vested the supreme command. On the 9th of April his Imperial majefty arrived at Bruffels, where he was folemnly inaugurated duke of Brabant. Thence he proceeded to Valenciennes, where his prefence diffused at least the appearance of joy; and, on the 16th, the whole army was reviewed by him on the heights above Cateau. On the following day they marched in eight columns to invest Landreci. The French affembled in force at the camp of Cæfar, near Cambray, from which they were, on the 23d, driven by general Otto; but on the very next day a general affault took place upon the different pofts of the allies in this quarter on the part of the French, now under the command of general Pichegru, in confequence of a pre-concerted plan, which embraced the whole line of frontier from Treves to the fea. They were for the most part repulfed ; but the post of Moncron, where general Clairfait commanded, was attacked with far fuperior force by Pichegru, in perfon, and carried, after a brave refiftance. In confequence of this fuccefs Courtray and Menin fell into the hands of the republicans. In return, the fortress of Landreci, which had repelled the utmost efforts of prince Eugene in 1712, fell into the hands of the prince of Cobourg, after a fiege of no long duration.

A variety of fevere but indecifive conflicts took place in the course of the next two months, interefting only to readers of military hiftory. About the middle of June, the French under general Jourdain, who commanded on the fide of the Mofelle, paffed the Sambre, and laid fiege to the town of Charleroi. The danger to which this important place, and eventually Bruflels itself, was expofed, determined the prince of Cobourg to make one grand effort for its relief. On the 21ft he reached Ath, and on the 24th effected a junction with the hereditary prince of Orange and general Beaulieu, who commanded in that quarter. The main body of the French army, under general Jourdain, was ftrongly pofted at this time in the vi

cinity of Fleurus, a place already famous in the annals of war, to cover the fiege of Charleroi, on whom, upon the morning of the 26th, the prince of Cobourg hazarded a general attack. The battle continued with unabating fury till near the clofe of the day, by which time the allied army was defeated in every part, and forced with immense lofs to retreat to Halle, thirty miles from the scene of action. This was a great and decifive victory. Charleroi and Bruffels fell, without further refiftance, into the hands of the enemy.

General Clairfait was equally unfortunate on the oppofite fide. Ypres, the key of Western Flanders, was befieged by 50,000 men, commanded by general Moreau, After a series of engagements, in which the French were almost uniformly victorious, the Auftrians were compelled to fall back upon Ghent, and Ypres furrendered on the 17th of June. The emperor, with his military favorite colonel Mack, now in utter defpair of fuccefs, left the army, after having in vain iffued proclamation after proclamation, calling upon the inhabitants of the Low Countries to rife in a mafs in order to repel the invaders.

During this time the duke of York enjoyed the honor of a feparate command at Tournay, a position which recent events made wholly untenable: it was therefore evacuated, the duke with his army retreating in the direction of Antwerp. What service was rendered to the common caufe by the British troops while ftationed at Tournay does not clearly appear; at Fleurus they might perhaps have changed the fortune of the day.

No fooner was the fate of the Netherlands thus decided, than lord Moira arrived from England with a reinforcement of 10,000 men at Oftend, the gallant remains of that army, wafted by long confinement on board the tranfports by fickness and chagrin, which was destined to re-establish royalty in Brittany. This able officer found his fituation very critical, the French being in poffeffion of the country on all

fides of him. It was deemed neceffary immediately to evacuate the town, and endeavour to force his way, without tents or baggage, through the enemy, to join the army of the allies, which, by great and skilful exertion, he accomplished on the 8th of July: the shipping in the harbour, amounting to 150 fail, with the ammunition, ftores, &c. on board, took their departure for Flushing. Thus Oftend, and nearly at the fame time Tournay and Ghent, fell into the hands of the French.

In the different and partial engagements which had taken place between general Pichegru and the prince of Cobourg fince the fatal battle of Fleurus, the former had greatly the advantage. Mons, Oudenarde, and Nieuport, places widely diftant, and foon after Mechlin, furrendered to the republican arms. Antwerp itself was no longer confidered as a safe retreat. In this exigency the stadtholder folicited the States-General to make an extraordinary levy throughout the provinces, but without effect. Difaffection, distrust, or at best apathy, every where prevailed, and a speedy revolution in the government was to be appre

hended..

