Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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a.d.
1796]
Paul's
eccentricities.
1G5
himself
in
the
imperial
mantle,
let
the
grand-duke
peep
out
;
that
he
thought
to
govern
a vast
empire
as
he
had
governed
his
Pavlofsky;
his
capital,
like
his
house
;
and
thirty
millions
of
men
of
all
ranks
and all
nations,
like a
score of
lacqueys.
Of
all
the
unforeseen
changes
which Paul introduced
without
any preparation,
those which he made in the
army
were the most
extensive and
the
most
impolitic.
Unques-
tionably,
there was
room for
great
reforms
in
the
military
department
;
but all he
was
capable
of
doing
was
to
multiply
irregular
promotions,
increase
a staff
already
too
numerous,
and alter
uniforms,
ranks,
terms,
and
titles.
"
The Eussian
army,"
saysMasson,
"
offered a
pattern
to be followed
in the
beauty,
simplicity,
and
convenience of
its
dress,
equally
adapted
to the
climate
and to the
genius
of
the
country."
But
this was
now
changed
for the
ancient dress
of
Germany,
which
the Eussian
soldier
abominated;
his fair
locks,
which
he loved to
wash
every
morning,
he had
now to bedaub
with
grease
and
flour
;
and he had
to
spend
an
hour
in
buttoning
his
black
spatterdashes,
which
he cursed for
pinching
his
legs.
When Suvarof
received orders to establish these
novelties,
with
little sticks
for
models of the soldiers'
tails
and
side-curls,
he
said,
"
Hair-powder
is not
gunpowder
;
curls are
not
cannon;
and tails
are not
bayonets."
This
sarcasm,
which
is
not
destitute
of
wit,
and forms in the
Eussian
language
a sort of
apophthegm
in
rhyme,
soon
spread
from
mouth to mouth
through
the
army,
and
was the
true
reason
that induced
Paul
to
recal
Suvarof,
and
dismiss
him
from
the service.
It was
the
same
with
the
changes
which he made
in civil
all airs.
His
wish
was to
alter,
not to
improve.
Por
any-
thing
to
have
subsisted
under the
reign
of his
mother,
was
a
sufficient
reason
why
it
should cease
under
him. All the
tribunals,
all
the
governments
of the
empire,
were
re-
modelled,
and
their
seats
changed.
That which had been
consecrated
by
its
name
(Ekaterinoslaf)
to
the
glory
of
Catharine was
abolished.* It
is
easy
to
imagine
the
con-
*
There
was
nothing
so
trifling
to which Paul did not
descend,
to
show
disrespect
to
his
mother's
memory.
The
persons
belonging
to
her
wore
rings,
on
which
the
date of
her
decease
was
enamelled.
The
emperor
expressed
his
dissatisfaction
at
it;
and
they
were
obliged
to
wear
rings
with
the
motto,
Paul
consoles
me.
166 HISTOKY OF ETTSSIA.
[CH.
L.
fusion,
injustice,
wretchedness,
and
ruin,
that such
changes
of
places
must have
produced
iu Russia
;
more than
twenty
thousand
gentlemen
were
thrown out of
employ.
If
this
new
reign
was
fatal
to the
army
and to
the
poor
gentry,
it
was still
more
so
to the
unhappy peasantry.
A
report
being
spread
that Paul was
about
to restrict the
power
of masters over their
slaves,
and
give
the
peasants
of
the
lords the same
advantages
as those of
the
crown,
the
people
of the
capital
were much
pleased
with the
hopes
of
this
change.
At
this
juncture
an officer
set off for
his
regiment,
which
lay
at
Oremberg.
On
the
road
he was
asked
about the
new
emperor,
and what new
regulations
he
was
making.
He related
what he
had
seen,
and what
he had
heard
;
among
the
rest,
mentioning
the ukase
which
was
soon
to
appear
in favour
of the
peasants.
At this
news,
those
of Tver and
Novgorod
indulged
in
some tumultuous
actions,
which
were considered
as
symptoms
of rebellion.
Their masters
were
violently enraged
with
them
;
and
the
cause that had
led them
into error was discovered.
Marshal
liepnin
was
immediately
despatched
at
the
head
of some
troops
against
the
insurgents
;
and
the officer
who
had
unwittingly given
rise
to this false
hope,
by
retailing
the
news
of
the
city
on his
road,
was
soon
brought
back in
confinement. The senate
of
Petersburg judged
him deserv-
ing
of
death,
and condemned
him to be
broken,
to
undergo
the
punishment
of
the
knout,
and
if he survived
this,
to
labour
in
the mines. The
emperor
confirmed
the sentence.
