not easily open the trenches in a sandy soil beneath which they came to water at the depth of only three feet. The flotilla which was to sail from the Thames to bombard the place had not arrived; and on the other hand a French flotilla which had come from Dunkirk, and lay broadside-to along the coast, annoyed the besiegers, hemmed in on their narrow neck of land, destitute of water fit to drink, and exposed to all sorts of dangers. It was a case that called for despatch and for decisive blows. Houchard arrived towards the end of August. Agreeably to the tactics of the old school, he began by a demonstration upon Menin, which led to nothing but a sanguinary and useless action. Having given this preliminary alarm, he advanced by several roads towards the line of the Yser, a small stream which separated him from Freytag's corps of observation. Instead of placing himself between the corps of observation and the besieging corps, he directed Hedouville to march upon Rousbrugghe, merely to harass the retreat of Freytag upon Furnes, and went himself to meet Freytag in front, by marching with his whole army by Houtkerke, Herseele, and Bambeke. Freytag had disposed his corps on a very extended line, and he had but part of it around him when he received Houchard's first attack. He resisted at Herseele; but, after a very warm action, he was obliged to recross the Yser, and fall back upon Bambeke, and successively from Bambeke upon Rexpoede and Killem. In thus falling back beyond the Yser, he left his wings compromised in advance. Walmoden's division was thrown to a great distance from him on his right, and his own retreat was threatened near Rousbrugghe by Hedouville.

Freytag then resolved on the same day to advance again and to retake Rexpoede, with a view to rally Walmoden's division to him. He arrived there at the moment when the French were entering the place. A most obstinate action ensued. Freytag was wounded and taken prisoner. Meanwhile evening came on. Houchard, apprehensive of a night attack, retired from the village, leaving there only three battalions. Walmoden, who was falling back with his compromised division, arrived at this moment, and resolved to make a brisk attack upon Rexpoede, in order to force a passage. A bloody action was fought at midnight. The passage was cleared, Freytag delivered, and the enemy retired en masse upon the village of Hondtschoote. This village, situated between the Grande-Moer and the Furnes road, was one of the points which must be past in retiring upon Furnes. Houchard had relinquished the essential idea of manœuvring towards Furnes, between the besieging corps and the corps of observation; he had, therefore, nothing to do but to continue to push Marshal Freytag in front, and to throw himself against the village of Hondschoote. The 7th was spent in observing the enemy's positions, defended by very powerful artillery, and on the 8th the decisive attack was resolved upon. In the morning, the French army advanced upon the whole line to attack the front. The right, under the command of Hedouville, extended between Killem and Beveren; the centre, under Jourdan,* marched direct from Killem upon Hondtschoote; the left attacked between Killem and the canal of Furnes. The action

commenced in the copses which covered the centre. On both sides, the principal force was directed upon this same point. The French returned several times to the attack of the positions, and at length made themselves masters of them. While they were victorious in the centre, the intrenchments were carried on the right, and the enemy determined to retreat upon Furnes by the Houthem and Hoghestade

roads.

During these transactions at Hondtschoote, the garrison of Dunkirk, under the conduct of Hoche, made a vigorous sortie, and placed the besiegers in the greatest danger. Next day, they actually held a council of war: finding themselves threatened on the rear, and seeing that the naval armament which was to be employed in bombarding the place had not arrived, they resolved to raise the siege and retire. upon Furnes, where Freytag had just arrived. They joined there in the evening of the 9th of September.

Such were those three actions the result of which had been to oblige the corps of observation to fall back upon the rear of the besieging corps, by following a direct march. The last conflict gave name to this operation, and the battle of Hondtschoote was considered as the salvation of Dunkirk. This operation, indeed, broke the long chain of our reverses in the North, gave a personal cheek to the English, disappointed their fondest wishes, saved the republic from the misfortune which it would have felt the most keenly, and gave great encouragement to France.

The victory of Hondtschoote produced great joy in Paris, inspired all our youth with greater ardour, and excited hopes that our energy might prove successful. Reverses are, in fact, of little consequence, provided that success be mingled with them, and impart hope and courage to the vanquished. The alternative has but the effect of increasing the energy, and exalting the enthusiasm of the resistance.

While the Duke of York was occupied with Dunkirk, Coburg had resolved to attack Le Quesnoy. That fortress was in want of all the means necessary for its defence, and Coburg pressed it very closely. The committee of public welfare, not neglecting that portion of the frontier any more than the others, had immediately issued orders that columns should march from Landrecies, Cambrai, and Maubeuge. Unluckily these columns could not act at the same time. One of them was shut up in Landrecies; another, surrounded in the plain of Avesne, and formed into a square battalion, was broken, after a most honourable resistance. At length, on the 11th of September, Le Quesnoy was obliged to capitulate. This loss was of little importance compared with the deliverance of Dunkirk, but it mixed up some bitterness with the joy which the latter event had just produced.

