France being engaged with more important objects than Corsica, or any thing concerning the Genoese, was no longer at leisure to employ her attention on that island. All Europe being now in agitation, she thought proper to recall her troops from Corsica. They accordingly quitted the island, in the end of the year 1741, leaving it in perfect submission and quietness; as was said of the Romans by Galgacus, the ancient Scottish chief, in his famous speech, upon the Grampian mountains: 'Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant[1]. Where they make a desart, they call it peace'
The French, indeed, knew the Corsicans too well, to believe, that they would submit to Genoa, when left to themselves. The event happened accordingly; for the French were hardly gone, before the Corsicans were again as much in motion as ever. Several of their countrymen, who were settled in different towns in Italy, furnished them with arms; and, as they had formerly done, they took a good many arms from the Genoese. From having been long depressed, like a strong bow recovering its elasticity, they rose with renewed vigour. Man,
- ↑ Tacit, de vit. Agric. cap. 30.