This
was the
first
criminal
trial that
was
laid before
the
public
;
and
assuredly
it
justified
but too
well those
remains
of
shame
which had
before
kept
secret
similar
outrages.
The
most
prominent
of
Paul's
eccentricities
was
that
mania
which,
from his
childhood,
he
displayed
for
the
military
dress
and
exercise.
This
passion
in
a
prince
no
more
indicates
the
general
or
the hero
than
a
girl's
fondness
for
dressing
and
undressing
her
doll
foretokens that she
will
be
a
good
mother.
Prederick
the
Great,
the most
accomplished
sol-
dier of his
time,
is
well known to have
had
from
his
boy-
hood
the
most
insuperable repugnance
to
all
those
mi-
nutiae
of
a
corporal
to
which his father
would
have sub-
jected
him
;
this was even the first source
of
that
disagree-
ment
which ever
subsisted between
the
father
and
the son.
A.D.
1796]
PAEALLEL
BETWEEN
PAUL I. AND PETER
III.
167
Frederick,
however,
became a hero
;
his father was
never
anything
more than
a
corporal.
Peter
III.
pushed
his
soldato-mania
to a ridiculous
point,
fancying
he made
Fre-
derick his model.
He loved soldiers
and
arms,
as a man
loves
horses and
dogs.
He knew
nothing
but
how
to
exer-
cise
a
regiment,
and
never went
abroad but
in
a
captain's
uniform. This Peter
III. at the head of
a
regiment
so
well
drilled
by
himself,
had not the
courage
to face a
young
woman who
marched
to
meet
him with a
few
companies
of
the
very
same
guards
who were
totally
ignorant
of the Prus-
sian exercise.
He lost
both his
crown
and
his life without
daring
to defend them.
Paul,
in his
mode
of life when
grand-duke,
and
his
conduct
after his
accession,
so
strongly
resembled
his
father,
that,
changing
names and
dates,
the
history
of the one
might
be
taken
for
that of
the
other.
Both
were
educated
in a
perfect
ignorance
of
business,
and
resided at a distance
from
court,
where
they
were treated
as
prisoners
of state
rather than
heirs to
the crown
;
and
whenever
they presented
themselves,
appeared
as aliens and
strangers,
having
no concern
with
the
royal
family.
The
aunt of
the father
(Elizabeth)
acted
pre-
cisely
as did the mother of
the son.
The endeavours
of each
were
directed
to
prolong
the
infancy
of
their
heirs,
and to
perpetuate
the feebleness of
their minds.
The
young
princes
were both
distinguished
by
personal
vivacity
and
mental
in-
sensibility,
by
an
activity
which,
imtrained and
neglected,
degenerated
into turbulence
;
the
father was
sunk
in de-
bauchery,
the son lost in the
most
insignificant
trifles.
An
unconquerable
aversion
to
study
and reflection
gave
to
both
that
infatuated
taste for
military parade,
which
would
pro-
bably
have
displayed
itself less
forcibly
in Paul
had
he
been
a
witness of the
ridicule
they
attached to Peter.
The educa-
tion of
Paul, however,
was much
more attended to
than that
of his
father. He
was
surrounded
in
infancy
by
persons
of
merit,
and
his
youth
promised
a
capacity
of no
ordinary
kind.
It must also
be allowed
that
he
was
exempt
from
many
of
the
vices
which
disgraced
Peter;
temperance
and
regularity
of manners
were
prominent
features
of his character
—
fea-
tures the more
commendable,
as
before his mother
ami
him-
self
they
were
rarely
to
be
found in
a
Russian
autocrat.
To
the
same
cause,
education,
and
his
knowledge
of
the
168
HISTORY OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
L.
language
and
character
of
the
nation,
it was
owing
that
he
differed from
his
father in
other
valuable
qualities.
The
similarity
which,
in some
instances,
marked
their
conduct
towards their
wives,
is
still more
striking
;
and
in
their
amours,
a
singular
coincidence
of taste is
observable.
Catharine and
Marie
were
the most beautiful women
of tho
court,
yet
both failed to
gain
the
affections
of their
husbands.
Catharine
had an ambitious
soul,
a
cultivated
mind,
and
the
most
amiable and
polished
manners.
In a
man, however,
whose
attachments were confined to
soldiers,
to
the
pleasures
of
the
bottle,
and
the fumes of
tobacco,
she excited no
other
sentiment
than
disgust
and aversion. He was smitten with
an
object
less
respectable,
and less difficult to
please.
