Chapelle. Notwithstanding their vicinity to the enemy, notwithstanding it was well known that a serious attack was meditated, this advanced guard, instead of presenting a firm and complete line of defence, was dispersed over an extensive plain, was almost destitute of cavalry, and in cantoniments with intervals of four, five, and nine leagues; so that the enemy might have penetrated without firing a single shot. But this was not all; when the formidable attack of the enemy, which might have been long before anticipated, was made, not a single general officer was found at his post.

On the 3rd of March, the prince of Saxe-Cobourg, an officer who had acquired great reputation in the Turkish war, and who was now commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces, attacked this part of the French army in their cantonments, and, after a slight resistance, obtained a signal victory. Two thousand of the French were killed, 16,000 remained prisoners of war, and the remainder fled with precipitation, and without rallying, till they joined Valence himself, whose head quarters were at Liege.

While such was the success which attended the first operations of Cobourg, Clairfait, the second in command, was no less fortunate. Having crossed the Roer at Aldenhoven, this general attacked the French posts which were extended along this part of the river, and compelled these brave men, who, through the treachery or neglect of their commanders, were completely surprised to retreat with precipitation, and fall back on Liege. In the meanwhile, a body of 30,000 Prussians, under the command of prince Frederic of Brunswick, forced the passage of the Roer at Ruremonde, and took possession of that town, in which the French had collected an immense magazine of provisions, artillery, and ammunition. The several divisions of the French army were now driven from post to post, with a very considerable loss of men, artillery, and military stores; and the shattered remains of this once formidable force, with great difficulty, assembled at Liege. The covering army being thus entirely routed, Miranda was Miranda was

compelled to abandon the bombardment of Maestricht and Venlo. Fortunately he was enabled to make good his retreat with very little loss, and effected a junction with Valence at Tongres, whence they retreated to St. Tron, and from this last place to Louvain, where they entrenched themselves and determined to make a stand. In consequence of these disasters, it became necessary for the French to change their whole plan of operations. Dumouriez could no longer persist in his operations against Holland without the utmost hazard of having his retreat cut off. He was therefore compelled to quit his prey, and joined the concentrated French army at Louvain, on the 10th of March. somewhat unaccountably left his own army still engaged in the sieges of Williamstadt, Bergen-op-Zoom, and Bois-le-Duc, which were soon raised while Breda, Klundert, and Gertruydenburg, were evacuated.

He

The French army having united at Louvain, and having been joined by all the detached bodies which their precipitate retreat from Aldenhoven and Aix-la-Chapelle, had separated; and having received considerable reinforcements, Dumouriez, who had resumed the command of the whole, took a position before Louvain towards Tirlemont, which, by covering Austrian Brabant, and particularly Brussels, might also serve to keep up the communication towards Dutch Brabant. The French soldiers felt all their ardor rekindled by the presence of their favourite general, and loudly demanded to be led against the enemy. The Austrians, who had advanced from Tongres to Tirlemont by St. Tron, flushed with their recent success, panted with equal ardor for an opportunity of acquiring fresh laurels. Animated by such a disposition, it cannot be supposed that two powerful armies would remain many days within a few miles of each other, without coming to action. The eyes of all Europe were upon them: two celebrated and victorious generals were immediately opposed to each other; and on the event of the contest depended the fate of many provinces, and possibly of the empires to which they belonged. which they belonged. The hard fought

