We have to note that in all these early battles of the French Republic, the victors--for they were nearly always victorious--came with the pretence, at all events, that their purpose was to relieve the populace from their burdens, their dukes and archdukes and kings. Accordingly they set up this Tiberine Republic along the Tiber, and the Transpadane Republic, of the country beyond the river Po, and the Cis-Alpine Republic on this side of the Alps, and so on. We have already seen how they had set up the Batavian Republic in Holland. By these fine promises and pretences they gained much favour with the civil population in all countries. In 1798 Napoleon was no longer in Italy: he was in Egypt, intent on extending the French power over the East--thus quickly had events moved since France, only three or four years before, had been fighting for her very existence among the nations of Europe! {169} It was English sea-power that foiled him in that Eastern enterprise, and in the following years he was back again--badly needed. For there was war again with the Austrians, who had recuperated their forces in North Italy, and the fortunes of the war were going all against the French. They had been forced to retire from Italy and from a part of Switzerland which they had held. French armies, moreover, had suffered defeat on the Rhine, and in consequence the Directory had fallen from popular favour. [Sidenote: The First Consul] Rather as our Cromwell had once appeared, backed by his Ironsides, in Parliament, so now Napoleon made a dramatic entry into the Council Hall of the French Government. There was a cry from some of the legislators of "No Dictator," which Napoleon's friends, doubtless according to plan, chose to interpret as an attack on Napoleon's person. His soldiers entered, and turned the Assembly out of the Hall. The Assembly was dissolved, and a new constitution formed which entrusted the Government for ten years to three consuls, of whom Napoleon was nominated as the First Consul. The other two might be relied on to do his dictates. Thus, by the end of 1799 he was the virtual ruler of France. By his diplomacy he came to terms with Russia, but Austrian armies still held North Italy. Taking the command again of the Army of Italy, he repeated the chief incidents of the former campaign. Again he crossed the Alps unexpectedly; again he beat the Austrians in Lombardy; the terms of the treaty which had ended the former battles were reaffirmed in 1801, and before the end of 1800 French victories on the Rhine had re-established the position there. Again there was a breathing space.