Houchard, after obliging the Duke of York to concentrate himself at Furnes with Freytag, could not make any further successful attempt on that point. All that he could do was to throw himself with equal forces on soldiers more inured to war, without any of those circumstances, either favourable or urgent, which induce a commander to hazard a doubtful battle. In this situation, the best step he could take was to fall upon the Dutch, divided into several detachments round Menin, Halluin, Roncq, Werwike, and Ypres. Houchard, acting prudently, ordered the camp at Lille to make a sortie upon Menin, while he should himself act by Ypres. The advanced posts at Werwike, Roncq, and Halluin, were contested for two days. On both sides great intrepidity was displayed with a moderate degree of intelligence. The Prince of Orange, though pressed on all sides, and having lost his advanced post, made an obstinate resistance, because he had been apprized of the surrender of Le Quesnoy and the approach of Beaulieu, who was bringing him succour. At length, on the 13th of September, he was obliged to evacuate Menin, after losing in these different actions two or three thousand men and forty pieces of cannon. Though our army had not derived from its position all the advantages that it might have done, and though, contrary to the instructions of the committee of public welfare, it had operated in too divided masses, it nevertheless occupied Menin. On the 16th it left Menin and marched upon Courtray. At Bisseghem it fell in with Beaulieu. The battle began with advantage on our side; but all at once the appearance of a corps of cavalry on the wings spread an alarm which was not founded on any real danger. The whole army was thrown into confusion, and fled to Menin. VOL. II.

12

This inconceivable panic did not stop there. It was communicated to all the camps, to all the posts, and the army en masse sought refuge under the guns of Lille. This terror, the example of which was not new, which was owing to the youth and inexperience of our troops, perhaps also to a perfidious Sauve qui peut, occasioned us the loss of the greatest advantages, and brought us back beneath the walls of Lille. The tidings of this event, on reaching Paris, produced the most gloomy impression, deprived Houchard of the fruit of his victory, and excited the most violent invectives against him, some of which even recoiled upon the committee of public welfare itself. A fresh series of checks immediately followed, and threw us into the same perilous position from which we had been extricated for a moment by the victory of Hondtschoote.

The Prussians and Austrians, placed on the two slopes of the Vosges, facing our two armies of the Moselle and the Rhine, began at length to make some serious attempts. Old Wurmser, more ardent than the Prussians, and aware of the advantage of the passes of the Vosges, resolved to occupy the important post of Bodenthal, towards the Upper Lauter. He hazarded, however, a corps of four thousand men, which, after traversing frightful mountains, took possession of Bodenthal. The representatives with the army of the Rhine, yielding on their part to the general impulse which everywhere stimulated the troops to redoubled energy, resolved upon a general sortie from the lines of Weissenburg, for the 12th of September. The three generals, Desaix,* Dubois, and Michaud, pushed at once against the Austrians, made useless efforts, and were obliged to return to the lines. The attempts directed in particular against the Austrian corps at Bodenthal, were completely repulsed. Preparations were nevertheless made for a new attack on the 14th. While General Ferrette was to march upon Bodenthal, the army of the Moselle, acting upon the other slope, was to attack Pirmasens, which corresponds with Bodenthal, and where Brunswick was posted with part of the Prussian army. The attack of General Ferrette was completely successful. The soldiers assaulted the Austrian positions with heroic temerity, took them, and recovered the important defile of Bodenthal. But on the opposite slope fortune was not equally favourable. Brunswick was sensible of the importance of Pirmasens, which closed the defiles; he possessed considerable forces, and was in excellent position. While the army of the Moseile was making head upon the Savre against the rest of the Prussian army, twelve thousand men were thrown from Hornbach upon Pirmasens. The only hope of the French was to take Pirmasens by surprise, but, being perceived and fired upon with grape-shot at their first approach, the best thing they could do was to retire. So thought the generals, but the representatives opposed that intention, and ordered an attack in three columns and by three ravines, terminating at the height on which Pirmasens is seated. Our soldiers, urged on by their bravery, had already far advanced; the column on the right was indeed on the point of clearing the ravine and turning Pirmasens, when a double fire poured upon both flanks unexpectedly stopped it. Our soldiers at first resisted, but the fire became more fierce, and they

* " Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Voygoux, was born in 1768, of a noble family, and entered the regiment of Bretagne in 1784 as sub-lieutenant. He contributed in 1793 to the capture of the Haguenau lines, which the left wing, where he was stationed, first broke through. In the year 1795 he served in the army of the North under Pichegru, and repeatedly distinguished himself. In 1798, he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt; and, on his return to France, hastened to join the First Consul in Italy, where he contributed to the victory of Marengo, in which battle he was mortally wounded."-Encyclopædia Americana. E.