battle of Nerwinden terminated the suspense of Europe. The Austrians began the attack. On the 15th of March they succeeded in making themselves masters of Tirlemont, which was defended by a corps of 400 French soldiers. On the 16th Dumouriez, advancing with part of his army, compelled the enemy to abandon Tirlemont with considerable loss, and to retire, with precipitation, to St. Tron. This check served only to inspire the Austrians with fresh courage, for on the 18th they returned to the charge, and a bloody engagement ensued, which lasted from seven in the morning till eight in the evening. The battle was fought exactly on the confines of Austrian Brabant and those of Liege. The left wing of the French army being covered by Dormael, and the right by Landen. After an obstinate contest, the left wing of the Austrians was compelled to yield to the impetuous valor of their antagonists, and retreated in considerable confusion. Flushed with this success the French pursued their advantage, but, advancing with too much precipitation, they were, in their turn, thrown into disorder, and compelled to retreat with great loss. Valence pierced the enemy's line at the head of the cavalry, but, being ill supported, he was surrounded by a corps of Austrians; accompanied only by his aids-de-camp and a few troopers, with whom he cut his way through, but received three wounds in the head, a contusion on the arm, and had three of his aids-de-camp killed by his side. In the mean time, the other wing and the centre of the Austrian army were more successful, and made a more prudent use of their advantage than the French had done. Night put an end to the contest, and both sides returned to their former positions, the Austrians having lost 3000 inen, and the French 4000, besides thirty pieces of cannon. Although upon the whole the Austrians may be said to have remained masters of the field on this memorable day, the advantage was so dearly purchased, that it led to no decisive consequences; and, had the French retained the impregnable position which they occupied on the Tron Mountain, they might

have preserved their conquests, at least till reinforcements could have been received from France, when they might have been once more enabled to act offensively with a reasonable prospect of success. But the impetuous Dumouriez could brook no delay. He determined to try once more the fortune of the field, and another battle, less bloody but more decisive in its consequences, was fought on the 22nd of March. In this engagement the loss of the French amounted to 4000 men, while that of the Austrians did not exceed 1000. In consequence of this defeat, Dumouriez was obliged to retreat to Halle, fourteen miles beyond Brussels, where he might yet have made an effectual stand, and at least retarded the progress of the enemy, had he been faithful to the trust reposed in him by his country.

While such were the disasters which tarnished the lustre of the French arms in Belgium, their operations in other quarters were not attended with better success. In the beginning of April the Prussian army, headed by the king in person, defeated a division of the French army of the Rhine, near Bingen, and was enabled in consequence to form the blockade of Mentz, while the French were compelled to abandon Oppenheim and Worms. A naval expedition which the French undertook in the beginning of the year against Cagliari, in Sardinia, completely failed of success. The troops under the command of general Casa-Bianca, made a good landing, but in consequence of some unaccountable mistake, fired on each other, and were compelled precipitately to reembark. At this unpropitious moment, a formidable insurrection broke out in La Vendeé and the other departments; the standard of royalty was unfurled; the peasantry, awakened to a sense of native loyalty, were encouraged, by the promise of foreign aid, to rally round the ruins of the throne, and impressed the existing government with a terror occasioned by the justice of their principles, rather than by the number of their effective force, or the perfection of their discipline.

The conduct of Dumouriez had long

:

been extremely equivocal, and his attachment to the republic extremely doubtful. The Jacobin party suspected him he was denounced by Marat while in the splendid career of victory, and it is not improbable that this suspicion and denunciation tended to produce the very treachery against which the convention guarded. On the On the 29th of March, the committee of general defence having announced to the convention that there was reason to apprehend the existance of a plot in the northern army to overturn the republic, it was decreed almost unanimously, that Dumouriez should be ordered to the bar; that the minister at war should immediately set out to examine the state of the army in the north; and that four members of the convention should be sent thither as commissioners, with power to suspend, arrest, and send to the bar of the convention, all generals and military officers who should become objects of their distrust and suspicion. Dumouriez, however, had thrown off the mask before these commissioners could reach his camp. He had already entered into a treaty with Cobourg, to attempt the restoration of monarchy, and to evacuate, without delay, the whole of Belgium. When the commissioners arrived at Lisle, they found that Dumouriez was encamped at St. Amand, whither they dispatched a summons to appear before them; and, on refusing to comply, they proceeded to the camp, with the intention of arresting him at the head of the army. At first Dumouriez endeavoured to persuade them to join in his attempt, but when they refused their concurrence, he gave thein in charge to a guard of soldiers, who were in waiting, with orders to carry them instantly to Tournay, the head quarters of general Clairfait. The names of the persons whom Dumouriez thus treacherously delivered into the hands of the enemy, were Camus, Lamarque, Quinette, and Henri Baneal, members of the convention; Faucard, their secretary; Bournonville, minister at war; Memoire, his aid-de-camp; and Willeneuve, secretary to the war office. Having concerted with the prince of Cobourg a manifesto, in which Austria