The
countess
Vorontzof, fat,
ugly
in her
person
and
vulgar
in her
manners,
was
more suitable to his
depraved
military
taste,
and
she
became
his mistress.* In like
manner,
the
regular
beauty
of
Marie,
the unalterable
sweetness
of her
disposition,
her
unwearied
complaisance,
her
docility
as
a
wife,
and
her
tenderness as a
mother,
were not sufficient
to
prevent
Paul
from
attaching
himself to Mademoiselle
Nelidof,
whose dis-
position
and
qualities
better accorded with his
own,
and
afterwards to
a
young
lady
of the name of
Lapukhin,
who,
it is
believed,
rejected
his suit. To the honour
of Paul it
is
related that
he
submitted to that
mortifying repulse
with
the most
chivalric
patience
and
generosity.
Nelidof
was
ugly
and
diminutive,
but seemed
desirous,
by
her wit
and
address,
to
compensate
for the
disadvantages
of her
person
;
for
a
woman to
be
in
love
with Paul
it was
necessary
she
should
resemble him.
On
their
accession to
the
throne,
neither the
father
nor
the
son were
favourites
with the
court
or the
nation,
yet
both
acquired
immediate
popularity
and
favour.
The first
steps
of
Paid
appeared
to be
directed,
but
improved,
by
those
of
Peter.
The
liberation
of
Kosciusko and
other
prisoners
brought
to
public
recollection
the recal of
Biren, Munich,
and
Lestocq,
with
this
difference,
that Peter
III.
did
not
disgrace
these acts
of
clemency
and
justice
by
ridiculous
violences,
or
by
odious
and
groundless
persecutions.
Both
*
She
got
drunk
with
him,
and
swore like
a
trooper:
she
squinted,
and
spat
when she was
talking.
A.D.
1796]
PARALLEL
BETWEEN
PAUL
I.
AND
PETEE
III. 169
issued
ukases
extremely
favourable
to the
nobility,
but from
motives
essentially
different,
and little to
the honour of the
son.
The
father
granted
to
the
Russian
gentry
those natural
rights
which
every
man
ought
to
enjoy
;
while
the son at-
tempted
the
folly
of
creating
a heraldic
nobility
in
Russia,
where
that
Gothic institution
had
never
been
known.
In
the conduct
which
he observed
towards the
clergy,
Paul,
however,
showed
himself
a
superior politician.
Instead
of
insulting
the
priests,
and
obliging
them to
shave their
beards,
he bestowed
the orders of
the
empire
on the
bishops,
to
put
them
on a
footing
with
the
nobility,
and flattered the
populace
and
the
priesthood by
founding
churches,
in obe-
dience
to
pretended
inspiration.
In his
military
operations,
however,
his
policy appears
to
have abandoned
him,
because here he
gave
the reins to Ins
ruling
passion.
The
quick
and
total
change
of
discipline
he
introduced
in his
armies,
created
him
nearly
as
many
enemies
as there
Avere
officers
and
soldiers.
In the distrust
and sus-
picions
which
incessantly
haunted
him,
his
inferiority
to his
father
is
also evident.
One of
the first acts
of Peter III.
was
to abolish
the
political
inquisition
established
by
Eliza-
beth
;
whereas
Paul
prosecuted
no
scheme with
greater
alacrity
than
that
of
establishing
a
system
of
spies,
and de-
vising
means for
the
encouragement
of
informers.
The
blind
confidence
of
the father
was his
ruin,
but it flowed
from a
humanity
of
disposition
always worthy
of
respect.
The dis-
trust
of
the son did
not save
him
;
it was the
offspring
of
a
timorous
mind,
which
by
its
suspicions
was more
apt
to
pro-
voke
than to elude treason.
170
HISTORY OP
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LI.
CHAPTER
LI.
THE SECOND
COALITION
—
CAMPAIGN
IN
ITALY AND
SWITZERLAND.
Whatever
had
been
Paul's motives for
recalling
the
60,000
troops
which
had
marched under
Suvarof as far as
Gralicia,
on
their
way
to
assail
the
French
republicans,
intense
abhorrence
of
the
latter
was one of the few
points
in which
there was
a
complete
coincidence
of sentiment between
Catharine
and her son.
