124

Ch. 35.

1794

Escape of the
Emperor.

PICHEGRU'S MOVEMENTS.

this commission was the recovery of the three great frontier towns, Condé, Valenciennes, and Quesnoy. The siege of Quesnoy was immediately formed; and Pichegru, informed of or anticipating the plans of the allies, disposed a large force in front of Cambray, to intercept the operations of the grand central division of the allied army upon Landrecy. The campaign was not regularly opened until the arrival of the Emperor, which did not take place until the second week in April. His Imperial and Royal Majesty entered Brussels with a magnificent retinue, and was received with the usual demonstrations. After five days spent in public receptions, proclamations, and congratulations, on the victories which awaited him, the Emperor left Brussels and set out for the army. On the 16th of April, the army was reviewed before Valenciennes, and on the 17th a great action was fought in which the allies obtained a success, sufficient to enable them to press the siege of Landrecy.

The Emperor, soon after this engagement, returned to Brussels, to undergo the ceremony of inauguration as Duke of Brabant. In leaving the capital of his Flemish provinces, which, in a few short weeks, was to welcome the representative of a new Sovereign, His Majesty had a narrow escape from falling into the hands of the Republican army, the vanguard of which had been pushed forward so far as to cut off his communication with the lines of the Allies. A gallant

LANDRECY TAKEN.

charge by a handful of British soldiers, drove
back the enemy with considerable loss, and
rescued His Majesty from a danger which he
would not have encountered had he not thought
his performances at vain and idle pageants of
more importance at that critical time, than
remaining in his place at the head quarters of the
army. Pichegru, a few days after, sustained a
signal repulse from the British, in an attempt to
raise the siege of Landrecy; but by a rapid and
daring movement, he improved his defeat, and
seized the important post of Moucron. The
results were, that Clairfait was forced to fall back
on Tournay; Courtray and Menin surrendered to
the French; and thus the right flanks of the
Allies was exposed. Landrecy, which, about
the same time, fell into the hands of the
Allies, was but a poor compensation for the
reverses in West Flanders, which was thus placed
in imminent danger. The Duke of York, at the
urgent instance of the Emperor, marched to the
relief of Clairfait; but, in the meantime, the Aus-
trian General, being hard pressed, was compelled
to fall back upon a position, which would enable him
for a time to cover Bruges, Ghent, and Ostend.
The English had also to sustain a vigorous attack
near Tournay; but the enemy were defeated with
the loss of four thousand men. It now became
necessary to risk a general action to save Flan-
ders, by cutting off that division of the French
army which had outflanked the Allies.
By bad

125

Ch. 35.

1794

126

1794

VICTORY OF THE FRENCH.

Ch. 35. management and want of concert, this movement, which had been contrived by Colonel Mack, the chief military adviser of the Emperor, was wholly defeated. The English were the greatest sufferers, chiefly through the rashness of the Duke of York, who, having detached two battalions which covered his right wing, the enemy promptly seized the advantage thus offered them. The British fought with their usual bravery; but no bravery will compensate for an utter want of military skill. The French took fifteen hundred prisoners, and sixty pieces of cannon. A thousand English soldiers lay dead on the field, and the Duke himself escaped with difficulty.

Check of Pichegru.

Four days after, Pichegru having collected a great force, amounting, it has been stated, to one hundred thousand men, made a grand attack upon the Allied army, exhausted by the recent conflict, and deprived, as he supposed, of the greater portion of their artillery. The battle raged, from five in the morning until nine at night, and was at length determined by the bayonet; it was then that the French, for the first time during the war, experienced this formidable arm, which, in the hands of the British Infantry of the Line, is almost invincible. In consequence of this check, Pichegru fell back upon Lisle. Enraged at a repulse which proved the superiority of the British troops, the French executive, on the flimsy pretence of a supposed attempt to assassinate Robespierre, instigated by the British Government,

SAVAGE DECREE OF THE CONVENTION.

procured a decree from the Convention, that no English or Hanoverian prisoners should be made. In reply to this atrocious edict, the Duke of York issued a General Order, enjoining forbearance to the troops under his command. Most of the French Generals, from whose breasts the principles of military honour and humanity had not been effaced by the spirit of a fell democracy, refused to become assassins; and many of the troops themselves murmured at a duty, which brave soldiers could not perform without disgrace. The decree was carried into execution in a few instances only; and the French Convention took little by their act, beyond adding another title to the execration of mankind.

127

Ch. 35.

1794

of the Empe

The Allies gained no military advantage by the Proclamation action at Pont Achin on the 22nd of May. The ror. Emperor, alarmed at the danger which threatened his Flemish provinces, issued a proclamation, in which he acknowledged that he was no longer able to provide for their protection, unless they would recruit his army forthwith by a general levy throughout the Austrian Netherlands. With this demand the Belgians had not the means, if they had the inclination, to comply. A colourable conscription was made, but with no substantial results; and the great towns made preparations to welcome the armies of the Republic, which were soon to be their masters. These demonstrations completed the abject terror of the Emperor. Without any further attempt to protect the

128

Ch. 35.

1794

Fall of the Belgian fortifications.

PICHEGRU'S SUCCESS.

distant dominions of his house, of which he had only a few weeks before solemnly assumed the Sovereignty, and without any regard to the common cause in which he was engaged, Francis precipitately abandoned the army, and retired to Vienna. He left some orders and proclamations behind him, to which nobody thought it worth while to pay any attention.

On the 5th of June, Pichegru invested Ypres, which Clairfait made two attempts to retain, but without success. The place surrendered on the 17th; Clairfait retreated to Ghent; Walmoden abandoned Bruges; and the Duke of York forced to quit his position at Tournay, encamped near Oudenarde. It was now determined by the Prince of Coburg, who resumed the chief command after the departure of the Emperor, to risk the fate of Belgium on a general action, which was fought at Fleurus on the 26th of June. The Austrians, after a desperate struggle, were defeated, at all points, by the French army of the Sambre under Jourdan. Charleroi, having surrendered to the French the day before the decisive engagement, and the Duke of York being forced to retreat, any further attempt to save the Netherlands was hopeless. Ostend and Mons, Ghent, Tournay, and Oudenarde, were successively evacuated; and the French were established at Brussels. When it was too late, the English army was reinforced by seven thousand men under the Earl of Moira. These succours arrived at Ostend on the