"Desaix, said Bonaparte, was wholly wrapped up in war and glory. To him riches and pleasure were valueless. He was a little black-looking man, about an inch shorter than I am, always badly dressed, sometimes even ragged, and despising comfort and convenience. Wrapped up in his cloak, he would throw himself under a gun, and sleep as contentedly as if he were in a palace. Upright and honest in all his proceedings, he was called by the Arabs, the Just Sultan. Desaix was intended by nature for a great general."-A Voice from St. Helena. E.

"Desaix was a man for whom the First Consul had a high esteem, and whose talents and character afforded the fairest promise of what might one day be expected from him. Napoleon was jealous of some generals, but Desaix gave him no uneasiness: equally remarkable for his unassuming disposition, his talent, and his information, he proved by his conduct that he loved glory for its own sake. Bonaparte's friendship for him was enthusiastic." - Bourrienne. E.

!

FRENCH REVOLUTION.

were forced to return through the ravine which they had entered. The other columns
fell back in like manner, and all fled along the valleys in the utmost disorder. The
army was obliged to return to the post from which it had started. Very fortunately
the Prussians did not think of pursuing it, nor even of occupying its camp at Horn-
or prisoners. This
bach, which it had quitted to march upon Pirmasens. In this affair we lost twenty-
The allies,
two pieces of cannon, and four thousand men, killed, wounded,
check of the 14th of September was likely to be of great importance.
encouraged by success, began to think of using all their forces, and prepared to
march upon the Sarre and the Lauter, and thus to drive us out of the lines of
Weissenburg.

The siege of Lyons was proceeding slowly. The Piedmontese, in debouching by the high Alps into the valleys of Savoy, had made a diversion, and obliged Dubois-Crancé and Kellermann to divide their forces. Kellermann had marched into Savoy. Dubois-Crancé, continuing before Lyons with insufficient means, poured in vain showers of iron and of fire upon that unfortunate city, which, resolved to endure all extremities, was no longer to be reduced by the horrors of blockade and bombardment, but only by assault.

At the Pyrenees we had just received a sanguinary check. Our troops had remained since the late events in the environs of Perpignan. The Spaniards were in their camp at Mas-d'Eu. In considerable force, inured to war, and commanded by an able general, they were full of ardour and hope. We have already described The two nearly parallel valleys of the Tech and of the Perpignan is in the the theatre of the war. Tet run off from the great chain and terminate near the sea. second of these valleys. Ricardos had passed the first line, that of the Tech, since he was at Mas-d'Eu, and he had resolved to pass the Tet considerably above Perpignan, so as to turn that place and to force our army to abandon it. For this purpose, he proposed first to take Villefranche. This little fortress, situated on the upper course of the Tet, would secure his left wing against the brave Dagobert, who, with three thousand men, was gaining advantages in Cerdagen. Accordingly, early in August, he detached General Crespo with some battalions. The latter had only to make his appearance before Villefranche; the commandant, in a cowardly manner, abandoned the fortress to him. Crespo, having left a garrison there, rejoined Ricardos. Meanwhile Dagobert, with a very small corps, overran the whole Cerdagne, compelled the Spaniards to fall back as far as the Seu-d'Urgel, and even thought of driving them to Campredon. Owing, however, to the weakness of the detachment, and the fortress of Villefranche, Ricardos felt no uneasiness about the advantages obtained over his left wing. He persisted, therefore, in the In offensive. On the 31st of August, he threatened the French camp under Perpignan, and crossed the Tet above the Soler, driving before him our right wing, which fell back to Salces, a few leagues in the rear of Perpignan, and close to the sea. this position, the French, some shut up in Perpignan, the others backed upon Salces, having the sea behind them, were in a most dangerous situation. Dagobert, it is true, was gaining fresh advantages in the Cerdagne, but too unimportant to alarm Ricardos. The representatives, Fabre and Cassaigne, who had retired with the army to Salces, resolved to call Dagobert to supersede Barbantanes, with a view to bring fortune back to our arms. Whilst awaiting the arrival of the new general, they planned a combined movement between Salces and Perpignan, for the purpose of extricating themselves from the unfortunate situation in which they were. They ordered a column to advance from Perpignan and to attack the Spaniards in the rear, while they would leave their positions and attack them in front. Accordingly, on the 15th of September, General Davoust* marched from

