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CHAP.

XVI.

1794.

79, 83, 85.

320, 322.

292. Ann.

37.

tions for a

tle in West

the charge. But they kept so bad a look-out that, on the 24th, they were surprised and completely routed by the Austrians, under Prince Kaunitz. The whole army was flying in confusion to the bridges, when KLEBER, May 24. destined to future celebrity, arrived in time with fresh Jom. v. 66. troops to arrest the victorious enemy, and preserve the Toul. iv, army from total destruction. As it was, however, they Th. vi. 291, were a second time driven over the Sambre, with the loss Reg. 331. of four thousand men, and twenty-five pieces of artillery.1 While blood was flowing in such torrents on the banks of the Sambre, events of still greater importance occurred Preparain West Flanders. The Allies had there collected ninety general batthousand men, including one hundred and thirty-three Flanders." squadrons, under the immediate command of the Emperor ; and the situation of the left wing of the French suggested the design of cutting it off from the main body of the army, and forcing it back upon the sea, where it could have no alternative but to surrender. For this purpose, their troops were divided into six columns, which were moved by concentric lines on the French corps posted at Turcoing. Had they acted with more concert, and moved on a better line, the attack would have been crowned with the most splendid success. But the old system of dividing their forces made it terminate in nothing but disaster. The different columns, some of which were separated from each other by no less than twenty leaugues, did not arrive simultaneously at the point of attack: and although each singly acted vigorously when brought into action, there was not the unity in their operations requisite May 16. to success. Some inconsiderable advantages were gained near Turcoing on the 17th; but the Republicans, having Jom. v. 86, now concentrated their troops in a central position, were iv. 322. Ann. Reg. enabled to fall with an overwhelming force on the insulated 332. columns of their adversaries.2

At three in the morning of the 18th, General Souham, with forty-five thousand, attacked the detached corps of General Otto and the Duke of York, while another corps

2

97. Toul.

XVI.

1794.

38.

Battle of

May 18.

CHAP. of fifteen thousand advanced against them from the side of Lisle. The first, that of General Otto, was defeated with great loss; the latter, though it at first defended itself with vigour, finding its communication cut off with Turcoing. the remainder of the army, and surrounded by a greatly superior force, disbanded and took to flight—a circumstance which ultimately proved fortunate, as, had they maintained their ground, they certainly would have been made prisoners. So sudden was the rout, that the Duke of York himself owed his safety to the fleetness of his horse a circumstance which, much to his credit, he had the candour to admit in his official despatch. Such was the defect of the combinations of Prince Cobourg, that, at the time that his central columns were thus overwhelmed by an enormous mass of sixty thousand men, the two columns on his left, amounting to not less than thirty thousand, under the Archduke Charles and Kinsky, remained in a state of absolute inaction. At the same time Clairfait, with seventeen thousand on the right, who came up too late to take any active part in the engagement, was obliged to retire, after capturing seven pieces of cannon-a poor compensation for the total rout of the centre, and the moral disadvantages of a defeat. In this action, where the Allies lost three thousand men, and sixty pieces of cannon, the superiority of the French 1 Jom. v. 86, generalship was very apparent. Inferior, upon the whole,

97, 98.

Toul. iv.

Reg. 332.

to the mass of their opponents, they had greatly the 322. Ann. advantage in numbers at the point of attack. It must Th. vi. 295, be admitted, however, that, after having pierced the centre, ii. 536-7. they should have reaped something more from their victory than the bare possession of the field of battle.1

296. Hard.

39.

Fresh indecisive actions.

May 22.

On the 22d May Pichegru, who now assumed the command, renewed the attack, with a force now raised by successive additions to nearly one hundred thousand men, with the intention of forcing the passage of the Scheldt, besieging Tournay, and capturing a convoy which was ascending that river. They at first succeeded in driving

XVI.

1794.

in the outposts; but a reinforcement of British troops, CHAP. commanded by General Fox, and seven Austrian battalions, having arrived to support the Hanoverians in that quarter, a desperate and bloody conflict ensued, in which the firmness of the British at length prevailed over the impetuosity of their adversaries, and the village of Pontà-chin, which was the point of contest between them, finally remained in their hands. The battle continued from five in the morning till nine at night, when it terminated by a general charge of the Allies, which drove the enemy from the field.* In this action, which was

one of the most obstinately contested of the campaign, the French lost above six thousand men; but such was the fatigue of the victors, after an engagement of such severity and duration, that they were unable to follow up their success. Twenty thousand men had fallen on the two sides in these murderous battles, but no decisive advantage, and hardly a foot of ground, had been gained by either party. Finding that he could make no impression in this quarter, Pichegru resolved to carry the theatre of war into West Flanders, where the country, intersected by hedges, was less favourable to the Allied cavalry, and he, in consequence, laid siege to Ipres. About the same time, the Emperor conducted ten thousand men in person 333. Th. vi. to reinforce the army on the Sambre; and the right wing 297. Hard. of the Allies, thus weakened, remained in a defensive Jom. v. 98, position near Tournay, which was fortified with the iv. 322. utmost care.1

1 Ann. Reg.

ii. 537, 538.

