Marceau plunged into the water, with his troops, and crossed at the ford of Mirveiller; Lorges did the same, proceeded upon Dueren, and drove the enemy from that place after a sanguinary combat. The Austrians abandoned Dueren for a moment; but, after falling back, they returned in more considerable force. Marceau immediately threw himself into Dueren, to support Lorges's brigade. Mayer, who had crossed the Roer a little above, at Niederau, and had been received by a galling fire of artillery, fell back also upon Dueren. There all the efforts of both sides were concentrated. The enemy, who as yet brought only his advanced guard into action, was formed in rear of that place, upon the heights, with sixty pieces of cannon. He immediately opened a fire, and poured a shower of grape and balls upon the French. Our young soldiers, supported by the generals, stood firm. Hacquin did not yet make his appearance on the left flank of the enemy, a manœuvre which was expected to insure a victory.

At the same moment, there was fighting at the centre on the advanced plateau of Aldenhoven. The French had pushed on thither at the point of the bayonet. Their cavalry had deployed there, and received and withstood several charges. The Austrians, seeing the Roer crossed above and below Aldenhoven, had abandoned that plateau and retired to Juliers, on the other side of the Roer. Championnet, who had pursued them to the very glacis, cannonaded and was in return cannonaded by the artillery of the place. At Linnich, Lefebvre had repulsed the Austrians and reached the Roer, but had found the bridge burned and was engaged in rebuilding it. At Ratem, Kleber had met with sweeping batteries, and answered them by a brisk fire of artillery.

The decisive action, therefore, was on the right about Dueren, where Marceau, Lorges, and Mayor were crowded together, awaiting Hacquin's movement. Jourdan had ordered Hatry, instead of crossing at Altorp, to fall back upon Dueren; but the distance was too great for this column to be of any service at the decisive point. At length, at five in the evening, Hacquin appeared on Latour's left flank. The Austrians, seeing themselves threatened on their left by Hacquin, and having Lorges, Marceau, and Mayer in front, decided upon retreating, and drew back their left wing, which had been engaged at Sprimont. On their extreme right, Kleber threatened them by a bold movement. The bridge, which he had attempted to throw across, being too short, the soldiers had demanded permission to plunge into the river. Kleber, to keep up their ardour, collected all his artillery, and played upon the enemy on the opposite bank. The imperialists were then obliged to retire at this point, and they determined to retire at all the others. They abandoned the Roer, leaving eight hundred prisoners and three thousand men hors de combat.

Next day, the French found Juliers evacuated, and they were able to pass the Roer at all points. Such was the important battle that won us the definitive conquest of the left bank of the Rhine.* It is one of those by which General Jourdan best merited the gratitude of his country and the esteem of military men. Critics have, nevertheless, censured him for not having taken a point of departure nearer to the point of attack, and for not directing the bulk of his force upon Mirveiller and Dueren.

:

Clairfayt took the high road to Cologne. Jourdan pursued him, and took possession of Cologne on the 15th of Vendemiaire (October 6), and of Bonn on the 29th (October 20). Kleber proceeded with Marescot to besiege Maestricht.

While Jourdan was so valiantly performing his duty, and taking possession of the important line of the Rhine, Pichegru on his part was preparing to cross the Meuse, intending then to proceed towards the mouth of the Wahl, the principal branch of the Rhine. As we have already stated, the Duke of York had crossed the Meuse at Grave, leaving Bois-le-Duc to its own forces. Pichegru, before he attempted the passage of the Meuse, would have to take Bois-le-Duc, which was no easy task, in the state of the season and with an insufficient artillery for a siege. However, the audacity of the French and the discouragement of the enemy rendered everything possible. Fort Crèvecœur, near the Meuse, threatened by a battery seasonably placed on a point where it was not thought possible to establish one, surrendered. The artillery found there served to forward the siege of Bois-le-Duc. Five consecutive attacks daunted the governor, who surrendered the place on the 19th of Vendemiaire. This unhoped-for success gave the French a solid base and considerable stores for pushing their operations beyond the Meuse and to the bank

of the Wahl.

