The British had really disgusted Franz with that move to snatch the fruits of his labor, but fortunately, he had prepared a fallback long ago.
Napoleon III had long been troubled by his lack of any real leverage, leaving him little room to maneuver at the negotiating table.
As it happened, he learned through a secret channel that the Austrian army was about to withdraw from the Malta Islands and Cyprus. An accomplished opportunist, he immediately recognized both the potential gains and the risks.
The Malta Islands were British territory by right. Any country daring to occupy them would be declaring war on Britain.
Although Britain had just suffered one serious setback after another in the Mediterranean, no country doubted that it remained the undisputed ruler of the world's oceans.
Cyprus, however, was different. In name, it still belonged to the Ottoman Empire, giving France every justification for an expedition there.
So the Cypriot garrison, which had just been preparing to raise the British flag, was promptly beaten senseless by the French Army. Under the French Army's coercion and inducements, they had no choice but to admit they were troops of the Ottoman Empire.
The situation in the Malta Islands was somewhat better. No country dared lay claim to British territory—though that did not include a few gangs and vagrants from Southern Italy.
The Austrian Imperial Navy had only ever controlled a handful of important harbors, so most of the islands had been without government authority ever since the war began.
This kind of chaos was exactly what gangs and vagrants loved. Besides, Malta Island was close to Sicily, and they could easily reach it by boat.
When the Austrian army first attacked Malta Island, it had set out from Sicily, catching the British completely off guard.
Besides, Britain, a