CHAPTER XIII.
Retrospect--Buonaparte arrives in France--The Revolution of the 18th Brumaire--The Provisional Consulate.
We must now pause for a moment to indicate, however briefly and imperfectly, the course of events which had determined Napoleon to abandon the army of Egypt.
While the negotiations at Rastadt were still in progress, the Directory, on the most flimsy of pretences, marched an army into Switzerland; and, by vast superiority of numbers, overwhelmed the defence of the unprepared mountaineers.

The conquered cantons were formed into another republic of the new kind--to wit, "the Helvetian:" nominally a sister and ally, but really a slave of the French.

Another force, acting under orders equally unjustifiable, seized Turin, and dethroned the King of Sardinia.

Lastly, the Pope, in spite of all his humiliating concessions at Tollentino, saw a republican insurrection, roused by French instigation, within his capital.

Tumults and bloodshed ensued; and Joseph Buonaparte, the French ambassador, narrowly escaped with his life.