About the middle of July general Kleber took poffeffion of Louvain, after defeating general Clairfait, who had poffeffion of the famous camp of the Montagne-de-Fer. The laft hope of the allies, that of forming a line of defence from Antwerp to Namur, was relinquifhed-Namur being on the night of the 16th abandoned by general Beaulieu; and on the 24th the French took quiet poffeffion of Antwerp, the allies having previously fet fire to the immense magazines deposited there. Great quantities of stores and ammunition neverthelefs in different parts fell into the hands of the enemy. Sluys. made a brave refiftance, but furrendered after a fiege of fix weeks, the garrison, by a novelty in this strange campaign, marching out with the honors of war. The ftrong towns ftill occupied by the allies on the French territory, Landreci, Quefnoy, Conde,.

and

and Valenciennes, being now completely infulated, fuc ceffively reverted to their former poffeffors.

The army under the duke of York was, at the beginning of Auguft, ftationed at Breda, whence, at the latter end of the month, they retreated towards Bois-le-Duc. the French forces now re-collected under general Pichegru advancing rapidly, to the number of 80,000 men, early in September, towards this place, the duke on the 16th croffed the Maefe, and took a fresh pofition near Grave, and at the beginning of October he encamped under the walls of Nimeguen. At the latter end of the month his royal highness paffed the Waal, leaving general Walmoden with a corps to cover the town of Nimeguen, which was evacuated in great confufion, and with much lofs, on the 7th of November. Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and, after a refiftance worthy of the best days of the republic, Grave, were fucceffively reduced. Scarcely could the allies now ftand any where even upon the defenfive, much lefs form any rational or feasible plan for recovering their stupendous loffes.

During the operations of general Pichegru in Dutch Flanders, the Auftrian general La Tour was totally defeated by general Jourdain near Liege, which city, as likewife Aix-la-Chapelle and Juliers, were occupied by the French. That able commander, the prince of Cobourg, was at this period, in confequence, as believed, of the preffing inftances of the court of London, whofe projects military and civil he held in avowed contempt, dismissed fuddenly from his high and painful pre-eminence: and his fucceffor, general Clairfait, after the moft gallant efforts, was compelled early in October to repafs the Rhine at Cologne. The French purfued the Imperial troops to the very margin of the river; and as the rear of the Auftrian army embarked, they were infultingly afked, if that was the road to Paris?

At

At the latter end of September the fiege of Maestricht was formally commenced, and lafted to the beginning of November, during which interval the attack and defence were conducted with heroic bravery. The atmofphere feemed filled with balls, bombs, and fhells, and fearcely was a place of safety left in the whole circuit of the city. Two thoufand buildings, public and private, were faid to be deftroyed, and a general ftorm was intended on the 4th of November, when the governor, moved by the fituation of the inhabitants, and the entreaties of the magistrates, confented to articles of capitulation with general Kleber, who entered the place on that fame day.

After this conqueft the French armies enjoyed fome weeks of comparative repofe; but general Pichegru had ftill greater designs in contemplation, and only waited for the advantage of the froft, which fet in with unusual rigor about the middle of December. In the courfe of a week the Maefe and the Waal were frozen over, and on the 27th a ftrong column of French croffed the former of thofe rivers, while another corps made themselves masters of the Bommel. But the French general did not make his grand movement till the 10th of January, 1795, when the main body of his forces croffed the Waal at different points, and made a general attack upon the lines of the allies, extending between Nimeguen and Arnheim, under the command of general Walmoden,-the duke of York having by this time prudently returned to England. The allies were defeated in every quarter. A precipitate retreat was ordered towards Amersfort and Deventer. In this retreat, which differed little from a flight, the wretched fugitives were exposed to every fpecies of diftrefs which it is poffible for human nature to fuffer. From the want of common neceffaries in the allied army, a dreadful fickness and mortality prevailed, and the haraffed and difpirited troops, expofed to the intense feverity of the weather, the drifting fnow, and heavy

VOL. III.