CHAPTER XVIII.

SEPTEMBER, 1793.

CONTENT S.

The Duke of York had treated fecretly with the Governor of Dunkirk for its Delivery-The plot detected--Naval Support promised-Surprise and defeat of General Freytag, who, with Prince Adolphus, was taken prifoner-Effects of this general Defeat-The Army rallies, upon learning the fuccefs of General Beaulieu near Ypres-The Dutch fly from Menin-The French fall upon Ghent and Bruges-Le Quesnoy furrenders at Difcretion-Toulon gained over by Lord Hood-He enters and takes poffeffion of the Town, Harbour, and Fleet, in the name of Louis XVII.-His ProclamationsLord Hervey forces Tufcany out of its Neutrality— Sir Gilbert Elliot, Commiffioner at Toulon.

BESIDES the general reliance which the Duke

of York had in the intrepidity of his troops, and the full perfuafion that upon his arrival he should find the neceffary artillery in cafe he fhould be under the neceffity of undertaking the fiege; he had alfo an expectation of being admitted into the town by a golden key. He had kept up a fecret correfpondence with the former governor, General Omoran,

nor

nor did he till his arrival know, that the plan had been discovered, and that General Omoran was removed from his poft (he has been fince executed for the treachery). Although General O'Meara, who had at first fucceeded his countryman Omoran in the command of the garrifon, anfwered the fummons of the Duke of York, yet the befieged had at that time actually removed O'Meara from the chief command, not choofing to repofe fo important a truft in a foreigner, and a countryman of the person who had fo recently engaged to betray them.

On the 3d of the month his Royal Highness received an express from England, that two fifty gun fhips, fome frigates and bomb ketches were under failing orders for Dunkirk; and he began now to make fafcines, gabions and other neceffary preparations for the ficge. Since the fiege of Dunkirk was the favourite measure of the British Cabinet, and had been refolved upon by them in the month of July, it is a matter of more than furprise to the public, that no naval force was ordered, nor artillery provided for the fiege till the month of September. Such grofs delay and neglect cannot have existed without the moft criminal refponfibility in fome departments.

The nation is equally aftonished that there should have been fuch a total and unaccountable want of intelligence throughout the army, that the movements of General Houchard, with thirty-three thoufand men, to raise the fiege of Dunkirk, which was formally announced in the Convention on the 25th of the last month, fhould have been unknown or not provided against. The covering army of General Freytag was furprised and totally routed, before the Duke of York was even acquainted with the approach of the enemy. The firft intelligence he received of it was by a note written with a pencil. At the fame moment a fortie from the garrifon was announced,

announced, and a most precipitate retreat was the confequence. The lofs of British troops in the confufion of fuch a furprife was fortunately not very great; though his Royal Highness very narrowly escaped being furrounded and made a prifoner. All the ammunition and ftores were either left to the enemy or thrown into the canal: the fine train of artillery which had moved fo reluctantly from Woolwich Warren was only landed to become the prey of the enemy, or to be loft to us Sixty-four of the heavy cannons were thrown into the canal; feven were buried in the earth, and forty-three left on the field. In the retreat of the IIanoverians his Royal Highness Prince Adolphus and General Freytag were both wounded and taken prifoners. Nothing can more ftrongly befpeak the extreme confufion of the Hanoverian army, than the circumftance of their General and our Prince falling into the hands of the enemy. Our Gazette fays, that a patrole of cavalry "which ought to have "been in the front, having taken another road, "they went into the village of Rexpoede, through "which one of the columns was to pafs, but which was then occupied by the enemy.' What a me

lancholy fituation for a commander in chief, upon whofe orders an army of eighteen thoufand men were to retreat, rally or fight! himself disobeyed or abandoned by his patrole! ignorant of the fituation either of his own or the enemy's forces! a whole column of his army unwilling or unable to obey his orders! The Gazette (if the meaning of its writer can by any laboured conftruction be extracted from his words) feems to admit this extremity of panic, diforder and confufion, by attributing the recapture of his Royal Highness and the Field Marshal " "the intrepidity and presence of mind of General "Walmoden, who, upon difcovering that the enemy were in poffeffion of Rexpoede, had im

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mediately collected a body of troops, attacked it "without hesitation, and defeated them with great flaughter." The intelligent compiler of the Gazette informs us alfo, "that, in thefe repeated engage"ments, nothing could exceed the fteadinefs and good behaviour of the troops." If the flaughter made amongst them be the criterion of this fteadinefs, it is a strong but a too melancholy proof of the fact. About 3,500 Hanoverians were killed, befides very fevere loffes in every other corps that compofed this covering army.

Nothing could equal the general panic and confternation caused by this unfortunate and disgraceful retreat at Oftend. General Ainflie the commandant ordered an immediate embargo on all veffels, from the transports in the harbour down to the fmallest fifhing-boats. The military cheft was actually put on board, and it was a general expectation, and perhaps as general a wifh, that the British troops fhould have returned to their native country. In great national misfortunes like thefe, it is impoffible to repress the sentiments of the public upon them. The difgrace and lofs which this nation fuffered from this fatal attempt upon Dunkirk, brought into the minds of every one, that the enterprife had been impofed by the British Cabinet upon the generals of the combined armies, who had decidedly and unanimously reprobated the plan; and that the dispatch, vigour and refolution in the execution, had been counteracted and defeated by the very perfons who had concerted and infifted upon the attempt. Not only humanity fhudders at the loss of so many brave men who fell on this inglorious occafion, but Great Britain feels also a heavy lofs in the fruitlefs waste of its treasures. Immenfe is the coft of fo much ammunition, ftores and ordnance, tranfported at fuch a heavy expence. By our fubfidiary treaties with Hanover and Heffe Caffel, the fum of thirty pounds

is paid by the people of Great Britain for every fubfidized foldier that falls in the war *: thus by the fall of 3,500 Hanoverians on the 8th of this month, Great Britain became indebted to the Elector of Hanover, on one day, in the enormous fum of one hundred thousand guineas. A Landgrave of Heffe Caffel might not on fuch an accumulation of wealth to his treasury, feel that poignancy of grief that rends the heart of our humane fovereign upon the lofs of fo many of his beloved fubjects. The flying army of the Duke of York, which had not been under cover for five nights, was at length rallied by the seasonable affurance, that the Auftrian General Beaulieu had relieved Ypres and totally defeated the French army in that quarter, which had in confequence fallen back to Bailleuil. Several days after this fhameful defeat Admiral Macbride arrived with his fquadron off Nieuport. His Royal Highness then took up his head quarters at Dixmude, from whence Sir James Murray the Adjutant General wrote to Mr. Dundas on the 14th, "that he took "the opportunity of Captain Robinson of the Bril"liant frigate failing to England, to inform him, "that the Dutch pofts on the Lys were forced by "the enemy on the 12th. In confequence of this "the troops of the Republic have abandoned Me-, “nin, and have fallen upon Bruges and Ghent. "His Royal Highness meant on that day to march 66 to Thouroute.'

The effects of this flight of the Dutch troops immediately after the general retreat of the British army, added more vigour and energy to the enemy, than difmay or despair to the confederates. The fucceffes of Beaulieu terminated them in fome de

*It is a well known circumstance that the fubfidy dealers of Germany can procure a recruit for one ducat, when twenty guineas cannot purchase the service of one able bodied man in England.

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