XVI. 1794. CHAP. ingly, that the Imperial troops should, as soon as decency would permit, be withdrawn from Flanders; that this resolution should in the mean time be kept a profound secret, and, to cover the honour of the Imperial arms, a general battle should be hazarded, and on its issue should depend the course thereafter to be adopted; but that, in the mean time, the Emperor should forthwith depart for Vienna, to take cognisance of the affairs of Poland, which called for instant attention. In conformity with this resolution, he set out shortly after for that capital, leaving Cobourg in command of the army.1 1 Hard. ii. 539, 543, 545. 43. again cross leroi, and are driven back. May 28. Meanwhile the Commissioners of the Convention, little The French anticipating the favourable turn which their affairs were the Sambre, about to take from the divisions of the Allies, nothing invest Char- daunted by the reverses the army of the Sambre had experienced, were continually stimulating its generals to fresh exertions. In vain they represented that the soldiers, worn out with fatigue, without shoes, without clothing, stood much in need of repose. "To-morrow," said St Just, "the Republic must have a victory: choose between a battle and a siege." Constrained by authorities who enforced their arguments by the guillotine, the Republican generals prepared for a third expedition across the Sambre. Towards the end of May, Kléber made the attempt with troops still exhausted by fatigue, and almost starving. The consequences were such as might have been expected; the grenadiers were repulsed by the grape-shot of the enemy, and General Duhesme was routed with little difficulty. On the 29th, however, the indomitable Republicans returned to the charge, and, after an obstinate engagement, succeeded in forcing back the Imperialists, and immediately began the investment of Charleroi. But the arrival of the Emperor with ten thousand troops, having raised the Allied force in that 322. Jom. quarter to thirty-five thousand men, it was resolved to Y. 103, 109, make an effort to raise the siege before Jourdan arrived with the army of the Moselle, which was hourly expected.2 June 3. 2 Toul. iv. 113. But XVI. 1794. The attack was made on the 3d June, and attended with CHAP. complete success; the French having been driven across the Sambre, with the loss of two thousand men. this check was of little importance on the day following Jourdan arrived from the Moselle with forty thousand fresh troops. 44. Jourdan the with 40,000 men, investment of and separa Austrians June 12. This great reinforcement thrown into the scale, when the contending parties were so nearly balanced, was Arrival of decisive of the fate of the campaign, and proves sagacity with which Carnot acted in accumulating an overwhelming force on this point. In a few days the Charleroi, Republicans recrossed the river with sixty thousand men, tion of the resumed the siege of Charleroi, and soon destroyed a and British. strong redoubt which constituted the principal defence of June 16. the besieged. The imminent danger to which the city was reduced by the attack of this great force, induced the Allies to make the utmost efforts to raise the siege. But this required no less skill than intrepidity; for their army did not exceed thirty-five thousand men, while the French were nearly double that number. On this occasion, the system of attack by detached columns was for once successful. The Republicans were pierced by a simultaneous effort of two of the Allied columns, defeated, and driven over the Sambre, with the loss of three thousand men. This success, highly honourable as it was to the Austrian arms, proved in the end prejudicial to their cause, as it induced Prince Cobourg to suppose that his left wing was now sufficiently secure, and to detach all his disposable troops to the succour of Clairfait and Ipres on the right, whereas it was against the other flank that the principal forces of the Republicans were now directed. In effect, on the 18th June, the French army recrossed the Sambre for the fifth, and commenced the bombardment of Charleroi for the third time. The great force with which this attack was made, amounting to seventy thousand men, rendered it evident that Prince Cobourg had mistaken the point which required support, and that it was on the XVI. 1794. CHAP. Sambre, and under the walls of Charleroi, that the decisive battle for the protection of Flanders was to be fought. Accordingly, the major part of the Allied forces were at length moved in that direction; the Duke of York, with the British and Hanoverians, being left alone on the Scheldt, at a short distance from Clairfait, who had recently experienced the most overwhelming reverses. This separation of the forces of the two nations contributed not a little to augment the misunderstanding which already prevailed between them, and was the forerunner of numberless disasters to all.1 1 Jom. v. 132, 133. Th. vi. 395, 397. Ann. Reg. 45. Pichegru attacks Clairfait. June 17. 