He
gave
an
asylum
to
Louis
XVIII.
in the
capital
of
Courland,
and behaved with
munificence
to
the
emigrants
Avho
sought
refuge
in his dominions
—
but
always
on condition
that
they
did not offend
him
by
their
costume,
and
that
they
were
punctual
in their
religious
exercises.
Paul ordered
all the
strangers
who were
in
Russia
to
profess
the
religion
in
which
they
had been
brought
up.
Thus the Catholics
were
enjoined
strict observance
of the
rites
and commands
of the
Romish
church.
An ukase in
all
the
different
languages
was
posted
up,
enjoining every
one of
them,
under
pain
of
being
treated
as
rebels,
not to defer
the
holy
sacrament of
penance,
and
to
prepare
themselves for
receiving
the host
at Easter :
at the
same time the
priests
were
ordered
to
give
absolution
only
to
such as should
merit
it.
The
Catholic
church,
which
had before
been
empty,
was now
crowded
:
and the
priests
belonging
to
it, French,
Germans,
Italians,
and
Poles,
took
their seats
in
their
confessionals.
Before
every
confessional
a box
was
set
up,
into which the
penitent
was
obliged
to
drop
a
card,
containing
his
name,
profession,
and abode
;
and
every
evening
these cards
were
carried
to
the
emperor.
The
person
confessed
then
received
a ticket
of
absolution,
signed
by
the
priest,
which
admitted
him to the communion
table.
This ticket
was
likewise
a
card
of
security
to
him,
which he
produced,
when
requisite,
before
the
police.
Innkeepers
and house-owners
were directed
to
see
these orders
carried into
execution
with
respect
to
persons
lodging
in their
houses,
and
to inform
against
such
as
did not
frequent
the
churches,
or
who
wore
pantaloons,
A.D.
179S]
THE SECOND
COALITION. 171
round
hats,
or
lapelled
waistcoats.
The
sick were
charitably
informed
that
they
might
require
the
confessor
to attend
them at
home
;
and
the
poor,
that the host
should be carried
to
them
gratis.
We
may easily
conceive the
embarrassment of most of the
French,
who
before this had
lived
in
Russia as free as
pos-
sible with
regard
to
religious
opinions,
of
which the
govern-
ment
took
no
notice.
It was
necessary
to
submit,
however.
These
emigrants,
who
were
represented
to
Paul
as
libertines,
were
obliged
to
go regularly
to
mass,
walking
two
by
two,
between
a double row
of Eussian
soldiers.
Such
Catholics
as
were
in
easy
circumstances
soon found means
of
obtaining
tickets of
absolution,
even Avithout
confessing.
The
priests
sold
them
at
first
for
fifty
rubles
(51.),
then
twenty-five,
and
at last for ten
rubles
(11.)
a
piece, agreeing
to throw
the
cards into
the box
themselves
into the
bargain.*
Lord
Whitworfch,
the
English
ambassador,
who
had
induced
the
emperor
Paul to
sign
a
treaty
of commerce
with
England,
*
A
scene
that
passed
near this
Catholic
church
deserves notice
here.
Paul
caused a
service
to
be celebrated
in honour of
the duke of
Wur-
temberg,
father of
the
empress,
wlio had
just
died
at
Stutgard.
As
it
was not in
character
for him
to be
present
at
this
mass,
he
resolved
to
place
himself
at
the
head
of
the
grenadiers,
who
encompassed
the
church,
to
maintain
order. It
was
extremely
cold,
and
his
horse,
a
native no
doubt of a
warmer
climate,
could
not remain
motionless.
ry
of
bridling,
wheeling,
and
making
useless efforts
to
keep
him
still,
he
began
to
gallop through
the
street,
passing-
and
repassing
before
the
troops,
and a
great
crowd
of
people,
whom the
funeral
ceremony
and the
emperor's
attendance
had
attracted.
As Paul came
galloping
on,
the
crowd
took off
their hats and bowed themselves.
A
group
assembled on the
green bridge,
more than
four
hundred
paces
from
the
spot,
at
length
put
on their hats on account of the coldness
of the wea-
ther
and
the
distance.
Paul
spied
it,
and
ordered
them
immediately
to
be
surrounded
by
the
troops,
and sent
to the House
of Correction.
There were
fifty
or
sixty persons
of various conditions:
they
who
were
BOt nobles
were
whipped
three successive
days,
men
and
women
alike,
the
nobles
wire
degraded,
and
such
as
were
officers were
turned into
the ranks
as
common
soldiers.
Some time
after,
Paul
ordered
the
corpse
of
the
unfortunate
king
of
Poland to be
interred
in
the
same
church.
