Mayence. tion, the splendid spectacle was ex- all their vast possessions on the left hibited of ninety thousand men mov-bank of the Rhine, but Luxembourg and ing to the attack with the precision and regularity of a field-day. The Germans occupied a series of heights behind the river, from whence their numerous artillery kept up a destructive plunging fire upon the advancing columns of the French; but nothing could arrest the enthusiasm of the Republicans. The French grenadiers, with Bernadotte at their head, plunged into the stream, and drove the Austrians from the opposite heights; while General Scherer, on the other wing, also forced the passage of the river, and made himself master of Düren. These disasters induced Clairfait, who still bravely maintained himself in the centre, to order a general retreat, which was effected before nightfall, with the loss of three thousand men, while that of the French did not amount to half the number. 77. Nor were the operations of the left wing, destined for the invasion of Holland, less successful. After the retreat of the Duke of York, Pichegru, whose forces amounted to seventy thousang efficient troops, formed the siege of Bois-le-Duc, the situation of which, being at the confluence of three streams, was of importance as a base to future operations. The States-General had neglected to provide for the defence of this important fortress; and the Duke of York had not a man he could detach for its succour. Its garrison was too weak either to man the works or undergo the fatigue of a siege; the fort of Crevecoeur surrendered almost at the first shot, and in a fortnight after the place capitulated, after a resistance disgraceful to the Dutch arms. After its capture, the British general distributed his troops along the line of the Waal, in hopes of being able to maintain a communication with the fortress of Grave, now threatened with a siege ; but Pichegru, continuing his career of success, crossed the Meuse, and attack 76. This battle a second time decided the fate of Flanders, and threw back the Imperial army beyond the Rhine. The Austrians in haste crossed that river at Muhlheim, and Jourdan entered Cologne the day following, and soon afterwards extended his troops to Bonn.ed the advanced posts of the Allies with Soon after the siege of Maestricht was seriously undertaken, and such was the activity of the Committee of Public Salvation, that a splendid siege-equipage, of two hundred pieces, descended the Meuse, and speedily spread desolation through the city. A large cavern, discovered in the rock on which the fort of St Petre was situated, gave rise to a subterraneous warfare, in which the French soldiers, ever ready to adapt themselves to circumstances, speedily distinguished themselves, and acquired a superiority over their opponents. At length, on November 4, the garrison, despairing of being relieved, capitulated, upon condition of not serving against the French till regularly exchanged; and this noble fortress, with three hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, fell into the hands of the Republicans. After this event, and the capture of the castle of Rheinfels by the army of the Moselle, which shortly after took place, there remained to the Imperialists nothing of so much vigour that they were compelled to fall back, with considerable loss, across the Waal. Disconcerted by this check, the Duke of York stationed part of his troops in an intrenched camp, under the cannon of Nimeguen, and the remainder in a line around Thiel, and between the Waal and the Leck, communicating with the Dutch corps at Gorcum, in the hope of being permitted to remain there undisturbed during the winter. Meanwhile Pichegru invested Grave and Venloo; the latter of which, though defended by a sufficient garrison of eighteen hundred men, and amply provided with artillery and ammunition, surrendered before the works were injured, from the mere annoyance of the enemy's musketry. 78. The successive intelligence of the defection of the Prussians, and the open abandonment of the Low Countries by: the Austrian troops, which exposed Holland and Hanover to the immediate invasion of the Republican forces, afforded the Opposition in the British parliament a favourable opportunity for renewing their attacks on the Government; and they triumphantly observed, that, after twenty-s -seven months of bloodshed and combats, the Allies were reduced to the same situation in which they were when Dumourier projected the invasion of Holland. But nothing could shake the firmness of Mr Pitt. "It matters little," said he, "whether the disasters which have arisen are to be ascribed to the weakness of the generals, the intrigues of camps, or the jealousies of the cabinets; the fact is, that they exist, and that we must anew commence the salvation of Europe." In pursuance of this heroic resolution, Sir Arthur Paget was despatched to Berlin, to endeavour to obtain some light on the ambiguous and suspicious conduct of Prussia; and Lord Spencer to Vienna, to endeavour to divert the Imperial cabinet from their alarming intention of abandoning the Low Countries. As soon as the latter nobleman arrived at Vienna, he obtained a private audience of the Emperor, and laid before him the proposals of the British government, which were no less than the offer of an annual subsidy of three millions sterling, provided the Imperialists would renew the war in Flanders, and give the command of the army to the Archduke Charles, with Clairfait, Beaulieu, and Mack for his council. At the same time they stated such facts respecting the measures of Cobourg, who was deeply imbued with the temporising policy the cabinet of Vienna had now adopted, as led to his recall from the army, of which Clairfait assumed the command. 