XVI. 1794. 1 Hard. iii. 7, 33. 54. retreat of an forces. retire to land. licans permitted, without molestation, to reduce the four great fortresses which had been wrested from France in the preceding and present campaign. The fall of Robespierre prevented these overtures from coming to any further issue; but they early attracted the attention of the vigilant minister who directed the affairs of Great Britain, and he urged his ambassador to make the strongest remonstrances against a step so prejudicial to the interests of Europe. But the Austrians were resolute in their determination to abandon Flanders, alleging as a reason the inconstancy and disaffection of its inhabitants. "To behold a people so infatuated," said Count METTERNICH, afterwards so celebrated as the great diplomatic leader, to Lord Cornwallis, "as, notwithstanding the most pressing exhortations to take up arms in defence of their religion, their independence, and property, to refuse to move, and voluntarily place their necks under the yoke, singing Ca Ira, is a phenomenon reserved for these days of desolation."1 The British forces, now entirely detached from their Diverging Allies, were posted behind the canal of Malines, and they the British amounted to above thirty thousand British and Hanoand Austri- verians, and fifteen thousand Dutch. Their object was, The British by remaining on the defensive, to cover Antwerp and wards Hol- Holland; while the Austrians retired by Tirlemont upon Liege. In this way, while the Republicans remained with their centre at Brussels, and their wings extending from Wilworde to Namur, their adversaries retired by diverging lines towards the north and the south, and every successive day's march carried them farther from each other a state of affairs of all others the most calamitous, in presence of an enterprising enemy, occupying a central position between them. The British were intent only on covering Antwerp and Holland; the Imperialists on drawing nearer to their resources at Cologne and Coblentz.2 2 Jom.v.162, Neither recollected that, by separating their forces, they gave the enemy the means of crushing either separately at pleasure, and that the secret conventions with the 170. Toul. iv. 338. XVI. 1794. Austrians exposed the British to the whole weight of CHAP. attack. Their separation, too, left him in possession of a salient position, which would soon render both the vinces of the Lower Rhine and the United Provinces untenable. pro the French. Contrary to the expectations of all who were not ini- 55. tiated into the mysteries of the diplomacy, and in opposi- Inactivity of tion to what might have been expected from the previous energy of their measures, the Committee of Public Salvation arrested their army in the career of victory, and paralysed a hundred and fifty thousand men, in possession of an internal line of communication, at the moment when their enemies were disunited, and incapable of rendering each other any assistance. This was the result of the secret understanding with Prince Cobourg, which has just been mentioned. On the 15th July, the canal of Malines was forced, after an inconsiderable resistance by the Dutch troops, and the Duke of York retired to Antwerp, which was soon after evacuated, and his whole forces concentrated towards Breda, for the defence of Holland. On the other wing, Jourdan, more in appearance than reality, pursued his advantages against Cobourg; and, after several inconsiderable engagements with the rearguard, Liege and Tongres were evacuated, and the Austrians retired behind the Meuse. But, with these exceptions, nothing was attempted by the Republicans for several weeks, while the government waited the reduction of 338. Jom. Valenciennes and the other places captured by the Allies 170, 174. on the frontier at the commencement of the war.1 1 Toul. iv. v. 162, 165, 56. Decree of the Conven tion to give no quarter. 2 Decree, To hasten their reduction, a bloody decree was passed by the Convention, ordaining their commanders to give no quarter to any garrison which should not surrender within twenty-four hours after the first summons.2 The humanity of the Republican generals made them refuse to carry May 26. this atrocious order into execution, and it was soon after rendered nugatory by the fall of Robespierre on the 27th July, (9th Thermidor.) The governor of Condé, when 1794. CHAP. summoned to surrender in virtue of this disgraceful inXVI. junction to the French generals, replied, "That one nation had no right to decree the dishonour of another nation, and that he should prolong his defence so as to deserve the esteem of the French themselves." The Committee of Public Salvation, under Carnot's direction, feeling the iniquity of the measure, took advantage of fictitious delays to allow the garrisons to capitulate on the usual terms. General Scherer collected a body of troops from the interior and the neighbouring garrisons, and formed the siege successively of Landrecies, Quesnoy, Condé, and Valenciennes, all of which fell, after a trifling resistance, before the end of August. At the same time the decree already mentioned was passed by the Convention, prohibiting their armies from giving quarter to the British or Hanoverians who might fall into their hands. Republican soldiers!" said Barère, in the report on which that decree was founded, "you must, when victory shall put into your power either English or Hanoverians, strike without mercy; not one of them ought to return to the traitorous territory of England, or to be brought into France. Let the English slaves perish, but let Europe be free." To this decree the Duke of York replied by an order of the day, worthy of the nation whose forces he led, and the cause with which he was intrusted, ordering c. xv. § 26. all French captives to be treated with the same humanity as before.1* This