He
came
himself
to examine the funeral
decorations,
and
the
preparations
for the
ceremony.
An
upholsterer,
employed
on the
oc-
casion,
was at the
top
of a
ladder,
dressed
in
a
jacket
and
pantaloons
to
work more
commodiously.
Paul,
being
informed
he
was
a French-
man,
named
Leroux,
ordered him to come
down,
and
immediately
com-
manded
him
to he
bastinadoed in
the midst of the
church.
172
HISTORY
OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
LI.
afterwards
prevailed
upon
him
to
become
the
champion,
of
German interests.
The
emperor accordingly
issued his
orders to his ambassador
in
Vienna to
interpose
in
favour of
the maintenance of
the
integrity
of
Bavaria,
which had been
guaranteed
by
Eussia
at the
peace
of
Teschen.
Immediately
afterwards,
the
unexampled
demands which
the
representa-
tives of France
made
upon Germany
at
the
congress
of
Eastadt,
and
Bonaparte's
invasion
of
Egypt,
served to fill
up
the
measure
of
indignation
in the
mind of
the
autocratical
and
knightly
Paul.
He
published
a
declaration,
Avhich
was
really
equivalent
to the
proclamation
of a crusade
against
France,
and announced
that
he was
ready,
with all the force
of his
arms and resources
of his
empire,
to
assist in
restoring
the
old relations
amongst
the
European
states,
which
had
been
violently
disturbed
by
the
French.
During
the
negotiations preliminary
to the second
coalition
against
the
French,
the
latter,
by
the
occupation
of
Malta,
had
furnished
the Eussians with an
apparently
just
reason
for
taking
up
the
cause
of the
knights
;
and
by
Bonaparte's
descent
upon Egypt,
they
compelled
the sultan to
throw
himself into
the
arms
of
his
hereditary
foes,
the Eussians.
As to
Malta,
the
emperor
of
Eussia,
as
grand
prince
of the
order of St.
John,
had
warmly espoused
its cause. After
his
accession,
he
restored
the
grand priorate
of
Poland,
considerably
increased
the
revenues of the
order,
with
a
view to
establish
a Eussian
branch,
and distributed
its
dignities,
revenues,
and crosses with
a
liberal
hand. As
soon as
the
news
of the
capitulation
of
the
grand-master
reached
Eussia,
all
the
knights
who
were
then
within
the
empire
issued
a
protest.
In the
name
of the Eussian
grand
priorate
they
declared Ferdinand
von
Hompesch
and
his
companions
to be
traitors,
and
appealed
to the
protection
of
the
emperor
of
Eussia.
To that
appeal
he
responded
by
causing
the
knights
then
present
in
Eussia,
in
their
own
names,
and in those
of
their absent
brethren,
to
elect
him-
self,
a schismatic and a
married
man,
as
grand-master,
which
dignity
lie
solemnly
accepted
on the 13th
of
November,
1798.
From
this time forth
the
Turks
drew closer
to
the
English
and
Eussians,
and
entered
into a common alliance
with those
two
powers
to
drive the
French from their
possessions
in the
Ionian
Sea
and from
Egypt. Negotiations
were
mutually
A.D.
1799]
CAMPAIGN
IN
ITALY.
173
carried
on between the
Austrians
and
Eussians,
and an
auxiliary
treaty
was concluded
with
Naples
on
the
29th of
November,
1798,
aud
with
England
on
the_
29th
(18th)
of
December
of the same
year,
the
latter
agreeing
to an imme-
diate
advance of
225,000Z.,
and
to
pay
a
monthly
subsidy
of
75,000Z.
for the
45,000
men
who
were
to
be
furnished
by
the
emperor. Up
till the
very
moment
in which
the
treaty
was
concluded,
hopes
were
entertained
of
being
able
to draw
Erussia into the
alliance,
and
in
this case
the
45,000
Eussians
were to
join
the Prussians.
This
negotiation,
however,
having
failed,
a second
treaty
was concluded
on the
29th of
June,
1799,
according
to
which
the
45,000
men were
to be em-
ployed
wheresoever
England
should
see
fit
to determine.
On
the 2nd
of
January,
1799,
England
became
a
party
to the
treaty
between
the Porte
and
Russia.
A few
days
after
the
battle of
Magnano,
Suvarof arrived
on
the Mincio with
the first
division
of his
forces,
twenty-
thousand
strong,
and took the
command
of all the
allied
troops
in
Italy.
