Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois

In a series of skirmishes, Vaubois was driven out of Trento and pushed back to Calliano where his command was defeated on 7 November.

The French won the three-day battle of Arcole on 17 November, the same day that Davidovich beat Vaubois again at Rivoli Veronese.

Today he is most often remembered in Malta, where Napoleon appointed him Commandant en chef des Isles de Malte et du Goze) on 19 June 1798, just seven days after the Knights Hospitaller, rulers of this archipelago from 1530, signed a surrender on board L'Orient, Napoleon's flagship.

(Nelson's fleet destroyed L'Orient on 1 August at Abū Qīr Bay in the Battle of the Nile; the Knights' treasures are still on the bottom of sea there.)

They abolished papal jurisdiction, authorized civil marriage, expelled all priests, regular clergy and nuns who were not native of Malta, and plundered the churches of gold and silver artifacts and paintings.

Furthermore, French draining of most of the cash of the Monte di Pietà and the Massa frumentaria precipitated an unprecedented financial crisis.

They dispatched to a petition to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, their official Suzerain, in Naples, to help them in their struggle against the French occupiers.

On 28 October Gozo Island fell as the French commander there surrendered himself and his 217 men to Captain Ball.

Expecting the imminent French capitulation, Nelson wrote to Ball in January 1799: ... Respecting the situation of Malta with the King of Naples, it is this – he is the legitimate Sovereign of the Island: therefore, I am of opinion his Flag should fly.

Unite their Flag with England's, if it cannot, from the disposition of the Islanders, fly alone.In February 1799, the Maltese insurgents, having lost hope in an intervention of King Ferdinand, requested that Ball, who had previously landed near the village of Qrendi on the south of the island, preside over the National Assembly.

In March, the Congress appealed to King George III to assume sovereignty over Malta, but no answer came from Pitt's ministry.

The whole Maltese population, running short of essential provisions, was living close to famine so that the siege was turning into a race of which side would starve first.

French preparations had dragged on until Napoleon—now Premier Consul—appointed Contre-amiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée to command a relief expedition.

Finally, on 4 September 1800, Vaubois sent an emissary under a flag of truce to the British commander Major-General Henry Pigot.

The following day, Pigot and Captain George Martin, RN, negotiated terms of surrender with General Vaubois and Contre-amiral Villeneuve.

The British granted Vaubois and the French fair terms and the honours of war, including the right to keep their arms and spoils.