminaries of Leoben.

"Liberty granted to the peoples of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Massa, Carrara, and Lombardy, and to the peoples of the Ægean Sea, Ithaca, and Corcyra."

Then there were the grand works of art and spoils of the churches.

And was the man on whom every eye was turned in this great assembly, proud? Well, he looked so young, so modest, and yet so gallant withal, that ladies got a little off their head about him.

But in the brief extracts of the speech he made, he did not show a very overwhelming amount of modesty.

"We, the people of France, must be free, and to be so we must conquer kings. We must overthrow the prejudices of eighteen hundred years, to gain a constitution founded on reason. We have triumphed over many obstacles, as the trophies around you prove. Though feudalism, royalty, and religion have hitherto governed Europe, from the peace now concluded a Representative Government shall date. The territory of this mighty nation is bounded but by natural limits. France and Italy now see arising, from the graves of their ancestors, immortal liberty. I hand to you the treaty of peace signed at Campo Formio, and ratified by the Emperor, a peace that shall ensure liberty, prosperity, and glory to the Republic. France is free, and the whole of Europe must be free also."

This speech, though not remarkably eloquent, was a torch that bid fair to set the whole of Europe in a blaze.

Austria having made peace with France, Britain was left to fight her single-handed. The bombastic doctrines preached by France and put into practice--successfully, too--by so great a war-genius as Napoleon, stirred up the worst blood and the lowest classes in many European cities. Men who would never work for themselves could talk. Why should not every nation follow the example of France, and be free? Why should kings and queens and nobles wallow in wealth, while the poor were left to die for hunger?

There were insurrections soon at Rome itself, and even the Pope was deposed. We Britons were autocratically ordered to restore to France all the spoils we had taken in the war, and all the lands.

Of course, we didn't.

No nation, or combination of nations, is ever going to put a foot on Britain's neck, or rob her of a single possession, so long as we retain that greatest possession of all--possession of the sea.

In 1798 the Irish rebelled. They too would be free. O reader, we cannot blame them. They were a conquered nation, and held down by bloodshed, murder, and rapine.

Ireland was, indeed, a thorn in the flesh of Great Britain at that time, and it was a thorn that the French would gladly assist in extracting, and afterwards keep for itself.

A certain Dr. McNiven repaired to Paris on the sly, and arranged with the Directory all the preliminaries of an invasion, which it was believed would entirely dismember Ireland from England and Scotland. The United Irishmen meanwhile rose in arms. It was their purpose to seize in one night the Castle of Dublin, the camp, and all the artillery. But the conspirator let the cat out of the bag, and this was disastrous to the cause.

Battles, however, were fought here and there all over Ireland, but in every instance the Irish lost, and so the rebellion was put down, with, as usual, much needless slaughter and terrible cruelty.

The mission of Dr. McNiven to Paris bore fruit, and was productive of sad results to France itself, as well as to poor bleeding Ireland.

An invasion was actually effected, for the French landed in Kallala Bay with 1200 men, under General Humbert, and with uniforms for 3000 men. They were quite certain that the Irish would rise to meet and assist them.

Humbert drove in the Fencibles, as they were called, who were really akin to the Volunteers of the present day. Then he advanced to Castle Bar, and thrashed Lake and his army, although nearly double that of his own in numbers.

The British were in a fix now, but prepared to meet it by strategy and force. Lord Cornwallis was made Viceroy of Ireland, and arrived at Dublin in June. He flattered, he threatened, he cajoled and blarneyed, and finally succeeded in raising an army so big that the French threw away their guns and ran.

They were all captured, and, I fear, received but scant grace or mercy.

There was still another expedition from France at the same time. But this was detected and followed. The French were overhauled at sea, and as pretty a pitched battle on a small scale fought as any English tar would wish to be engaged in.

We won. But, indeed, the weather had severely damaged the French fleet before our war-ships took them in hand.

