XIII. 1793. Ferrari. A thick fog at first concealed the hostile armies from each other, but soon after daybreak it rose like a curtain, and discovered the Republican lines posted in front of their intrenchments, and defended by a numerous artillery. The English troops under Abercromby, forming part of Ferrari's corps, advanced along with the Germans under Walmoden, crossed the Ronelle, and carried some of the redoubts of the camp, notwithstanding a vehement fire from the French artillery. The attack of the Duke of York having also been followed by the capture of three redoubts, and the whole Allied army being advanced close to the intrenchments, the French resolved not to wait the issue of an assault on the following day, but evacuated their position during the night, and fell back to the famous camp of Cæsar, leaving Valenciennes to its fate. The Allies on this occasion lost a very favourable opportunity of bringing the war to a termination. Cobourg had eighty thousand men in the field; the French had not fifty thousand: had he acted with vigour, and followed up his advantage, he might have destroyed the Republican army, and marched at the head of an irresistible force to Paris. But at that period, neither the Allied cabinets nor generals were capable of such a resolution. The former looked only to a war of conquest and acquisition against iv. 10, 13. France, in which the great object was to secure their 170. Ann. advantages; the latter to a slow methodical campaign, similar to that pursued in ordinary times against a regular government. 1 1 Hard. ii. 286-7. Toul. Jom.iii.165, Reg. 1793, 169. 40. Valenciennes and Condé in vested, and the former taken. June 14. It was immediately determined by the Allies to form the sieges of Valenciennes and Condé. The army of observation, thirty thousand strong, encamped near Herinnes, fronting Bouchain, while a corps of equal strength under the Duke of York was intrusted with the conduct of the siege. The garrison of the former, consisting of nine thousand men, made a gallant defence; but the operations of the besiegers were conducted with the greatest activity, and ere long crowned with success. On the 14th June the trenches XIII. 1793. were opened, and above two hundred and fifty pieces of CHAP. heavy cannon, with ninety mortars, kept up a vigorous and incessant fire upon the works and the city. Upon the unfortunate inhabitants the tempest fell with unmitigated severity, and several parts of the town were speedily in flames; but they bore their sufferings with great resignation, till the pangs of hunger began to be added to the terrors of the bombardment. Ultimately the approaches of the besiegers were chiefly carried on by their subterraneous operations. During the whole of July, the mines were pushed with the greatest activity, and on the 25th, three great globes of compression were ready to be fired under the covered way; while two columns, the first composed of English, the second of Germans, were prepared to take advantage of the confusion, and assault the ruins. At nine at night the globes were sprung with a prodigious explosion, and the assaulting columns immediately rushed forward with loud shouts, cleared the palisades of the covered way, pursued the Republicans into the interior works, where they spiked the cannon, and dislodged the garrison, but were unable to maintain their ground from the fire of the place. The outworks, however, being now in great part carried, and the consternation of the citizens having risen to the highest pitch, from the prospect of an approaching assault, the governor, on the 28th, was obliged 28th July. to capitulate. The garrison, by this time reduced to seven thousand men, marched out with the honours of war, laid down its arms, and was permitted to retire to France, on condition of not again serving against the Allies. It was employed, like that of Mayence, in the war against 171, 174, the Royalists in la Vendée and Toulon, and there rendered iv. 42, 43. essential service to the Republican arms.1 1 Jomini, iv. 181. Toul. 41. and capitu In this siege, the operations on both sides were conducted with great vigour and ability; and the French artillery Blockade The Allies threw lation of even surpassed its ancient renown. eighty-four thousand cannon-balls, twenty thousand shells, and forty-eight thousand bombs, into the town. The Condé. XIII. 1793. 32. Jom. iii. 181. 42. session of the Empe ror of Aus tria. CHAP. governor, General Ferrand, was arrested and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and, but for the intervention of a commissioner of the Convention, would have forfeited his life for a defence highly honourable in itself, and which in the end aided the salvation of France, by the time which it afforded for the completion of the armaments 13th July. in the interior. The siege, or rather blockade, of Condé, was less distinguished by remarkable events. After an obstinate resistance, it capitulated a short time before Valen1 Toul. iv. ciennes, the garrison having exhausted all their means of subsistence. By this event, 3000 men were made prisoners, and an important fortress gained to the Allied forces. 