In the winter of 1798-99 he crossed the desert and flung himself upon Syria. He turned the Turks out of the southern part of the land, and won a great victory over them at Mount Tabor. But before the walls of the seaport of Acre he was brought to a standstill, not so much by the gallantry of the Turkish garrison, as by the activity of a small English squadron under Sir Sidney Smith, which harassed the besiegers, threw supplies into the town, and landed men to assist the pasha when the French tried to take the place by storm. Bonaparte used to say in later days that but for Sidney Smith he might have died as Emperor of the East. At last he was forced to raise the siege and to retreat on Egypt, where he found startling news awaiting him [May, 1799].
Renewed coalition against France.
While he was absent in the East, Pitt had found means to start a new coalition against France, in which both Russia and Austria were engaged. The imbecile Directory was quite unable to keep these foes at bay. An Austro-Russian army drove the French completely out of Italy, and at the same time another Austrian army defeated them in Germany and thrust them back to the Rhine, while an English force, under the Duke of York, landed in Holland, to threaten the northern frontiers of the Republic.
Return of Bonaparte.
Bonaparte had expected something of the kind, knowing the imbecility of the Directory, and he was now ready to pose as the saviour of France, and to make a bid for supreme power, for his ambition ran far beyond that of being merely the chief of French generals. Leaving his army in Egypt, he ran the gauntlet of the English fleet, and safely reached France.
Bonaparte "First Consul."
The accusations of mismanagement which he brought against the Directory were supported by French public opinion, especially by that of the army. With small difficulty Bonaparte dethroned the Directory, and dispersed by force of arms the "Council of Five Hundred" which represented parliamentary government. He then instituted a new form of constitution, which was in reality, though not in shape, a military despotism. Under the title of "First Consul" he became the supreme ruler of France (November, 1799).
Battles of Marengo and Hohenlinden.—Peace of Luneville.
The nation acquiesced in this change because Bonaparte had pledged himself to save France from the coalition, if he was entrusted with a dictatorship. He kept his word. Crossing the Alps by the pass of the Great St. Bernard, where no large army had crossed before, he got into the rear of the Austrians in Italy, and then beat them at the battle of Marengo (June, 1800). Cut off from their retreat, the Austrians had to surrender, and all Italy fell back into the hands of Bonaparte. Later in the same year the French won an equally crushing victory in South Germany, at Hohenlinden, where General Moreau annihilated the Austrian army of the north. Russia had already withdrawn from the coalition, for the eccentric Czar Paul had conceived a great admiration for Bonaparte, and did not object to a despot though he hated a republic. The Duke of York had been driven out of Holland long before, and France was triumphant all along the line. Austria, threatened with invasion at once on the west and the south, was forced to ask for peace, and by the peace of Luneville recognized Napoleon as ruler of France (1801).
Lord Wellesley and Tippoo Sultan.—Southern India subdued.