le
success. It was as a soldier that he rose in the coming years to
heights which in his own mind awakened a rivalry with Napoleon;
ambitious for the highest rank, he made a great match with the
sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte, and so managed his affairs that, as
is well known, he ended on the throne of Sweden and founded the
reigning house of that kingdom.

Bonaparte wooed the stupefied Carinthians with his softly worded
proclamations, and his advancing columns were unharassed by the
peasantry while he pushed farther on, capturing Klagenfurt, and
seizing both Triest and Fiume, the only harbors on the Austrian shore.
He then returned with the main body of his troops, and, crossing the
pass of Tarvis, entered Germany at Villach. "We are come," he said to
the inhabitants, "not as enemies, but as friends, to end a terrible
war imposed by England on a ministry bought with her gold." And the
populace, listening to his siren voice, believed him. All this was
accomplished before the end of March; and Charles, his army reduced to
less than three fourths, was resting northward on the road to Vienna,
beyond the river Mur, exhausted, and expecting daily that he would be
compelled to a further retreat.

Joubert had not been so successful. According to instructions, he had
pushed up the Adige as far as Brixen, into the heart of the hostile
Tyrol. The Austrians had again called the mountaineers to arms, and a
considerable force under Laudon was gathered to resist the invaders.
It had been a general but most indefinite understanding between
Bonaparte and the Directory that Moreau was again to cross the Rhine
and advance once more, this time for a junction with Joubert to march
against Vienna. But the directors, in an access of suspicion, had
broken their word, and, pleading their penury, had not taken a step
toward fitting out the Army of the North. Moreau was therefore not
within reach; he had not even crossed the Rhine. Consequently Joubert
was in straits, for the whole country had now risen against him. It
was with difficulty that he had advanced, and with serious loss that
he fought one terrible battle after another; finally, however, he
forced his way into the valley of the Drave, and marched down that
river to join Bonaparte. This was regarded by Bonaparte as a
remarkable feat, but by the Austrians as a virtual repulse; both the
Tyrol and Venice were jubilant, and the effects spread as far eastward
as the Austrian provinces