to play the part of a peace maker and to tie up the Bernese with negotiations until he could strike a decisive blow. By 1 February 1798, the Bernese Tagsatzung was too divided and dissolved itself. Brune entered into a truce with the Swiss which would last until 1 March. However, the French demands were so excessive that even the peace party in the Bernese Council chose to prepare to fight the French. They refused the French demands and ordered von Hindelbank to take the field against them. However, the divisions within the Senate paralyzed all of von Hindelbank's operations. Signs of insubordination appeared in his army; and although 5,000 or 6,000 Confederate troops arrived, they remained separate from the Bernese army and only formed a reserve. Meanwhile, the French rapidly advanced from both sides. By 2 March 1798, they occupied both Solothurn, north of Bern, and Fribourg to the south-west. On 5 March 1798, a Bernese army under von Grafenried achieved a decisive victory against the French at Neuenegg between Fribourg and Bern. However, on the same day, an army under the Schultheiss of Bern, von Steiger, and von Hindelbank was defeated by Schauenburg at Fraubrunnen. Their army was driven back to Grauholz, a few miles from Bern. A life-and-death struggle followed, with even women and children grabbing weapons and joining the battle. The battle lasted for three hours with Schultheiss von Steiger rallying the Bernese lines. The French attacked four times and drove back the defenders on each attack. While the battle still raged, news came to the army that Bern had surrendered. Von Erlach and von Steiger fled to the Bernese Oberland, intending to rally their troops, but the troops, mad with the suspicion that the capitulation was the result of treason, murdered the former and Steiger escaped to Vienna. On 5 March 1798, the French entered Bern in triumph, with Brune keeping up strict discipline in his troops. While he had declared on 22 February that the French came as friends and bearers of freedom and would respect the property of the Swiss citizens, in Bern he emptied the treasuries and magazines. On 10 and 11 March he sent off eleven four-horse wagons full of booty, nineteen banners, and three bears (which they nicknamed respectively Erlach, Steiger, and Weiss). They collected about 42 million francs worth of bullion, food, weapons and supplies, of which nearly 11