In the spring of 1799, Napoleon led his army into Syria, the Porte having joined a new coalition against France. He captured Gaza and Jaffa, and finally invested Acre. The Turks were assisted in the defence of this place by the distinguished English admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. [Footnote: The besieged were further assisted by a Turkish army outside. With these the French fought the noted Battle of Mount Tabor, in which they gained a complete victory.] All of Napoleon's attempts to carry the place by storm were defeated by the skill and bravery of the English commander. "That man Sidney," said Napoleon afterwards, "made me miss my destiny." Doubtless Napoleon's vision of conquests in the East embraced Persia and India. With the ports of Syria secured, he would have imitated Alexander, and led his soldiers to the foot of the Himalayas.
Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon abandoned the siege of Acre, and led his army back into Egypt. There his worn and thinned ranks were attacked near Aboukir by a fresh Turkish army, but the genius of Napoleon turned threatened defeat into a brilliant victory. The enthusiastic Kleber, one of Napoleon's lieutenants, clasping his general in his arms, exclaimed, "Sire, your greatness is like that of the universe."
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TIBERINE, HELVETIC, AND PARTHENOPÆAN REPUBLICS.—We must turn now to view affairs in Europe. The year 1798 was a favorable one for the republican cause represented by the Revolution. During that year and the opening month of the following one, the French set up three new republics. First, they incited an insurrection at Rome, made a prisoner of the Pope, and proclaimed the Roman, or Tiberine, Republic. Then they invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a commonwealth under the name of the Helvetic Republic. A little later the French troops drove the king of Naples out of his kingdom, and transformed that state into the Parthenopæan Republic. Thus were three new republics added to the commonwealths which the Revolution had already created.
THE REACTION: NAPOLEON OVERTHROWS THE DIRECTORY (18th and 19th Brumaire). —Most of this work was quickly undone. Encouraged by the victory of Nelson over the French fleet in the battle of the Nile, the leading states of Europe had formed a new coalition against the French Republic. Early in 1779 the war began, and was waged in almost every part of Europe at the same time. The campaign was on the whole extremely disastrous to the French. They were driven out of Italy, and were barely able to keep the allies off the soil of France. The Tiberine and the Parthenopæan Republics were abolished.
The reverses suffered by the French armies caused the Directory to fall into great disfavor. They were charged with having through jealousy exiled Napoleon, the only man who could save the Republic. Confusion and division prevailed everywhere. The royalists had become so strong and bold that there was danger lest they should gain control of the government. On the other hand, the threats of the Jacobins began to create apprehensions of another Reign of Terror.
News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Napoleon just after his victory in Egypt, following his return from Syria. He instantly formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of the army in Egypt to Kleber, he set sail for France, disclosing his designs in the significant words, "The reign of the lawyers is over."
Napoleon was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusiasm. A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the emergency demanded a dictator. Some of the Directors joined with Napoleon in a plot to overthrow the government. Meeting with opposition in the Council of Five Hundred, Napoleon with a body of grenadiers drove the deputies from their chamber (Nov. 9, 1799).
The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. Napoleon was master of France. The first French Republic was at an end, and what is distinctively called the French Revolution was over. Now commences the history of the Consulate and the First Empire,—the story of that surprising career, the sun of which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set forever at Waterloo.