79. The cabinet of Vienna, however, secretly inclining to peace, delayed giving any definite answer to the proposals of Mr Pitt, and meanwhile entertained covert overtures from the French government; while Clairfait received orders to remain altogether on the right bank of the Rhine, and Alvinzi was merely detached, with twenty-five thousand men, to co-operate with the Duke of York in the defence of Holland. This retreat renewed the alarm of Prussia for her possessions on the Rhine, which was much increased by the cessation about the same period of the subsidies from the British government, who most justly declined to continue their monthly payments to a power which was doing nothing in aid of the common cause. Frederick William upon this withdrew twenty thousand of his best troops from the army of the Rhine, to join the forces which the Empress Catherine was moving towards Warsaw under the far-famed Suwarroff. It was now evident that the coalition was rapidly approaching its dissolution. The King of Prussia openly received overtures of peace from the French government; while the Duke of Würtemberg, the Elector of Saxony, the Elector of Mayence, and the other lesser potentates, secretly made advances to the same effect, and insisted so strongly on the danger of their situation, that the Emperor, notwithstanding all the firmness of Thugut, was obliged to acquiesce in their pacific measures. The 5th of December was the day fixed for the discussion of the important question of peace or war in the Diet of the Germanic Empire; and such was the consternation generally diffused by the divisions of the Allies and the successes of the French, that fifty-seven voices then declared for peace, and thirty-six demanded the King of Prussia for a mediator. This important resolution at once determined the conduct of Prussia. She now threw off the mask, and established conferences at Bâle preparatory to a peace; while Britain made unheard-of efforts to retain Austria in the confederacy, and at length, by the offer of a subsidy of £6,000,000, prevailed on that power to maintain her armies on the defensive on the banks of the Rhine, and resume, in the ensuing campaign, a vigorous offensive in Italy. 80. The successes which have been detailed, great as they were, turned out to be but the prelude, on the part of the French, to a winter campaign attended with still more decisive results. Towards the end of October, Pichegru undertook the siege of Nimeguen: the Duke of York approached with thirty thousand men, and by a vigorous sally 81. The French army, worn out with seven months of incessant marching and bivouacs, now stood excessively in need of repose. The clothing of the soldiers was in rags, their shoes were worn out, and the equipments of the artillery, but for the supplies obtained in the captured places, would long ago have been exhausted. But all the representations of the generals upon these points were overruled. The Committee of Public Salvation, inflamed by the spirit of conquest, and guided by the enterprise of Carnot, resolved upon exacting from them fresh sacrifices. Accustomed to find every difficulty yield to the devotion of the Republican soldiers, or be overcome by the prodigious amount of the Republican levies, they resolved, after a month's rest to the troops, to prosecute their successes in the midst of a rigorous winter, and to render the severity of the season the means of overcoming the natural defences of the Dutch provinces. The first object was to cross the Waal, and, after driving the allied forces over all the mouths of the Rhine, penetrate into Holland by the Isle of Bommel. For this purpose, boats had for some time past been collected at Fort Crevecœur, and pontoons and other materials for a bridge at Bois-le-Duc; and, the pre upon the besiegers, who had the temer-sieged; and Breda, one of the last of ity to open their trenches, though the the Dutch barrier towns, invested. place was only invested on the left bank of the Waal, gained a brilliant but ephemeral success, attended by no important consequences. Shortly after, the French established some batteries, destined to command the bridge which connected the town with the intrenched camp in its rear, and soon sank some of the pontoons composing it. This so much disconcerted the allied commanders that they hastily evacuated the place, with the bulk of the troops under their orders, in the night, leaving its defence to an inadequate garrison of three thousand men. These soldiers, feeling themselves unable to man the works, discouraged by the flight of their fellow-soldiers, overawed by the redoubled fire of the besiegers, and despairing of maintaining the place, immediately attempted to follow their example. Terror seized their ranks; they precipitated themselves upon the bridge, which was burned before the rear-guard had passed over. One regiment was obliged to capitulate, and part of another, embarked on a flying bridge, was stranded on the left bank, and next day made prisoners by the French. Thus this splendid fortress, which rendered them masters of the passage of the Waal, fell into the hands of the Republicans. The Dutch loudly reproached the British with the aban-parations having been completed, the donment of this important point, but apparently without reason; for how was it to be expected that the Duke of York, with thirty thousand men, was to maintain himself in presence of seventy thousand French, with the Rhine in his rear, when three times that force of Austrians had deemed themselves insecure till they had that river, a hundred miles farther up, thrown between them and the enemy? Be that as it may, the evacuation of Nimeguen completed the misunderstanding between the allied powers, and by spreading the belief in Holland that their cause was hopeless, and that their allies were about to abandon them, eminently contributed to the easy conquest of the United Provinces which so soon after followed. Grave was immediately be passage was commenced at daybreak on the 12th November. But the firm countenance of the Allies defeated all their attempts; and after several ineffectual efforts, Moreau, whose sagacity clearly perceived the danger of persisting in the design, withdrew his troops, and the army was put into winter-quarters, on the left bank of the Meuse and the Rhine. 