1 The capitulation of these two fortresses brought to light These places the fatal change in the object and policy of the war which taken pos- had been agreed upon at the Congress of Antwerp. All in name of Europe was in anxious suspense, awaiting the official announcement of the intentions of the Allies, by the use which they made of their first considerable conquests; when the hoisting of the Austrian colours on their walls too plainly avowed that they were to be retained as permanent acquisitions by the Emperor. This was soon placed beyond a doubt by the proclamation issued by Prince Cobourg on 13th July 1793, on entering the town, in which he declared, "I announce, by the present proclamation, that I take possession in name of his Imperial and Royal Majesty, and that I will accord to all the inhabitants of the conquered countries security and protection, hereby declaring that I will only exercise the power conferred upon me by the Right of Conquest for the preservation of the public peace, and the protection of individuals." This was immediately followed by the establishment of an Imperial and Royal Junta at Condé, for the administration of the conquered provinces, in the name of the Emperor, which commenced its operations by dispossessing all the revolutionary authorities, restoring the religious bodies, 327, 328. checking the circulation of assignats, and removing the sequestration from the emigrant estates.2 2 Hard. ii. XIII. 1793. 43. this step. The public revelation of this unhappy change in the objects of the coalition was the first rude shock which its fortunes received. It sowed divisions among the Allies, as much as it united its enemies. Prussia now perceived Disastrous clearly that the war had become one of aggression on the effects of part of Austria; and, conceiving the utmost disquietude at such an augmentation of the power of her dreaded rival, secretly resolved to paralyse all the operations of her armies. Now that Mayence, the bulwark of the north of Germany, was regained, the cabinet of Berlin resolved to withdraw, as soon as decency would permit, from a contest in which success appeared more to be dreaded than defeat. The French emigrants were struck with consternation at so decisive a proof of the intended spoliation of their country; Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII., solemnly protested, as guardian for his nephew, Louis XVII., against any dismemberment of his dominions; placards, to which it was suspected, not without reason, Dumourier was no stranger, appeared on all the walls of Brussels, calling on all Frenchmen to unite, to save their country from the fate of Poland; while the Convention, turning to the best account this announcement of intended conquest, succeeded in inspiring a degree of unanimity in defence of their country, which they never could have effected had the Allies confined themselves to 329, 331. the original objects of the war.1 1 Hard. ii. takes shelter Custine, removed from the army of the Rhine, was 44. placed in command of the army in Flanders in the end Custine of May. On his arrival at the camp of Cæsar, he found in intrench the soldiers in the most deplorable state, both of disorgani- ed camps. sation and military spirit; a large portion of the older troops had been withdrawn to sustain the war in la Vendée, and their places supplied by young conscripts, almost totally undisciplined, who were shaken by the first appearance of the enemy's squadrons. "He trembled," to use his own words, "at the thought of what might occur, if he followed the example of his predecessors, and 1793. CHAP. made a forward movement before confidence and discipline XIII. were re-established among the soldiers." His first care was to issue a severe proclamation, calculated to restore discipline; his next, to use the utmost efforts to revive the spirit of the troops; but, as he was still inferior in number to his opponents, he did not venture, notwithstanding the reiterated orders of the Convention, to make any movement for the relief of the besieged places. Incessantly engaged in teaching the conscripts the rudiments of the military art, he chose to brave the resentment of government, rather than lead them to certain butchery, and probable defeat. His firmness in discharging this important but perilous duty, proved fatal to himself, but the salvation of France. It habituated an undisciplined crowd to the use of arms, and preserved, in a period of extreme peril, the nucleus of a regular force, on which the preservation of the Republic depended. But the Convention, impatient for more splendid achievements, and prompt to ascribe every disaster to the fault of the generals, deprived him of the command, and ordered him to Paris to answer for his conduct. There he was soon after delivered over to the Revolutionary Tribunal, condemned, and executed, along with Beauharnais, accused of misconduct in the attempt to raise the siege of Mayence, whose name the extraordinary fortunes of his widow have rescued from oblivion. Cruel and unjust examples, which added to the numerous sins of the Republican government; but which, by placing its generals in the alternative of victory or death, contributed to augment the fearless energy which led to the subsequent triumphs of the French arms.1 23d July. 1 Jom. iii. 182, 184, 185. Hard. ii. 343. Toul. iv. 44, 45. 45. camp of Reinforced by the besieging armies, the forces under Rout in the Prince Cobourg now amounted to above eighty thousand Caesar, and foot and twenty thousand horse, all ready for action; a condition of force greatly superior to the dispirited and inexperienced the French. troops to which it was opposed. Shut up within the desperate camp of Cæsar, the French army was avowedly unable to keep the field in presence of the Allies. Even this last |