Moreau, who formed the right, had since the victories of the Ourthe and the Roer advanced to Venloo. The Duke of York, alarmed at this movement, had withdrawn all his troops to the other side of the Wahl, and evacuated the whole space between the Meuse and the Wahl, or the Rhine. Seeing, however, that Grave on the Meuse would be left without communications and without support, he recrossed the Wahl, and undertook to defend the space comprised between the two rivers. The ground, as is always the case near the mouths of great rivers, was lower than the bed of the streams. It presented extensive pastures, intersected by canals and causeways, and inundated in certain places. General Hammerstein, placed intermediately between the Meuse and the Wahl, had increased the difficulty of access, by covering the dykes with artillery, and throwing over the canals bridges which his army was to destroy as it retired. The Duke of York, whose advanced guard he formed, was placed in rear, on the banks of the Wahl, in the camp of Nimeguen.

On the 27th and 28th of Vendemiaire (October 18 and 19), Pichegru made two of his divisions cross the Meuse by a bridge of boats. The English, who were under the cannon of Nimeguen, and Hammerstein's advanced guard along the canals and dykes, were too far off to prevent this passage. The rest of the army landed on the other bank, under the protection of these two divisions. On the 28th, Pichegru decided on attacking the works that covered the intermediate space between the Meuse and the Wahl. He pushed forward four columns, forming a mass superior to the enemy, into those pastures overflowed and intersected by canals. The French defied with extraordinary courage the fire of the artillery, then threw themselves into the ditches up to their shoulders in water, while the sharpshooters, from the margins of the ditches, fired over their heads. The enemy, daunted by their hardihood, retired, without thinking of anything but saving his artillery. He sought refuge in the camp of Nimeguen on the banks of the Wahl, whither the French soon followed and defied him every day.

Thus, towards Holland, as well as towards Luxemburg, the French had at

* "The French now resolved to strike a decisive blow against the Duke of York, and compel him to retire from the defence of the United Provinces. With this view, they crossed the Meuse with thirty thousand men, which were to attack the British posts on the right, while another body of no less strength was advancing to reach them on the left. On the morning of the 19th of Octo ber, the several divisions of the Duke's army on the right were assailed by the French, who forcing a post occupied by a body of cavalry, a corps of infantry which was stationed near it was thrown into disorder, and compelled to retreat along the dyke on the banks of the Wahl. Unfortunately, they were followed by a body of the enemy's cavalry, which they mistook for their own; nor did they discover their mistake till the enemy came up and attacked them befere they could assume a posture of defence. The whole of that body of infantry was either killed, or made prisoners."Annual Register. E.

length reached that formidable line of the Rhine, which Nature seems to have assigned as a boundary to their fine country, and which they have always felt ambitious to give it for a frontier. Pichegru, indeed, stopped by Nimeguen, was not yet master of the course of the Wahl; and if he thought of conquering Holland, he saw before him numerous streams, fortified places, inundations, and a most unpropitious season; but he was very near the so-ardently desired limit, and with another daring act he might enter Nimeguen or the isle of Bommel, and establish himself solidly upon the Wahl. Moreau, called the general of sieges, had by an act of boldness just entered Venloo; Jourdan was strongly established on the Rhine. Along the Moselle and Alsace, the armies had also just reached that great river.

Since the check of Kaiserslautern, the armies of the Moselle and of the Upper Rhine, commanded by Michaud, had been occupied in obtaining reinforcements of detachments from the Alps and from La Vendée. On the 14th of Messidor (July 2), an attack had been attempted along the whole line from the Rhine to the Moselle, on the two slopes of the Vosges. This attack was not successful because it was too divided. A second attempt, planned on better principles, had been made on the 25th of Messidor (July 13). The principal effort had been directed on the centre of the Vosges, with a view to gain possession of the passes, and had caused, as it always did, a general retreat of the allied armies beyond Frankenthal. The committee had then ordered a diversion upon Treves, of which the French took possession, to punish the elector. By this movement, a principal corps was placed en flèche between the Imperial armies of the Lower Rhine and the Prussian army of the Vosges; but the enemy never thought of taking advantage of this situation. The Prussians, however, profiting at length by a diminution of our forces towards Kaiserslautern, had attacked us unawares and driven us back beyond that place. Luckily, Jourdan had just been victorious on the Roer, and Clairfayt had recrossed the Rhine at Cologne. The allies had not then the courage to remain in the Vosges; they retired, leaving the whole Palatinate to us, and throwing a strong garrison into Mayence. Luxemburg and Mayence were consequently the only places that they retained on the left bank. The committee immediately ordered them to be blockaded. Kleber was called from Belgium to Mayence, to direct the siege of that place, which he had assisted to defend in 1793, and where he had laid the foundation of his glory. Thus our conquests were extended on all points, and everywhere carried as far as the Rhine.