The
jealousy
of the
Austrian
generals
was
naturally
excited,
and
they
called
a council
of
war,
in
order
to
examine his
plans.
The
members
of the
council,
beginning
at the
youngest, proposed
their several
schemes.
Suvarof
quietly
heard them
all,
and when
they
had
done,
took
a
slate,
drew
two
lines,
and
said,
"
Here,
gentlemen,
are
the
French,
and
here
the Eussians
;
the
latter will
march
against
the
former
and
beat
them."
So
saying,
he
rubbed
out
the
French
line,
and
added,
"This is
all
my plan;
the
council.
is
(•(included."
Suvarof
kept
his
word,
and
iu less than three months
swept
the
French
entirely
out
of
Lombardy
and
Piedmont.
Thrusting
himself between the
three
French
armies of
Switzerland,
Northern
Italy,
and
the
Parthenopscan republic,
it was
his
purpose,
in concert with the archduke
Charles of
Austria,
to
penetrate
into
Erance on
its most
defenceless
side,
by
the
Yosges
and the
Jura,
the same
quarter
on which
the
great
invasion of
1814 was afterwards
effected. The
campaign opened
on the
25th
of
April,
on
the
steep
banks
of
the
Adda,
behind
which
Moreau had
posted
his
diminished
force of
28,000
men in
three
divisions. The
passage
was
forced
with
immense
loss
to the
French,
who were
compelled
to
abandon
Milan,
which
Suvarof
entered in
triumph
on tho
174
HISTORY
OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LI.
29th. After a
week's
delay,
during
which
all
the
principal
places
of
Lombardy
surrendered to
the
allies,
Suvarof
fol-
lowed
Moreau's
retreat,
and
endeavoured to
dislodge
him
from his
advantageous
position
on the
Po.
Not
succeeding
in this
attempt
as
rapidly
as
suited
his
impetuous habits,
the
Eussian
general
suddenly changed
his
purpose,
and
advanced
against
Turin,
whilst
Moreau
at
the
same
moment
had
resolved
to
retire
to
Turin
and
the
crests
of the
Apennines,
in
order
to
preserve
his
communications
with
Prance.
On
the
27th
of
May. Vukassovitch,
who
commanded
the
advanced
guard
of the
Eussians,
surprised
Turin,
and
forced
the
French to
take
refuge
in
the
citadel,
leaving
in
the
hands
of
the
victors
nearly
300
pieces
of
artillery,
60,000
muskets,
and
an
enor-
mous
quantity
of
ammunition
and
military
stores.
Moreau's
army
thus
deprived
of all
its
resources,
was saved
from
de-
struction
only
by
the
extraordinary
ability
of
its
commander,
who led it
safely
towards
Genoa
by
a
mountain
path,
which
was
rendered
practicable
for
artillery,
in
four
days.
With
the
exception
of
a
few
fortresses,
nothing
now
remained
to
the
French
of all
Napoleon's
conquests
in
Northern
Italy
;
they
had
been
lost
in
less
time
than
it
had
taken
to
make
them.
Exulting
in
the
brilliant
success
of
his
arms,
Paul
bestowed
another
surname,
Italienski,
or
the
Italian,
on
his
victorious
general,
and
ordered
by
an
express
ukase
that
Suvarof
should
be
universally
regarded
as the
greatest
commander that
had
ever
appeared.
Meanwhile
the
results of
his skill
and
vigour
were
neutralised
by
the
selfish
policy
of
the
Austrian
court,
which
had
become
by
the
treaty
of
Campo
Formio,
and
the
acquisition
of
Venice,
in
some
degree
an
actual
accomplice
with
the
aggressors
against
whom
it
was
in
arms.
Suvarof
was
compelled
to
submit
to
the
dictation
of the
emperor
Francis
I.,
and
deeply
disgusted,
he
declared
that he
was
no
longer
of
any
use
in
Italy,
and
that he
desired
nothing
so
ardently
as
to
be
recalled.*
*
Suvarof
s
correspondence
is
filled
with
bitter
complaints against
the
Austrians.
A
Russian
officer
of
his
staff
wrote at this
juncture
to
count
Rostopshin
at
St.
Petersburg:
"Our
glorious
operations
are
thwarted
by
those
very
persons
who
are
most
interested in
their
suc-
cess. Far
from
applauding
the
brilliant
triumph
of our
arms,
the
cursed
cabinet
of
Vienna
seeks
only
to
retard
their march.
It
insists
that our
great
Suvarof
should
divide
his
army,
and direct
it at
once to