He was going to turn his conquests toward the East; and vast plans, with vague and indefinite outlines, were forming in the narrow confines of his restless brain.

But these were interrupted by unexpected conditions.
In 1796 the military genius of a young man twenty-seven years old electrified Europe.

Napoleon Bonaparte, at the head of a ragged, unpaid French army, overthrew Northern Italy, and out of the fragments created a Cisalpine Republic.

The possession of the Ionian Isles, quickly followed by the occupation of Egypt, threatened the East.

So Turkey and Russia, contrary to all old traditions, formed a defensive alliance, which was quickly followed by an offensive one between Russia and Austria.