ce the plan of
campaign, beginning at Savona and ending before the Austrian capital;
and great was his chagrin at hearing the tidings of Moreau's success
on April 20th. The news reached him on his return from Leoben to
Italy, when he was detained for a few hours by a sudden flood of the
River Tagliamento. At once he determined to ride back and make some
excuse for a rupture with Austria; and only the persistent
remonstrances of Berthier turned him from this mad resolve, which
would forthwith have exhibited him to the world as estimating more
highly the youthful promptings of destiny than the honour of a French
negotiator.

The terms which he had granted to the Emperor were lenient enough. The
only definitive gain to France was the acquisition of the Austrian
Netherlands (Belgium), for which troublesome possession the Emperor
was to have compensation elsewhere. Nothing absolutely binding was
said about the left, or west, bank of the Rhine, except that Austria
recognized the "constitutional limits" of France, but reaffirmed the
integrity of "The Empire."[73] These were contradictory statements;
for France had declared the Rhine to be her natural boundary, and the
old "Empire" included Belgium, Treves, and Luxemburg. But, for the
interpretation of these vague formularies, the following secret and
all-important articles were appended. While the Emperor renounced that
part of his Italian possessions which lay to the west of the Oglio, he
was to receive all the mainland territories of Venice east of that
river, including Dalmatia and Istria, Venice was also to cede her
lands west of the Oglio to the French Government; and in return for
these sacrifices she was to gain the three legations of Romagna,
Ferrara, and Bologna--the very lands which Bonaparte had recently
formed into the Cispadane Republic! For the rest, the Emperor would
have to recognize the proposed Republic at Milan, as also that already
existing at Modena, "compensation" being somewhere found for the
deposed duke.

From the correspondence of Thugut, the Austrian Minister, it appears
certain that Austria herself had looked forward to the partition of
the Venetian mainland territories, and this was the scheme which
Bonaparte _actually proposed to her at Leoben_. Still more
extraordinary was his proposal to sacrifice, ostensibly to Venice but
ultimately to Austria, the greater part of the Cispadane Republic. It
is, indeed, inexplicable, except on the ground that