1794 accustomed bravery: but, being overpowered by superior numbers, they were driven from the field: the duke himself narrowly escaped falling into the enemy's hands: and it was with much difficulty, and by a signal display of valour and address that Abercrombie and Fox, his subaltern generals, were enabled to save the whole division from being entirely cut off, or made prisoners of war. The emperor and the prince of Cobourg being unable to retrieve the fortune of the day, and Clairfait being so closely watched by the enemy that he could not form a junction with them, the victory was complete.Nor was this event more disastrous to the allies in itself than it was fatal in its consequences. Their forces still fought with the firmness of veteran, well-disciplined troops. But whilst the allies were slowly recruiting their armies from distant countries, the French were incessantly sending reinforcements levied with comparative ease.-Pichegru was foiled in his plan of crossing the Scheldt with his grand army and investing Tournay, chiefly by the signal good conduct of general Fox in maintaining an advanced post. And general Kaunitz was again victorious in an action with a strong body of the enemy on the Sambre. But these gallant actions only served to retard the evils which must necessarily result from the many disadvantages which the confederates had to encounter. Among these was the disunion which began at this time more evidently to prevail among them; which, by embarrassing their movements, contributed to the uninterrupted success which attended the French arms during the remainder of the campaign.—At the instant when the French, elated by their victory at Turcoign, were preparing for further efforts, when every mean should have been adopted to animate the confederate troops, the emperor and his confidential general, Mack, left the allied army and returned to Vienna.-If the presence of a sovereign prince unacquainted with the art of war could be supposed to concur in producing such animation, by shewing his zeal in the common cause, and his disregard even of his own personal safety when opposed to the public welfare, the present critical situation of the confederacy above all others demanded its assistance. Danger now threatened them from every quarter. During the important operations of the grand armies in the west, Jourdan, May 24. the a the rival of Pichegru, was opposed to the Austrians under Beaulieu, a general of merit, in the duchy of Luxemburg.-The French general, at the commencement of the campaign, had attacked the Austrian lines; and had succeeded in dispossessing them, after an engagement which lasted two days.† -Beaulieu was afterwards successful in an action with a strong detachment of the same army in the district of Bouillon. But the advantage which the enemy derived from the absolute power exercised by the government and the unexhausted resources which it gave them, was again observable on this occasion. By its energy Jourdan was soon enabled to renew his efforts in Luxemburg with an army of 40,000 men.-His immediate object was the reduction of Charleroi, the possession of which was deemed a necessary preparatory step in the prosecution of their schemes of conquests in the Austrian Netherlands. Sensible of the importance of the fortress, the allies dispatched the hereditary prince of Orange to its protection: and that gallant young prince acquitted himself of his charge by giving the enemy a repulse which obliged them to repass the Sambre. But here the successes of the allied armies terminated.-Jourdan, crossing the Sambre again with 60,000 men, advanced to cover the army engaged in the siege of Charleroi. The allies, it is evident, were now reduced to the alternative of suffering the fortress to fall into the enemy's hands or hazarding a general engagement for its relief. A battle ensued on the celebrated plains of Fleurus; + in which the prowess of the best disciplined troops and the talents of the most accomplished generals were eminently displayed. The allies came to the attack of the enemy's fortified posts, in columns, with their accustomed steadiness. The encounters which took place were fought with a bravery on both sides worthy of the stake for which they were contending; which was no less than the possession of the Austrian Netherlands. The battle had continued thirteen hours, with various fortune; the conflicts had been desperate; the French lines had been repeatedly broken, and order as often restored, when a strong reinforcement, which Jourdan received in the evening, gave him a decided victory, the Austrians, attacked in every part, being obliged to make a precipitate retreat. This disastrous overthrow, which + March 17 and 18. May 22. a June 3. + June 26. 1794 1794 which is said to have cost the allies 10,000 men, and was accompanied with the reduction of Charleroi, was decisive of their fortunes in this quarter. There was no army now in the Netherlands which could withstand the victorious republicans.—Clairfait, attempting to save Ypres, was defeated by general Moreau in several actions near its walls, and had the mortification to witness its reduction, with 6000 men in garrison.-Bruges opened its gates to the conquerors and its example was followed by Tournay, and Oudenarde; the duke of York, who had been posted to protect those fortresses, being constrained to retire for safety towards Antwerp. || At this crisis, lord Moira arrived at Ostend with a reinforcement of 10,000 British troops, which would have been of essential service in supporting the allied cause, had it not been already desperate. In the present situation of the confederates, he could only assist in extricating them from their embarrassments.