At the Alps, the former inactivity continued, and the great chain was still ours. The plan of invasion, ably devised by General Bonaparte, and communicated to the committee by the younger Robespierre, who was on a mission to the army of Italy, had been adopted. It consisted in uniting the two armies of the Alps and of Italy in the valley of Sturia, for the purpose of overrunning Piedmont. Orders had been given for marching when news of the 9th of Thermidor arrived. The execution of the plan was then suspended. The commandants of the fortresses, who had been obliged to give up part of their garrisons, the repesentatives, the municipalities, and all the partisans of reaction, alleged that this plan had for its object to ruin the army, by throwing it into Piedmont, to open Toulon again to the English, and to serve the secret designs of Robespierre. Jean-Bon-St.-André, who had been sent to Toulon to superintend the repairs of the ships of war there, and who cherished schemes of his own relative to the Mediterranean, proved himself one of the greatest enemies to this plan. Young Bonaparte was even accused of being an accomplice of the Robespierres, on account of the confidence with which his talents and his projects had inspired the younger of the two brothers.* The army was brought back in disorder to the great chain, where it resumed its positions. The campaign finished, however, with a brilliant advantage. The

*

"Bonaparte set off for Genoa, and fulfilled his mission. The ninth of Thermidor arrived, and the deputies called Terrorists were superseded by Albitte and Salicetti. In the disorder which then prevailed, they were either ignorant of the orders given to General Bonaparte, or persons, envious of the rising glory of the young general of artillery, inspired Albitte and Salicetti with suspicions prejudicial to him. They accordingly drew up a resolution ordering that he should be arrested, and he continued nearly a fortnight under arrest."-Bourrienne. E.

VOL. II.

44

Austrians, conjointly with the English, determined to make an attempt on Savona, for the purpose of cutting off the communication with Genoa, which, by its neutrality, rendered great service to the commerce in articles of subsistence. General Colloredo advanced with a corps of from eight to ten thousand men, made no great haste in his march, and gave the French time to prepare themselves. Being attacked amid the mountains by the French, whose movements were directed by General Bonaparte, he lost eight hundred men, and retreated disgracefully, accusing the English, who in their turn accused him. The communication with Genoa was re-established, and the army consolidated in all its positions.

At the Pyrenees, a new series of successes opened upon us. Dugommier was still besieging Bellegarde, with the intention of making himself master of that place, before he descended into Catalonia. La Union made a general attack on the French line for the purpose of proceeding to the succour of the besieged; but, being repulsed, at all points he had withdrawn, and the fortress, more discouraged than ever by this route of the Spanish army, had surrendered on the 6th of Vendemiaire. Dugommier, having no danger whatever to dread on his rear, prepared to advance into Catalonia. At the western Pyrenees, the French, being roused at length from their torpor, overran the valley of Bastan, took Fontarabia and St. Sebastian, and, favoured by the climate, prepared, as at the eastern Pyrenees, to push their successes in spite of the approach of winter.

In La Vendée the war had continued. It was not brisk and dangerous, but slow and devastating. Stofflet, Sapinaud, and Charette, had at length shared the command among them. Since the death of Laroche-Jacquelein, Stofflet had succeeded him in Anjou and Upper Poitou; Sapinaud had still retained the little division of the centre; Charette, who had distinguished himself by the campaign of the last winter, when, with forces almost destroyed, he had always contrived to elude the pursuit of the republicans, had the command in Lower Vendée; but he aspired to the general command. The chiefs had met at Jallais, and had entered into a treaty dictated by the Abbé Bernier, curé of St. Laud, the councillor and friend of Stofflet, and governing the country in his name. This abbé was as ambitious as Charette, and desired to see a combination effected that should furnish him with the means of exercising over all the chiefs that influence which he possessed over Stofflet. They agreed to form a supreme council, by the orders of which everything was to be done in future. Stofflet, Sapinaud, and Charette, reciprocally confirmed to each other their respective commands of Anjou, the centre, and Lower Vendée. M. de Marigny, who had survived the great Vendean expedition to Granville, having infringed one of the orders of this council, was seized. Stoflet had the cruelty to order him to be shot upon a report of Charette's.* This act, which was attributed to jealousy, produced a most unfavourable impression on all the royalists.

