Bernadotte, who openly sympathized with Jacob and was hated by Napoleon, was no longer in the way. Augero was on his way to Paris, and Melito had gone to Turin to negotiate a new treaty with Piedmont and the King of Saldean.
General Augeiro successfully carried out the coup d'état of Fruitmoon as soon as he returned to Paris. The Republic eliminated the royalists and moderate members of the parliament and replaced them with the politicians of the Jacob faction. This strengthened the influence of the Jacques faction in the Five Hundred and the Senate, as well as in the Palace of the Grand Duke and the former royal palace of the House of Bourbon. (The Five Hundred had tried to get Gaspar Monge, soon to be a friend and ally of Napoleon, into the Directorate-General, but had failed because he was in Italy.）At the same time, ironically, it was this successful coup that placed great pressure on Napoleon, because General Clark was going to Udi to negotiate with Austria as a mediator of the Directorate.
Although preliminary peace terms had been signed in Leoben on April 15, Napoleon managed to delay the Udi negotiations for several months, while the expedition continued. The activities behind the scenes were complicated and intense. Lavalette, who had been sent by Napoleon to Paris to negotiate with the Directorate-General, hurried back to Udi to inform Napoleon of the volatile situation in the capital. The new Directorate-General had dismissed Clark and was very uneasy about Napoleon's intention to give Venice to Austria. More importantly, Lavalette revealed that the new Directorate-General had sent a secret envoy to Udi, not only forbidding Napoleon from signing the treaty, but also ordering him to return to France immediately.
Napoleon had to admit defeat. If he wanted to be the one to conclude the treaty, he had to sign it immediately. At ten o'clock on the evening of October 17, 1797, he reluctantly gathered all the negotiable parties to sign the Campo Formio treaty. Two hours later, he sent Bertier and Monge back to Paris. As soon as they left, a special envoy from the Directorate arrived and informed Napoleon that they were looking forward to seeing the hero of the 13th of Portugal again. Napoleon dealt with the Directorate-General, but his future was unpredictable and difficult to grasp.
According to this important treaty, Austria officially recognized the ceding of Austria, the Netherlands, and the left bank of the Rhine River, not to mention the three islands of Lombardy and Venice conquered by France. Napoleon also gave Austria more than half of the Republic of Venice, of course, after many 11th-century Byzantine works of art in San Marco were looted.(Under Monge's insistence, France plundered a large number of expensive oil paintings from the capital of Venice and also plundered the four bronze horses that the Venice people had transported from the Roman Gate of Kaixuan to San Marco.)
In addition to the Campo Formio treaty, Bertier and Monge also brought military flags. It was a huge tricolor flag. On one side of it were the words: To the Italian army, a gift from the motherland. The other side recorded Napoleon's battles, battlefields, and results, including the capture of 150,000 prisoners, the capture of 170 military flags, 550 cannons, 600 mountain cannons, 5 pontoon teams, 9 gunboats equipped with 64 cannons, 12 three-masted fleets equipped with 32 cannons... At the same time, it also recorded his diplomatic achievements, including the successful cooperation with the King of Sardinia, the King of Genaya, the Grand Duke of Parma, the King of Napoli, The negotiations between the Vatican Pope and the King of Austria. The flag also recorded all the places and people liberated by the French army, including Bologna, Frara, Modena, Lombardy, Brescia, Mantua, Colimona, Valentine, Genaya, and some of the king's fiefs. Next was a list of some of the masterpieces of the Renaissance that were now on their way to Paris--these Italian masterpieces would never have to worry about being stolen again!
On October 25, Monge and Bertier arrived in Paris and presented the treaty and the flag to the Directorate-General. The governors were extremely dissatisfied with the Campo Formio treaty. At the same time, the governors issued an order to recall Napoleon. At the beginning of the order, he expressed his gratitude to Napoleon for his outstanding achievements, then announced the removal of his prominent position as commander-in-chief of the Italian army and ordered him to return to France as the commander of the French garrison in the English Channel.
Bertier, who had been appointed to replace Napoleon, hurried back to Italy after receiving the order. When he arrived at the Palazzo de Montebello, he had to personally issue an order to his once dignified commander to dismiss him from his position as the commander-in-chief of the Italian army. Furious and helpless, Napoleon had to send Joseph, Brenner, and Colonel Charles back to Paris to arrange accommodation while he stayed behind to handle the handover procedures. I could no longer take orders from them. The next day, when passing through Turin for a short stop, the restless Napoleon revealed to Meritto that he had made up his mind to leave France if he could not become the master of France. They continued their journey through Basel to Germany. In the last week of November, Napoleon discussed the implementation of the treaty with the emissary of the Empire in Rushstat. Finally, he crossed the Rhine River to the French border and returned to Paris on December 5.
The French capital, which was looking forward to the return of Napoleon, was immersed in ecstasy. Under the strong pressure of the public, the Directorate-General had to hold a grand welcoming ceremony for the hero in the Palace of Luxerburgh.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand, gave a speech welcoming the conclusion of the Campo Formio Peace Agreement, which had won two new provinces for France. Next was a brief reply from Napoleon, in which he gave a warning that almost no one noticed: One day, when the happiness of the French people is guaranteed by the most effective laws, Europe will be free. The meaning of this sentence was very profound. Perhaps a few people would be slightly surprised, but it was also dispelled by Ballas's flowery praise. The tragic revolution of the French people had created a new genius who was among the historical celebrities.
A few days later, the two Houses of Parliament (the Senate and the Committee of Five Hundred) arranged an even more magnificent welcoming feast in the Louvre gallery, which was further augmented by a large number of precious oil paintings by Michelangelo, Titian, Veronese, Grecchio, Raphael, and Da Vinci, shipped from Italy as trophies. Napoleon was tired of the applause and praise. He wasn't very interested in the banquet that was attended by nearly 800 people. Instead, he enjoyed the opera that he went to watch with Joseph. However, every time he appeared in the theater, the spotlight would shine on his box, accompanied by thunderous applause. This bothered him, and he kept backing away from the spotlight. On the other hand, Joseph was calm. Her diamond ring sparkled under the light. She smiled and bowed frequently. Believing that these praises were fleeting, Napoleon later revealed to Brenner: The people of Paris had always been forgetful... In this colorful metropolis, if you praised someone today, you would forget about him tomorrow and replace him with a new and more fashionable hero.
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