2nd, 1800), and the turning of her fortresses on the Mincio by the
brilliant passage of the Splügen in the depths of winter by
Macdonald--a feat far transcending that of Bonaparte at the St.
Bernard--to compel her to a peace. A description of these events would
be beyond the scope of this work; and we now return to consider the
career of Bonaparte as a statesman.

After a brief stay at Milan and Turin, where he was received as the
liberator of Italy, the First Consul crossed the Alps by the Mont
Cenis pass and was received with rapturous acclaim at Lyons and Paris.
He had been absent from the capital less than two calendar months.

He now sent a letter to the Czar Paul, offering that, if the French
garrison of Malta were compelled by famine to evacuate that island, he
would place it in the hands of the Czar, as Grand Master of the
Knights of St. John. Rarely has a "Greek gift" been more skilfully
tendered. In the first place, Valetta was so closely blockaded by
Nelson's cruisers and invested by the native Maltese that its
surrender might be expected in a few weeks; and the First Consul was
well aware how anxiously the Czar had been seeking to gain a foothold
at Malta, whence he could menace Turkey from the south-east. In his
wish completely to gain over Russia, Bonaparte also sent back,
well-clad and well-armed, the prisoners taken from the Russian armies
in 1799, a step which was doubly appreciated at Petersburg because the
Russian troops which had campaigned with the Duke of York in Holland
were somewhat shabbily treated by the British Government in the
Channel Islands, where they took up their winter quarters. Accordingly
the Czar now sent Kalicheff to Paris, for the formation of a
Franco-Russian alliance. He was warmly received. Bonaparte promised in
general terms to restore the King of Sardinia to his former realm and