82. Early in December, the Duke of York, supposing the campaign finished, set out for England, leaving to General Walmoden the perilous task of protecting, with an inferior and defeated army, a divided country against a numerous and enterprising enemy. But a severe frost, which soon after set in, and rendered that winter long memorable in physical annals, made the Re course of ages, brought down an immense mass of sand, gravel, and other alluvial matter, which, accumulating on the level shores near its entrance into the sea, have at length formed the plains of Holland, through which its now broken and lazy current with difficulty finds a passage, in many different branches, to the German Ocean. 84. A territory formed in this manner, by the confluence at their entrance into the sea of many different streams, is of course exceedingly flat, and in many places broken both by large internal lakes, and by considerable external arms of the sea and mouths of publicans conceive the design of invading Holland during the season when the frost had rendered the numerous canals and rivers which intersected the country passable for troops and artillery. The prospect of that danger excited the utmost alarm in the mind of General Walmoden, who saw the Meuse frozen in his front, while the Rhine and the Waal, the waters of which are prevented from congealing by the tide which flows up them, were charged with floating ice in his rear, and thus were alike impassable for boats or land forces. In these circumstances he was justly afraid that the same severe weather which exposed his line to the at-rivers. So frequent, indeed, are these tacks of the enemy in his front, would render the passage of the arms of the sea in his rear impracticable in the event of retreat. Influenced by these apprehensions, he passed his heavy cavalry to the other side of the Waal, evacuated his magazines and hospitals upon Dewenter, and ordered the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt, cantoned with the most advanced corps in the Island of Bommel, to abandon it on the first intelligence of the passage of the Meuse by the enemy. 83. Situated around the mouths of the Rhine, HOLLAND exhibits the most striking contrast to the stupendous range of snowy mountains in which that noble river takes its rise. It is remarkable that the two most celebrated republics of Europe, and the only ones which have long survived the changes of time, are placed at the opposite extremities of the same stream; and that freedom in the one has found the same shelter in the mountains from which it springs, as in the other, amidst the marshes in which it is lost before emptying itself into the sea. The Meuse and the Scheldt on the south, and the Vecht and Issel on the north, flow through a part of its surface; but the principal rivers which traverse the Dutch territory, the New Issel, the Waal, as well as the Rhine properly so called, and a multitude of lesser branches, are but mouths of that mighty stream. Like the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges, the Mississippi, and all other great rivers, the Rhine has, in the aqueous interruptions of the Dutch ter While the pent Ocean, rising o'er the pile, 86. A country in this manner originally wrested, and still preserved by incessant efforts, from the waves, necessarily has had a peculiar character and specific manners impressed upon it by the all-powerful signet of nature. Strenuous efforts have won for man the land which he inhabits; ceaseless vigilance alone preserves it and these lasting causes have communicated to the inhabitants habits and customs peculiarly their own. Constant exertion, 85. Dreadful catastrophes in former persevering industry, vigilant circumtimes have shown the reality and awful spection, have become habitual from character of these dangers. Four cen- necessity, and still form the great chaturies ago, the sea of Haarlem, which racteristics of the country.+ Their covers a space five leagues long by two national character perhaps approaches and a half broad, was formed by the more nearly to that of England than sea breaking through the dykes which of any other people in Europe; but yet restrained it. On the night of the 19th it is in some particulars widely differNovember 1421, during a violent storm, ent. It wants the fire and energy, the the sea-dyke of North Brabant gave lofty spirit, and great aspirations, which way; the ocean rushed in, and before have been communicated to the British morning seventy villages had been sub-race by their Danish and Norman conmerged, a hundred thousand persons drowned, and twelve square leagues of fertile land converted into a watery waste, in which the remains of steeples and buildings may still be discerned in calm weather beneath the waves. The Dollart Sea, situated between the province of Groningen in North Holland and the territory of Hanover, which is eight leagues long and three broad, was formed by an inroad of the sea in 1277, which swallowed up thirty-three villages; and the great Zuyder Zee itself, thirty leagues in length, and twenty in breadth, which covers a surface as extensive as Yorkshire, was formed in 1225 by an irruption of the German Ocean, which broke through the line of sand-hills and dykes, the direction of which may still be clearly traced on querors; but it possesses the perseverance and industry, the honesty and good faith, the love of freedom and spirit of order, which, even more than their courage and capacity, are destined to give the Anglo-Saxon race the dominion of half the globe. The love of freedom has there existed, in general, in conjunction with its indispensable allies, order and religion. A methodical system pervades every branch of their social economy; community of interest retains the sailors and workmen in * Paradise Lost, xi. 745. Nunc quoque habent; parcumque genus pa- quentur." OVID, Metam. |