2 Jom. v. 119, 130. Ann. Reg. 324. No sooner was the departure of the Emperor with reinforcements to the army on the Sambre known to Pichegru, than he resolved to take advantage of the weakness of his adversaries, by prosecuting seriously the longmenaced siege of Ipres. Clairfait, not feeling himself in sufficient strength to interrupt his operations, remained long firm in his intrenched camp at Thielt. At length, however, the positive orders of his superiors compelled that able officer, even with the insufficient forces at his disposal, to make an attempt to raise the siege. It was arranged that this attack should be aided by a movement of the centre of the Allied army to his support. But the design having been betrayed to the enemy at Lisle, was prevented from being carried into effect by a demonstration from the French centre by Pichegru. The consequence was, that the Austrian general was compelled to attack alone; and, though his corps fought with their wonted valour, he was again worsted, and compelled to resume his position in his intrenchments, without having disturbed the operations of the siege. This was the fifth time that this brave officer had fought unsupported, while thirty thousand Austrians lay inactive at Tournay, and six thousand British, under Lord Moira, were reposing from the fatigues of their sea voyage at Ostend.2 The consequence was, that Ipres capitulated a few days after, and its garrison, consisting of six thousand men, was XVI. made prisoners of war. Cobourg made a tardy movement CHAP. for its relief; but, hearing of its fall, returned on the 19th to Tournay. 1794. 46. succour June 22. The Austrians having now, in pursuance of their plan of withdrawing from Flanders, finally detached themselves Imperialists from the British, moved all their forces towards their left assemble to wing, with a view to succour Charleroi, which was severely Charleroi. pressed by Jourdan. On the 22d, Prince Cobourg joined his left wing, but, though the united forces were seventyfive thousand strong, he delayed till the 26th to attack the French army. Jourdan, who was fully aware of the importance of acquiring this fortress, took advantage of the respite which this delay afforded him to prosecute the siege with the utmost activity. This he did with such success, that, the batteries of the besieged having been silenced, the place capitulated on the evening of the 25th. June 25. Hardly had the garrison left the gates, when the discharge of artillery announced the tardy movement of the Aus- June 26. trians for its relief. The battle took place on the follow- 119, 137. ing day, on the plains of FLEURUS, already signalised by 334. Th. a victory of Marshal Luxembourg in 1690, and was 395, 396. attended by most important consequences. 1 Jom. 5. Ann. Reg. vi. 393, Fleurus. The French army, which was eighty-nine thousand 47. strong, was posted in a semicircle round the town of Battle of Charleroi, now become, instead of a source of weakness, June 26. a point d'appui to the Republicans. Their position nearly resembled that of Napoleon at Leipsic; but the superiority of force on that occasion secured a very different result to the Allies from that which now awaited their arms. The Imperialists, adhering to their system of attacking the enemy at all points, divided their forces into five columns, intending to assail at the same moment all parts of the Republican position—a mode of attack at all times hazardous, but especially so when an inferior is engaged with a superior force. The battle commenced on the 26th, at daybreak, and continued with great vigour throughout the whole day. The first column, under the XVI. 1794. CHAP. command of the Prince of Orange, attacked the left of the French under General Montaigu, and drove them back to the village of Fontaine l'Evêque; but the Republicans, being there reinforced by fresh troops, succeeded in maintaining their ground, and repulsed repeated charges of the Imperial cavalry. During a successful charge, however, the French horse were themselves assailed by the Austrian cuirassiers, and driven back in confusion upon the infantry, who gradually lost ground, and at length were compelled to fall back to the heights in front of Charleroi. The moment was critical, for the Austrians, following up their success, were on the point of carrying the village of Marchiennes-au-Pont, which would have intercepted the whole communications of the Republican army; but Jourdan, alarmed at the advance of the enemy in this quarter, moved up Kléber to support his left. That intrepid general hastily erected several batteries to meet the enemy's fire, and moved forward BERNADOTTE,* the future King of Sweden, at the head of several battalions, to the support of Montaigu. The Allies, under Latour and the Prince of Orange, being unsupported by the remainder of the army, and finding themselves vigorously assailed both in front and flank, fell back from their advanced position, and, before four in the afternoon, all the ground gained in that quarter had been abandoned.1 1 Jom. v. 138, 143. Toul. iv. 328, 330. Ti vi. 399, 401. 48. struggle in the centre. While these events were going forward on the left, the Obstinate centre, where the village of Fleurus was occupied by sixteen thousand troops, and strongly strengthened by intrenchments, was the scene of an obstinate conflict. The attack in front of the Allies was successfully repulsed, after passing the village, by the fire of artillery on the heights in the rear but General Beaulieu, with the left wing of the Allies, having attacked and carried the post of Lambusart on the French right, the Republicans on the left were compelled to give way; and the important post of Fleurus, with its great redoubt, stood prominent in the * See a biography of BERNADOTTE, chap. lxx. § 26. |