No triumph in the field was worth more to him than these Philippics, which seemed to challenge France to build up a strong Government in order that the Court of St.James might find some firm foundation for future negotiations.
Far more dextrous was the conduct of the Austrian diplomatists.
Affecting to believe in the sincerity of the First Consul's proposal for peace, they so worded their note as to draw from him a reply that he was prepared to discuss terms of peace on the basis of the Treaty of Campo Formio.[138] As Austria had since then conquered the greater part of Italy, Bonaparte's reply immediately revealed his determination to reassert French supremacy in Italy and the Rhineland.
The action of the Courts of Vienna and London was not unlike that of the sun and the wind in the proverbial saw.

Viennese suavity induced Bonaparte to take off his coat and show himself as he really was: while the conscientious bluster of Grenville and Pitt made the First Consul button up his coat, and pose as the buffeted peacemaker.
The allies had good grounds for confidence.

Though Russia had withdrawn from the Second Coalition yet the Austrians continued their victorious advance in Italy.

In April, 1800, they severed the French forces near Savona, driving back Suchet's corps towards Nice, while the other was gradually hemmed in behind the redoubts of Genoa.

There the Imperialist advance was stoutly stayed.