It is doubtful whether at any time after his return from Italy Bonaparte seriously entertained the project of invading England. The plan was at any rate soon abandoned, and the preparations, which caused great alarm in the English coast-towns, were continued only for the purpose of disguising Bonaparte's real design of an attack upon Egypt. From the beginning of his career Bonaparte's thoughts had turned towards the vast and undefended East. While still little known, he had asked the French Government to send him to Constantinople to organise the Turkish army; as soon as Venice fell into his hands, he had seized the Ionian Islands as the base for a future conquest of the Levant. Every engagement that confirmed the superiority of England upon the western seas gave additional reason for attacking her where her power was most precarious, in the East. Bonaparte knew that Alexander had conquered the country of the Indus by a land-march from the Mediterranean, and this was perhaps all the information which he possessed regarding the approaches to India; but it was enough to fix his mind upon the conquest of Egypt and Syria, as the first step towards the destruction of the Asiatic Empire of England. Mingled with the design upon India was a dream of overthrowing the Mohammedan Government of Turkey, and attacking Austria from the East with an army drawn from the liberated Christian races of the Ottoman Empire. The very vagueness of a scheme of Eastern conquest made it the more attractive to Bonaparte's genius and ambition. Nor was there any inclination on the part of the Government to detain the general at home. The Directory, little concerned with the real merits or dangers of the enterprise, consented to Bonaparte's project of an attack upon Egypt, thankful for any opportunity of loosening the grasp which was now closing so firmly upon themselves. CHAPTER IV. Congress of Rastadt--The Rhenish Provinces ceded--Ecclesiastical States of Germany suppressed--French intervention in Switzerland--Helvetic Republic-- The French invade the Papal States--Roman Republic--Expedition to Egypt-- Battle of the Nile--Coalition of 1798--Ferdinand of Naples enters Rome--Mack's defeats--French enter Naples--Parthenopean Republic--War with Austria and Russia--Battle of Stockach--Murder of the French Envoys at Rastadt--Campaign in Lombardy--Reign of Terror at Naples--Austrian designs upon Italy--Suvaroff and the Austrians--Campaign in Switzerland--Campaign in Holland--Bonaparte returns from Egypt--Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire-- Constitution of 1799--System of Bonaparte in France--Its effect on the influence of France abroad. [Congress of Rastadt, Nov. 1797.]