renounced all idea of conquest, and declared that her sole intention was to assist in restoring the constitution established in 1791, Dumouriez addressed his army in the camp at Maulde, and, after causing the manifesto to be read, earnestly exhorted them to join him in so glorious an achievement. But he immediately perceived that the officers were disaffected to his cause, and the murmurs which were heard along the line sufficiently discovered the disposition of his troops. Sensible of the danger by which he was threatened, he lost not a moment in providing for his own security. Decamping suddenly with about 700 men, accompanied by the duke of Chartres, colonel Thouvenot, and some other officers, he escaped to the Austrian army, and was escorted by colonel Mack, to Mons. Thus terminated the adventurous career of this enterprising and ambitious. man. He was appointed to a commission in the imperial army, but the reproach which attaches itself to treachery, even under the most favourable circumstances, still adhered to him. He was regarded with suspicion, and soon sunk into insignificance.

The French were now compelled not only to relinquish its conquests, but to witness once more the invasion of their own country by the confederated powers. There can be little doubt but that the sudden evacuation of Belgium is to be attributed to the treachery of Dumouriez ; for, notwithstanding the severe defeats they had experienced, the French army might have maintained their strong position on the Tron Mountain, till the troops, which were advancing to their relief from all parts of France, had arrived. At all events, the garrisoned towns might have resisted the progress of the enemy, but it suited the views of Dumouriez to enter into a treaty with the enemies of his country, and the evacuation of Belgium became the preliminary article of the armistice.

The month of March was indeed a month of carnage. In the course of three weeks, at least, 50,000 of our fellow men were swept by violence from the face of the earth, and fell by the hands of their brethren. Yet

after twelve months of almost uninterrupted fighting, after millions had been spent and the lives of thousands sacrificed, the hostile powers found themselves nearly in the same situation as at the beginning of the

contest.

The flight of Dumouriez soon occasioned the ruin of the infamous Egalité, whose son being a partner in the general's flight, the father could not hope to escape suspicion. After being frequently denounced, and frequently escaping, he was at length condemned with his family to imprisonment at Marseilles.

At this period the affairs of France presented an appearance as alarming to herself, as exhilirating to her enemies. Russia and Spain had joined in declared hostilities; Austria and Prussia were making united efforts to invade the frontiers: a considerable land force under the duke of York was preparing to embark from England; a well appointed and victorious navy was employing every effort In the Mediterranean to intercept supplies, and increase the distresses of the country, while an irresistible naval force intercepted the trade, and seized the colonies of the republic. The principles and conduct of France excited universal horror abroad, while jealousy, treachery, and cabal, distracted her at home. But before any effectual measures could be adopted for resisting this formidable combination or for restoring the military power of the country, it was found necessary to terminate the disputes which raged between the two factions in the convention, and which were now enflamed to a degree of rancor, which disdained all control, and which nothing could appease but the sacrifice of one of the contending parties. The Girondists, who had been long declining in anthority, and who were more than ever abhorred by the mountain, since their endeavours to save the king, had constantly supported Dumouriez against the invectives of Marat and the Jacobins. As soon as Dumouriez was driven into exile, the mountain raised an outcry against his late protectors, the Girondists. They were represented to the furious multitude as a band

VOL. I

of traitors and counter-revolutionists. The municipality of Paris and the Jacobin clubs resounded with complaints, threats, and imprecations, against a party which retained some sentiments of humanity, some love of order, and some regard for justice. The Girond party still possessed considerable influence in the convention, but the mountain continuing to gratify the avarice and inhumanity of the Parisian rabble, by regarding every outrage with complacency, exercised the supreme command in the city. In the month of March the revolutionary tribunal was established for trying offences against the state. This celebrated and dreadful court was wholly without appeal. The crimes on which it was to pronounce were vague and undefined; extending not merely to actions but to the most secret thoughts. On the 1st of 1793. April a decree was passed abolishing the inviolability of members of the convention when accused of crimes against the state. The chiefs of the Brissotines (or Girondists) appeared to be astonished and confounded at these daring and desperate measures of their adversaries, and made only a feeble and desultory opposition, to decrees which were evidently intended to prepare the way for their destruction. A petition was presented by the commons of forty-eight sections of Paris, demanding that Brissot, Gaudet, Vergniaux, Geusonne, and some other deputies should be impeached and expelled the convention. This was followed by a deputation from the turbulent Fauxbourg of St. Antoine, attended by 8000 persons, charging the convention with misconduct, demanding a redress of grievances, and declaring that Fauxbourg to be in a state of insurrection. On the other hand the Girondists denounced Marat as an incendiary, and took advantage of their majority to procure an accusation against him.

