The War of the Second Coalition was still being waged, and after the Battle of Marengo and Battle of Hohenlinden - both defeats for Austria in 1800 - the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801, in which France expanded into the Southern Netherlands and Luxembourg. The French Republic called for a vote from the inhabitants of the former states if they wanted to become French citizens and remain in a Franco-Belgian state, or whether to be exiled as foreigners and be dispossessed. Vesque told the resident French Minister in Vienna, "citoyen" Champagny, that he wished to be Austrian as one of those « individus belges qui ont déclaré vouloir rester sujets autrichiens » ('Belgian individuals who have declared that they wished to remain Austrian'); he was considered an émigré and his estates and property in Lorraine, in the département des Forêts in Luxembourg, and in Belgium were sequestrated, although he still couldn't get a job in Vienna because on the ban on Austrian-Belgian officials/civil servants.