May the wind and weather always fight for brave Britons hereafter, as it has done in days gone by.

But the French were not content with invading Ireland, for, to tell the truth, Bonaparte had not much faith to place in the fighting powers of the Irish while their feet were placed on Irish bog, although he knew they were splendid soldiers when well commanded. But the French Directory set about planning an invasion of England, or some part of Britain, in a fleet of flat-bottomed boats.

There lies between Cherbourg and Havre a group of small islands that Sir Sidney Smith had captured, and garrisoned with marines and sailors, in 1795. With thirty well-armed flat-bottoms the French tried to regain these, but two of our ships treated them to such a hailstorm that they, having just sense enough to get in out of a shore, ran into Sallenelle, and stopped for three weeks to repair. Then they determined to try again.

Says General Cust: "The enemy remained here for three weeks, during which time he received a great accession of troops and forty more flat boats, which enabled him again to put to sea and reach unobserved the roadstead of La Hague."

On the 6th of May, availing themselves of a calm, which gave them some advantage over sailing vessels, they stood across to attack the islands.

At daybreak next morning the boats, fifty-two in number, rowed up with great resolution to within musket-shot of the batteries, while our brigs with their heavy cannon kept up a fire upon them from a distance of 300 or 400 yards.

The British ships _Adamant_, _Eurydice_, and _Orestes_ were all this time in the offing, but unable, owing to the calm, to get nearer than six miles. But our lieutenant, Papps Price, who commanded the garrison, loaded to the muzzle with round shot, grape, and canister, poured such an iron storm upon the boats that several of them, cut into chips, went down bodily, and those that could float began to seek safety in flight.

The pity was, reader, that the wind wouldn't blow, and let the ships up to sink or capture the whole flotilla.

Of course our sailors whistled for the wind, until they nearly whistled the whites of their eyes out, but all in vain.

Another attempt was to have been made, but at length the whole of the gun-boat fleet returned to Cherbourg.

Just as our ministers did this year in which we live, 1896--ninety-eight years after the flotilla action--when menaced by foreign powers, so did the British minister then. He adopted and increased every means for the defence and security of the British shores. The Alien Bill was also renewed, and a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act carried. The greatest alacrity was shown among all classes of the British people to confront the menaced assault on their country.

Party differences were suspended, and the whole kingdom, united in heart and hand, rested in firm confidence, that

"Nought shall make us rue, If Britain to herself do rest but true."

* * * * *

I feel inclined, being a naval sailor myself, to tell you here how a French fleet sailed under sealed orders, and under Bonaparte for the Mediterranean, and how they captured Malta: and how Nelson was sent after them; how Napoleon, landed his army in Egypt and captured Alexandria, and fought the battle of the Pyramids, near Cairo.

I say I feel inclined to let loose all this history on you, but must pull myself up with a round turn.

In one of my other books, I think, I have described Nelson's great victory of the Nile, and so I must refer you to that.

But, my dear boy-readers, a knowledge of history may well do us much good, and help us to fight for our country in the days to come.

Our Navy is our first defence. Long may it float supreme! If so, we can sleep quietly and calmly in our beds at night, and never fear invasion.

The

"Flag that braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze,"

shall guard the front gates of our castles and homes, but our forts must not be forgotten. They are the guards to the back gates, and our brave Volunteers are behind them.

The year 1799 was no less bloody than its predecessor.

The French and Napoleon became more and more ambitious, France forming a cordon of republics on all sides of her, that bade fair to put an end for ever to kings and kingdoms, and place in their stead republics, mob law, and murder.

Russia saw the danger, so did Prussia and Austria, and against the latter, now preparing a great army to recapture, if possible, all it had lost, the French Republic declared war.

A second coalition now threatened France.

The whole world of Europe was soon in a blaze. These were, indeed, the dashing days of old, and yet we do not want them to return. For, as my dear old grandfather used to say:

"War is a terrible, terrible thing!"