he drums beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery," &c.
]

CHAPTER XVI

Affairs of Naples and of the Pope--The Emperor Paul of
Russia--Northern confederacy against England--Battle of
Copenhagen--Nelson's Victory--Death of Paul--Expedition to Egypt
under Sir Ralph Abercrombie--Battle of Alexandria--Conquest of
Egypt--The Flotilla of Boulogne--Negotiations with England--Peace
of Amiens.

England alone remained steadfast in her hostility; and, as we shall
presently see, the Chief Consul was even able to secure for himself the
alliance against her of some of the principal powers in Europe; but
before we proceed to the eventful year of 1801, there are some incidents
of a minor order which must be briefly mentioned.

It has been already said that the half-crazy Emperor of Russia had taken
up a violent personal admiration for Buonaparte, and, under the
influence of that feeling, virtually abandoned Austria before the
campaign of Marengo. Napoleon took every means to flatter the Autocrat
and secure him in his interests. Paul had been pleased to appoint
himself Grand Master of the ruined Order of the Knights of St. John. It
was his not idle ambition to obtain, in this character, possession of
the Island of Malta; and Buonaparte represented the refusal of the
English government to give up that stronghold as a personal insult to
Paul. Some 10,000 Russian prisoners of war were not only sent back in
safety, but new clothed and equipped at the expense of France; and the
Autocrat was led to contrast this favourably with some alleged neglect
of these troops on the part of Austria, when arranging the treaty of
Luneville. Lastly, the Queen of Naples, sister to the German Emperor,
being satisfied that, after the battle of Marengo, nothing could save
her husband's Italian dominions from falling back into the hands of
France (out of which they had been rescued, during Napoleon's Egyptian
campaign, by the English, under Lord Nelson), took up the resolution of
travelling in person to St. Petersburg in the heart of the winter, and
soliciting the intercession of Paul. The Czar, egregiously flattered
with being invoked in this fashion, did not hesitate to apply in the
Queen's behalf to Buonaparte; and the Chief Consul, well calculating the
gain and the loss, consented to spare Naples for the present, thereby
completing the blind attachment of that