BOOK make one grand effort for its relief. On the XX. 21st he reached Ath, and on the 24th effected a 1794. junction with the hereditary prince of Orange Battle of Continued the French. and general Beaulieu, who commanded in that quarter. The main body of the French army, under general Jourdain, was strongly posted at this time in the vicinity of Fleurus, a place already famous in the annals of war, to cover the siege of Charleroi ; on whom, upon the morning of the 26th, the prince of Cobourg hazarded a general attack. The battle continued with unabating fury till near the close of the day, by which time the allied army was defeated in every part, and forced with immense loss to retreat to Halle, thirty miles from the scene of action. This was a great and decisive victory. But Charleroi, with a view to save which this bloody action was fought, had, as subsequently appeared, surrendered on the evening of the 25th, and Brussels fell, without further resistance, into the hands of the enemy. General Clairfait was equally unfortunate on successes of the opposite side. Ypres, the key of Western Flanders, was besieged by 50,000 men, commanded by general Moreau. After a series of engagements, in which the French were almost uniformly victorious, the Austrians were compelled to fall back upon Ghent, and Ypres surrendered on the 17th of June. The emperor, XX. with his military favorite, general Mack, now in BOOK utter despair of success, left the army, after having in vain issued proclamation after proclama- 1794. tion, calling upon the inhabitants of the Low Countries to rise in a mass in order to repel the invaders. During this time the duke of York enjoyed the honor of a separate command at Tournay, a position which recent events made wholly untenable it was therefore evacuated, the duke with his army retreating in the direction of Antwerp. What service was rendered to the common cause by the British troops while stationed at Tournay does not clearly appear; at Fleurus they might perhaps have changed the fortune of the day and it is observable that the duke represents in his own dispatch of the 24th of June, as very hazardous his position before Tournay subsequent to the departure of the prince of Cobourg. arrives at No sooner was the fate of the Netherlands Lord Moira thus decided, than lord Moira arrived from Eng- Ostend. land with a reinforcement of 10,000 men at Ostend, the gallant remains of that army, wasted by long confinement on board the transports, by sickness, and chagrin, which had been destined to re-establish royalty in Brittany. This able officer found his situation very critical, the French being in possession of the country on all sides of XX. 1794. BOOK him. It was deemed necessary immediately to evacuate the town, and endeavour to force his way, without tents or baggage, through the enemy, to join the army of the allies, which, by great and skilful exertion, he accomplished on the 8th of July: the shipping in the harbour, amounting to 150 sail, with the ammunition, stores, &c. on board, took their departure for Flushing. Thus Ostend, and nearly at the same time Tournay and Ghent, fell into the hands of the French. In the different and partial engagements which had taken place between general Pichegru and the prince of Cobourg since the fatal battle of Fleurus, the former had greatly the advantage. Mons, Oudenarde, and Nieuport, places widely distant, and, soon after, Mechlin, surrendered to Dangerous the republican arms. Antwerp itself was no Holland. longer considered as a safe retreat. In this situation of exigency the stadtholder solicited the StatesGeneral to make an extraordinary levy throughout the provinces, but without effect. Disaffection, distrust, or at best apathy, every where prevailed, and a speedy revolution in the government was to be apprehended. About the middle of July general Kleber took possession of Louvain, after defeating general Clairfait, who had possession of the famous camp of the Montagne-de-Fer. The last hope of XX. the allies, that of forming a line of defence from BOOK Antwerp to Namur, was relinquished-Namur being, on the night of the 16th, abandoned by 1794. general Beaulieu; and on the 24th the French took quiet possession of Antwerp, the allies having previously set fire to the immense magazines deposited there. Great quantities of stores and ammunition nevertheless, in different parts, fell into the hands of the enemy. Sluys made a brave resistance, but surrendered after a siege of six weeks, the garrison, by a novelty in this strange campaign, marching out with the honors of war. The strong towns still occupied by the allies on the French territory, Landreci, Quesnoy, Condé, and Valenciennes, being now completely insulated, successively reverted, almost without resistance, to their former possessors. A report presented at this period by the committee of Public Safety to the Convention thus emphatically concludes: "Thus fade away for ever all the chimerical hopes of all our enemies; and thus have the ephemeral successes of Europe produced only shame to her, and glory to us. What! cannot all Europe conquer France? that country which has been said to be only a chasm in the map of Europe? Wait, legislators— the combined powers have only deferred their formidable designs, and next year they are determined to march to Paris.” VOL. IX. BOOK The army under the duke of York was, at the beginning of August, stationed at Breda, 1794. whence, for greater security, they quickly retreated towards Bois-le-Duc. But the French forces now re-collected under general Pichegru advancing rapidly upon them, to the number of 80,000 men, about the middle of September, the duke crossed the Maese, and took a fresh position near Grave, and at the beginning of October he encamped under the walls of Nimeguen. Towards the end of the month his royal highness passed the Waal, leaving general Walmoden with a corps to cover the town of Nimeguen, which was evacuated in great confusion, and with much loss, on the 7th of November. Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and, after a resistance worthy of the best days of the republic, Grave, were successively reduced. Scarcely could the allies now stand any where even upon the defensive, much less form any rational or feasible plan for recovering their stupendous losses. During the operations of general Pichegru in Dutch Flanders, the Austrian general La Tour was totally defeated by general Jourdain near Liege, which city, and those of Aix-la-Chapelle and Juliers, were occupied by the French. That able commander the prince of Cobourg, was at this period, in consequence, as believed, of the pressing instances of the court of London, whose |