1

possession of the city. Under these circumstances he demanded a reinforcement of 40,000 men, the cooperation of the Moselle army, and the subordination of Dumouriez's operations to the furtherance of his own. He declared that if these were granted him, he would dictate peace to the Emperor in Vienna, without giving France any other trouble than that of collecting German contributions. All his despatches breathed a spirit of devotion and zeal towards the Republic, which placed him in a most favourable contrast to the haughty, arbitrary and didactic Dumouriez.

The Ministry soon came to a decision. To invest Dumouriez with the chief command was not to be thought of, and he was entrusted as General of the army of Ardennes, -which was to be suitably reinforced-with the invasion of Belgium. It was not till after repeated representations that he gained from them a resolution, that at any rate all the Generals employed in that quarter should be subject to his orders. In all other respects Custine's views gained the upper hand. Custine himself was not recalled from the other side of the Rhine, but was re-inforced by the Ministry to the utmost of their power. To support him, Kellermann received order after order to press forward down the Moselle as far as Coblentz, however much fatigued his troops might be by the toils of September. Dumouriez moreover was directed, on the 24th of October, not to take up his winter quarters until he arrived at Cologne on the Rhine; which order had in view to give as broad a base as possible to Custine's aggressive operations. All these arrangements affected Dumouriez the more sensibly, because the same Government which imposed so extensive a task upon him against his will, threw every conceivable difficulty in his way in the execution of it. The equipment of his forces was delayed, and it was only through the good nature of

1 Protocol of the Ministerial Council and the Correspondence of the Army of the Rhine, in the Archives at Paris.

CH. II.] THE DEMOCRATS DEMAND THE KING'S BLOOD.

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Santerre that he obtained the necessary artillery from the arsenal at Paris; in short he found himself surrounded on all sides by jealousy and suspicion. The Ministry, indeed, agreed to his proposal to treat the Belgians as friends; and the Convention itself sanctioned a proclamation offering them freedom and fraternity; but both Ministry and Convention were far from intending to allow the General the slightest political influence over the future Belgian Republic. On the contrary, immediately after Dumouriez's departure the Cabinet came to an agreement that no General should correspond directly with the Convention, or promote his officers to a higher rank, or treat with the enemy under any circumstances whatsoever. All these resolutions are doubtless in strict accordance with the sound principles of State policy, but at that time they could only appear to Dumouriez as the offspring of hostile distrust.

In spite, however, of all these differences, the military power of the Republic was once more set in motion, and the first step taken in a career of which no one could see the end. But this external developement of the Revolution coincided with the most critical of all internal questions, the fate of the captive King.

Up to this time the Government had no settled views respecting the treatment of Louis XVI. Not one of its members probably had any wish to put him to death; but whether alive or dead he was to them a source of embarrassment and danger. The Jacobins for many weeks past had been incessantly calling for his blood; for in their case the greatest cruelty was seconded by the most urgent party interest. What other theme, indeed, could there be so pregnant as this with every human passion; so calculated to call back to the minds of the Faubourgs every event of the Revolution, and to kindle once more the fanaticism of its hottest and bloodiest days? To the Jacobin club itself, which called the September massacres its confession of faith, the sparing of Louis XVI. appeared a crying monstrosity. The

leaders were well aware that the majority of the people were better inclined to the King than to themselves, and were therefore eager to stifle the re-action with the blood of the Monarch. By themselves however, they had not even the power to get up a discussion on the subject in the Convention. If they spoke of the annihilation of the tyrant, they were reproached in reply with the tyranny of September. Other means must be sought to set the majority in motion.