This victory, gained after a long and arduous contest, shewed that the Girondists, when united and active, were in formidable force, but they seem to have lost the judgment and sagacity requisite for pursuing and completing their success. The trial of Marat was a triumph. No attempt was

made to gain a verdict against him; and the moment the jury pronounced him not guilty, he was carried in victorious procession to the convention, reinstated amidst universal plaudits, and complimented by Danton, who pronounced this to be one of the beaux jours, one of the beautiful days of the revolution. It was now too obvious that the Girondists were inferior to their antagonists in vigor and decision; and, notwithstanding the intellectual and literary accomplishments of the leaders of the party, grossly deficient in that practical skill which can alone secure pre-eminence in political contention. The mountain had secured the favour of the Jacobin club, and of the lower classes of the community. While their opponents were reasoning, deliberating, and denouncing, the party of Robespierre conspired, acted with decision, and obtained an easy triumph. On the 31st of May, early in the morning, the tocsin was sounded; the barriers were shut; Brissot, Roland, and many others of the most distinguished Girondists, were seized and committed to prison; and the republic became subject to a detestable and inhuman tyranny. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Collot D'Herbois, Billaud, and Couthon, became the rulers of France. They selected as their associates, a certain number of ferocious iudividuals, whose talents were necessary to the administration, and who consented to be retained in their service from fear, policy, or ambition. They hastily drew up the celebrated constitution of 1793, and no policy ever existed more absurd or more favourable to anarchy. Legislation was confined to a single council, of which the members were elected without any regard to property: the executive power was divided among twenty-four ministers, appointed by the convention, and dismissed at their pleasure. They were composed of two sections, each consisting of twelve deputies. The one was called the committee of public safety, the other the committee of general safety. They were to be renewed every month; but this retention of power on the part of the convention, was more than counteracted by the clause which empow

ered the committees of public safety to imprison the members of that assembly. In the mean time a few of the Girondist party, who escaped proscription, excited insurrection. Several departments indicated a disposition to revenge the wrongs they had sustained, and to resist oppression. Lyons, where the royalists had always possessed considerable influence, was instantly in a state of revolt, and a resolution was passed by a congress of the department, to send a force for the reduction of Paris. Its example was followed by Marseilles, Bourdeaux, and the department of the Gironde. In the midst of these scenes of civil disorder and national tumult, the unprincipled and blood-thirsty Marat, who, at an early period of the revolution, declared that three hundred thousand heads must be struck off before liberty could be established, fell by the hands of Charlotte Corday. While many of the Brissotines were resident at Caen, this young lady had obtained an interview with Barbaroux, whom she had long known. Inflamed by conversation with the fugitive deputies, she came forward as the avenger of that injured party, and of the cause of liberty. Having repaired to Paris, and after many ineffectual efforts, obtained admission to the dwelling of Marat, who had been for some time confined with a leprous complaint, she found him in the act of coming from the bath. After a short conference, in which he declared that all the Brissotines should suffer death, she plunged a knife which she had bought for the purpose, into his heart. He fell; and, after uttering a short exclamation, expired. The murderer was conveyed to prison, and as she made no attempt to deny the fact, the revolutionary tribunal passed sentence of death, which was immediately executed. The death of Marat was deplored by the mountain party as a national calamity: deputations, and individuals, vied with each other in fulsome adulation; his body was laid in state; the convention and constituted authorities attended his funeral; fetes were given in honour of his memory; and it was decreed that the bust of Mirabeau should be removed from the Pan