He was high in the esteem of Buonaparte, who had formed the greatest expectations from him, and grieyoudly lamented his fall.

The duke of Parma, in whofe fight, as it were, the French had crofled the Po, and defeated the Auftrians twice in one day, did not dare to prolong the conteft on his part, with fo irrefiftable a foe. He requested an armiftice from Buonaparte, and obtained it on condition of paying a large contribution in money, horfes, and provifions, of delivering into the poffeffion of the French, twenty capital paintings to be chofen by them, and of fending without delay commiffaries to Paris, to conclude a peace with the republic on thefe terms the duke procured a neutrality for his dominions, which was concluded on the ninth of May.

The uninterrupted fuccefles of the French had now ftruck their enemies with univerfal confternation. Beaulieu himself, though an expert and intrepid warrior, thought it more prudent to act on the defenfive, than to attack them with troops continually defeated The bravery of the Auftrians, though undeniable, had not been proof againft their impetuous valour and unyielding enthufiafm. They feemed to have reverfed the character formerly attributed to them, of impatience and unsteadiness, and to have af fumed that of firmness and conftancy.

Their exploits had now opened to them the road to Milan, the capture of which would give them the poffeffion of Lombardy, and effect the expulfion of the Auftrians from Italy. This was the project of Buonaparte, whofe glory would be completed by fuch an atchievement;

and whofe thirst of fame would thereby be gratified to the utmost extent of his wifhes.

Between him and that capital of Auftrian Italy lay the remains of the Imperial forces, determined to risk another battle for its prefervation. They were pofted on the other fide of the Adda, over which ftood a long bridge, which Beaulieu had intended to break down, but was prevented from doing by the quick. approach of the French general. It was protected, however, by fo numerous an artillery, that the Auftrians did not imagine the French would be able to force a palage over it.

On the tenth of May, the French army arrived in fight of this bridge, before which flood the town of Lodi, filled with the Imperial troops, which were alfo pofted in every place around it in the most advantageous order of battle that the fituation of the town and its environs would admit. Beaulieu had, on this occafion, difplayed uncommon fkill, confcious that, on the flue of this day, the fate of Auftria in Italy wholely depended, and that, were he defeated, all future refiftance would be vain.

The battle began at nine in the morning. The approaches to Lodi were vigouroully attacked by the French, who, after an obftinate difpute, drove the Auftrians into that town; where a refolute fight enfued: but the French had again the advantage, and forced them to retreat across the bridge to their main body, which was drawn up in order of battle, with formidable batteries on their right and left to guard the paffage of the bridge. A battery was planted on the oppofite fide by the French, and a violent can

nonade

nonade was kept up, on both fides, during great part of the day.

But the French general was convinced, that unlefs he fucceeded in effecting a paflage over the bridge, his failure would be conftrued into a defeat, and the reputation of the French arms would fuffer in the opinion of the public. Full of this idea, which was certainly well founded, he determined to try every effort, and to encounter every perfonal rifk, in order to carry a point on which fo much appeared at iffue. Forming together the felecteft bodies of his army, he led them in perfon to the attack of the bridge, in the midst of a most tremendous fire. The intrepidity he difplayed was neceflary to confirm the courage of his men, whom the greatnets of the danger feemed to flagger: but his prefence, and that of all the chief officers in the French army, animated the foldiers to fuch a degree, that they rufhed forward with an impetuofity which nothing was able to withfland. They croffed the bridge and affailed the whole line of the Aufirian artillery, which was infiantly broken. They fell with equal fury on the troops that advanced to charge them, who were thrown into diforder, and put to fight on every fide. The victory was complete. Had it not been for the exceffive fatigue undergone by the French, a great proportion of whom had marched ten leagues that day to join the army, the lofs of the imperialifts though great

would have been much greater. It was owing to the approach of night that the French defifted from the purfuit. Favoured by darkness, Beaulieu withdrew from the field of battle, after lofing upwards of two thousand men, killed, wounded, and taken, and twenty pieces of cannon.

The lofs of the French was confiderable: the croffing of the bridge alone coft them near a thoufand of their boldest men, who were deftroyed by the batteries pointed on it from the Austrian side of the river.

This defeat of the Imperial army appeared fo decifive to marthal Beaulieu that he durst not venture to ftop the progrefs of the victors towards Milan. Collecting the wrecks of his army, he made a fpeedy retreat towards Mantua, purfued by a large body of the French who, in their way, feized on Pizzighitona and Cremona, two places of note.

The main body under Buonaparte proceeded to Milan, after taking Pavia, where all the Auftrian magazines fell into the hands of the French.

Buonaparte entered Milan the fif teenth of May, five days after the battle of Lodi, which, conformably to his opinion and that of his rival, Beaulieu, proved wholly decifive of the fate of Lombardy. Here the French general thought it neceffary to allow his people fome days of repofe, after the unceafing toils of a whole month, marked by uninterrupted victories.

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ftowed upon them by their country, and by a profpect of the future triumphs awaiting them.

He was now meditating expeditions into the territories of thofe princes of whofe enmity to France fufficient proofs had been given. A detachment of his army had already entered the duchy of Modena, the fovereign of which had fled to Venice with his treafures. From this city he deputed a minifter to the French general, with whom he concluded a fufpenfion of arms on much the fame conditions as thofe granted to the duke of Parma.

The fpoliation of the repofitories of art, which was now annexed to the conditions of treaties with the Italian princes, proved one of the moft vexatious as well as mortifying circumftances of the French invafion. The monuments of painting and of ftatuary, which adorned their palaces, cities, and churches, were viewed by the natives with a mixture of delight and veneration. They entertained a fpecies of affection for them; and, in the prefence of fome of them, they placed not a little confidence. They had become a kind of tutelary deities and houfehold gods. The Italians were fenfible of emotions not altogether diffimilar to thofe of the Ifraelite Micah, into whofe houfe armed men from Dan entered, and took away "the graven image, and the ephod, and the feraphim, and the molten image."* In one refpect, the oppreffions of the French in Italy were greater than thofe of the northern hordes under Attila and Odoacer; for thofe chiefs did not trouble the Romans with de

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The

mands of pictures, ftatues, and feulptures. It feems to be the fate of the great models of the arts, like the arts themselves, to travel from the east, by the weft, to the north. Perhaps their tour in this direction is not yet terminated deprive the poor Italians of objects fo long endeared to them, by habit and poffeffion, seemed an act of tyranny e ercifed upon the vanquished in the wantonnels of power. Thofe objects had been refpected by all parties, in the viciffitude of thofe events that had fo frequently fubjected the places that contained them to different matiers. French were the first who had con- . ceived the idea of feizing them as a matter of mere property. Herein they were accufed of confulting their vanity rather than their tafte for the fine arts. The Romans, in their triumphant periods, had plundered the Greeks of all the mafter-pieces they could find in their country. This appeared to the French a precedent fit for their imitation, and a fanction for robbing the Italians of what they efteemed the moft valuable part of their property, and the most honourable proof they ftill retained of their former fuperiority in thofe departments of genius. The conduct of the French, in tearing the monuments of antiquity and art from Italy, and carrying them to Paris, was univerfally condemned and execrated by all civi lized nations. It was, in truth, in fome meafure, plucking the rofe from the tree.

Motives of this nature, confpiring with the diffatisfaction experienced by multitudes, at the irreverence