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CHAPTER VI.

SUCH were the First Consul's instructions to Ney, and such the duties he had to perform. As the agitation of Switzerland was likely to embroil Europe, it became expedient to put an end to it, dissolve the armed bands which still existed in the country, and place the power of the state in the hands of men prudent, disinterested, and capable of doing justice to the institutions by which they were to be governed. This mission, though flattering, was not unattended with difficulty. Berne, it is true, had accepted the mediation; Soleure had followed this example; and Friburg, which the insurgents had just evacuated, had hastened to acknowledge the act by which the country was to be saved from destruction. But the rest of SwitzerThe diet protested, and

land remained in arms. refused to dissolve itself; and Berne, at the very time it yielded to the will of France, obeyed with evident repugnance the government which that power had reinstated. Matters were in a state of extreme delicacy, and Ney was obliged to bend his will to some circumstances contrary to his opinions, the better to stifle the passions in ferment around

him. The government, however, continued weak and vacillating; it seemed fearful of committing an act of firmness. Dolder, its president, was an Argovian manufacturer, of the strictest honesty and morality; but passive, indifferent, governed alternately by the opposite factions, and paying little attention to the administration of the laws. Neither he nor his colleagues dared to show the least resolution. In vain did Ney represent to them the importance of the circumstances under which they were placed, and point out to them the duties prescribed by the act of mediation :-he obtained nothing but sterile protestations and empty assurances. They had been four days at Berne, and no public measure had yet been taken. Ney went to the senate, and endeavoured to make the senators assume an attitude consistent with their authority; but all his remonstrances were unavailing. very name of Reding threw these pusillanimous magistrates into an agony of dread; and Ney was obliged to repeat the assurance he had already given them, that he would disperse the diet of Schweitz, and take care that the decrees of the senate should be executed. This declaration having given them a little confidence, they appointed three of their members to proceed to Paris, and took the necessary measures for the election of the other deputies, who were to proceed thither as the representatives of the different cantons.

The

The diet, on the other hand, was not less waver

ing and undecided; and, although it did not break up, it appeared more disposed to act on the defensive than on the offensive, and to have no other object in view than uttering silly declamation about its pretended rights. Colonel Rapp, a little ashamed at having been made its dupe, had gone to summon it to fulfil its engagements; but, from the peculiar bent of his mind, Rapp was the least qualified of any man to carry on such a negotiation. Kind-hearted, of easy temper, and naturally disposed to espouse the cause of the weaker party, he confined his attack to Reding's dissertations, and obtained no other result from his excursion than the announcement of the resolution, nay, the necessity under which the assembly of Schweitz felt itself, of waiting for the appearance of the French troops before it broke up. Ney was less complying. The diet seemed straining to keep up agitation throughout the country, and propagate vain hopes among the people. Sometimes it boasted of the support of Great Britain; at others it spread reports of troubles at Paris ;-one day Austria was marching to the assistance of the Swiss Cantons; the next brought news of the overthrow of the First Consul. There was no kind of absurdity which it did not propagate for the sole purpose of increasing the irritation of the people. Ney despatched a summons calling upon it to disperse forthwith; and directed the officer entrusted with the message, to threaten it with the national vengeance, if it dared any longer to delay. But it was now in no situation to obey

the summons; for, being itself suspected of indifference to the cause of the confederation, it was governed by its guards, and could adopt no measure which was not agreeable to them. It was moreover imbued with Reding's notion, that it could not, without dishonouring itself in the eyes of Europe, break up until the French columns should appear and dissolve it by force.

Ney was therefore obliged to recur to force to carry his point, and accordingly put his troops in motion; but the diet was beforehand with him: the armed bands, collected by means of beacon fires, and other signals, quickly assembled round their standards. Formidable columns were speedily collected upon the right bank of the Reuss, and extended from Lucerne to the conflux of this river. From the nature of the mountains in which they were, they had the power of keeping up a resistance which could be overcome only at the expense of torrents of blood. To combat and defeat these troops, was nevertheless not very difficult; but Ney considered that violence had always better be avoided, and that a friendly intervention ought to be conducted by pacific means alone. He had a lieutenant able to comprehend the importance of his mission; and to this officer Ney stated his apprehensions, and submitted his plans for counteracting those of the confederates. Séras was this able assistant; he entered fully into Ney's views, and was entrusted with the command of the movement. He was a prudent and

able soldier, and knew full well how to make allowances for the feelings of men under political excitement. He perceived that the diet, fully sensible of its weakness, and of the folly of resistance, was desirous only to save appearances, and he humoured it in this desire. Having drawn out his forces, he paraded, affected rapid marches, and displayed to the affrighted deputies the prospect of an immediate attack. They who until now had only beheld war at a remote distance, drew back in affright from the conflagration that seemed about to be kindled. Backmann was the first to lay down This noble-minded man, though without fortune or prospects, and already advanced in years, voluntarily doomed himself to exile, rather than continue a struggle which would no doubt have encircled his brows with laurels, but would have reduced his country to wretchedness.

his arms.

Séras, whose march was becoming more free, advanced to Lucerne, Zug, and Sarnen, all of which he occupied without obstacle. But the case was different at Zurich: there, resistance had long been prepared, and the struggle seemed likely to become serious. Séras marched upon that place at the head of seven battalions of infantry, the 3rd chasseurs, and a company of light artillery. Scarcely, however, did the troops of the confederation, then in position upon the Aar, perceive the French advancing towards them, than they fell back in great haste. Séras followed them, pressed his march, and after a pursuit of fifteen leagues, came up with them on

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