he alternative,
not of neutrality, but of an alliance with France. Bonaparte always
made his plan in two ways, and it is probable that her ultimate fate
would have been identical in either case.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Preliminaries of Peace--Leoben.

Austrian Plans for the Last Italian Campaign -- The Battle
on the Tagliamento -- Retreat of the Archduke Charles --
Bonaparte's Proclamation to the Carinthians -- Joubert
Withdraws from the Tyrol -- Bonaparte's "Philosophical"
Letter -- His Situation at Leoben -- The Negotiations for
Peace -- Character of the Treaty -- Bonaparte's Rude
Diplomacy -- French Successes on the Rhine -- Plots of the
Directory -- The Uprising of Venetia -- War with Venice.

[Sidenote: 1797.]

The Aulic Council at Vienna prepared for the Archduke Charles a
modification of the same old plan, only this time the approach was
down the Piave and the Tagliamento, rivers which rise among the
grotesque Dolomites and in the Carnic Alps. They flow south like the
Adige and the Brenta, but their valleys are wider where they open into
the lowlands, and easier of access. The auxiliary force, under
Lusignan, was now to the westward on the Piave, while the main force,
under Charles, was waiting for reinforcements in the broad intervales
on the upper reaches of the Tagliamento, through which ran the direct
road to Vienna. This time the order of attack was exactly reversed,
because Bonaparte, with his strengthened army of about seventy-five
thousand men, resolved to take the offensive before the expected
levies from the Austrian army of the Rhine should reach the camp of
his foe. The campaign was not long, for there was no resistance from
the inhabitants, as there would have been in the German Alps, among
the Tyrolese, Bonaparte's embittered enemies; and the united force of
Austria was far inferior to that of France. Joubert, with eighteen
thousand men, was left to repress the Tyrol. Though only twenty-eight
years old, he had risen from a volunteer in the files through every
rank and was now division general. He had gained renown on the Rhine
and found the climax of his fame in this expedition, which he so
brilliantly conducted that at the close of the campaign he was chosen
to carry the captured standards to Paris. He was acclaimed as a coming
man. But thereafter his achievements were mediocre and he fell
mortally wounded on August fifteenth, 1799, at the battle