I shall gain it, but afterwards my force will be reduced 20,000 men--by killed, wounded, and prisoners.

Then how oppose all the Austrian forces that will march to the protection of Vienna?
It would be a month before the armies of the Rhine could support me, if they should be able; and in a fortnight all the roads and passages will be covered deep with snow.

It is settled--I will make peace.

Venice shall pay for the expense of the war and the boundary of the Rhine: let the Directory and the lawyers say what they like." He wrote to the Directory in the following words: "The summits of the hills are covered with snow; I cannot, on account of the stipulations agreed to for the recommencement of hostilities, begin before five-and-twenty days, and by that time we shall be overwhelmed with snow." Fourteen years after, another early winter, in a more severe climate, was destined to have a fatal influence on his fortunes.

Had he but then exercised equal foresight! It is well known that, by the treaty of Campo-Formio, the two belligerent powers made peace at the expense of the Republic of Venice, which had nothing to do with the quarrel in the first instance, and which only interfered at a late period, probably against her own inclination, and impelled by the force of inevitable circumstances.