These means were found in the relation of France to foreign countries. The independent members of the Convention-those who were guided not by a party chief, but by the Government,-shared the enthusiasm of Lebrun for the revolution of Europe. They were of opinion that every fresh humiliation heaped on the head of Louis would be a deathstroke to the cause of monarchy itself. If the nations had not yet been enlightened as to the rottenness of royalty, surely the last gleam of lustre would fade from the crown, if Louis were forced, like a common criminal, to undergo the horrors of a public trial. They had no more intention than the Ministers of putting the unhappy man to death; Barère, the genuine type of these men of no party, said that the trial was just as likely to end in a sentence of further imprisonment; in which case not the slightest change would occur in the personal fate of Louis. The same view

1

was taken by Danton, who had received money enough from the King to allay his animosity against him. While he breathed nothing but blood and death in the Jacobin club, he secretly expressed his opinion that the Convention ought, for appearance sake, to condemn the King, but that they could afterwards bring their sentence before the sovereign people for its sanction, from whom Louis had nothing worse to expect than further incarceration.

The Ministers were decided at last by peculiar diplomatic considerations to give the signal for the commencement of

1 Brissot à ses Commettans.

CH. II.]

LEBRUN'S ATTEMPTED BARTER.

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the trial. The negotiations with Prussia dragged on, as we have seen, in an almost resultless interchange of notes. Prussia insisted on the admission of Germany and Austria to the treaty of peace. And though the King no longer demanded the restoration of the French throne, he continued to express the highest interest in the personal safety of Louis and the royal family; and it was quite in accordance with these feelings that Lucchesini answered the agent, Mandrillon, at Cologne on the 29th of October. It occurred to Lebrun to make use of the humane sympathy of the King for a diplomatic master-stroke; and he commissioned Mandrillon to offer the King the freedom of Louis XVI., if the former would forego his other claims, and enter into a separate peace with France.1 Such a proposal would naturally have the greater weight in proportion to the imminence of the danger from which Louis was snatched; the Ministry therefore no longer hesitated to allow the criminal proceedings against Louis in the Convention to take their course.

1 Beaulieu, Essais, IV. 302.

CHAPTER III.

BRUSSELS, FRANKFORT, LONDON.

OCCUPATION OF BELGIUM BY DUMOURIEZ.-PACHE, THE MINISTER AT WAR JOINS THE MOUNTAIN. HIS QUARREL WITH DUMOURIEZ.-EFFECT UPON BELGIUM.— ALL NATIONS SUMMONED TO FREEDOM, NOV. 19TH.-NEGOTIATIONS WITH PRUSSIA AT COBLENTZ.- LEBRUN PROPOSES AN OFFENSIVE ALLIANCE.BREAKING OFF OF NEGOTIATIONS.-STORMING OF FRANKFORT.-CONDITION OF HOLLAND.-FRENCH PLANS OF ATTACK.-FRENCH INTRIGUES IN ENGLAND. - PITT'S DESIRE OF PEACE.-ENGLAND'S DEFENSIVE MEASURES.IMPRESSION PRODUCED THEREBY IN FRANCE.-POSTPONEMENT OF DUTCH EXPEDITION-EXCHANGE OF THE PROPAGANDIST POLICY FOR A POLICY OF

CONQUEST.

WHEN Dumouriez, towards the end of October, assumed the chief command in the Belgian campaign, he found himself opposed by the united forces of the enemy, which were drawn up in the neighbourhood of Mons. They were commanded by Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen, who had just been joined by General Clairfait, on the latter's return from Champagne. General Valence, who at the head of 16,000 men ought to have cut off Clerfait's march at the Sambre, had been delayed by Jacobin intrigues; so that, while HohenloheKirchberg with little more than 10,000 men was covering Luxembourg and Treves, Duke Albert had drawn together about 26,000 men under the walls of Mons. In this position. of affairs, Dumouriez determined to take the bull by the horns, and discarding all strategical manœuvres, to carry the Austrian position by storm. By summoning Harville to join him with his corps, Dumouriez raised the numbers of his forces to 40,000 men; his right wing rested on the army of Valence, and his left on General Labourdonnaye's corps of 20,000, which was to operate against Belgium; and he was continually reinforced by the influx of volunteers. Under