* "Louis Nicholas Davoust was born in 1770 of a noble family, and studied with Bonaparte in the military school of Brienne. He distinguished himself under Dumouriez, and in the year 1793 was made general. In the Italian campaigns under Napoleon, he zealously attached himself to the First Consul, whom he accompanied to Egypt. After the battle of Marengo, Davoust was made chief of the grenadiers of the consular guard. When Napoleon ascended the throne in 1804, he created Davoust marshal of the empire, and grand cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1806 he created him Duke of Auerstadt, and after the peace of Tulsit, commander-in-chief of the army of

Perpignan with six or seven thousand men, while Perignon advanced from Salces upon the Spaniards. At a concerted signal they fell on both sides upon the enemy's camp. The Spaniards, pressed on all quarters, were obliged to fly across the Tet, leaving behind them twenty-six pieces of cannon. They immediately returned to the camp at Mas-d'Eu, whence they had set out for these bold but unfortunate operations.

During these occurrences, Dagobert arrived; and that officer, possessing at the age of seventy-five the fire of a young man, together with the consummate prudence of a veteran general, lost no time in marking his arrival by an attempt on the camp of Mas-d'Eu. He divided his attack into three columns: one, starting from our right, and marching by Thuir to St. Colombe, was to turn the Spaniards; the second, acting in the centre, was ordered to attack them in front, and drive them back; and the third, operating on the left, was to place itself in a wood, and to cut off their retreat. This last, commanded by Davoust, had scarcely attacked, before it fled in disorder. The Spaniards were then able to direct all their forces against the two other columns of the centre and of the right. Ricardos, judging that all the danger was on the right, opposed his main force to it, and repulsed the French on that side. In the centre alone, Dagobert, animating all by his presence, carried the intrenchments which were before him, and was even on the point of deciding the victory, when Ricardos, returning with the troops victorious on the right and left, overwhelmed his enemy with his whole united force. Dagobert nevertheless made a brave resistance, when a battalion threw down its arms, shouting Vive le Roi! The enraged Dagobert ordered two pieces of cannon to be turned upon the traitors, and, while these were playing upon them, he rallied round him some of the brave fellows who yet remained faithful, and retired with a few hundred men; the enemy, intimidated by his bold front, not daring to pursue him.

This gallant general had assuredly deserved laurels only by his firmness amidst such a reverse; for, had his left column behaved better, and his centre battalions not disbanded themselves, his dispositions would have been attended with complete success. The jealous distrust of the representatives, nevertheless, imputed to him this disaster. Indignant at this injustice, he returned to resume the subordinate command in the Cerdagne. Our army was, therefore, again driven back to Perpignan, and likely to lose the important line of the Tet.

The plan of campaign of the 2d of September was carried into execution in La Vendée. The division of Mayence was, as we have seen, to act by Nantes. The committee of public welfare, which had received alarming intelligence concerning the designs of the English upon the West, entirely approved of the idea of directing the principal force towards the coast. Rossignol and his party were extremely mortified at this, and the letters which they wrote to the minister afforded no hope of any great zeal on their part in seconding the plan agreed upon. The division of Mayence marched to Nantes, where it was received with great demonstrations of joy and festivities. An entertainment was prepared, and, before the troops went to partake of it, a prelude was made by a sharp skirmish with the hostile parties spread over the banks of the Loire. If the division of Nantes was glad to be united to the celebrated army of Mayence, the latter was not less delighted to serve under the brave Canclaux, and with his division, which had already signalized itself by the defence of Nantes and by a great number of honourable feats. According to the adopted plan, columns starting from all the points of the theatre of war were to unite in the centre, and to crush the enemy there. Canclaux, commanding the army of Brest, was to march from Nantes, to desend the left bank of the Loire, to turn round the extensive lake of Grand-Lieu, to sweep Lower Vendée, and then to

the Rhine. Having had an important share in the victories of Eckmuhl and Wagram, Davoust was created prince of the former place. He accompanied Napoleon to Russia; and in 1813 was besieged in Hamburg, where he lost eleven thousand men, and was accused of great cruelty. On the Emperor's return to Paris, in 1815, he was appointed minister of war. After the battle of Waterloo he submitted to Louis XVIII., and was subsequently employed by the court. Davoust died in the year 1823, leaving a son and two daughters." -Encyclopædia Americana. E.