generous conduct had the desired effect; the humane efforts of the British commanders were 1 Moniteur, 29 Mai. Hist. Parl. 30 Mai. Ann. Reg. 145. His tory, Th. vii. 74. Toul. iv. 338. Jom. v. 172. Vide Ante, 66 *He stated in that noble document, "The National Convention has just passed a decree that their soldiers shall give no quarter to the British or Hanoverian troops. His Royal Highness anticipates the indignation and horror which has naturally arisen in the minds of the brave troops whom he addresses upon receiving this information. He desires, however, to remind them, that mercy to the vanquished is the brightest gem in the soldier's character, and exhorts them not to suffer their resentment to lead them to any precipitate act of cruelty on their part, which may sully the reputation they have acquired in the world. In all the wars which, from the earliest times, have existed between the English and French nations, they have been accustomed to consider each other in the light of generous as well as brave enemies; while the Hanoverians, the allies of the former, have shared for above a century in this mutual esteem. Humanity and kindness have at all times taken place, the seconded by the corresponding feelings of the French officers, and the prisoners on both sides were treated with the same humanity as before the issuing of the bloody decree. CHAP. 1794. on the 57. disasters consequent cession of While the fortune of war, after a desperate struggle, was thus decisively inclining to the Republican side on Operations the northern, events of minor importance, but still upon Rhine, and the whole favourable to the French arms, occurred on the eastern and southern frontiers. The dubious conduct, or on the serather evident defection of Prussia, paralysed all the Prussia. operations on the Rhine. Sixty thousand Prussians and Saxons were assembled round Mayence, and along the Nahe; and the departure of Jourdan, with forty thousand, to reinforce the army on the Sambre, offered the fairest opportunity of resuming offensive operations with a preponderating force on the Moselle. Only two divisions, at a distance from each other, remained between Thionville and Kayserslautern; and though the Republican government made the greatest exertions to reinforce them, the utmost that could be done was to raise the one to twenty and the other to ten thousand men. Nor was the superiority less decisive on the Upper Rhine, where fifty thousand Imperialists formed the cordon from Bâle to Mayence; and seventy thousand more were prepared for active operations; while the force in the field, under General Michaud, to oppose them, was only thirty-six thousand, supported by fifty thousand still retained in 184. garrison by the cautious policy of the French government.1 Yet, with this immense superiority of force, the Allies instant that opposition ceased, and the same cloak has been frequently seen covering those who were wounded, friends and enemies, while indiscriminately conveyed to the hospitals of the conquerors. The British and Hanoverian armies will not believe that the French nation, even under their present infatuation, can so far forget their character as soldiers, as to pay any attention to a decree as injurious to themselves as it is disgraceful to their government; and therefore his Royal Highness trusts that the soldiers of both nations will confine their sentiments of abhorrence to the National Convention alone, persuaded that they will be joined in them by every Frenchman who possesses one spark of honour, or one principle of a soldier."-Proclamation, May 30, 1794; Ann. Reg. 1794; State Papers, p. 169. VOL. III. 2 E 1 St Cyr, ii. 232, 250. Jom. v. 177, XVI. 1794. 58. Inactivity of the Prus sians. May 23. CHAP. in this quarter did nothing. Instead of assembling, as they might easily have done, eighty thousand men, to attack the centre of the French lines on the Rhine, and relieve the relieve the pressure which operated so severely on the Sambre, they contented themselves with detaching a small force to dislodge the Republican post at Morlautern. A slight advantage was gained at Kayserslautern over the Republican division intrusted with the defence of the gorges; and General Michaud, unable to make head against such superior forces, retired to the intrenchments of the Queich, while the army of the Moselle resumed the position it had occupied at the close of the preceding campaign. Shortly after, Michaud received powerful reinforcements, and made vigorous preparations for resuming the offensive; while the British ambassador vainly endeavoured to stimulate the King of Prussia to execute the part assigned him in the treaty of the Hague. The whole attention of Prussia was fixed on Poland, and the movements of General Kosciusko. So intent was the cabinet of Berlin on the partition of that country, that nothing could induce them to give any directions for the prosecution of the war on the Rhine, till after the fall of Charleroi, the battle of Fleurus, and the reinforcement of the Republican armies on the Rhine, had rendered it impossible to resume the offensive with any prospect of advantage. 1 Jom. v. 177, 189. St Cyr, ii. 232, 250. 59. in Piedmont. is carried by In the south, the reduction of Lyons and Toulon, by Operations rendering disposable the forces employed in the siege of Mont Cenis these cities, gave an early and decisive superiority to the the French. Republican arms. The levies ordered in September 1793, had brought such an accession of strength to their forces, that in the middle of April the army of the Alps amounted to seventy-five thousand combatants. Piedmont, menaced with invasion by this formidable force, had only at its command a body of forty thousand men, spread over a chain of posts along the summit of the Alps, from Savona to Mont Blanc, and an auxiliary |