Triple attack on Austria--Moreau, Jourdan--Bonaparte in Italy--Condition of the Italian States--Professions and real intentions of Bonaparte and the Directory--Battle of Montenotte--Armistice with Sardinia--Campaign in Lombardy--Treatment of the Pope, Naples, Tuscany--Siege of Mantua-- Castiglione, Moreau and Jourdan in Germany Their retreat--Secret Treaty with Prussia--Negotiations with England--Cispadane Republic--Rise of the idea of Italian Independence--Battles of Arcola and Rivoli--Peace with the Pope at Tolentino--Venice--Preliminaries of Leoben--The French in Venice--The French take the Ionian Islands and give Venice to Austria--Genoa--Coup d'état of 17 Fructidor in Paris--Treaty of Campo Formio--Victories of England at sea--Bonaparte's project against Egypt. [Armies of Italy, the Danube, and the Main, 1796.] With the opening of the year 1796 the leading interest of European history passes to a new scene. Hitherto the progress of French victory had been in the direction of the Rhine: the advance of the army of the Pyrenees had been cut short by the conclusion of peace with Spain; the army of Italy had achieved little beyond some obscure successes in the mountains. It was the appointment of Napoleon Bonaparte to the command of the latter force, in the spring of 1796, that first centred the fortunes of the Republic in the land beyond the Alps. Freed from Prussia by the Treaty of Basle, the Directory was now able to withdraw its attention from Holland and from the Lower Rhine, and to throw its whole force into the struggle with Austria. By the advice of Bonaparte a threefold movement was undertaken against Vienna, by way of Lombardy, by the valley of the Danube, and by the valley of the Main. General Jourdan, in command of the army that had conquered the Netherlands, was ordered to enter Germany by Frankfort; Moreau crossed the Rhine at Strasburg: Bonaparte himself, drawing his scanty supplies along the coast-road from Nice, faced the allied forces of Austria and Sardinia upon the slopes of the Maritime Apennines, forty miles to the west of Genoa. The country in which he was about to operate was familiar to Bonaparte from service there in 1794; his own descent and language gave him singular advantages in any enterprise undertaken in Italy. Bonaparte was no Italian at heart; but he knew at least enough of the Italian nature to work upon its better impulses, and to attach its hopes, so long as he needed the support of Italian opinion, to his own career of victory. [Condition of Italy.]