—It being deemed impracticable to save Ostend without sacrificing the duke of York's army, the troops in garrison there were embarked on board the English transports; and lord Moira effected a junction with his royal highness, after a severe action with a French detachment, which attempted to intercept him on his march. + The prince of Cobourg, in the mean-time, having collected his harassed troops near Halle, was exerting all his force, and all the resources of his military genius, in efforts to protect what remained to the house of Austria in the low countries; but without success.-The strong fortress of Mons was reduced, after a hard-fought battle, at Soignies, in its defence. — The cities of Ghent and Brussels became an easy conquest, from the weakness of the garrisons and the disaffection of the inhabitants.-Namur and Antwerp, so renowned for the sieges which they had stood in former wars, now capitulated without resistance.4-During the prince of Cobourg's movements, Clairfait, who was posted in eastern Brabant, attempting the protection of Louvain and Liege, was successively defeated by the armies of Kleber and Jourdan: and those cities, the only fortresses of considerable strength in possession of the Austrians, fell into the enemy's hands in consequence of his failure. § Before the affairs of the allies were entirely desperate, the prince of 1794 Cobourg had invited the Dutch generals once more to offer their enemy battle with their united forces; but he found them of opinion that such a measure was unwarrantably hazardous. From this period cach party thought of the best means of providing for the security of themselves and their respective territories.-The hereditary prince of Orange drew off his army to the defence of the Dutch frontier. But although, assisted by the British forces, he could not prevent the fortresses of Lillo, Sluys,† Bois le Duc, Nimeguen, and Maestricht,|| from being reduced by the different French armies, which now overrun the low countries." The prince of Cobourg, unwilling to leave his country and the independency of Europe at the mercy of a republican faction, triumphing in the success of its arms, exhorted the Germans to a spirited and unanimous resistance. And, failing in his endeavours to inspire them with his own patriotism, he resigned his command in despair.-So hopeless an aspect did the allied cause at this time wear, that a general opinion pervaded all Germany, and reached even the court of Vienna itself, that the enemy's progress could be stopped by nothing but a pacification.-When the confederate armies were defeated, when their resources failed, or their contingents were reluctantly provided; and when their spirits were dejected, Great Britain made one more effort to rouse her allies from despair by a fresh treaty of subsidy with the emperor, to enable him to prosecute the war. —This measure, however, was adopted too late to produce any effect in the present campaign.-General Clairfait, after repeated engagements with Jourdan, and the most signal display of valour, was unable to prevent not only all Brabant, but Cologne, Bonne, Coblentz, Worms, and other fortresses on the German frontier from surrendering to him.-And it was with extreme difficulty that the duke of York, after attempting the protection of the Dutch fortresses, saved the wreck of his army by a retreat across the Meuse, the Wall, and the Rhine, to the Dutch frontier. § Roberspierre had fallen a sacrifice to his tyranny, and his party had given place to an administration which acted on the principles of modera tion. + August 26. + October 10. November 4. + September 29. and October 3. In October and November. Idem. 36. 44. 55. 57. and 60. d Ann. Regist, 31. £ Idem. 47. 8 Idem. 53. 56.. 1794 tion. But this change in the civil government did not check the rage of conquest. Insatiate in itself, this passion derived additional force in the breasts of the French republicans from a persuasion, that, in order to secure themselves, and fix the established government on a firm basis, they must extend their principles to other countries, and subject those states to their dominion which refused to acknowledge their power. After they had conquered the Austrian Netherlands, the Dutch provinces presented the next object to their ambition; and the present distracted state of this country concurred with a reflection on the prosperous fortune which had attended the French arms to give them a confidence of success. The states general, as a body, continued yet to be attached to the house of Orange and the interests of the coalition. But democratic principles became daily more prevalent: the French partisans became more numerous: and several of the provincial states had even avowed their bias towards France by acknowledging the republic. "-Under these auspicious circumstances was Pichegru, whose achievements had carried him to the summit of his fame, placed at the head of a powerful army, flushed with victory and confident in his military talents and their own prowess, to prosecute his career by the reduction of the Dutch provinces. The defence of their frontier rested chiefly on the British and Hanoverian forces, commanded, after the return of the duke of York to England, by general Walmoden.-Nor did that small army shew themselves unworthy of the important trust. When Pichegru with 200,000 men approached the Waal, a branch of the Rhine which covers Holland; undismayed by their past disasters and their present forlorn state, surrounded as they were by powerful enemies and treacherous allies, and regardless of the extreme severity of the season and the sickness which prevailed among them, of the enemy's vast superiority of force, and of .every consideration but the honour of the British arms, they cheerfully renewed their efforts in the cause for which they had so meritoriously, though unsuccessfully contended. When the French, whilst they were employing one division of their forces in the reduction of Grave, with another had forced the lines of Breda, and, availing themselves of the |