104. Toul.

trian cabi

The indecisive results of these bloody actions, which 40. clearly demonstrated the great strength of the Republi- The Auscans, and the desperate strife which awaited the Allies, net in secret in any attempt to conquer a country abounding in such contemplate defenders, produced an important change in the Austrian of Flanders

the exchange

for Bavaria,

or some

* The Emperor Francis was on horseback for twelve hours during this bloody Italian proday, incessantly traversing the ranks, and animating the soldiers to continue vince. their exertions.-"Courage, my friends!" said he, when they appeared about to sink "yet a few more exertions, and the victory is our own."-HARD. ii. 538.

VOL. III.

2 D

1794.

CHAP. Councils. Thugut, who was essentially patriotic in his XVI. ideas, and reluctantly embarked in any contest which did not evidently conduce to the advantage of the hereditary states, had long nourished a secret aversion to the war in Flanders. He could not disguise from himself that these provinces, how opulent and important soever in themselves, contributed little to the real strength of the monarchy that their situation, far removed from Austria, and close to France, rendered it highly probable that they would, at some no very distant period, become the prey of that enterprising power; and that the charge of defending them, at so great a distance from the strength of the hereditary states, entailed an enormous and ruinous expense upon the Imperial finances. Impressed with these ideas, he had for some time been revolving in his mind the project of abandoning these distant provinces to their fate, and looking out for a compensation to Austria in Italy or Bavaria, where its new acquisition might lie adjacent to the hereditary states. This long remained a fixed principle in the Imperial councils; and in these vague ideas is to be found the remote cause of the treaty of Campo-Formio, and appropriation of Venice.1

1 Hard. ii. 539, 540.

41.

on this pro

ject. May 24.

Two days after the battle of Turcoing, a council of A council of state was secretly held at the Imperial headquarters, to state is held deliberate on the measures to be pursued for the future progress of the war. The opportunity appeared favourable to that able statesman to bring forward his longcherished project. The inactivity and lukewarmness of the Prussians, notwithstanding the British subsidy, too plainly demonstrated that no reliance could be placed on their co-operation; the recent desperate actions in West Flanders sufficiently proved that no serious impression was to be made in that quarter; while the reluctance of the Flemish states to contribute any thing to the common cause, and the evident partiality of a large party amongst them for the French alliance, rendered it a matter of great doubt whether it was expedient on behalf of such

XVI.

1794.

distant, fickle, and disaffected subjects to maintain any CHAP. longer a contest, which, if unsuccessful, might engulf half the forces of the monarchy. These considerations were forcibly impressed upon the mind of the young Emperor, who, born and bred in Tuscany, entertained no partiality for his distant Flemish possessions. Mack supported

them with all the weight of his opinion, and strongly "urged that it was better to retire altogether across the Rhine, while yet the strength of the army was unbroken, than run the risk of its being buried in the fields of Belgium. If Flanders was of such value to the cause of European independence, it lay upon England, Prussia, and Holland, in the centre of whose dominions it lay, to provide measures for its defence: but the real interests of Austria lay nearer home, and her battalions required to be seen in dense array on the Maritime Alps, or on the shores of the Vistula, where vast and fertile provinces were about to fall a prey to her ambitious neighbours. Should affairs in that quarter assume a favourable aspect, and the revolutionary fervour of the Republic exhaust itself, it would apparently be no difficult matter to recover the Belgic provinces, as Prince Cobourg had done in the preceding campaign; or, if this should unhappily prove impossible, it was much more likely that a successful defensive war could be maintained with the resources of the empire concentrated round its heart, than when they were so largely accumulated in a distant possession; or if peace became desirable, it could at any time be readily purchased by the cession of provinces so valuable to France, and the acquisition of an equivalent 539, 543. nearer the Austrian dominions."1

1 Hard. ii.

donment of

The subject was debated with the deliberation which 42. its importance deserved; and it was at length deter- The abanmined by the majority of the council, that the mainte- Flanders is nance of so burdensome and hazardous a war for such resolved on by the Ausdisaffected and distant possessions, was at variance with trian cabithe vital interests of the state. It was resolved, accord

net.

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