The war, without any possible result, was now merely a war of devastation. The republicans had formed fourteen intrenched camps, which enclosed the whole insurgent country. From these camps issued incendiary columns, which, under the chief command of General Turreau, executed the formidable decree of the Convention. They burned the woods, the hedges, the copses, frequently the villages themselves, seized the crops and the cattle, and, acting upon the decree which ordered every inhabitant who had not taken part in the rebellion to retire to the distance of twenty leagues from the insurgent country, treated all whom they met with as enemies. The Vendeans, who, to procure the means of subsistence, had not ceased to cultivate their lands amidst these horrid scenes, resisted this kind of warfare in such a way as to render it everlasting. On a signal from their chiefs, they formed sudden assemblages, fell upon the rear of the camps and stormed them, or, allowing the columns to advance, they rushed upon them when they had got into the heart of the country, and, if they succeeded in breaking them, they put to death all, to the very last man. They then secured the arms and ammunition, which were in great request with them; and, without having done anything to weaken a very superior enemy, they had merely procured the means of prosecuting this atrocious warfare.

Such was the state of things on the left bank of the Loire. On the right bank, in that part of Bretagne which is situated between the Loire and the Vilaine, a new assemblage had been formed, composed in a great part of the remains of the Vendean column destroyed at Savenay, and of the peasants inhabiting those plains. M. de Scépeaux was its chief. This corps was nearly of the same force as M. de Sapinaud's, and connected La Vendée with Bretagne.

Bretagne had become the theatre of a war very different from that of La Vendée, but not less deplorable. The Chouans, to whom we have already adverted, were smugglers, whom the abolition of the barriers had left without occupation, young men who had refused to comply with the requisition, and some Vendeans, who, like the followers of M. de Scépeaux had escaped from the rout of Savenay. They followed the trade of plunder among the rocks and spacious woods of Bretagne, particularly in the great forest of Pertre. They did not form, like the Vendeans, numerous bodies capable of keeping the field, but marched in bands of from thirty to fifty; stopped couriers and the public conveyances; and murdered the justices of peace, the mayors, the republican functionaries, and, above all, the purchasers of national property. As for those who were not purchasers but farmers of such property, they called on them, and obliged them to pay the rent to them. In general, they were particularly careful to destroy bridges, to break up roads, and to cut off the shafts of carts, to prevent the carriage of articles of consumption to the towns. They addressed terrible threats to those who carried their produce to the markets, and they executed those threats by plundering and burning their property. As they could not occupy the country like a regular military force, their object evidently was to distract it by preventing the citizens from accepting any office under the republic, by punishing the acquisition of national property, and by starving the towns. Less united, and less strong, than the Vendeans, they were nevertheless more formidable, and truly deserved the appellation of banditti.

They had a secret chief, whom we have already mentioned, M. de Puisaye, a member of the Constituent Assembly. He had retired after the 10th of August to Normandy, had engaged, as we have seen, in the federalist insurrection, and, after the defeat of Vernon, had fled to Bretagne, to conceal himself, and to collect there the remains of La Rouarie's conspiracy. With great intelligence, and extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined extreme activity of body and mind, and vast ambition. Puisaye, struck by the peninsular position of Bretagne, with the great extent of its coast, with the peculiar configuration of its soil, covered with forests, mountains, and impenetrable retreats; struck, above all, by the barbarism of its inhabitants, speaking a foreign language, deprived, consequently, of all communication with the other inhabitants of France, completely under the influence of the priests, and three or four times as numerous as the VendeansPuisaye conceived that he should be able to excite in Bretagne an insurrection much more formidable than that which had for its chiefs a Cathelineau, a d'Elbée, a Bonchamp, and a Lescure. The vicinity, moreover, of England, and the convenient intermediate situation of the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, suggested to him the plan of inducing the cabinet of London to concur in his designs. It was not his wish, therefore, that the energy of the country should be wasted in useless pillage, and he laboured to organize it in such a manner as that he might be able to hold it entirely under his sway. Assisted by the priests, he had caused all the men capable of bearing arms to be enrolled in registers opened in the parishes. Each parish formed a company, each canton a division; the united divisions formed