CH. V.] BATTLE OF NEERWINDEN. 445 his columns in motion, almost at the same time, at 7 o'clock on the morning of the 18th. The battle began on the high road, where Miranda by a vigorous charge drove the light troops of the Archduke out of Orsmael, but soon received a check from the superior fire of the Austrian artillery. Towards 8 o'clock General Champmorin occupied Leau by the side of Miranda, and from this place sent forward a regiment of Chasseurs against the rear of the Archduke;1 at the same time Valence from the opposite end of the line of battle came into the engagement at Raccourt and Oberwinden, and pushed forward a column (Lamarche) into the plain behind these villages as far as Landen; by which means the intended out-flanking of the enemy was commenced on this side also. Being thus hard pressed on many sides the Prince of Coburg ordered a vigorous attack upon all these columns at once. Clerfait moved against Valence; the Prince of Würtemberg drew a portion of his corps from the rear of the Archduke, in order to recover Leau from the French, and General Benjowski brought the rest to reinforce the Archduke, who then without further hesitation proceeded to attack Miranda. At the same moment the battle was commenced in the centre also, between the Duke of Chartres and Count Colloredo, who disputed the possession of the village of Neerwinden with the greatest obstinacy. The contest continued undecided at this point until the evening; Neerwinden having been taken and lost twice according to French reports, and once according to the Austrian account; it remained at last in the hands of Colloredo, who was not, however, able to drive the French beyond the Gette. Clerfait had great difficulty in maintaining his ground at Oberwinden and Raccourt; he had, as Dumouriez rightly foresaw, scarcely 8,000 men at his disposal; but he repulsed two charges of a superior number of French infantry with the 1 Champmorin's report in the military archives of Paris, Armée du Nord, Supplément. greatest steadiness, and held his position on the whole until the afternoon. Whilst a bloody engagement was carried on without decision in this way on the south and in the centre, the Archduke Charles decided the fortune of the day a little after two o'clock. He completely routed Miranda's columns by a splendid charge, and drove them over the Gette; whole battalions of the national volunteers broke their ranks and dispersed; the artillery-men deserted their guns and a crowd of fugitives carried such confusion into Champmorin's columns, that that General retreated as quickly as possible over the bridge of Helve. The whole left wing of the French army was completely broken up.1 Coburg immediately brought up some of his own victorious regiments to strengthen Clerfait and Colloredo, and Clerfait threw the Nassau Cuirassiers upon the enemy with such violence, that Valence placed himself in person in front of his squadrons, succeeded in resisting the charge, but was obliged immediately afterwards to leave the battle-field severely wounded. 2 But this gallantry could no longer win back victory to the French side, since after Miranda's flight the Archduke was able to attack the other divisions of the enemy in the rear; nay he might even reach Tirlemont before them and thereby intercept the road to Brussels. Dumouriez therefore hastened on the same evening in person to the defeated corps, and led all of it that seemed capable of being held together back again to the Gette, highly delighted that the Austrians did not in the meanwhile renew the attack on his centre. On the following morning he continued his retreat with all his forces towards Louvain, without suffering much annoyance from the Austrians; his hope of changing the fate of the whole campaign by a sudden coup was over. The French had lost more than 5,000 in slain and prisoners, and thirty 1 Champmorin's report. 2 At a later period, after Dumouriez's fall, Miranda gave an essentially different account of this battle; but all the reports from the spot, whether French or Austrian, agree in the above details. THE FRENCH TURNED OUT OF BELGIUM. 447 CH. V.] guns on their left wing. Still more unfavorable, however, was the moral effect of this battle; since the lately healed panic of Aldenhoven and Aix-la-Chapelle was now renewed in the fullest measure. By the evening of the 18th Miranda's corps alone had lost 4,000 deserters and a despairing spirit soon spread through the rest of the forces. No one could regard the battle itself as a defeat of the French, but as it compelled them to continue their retreat, it brought absolute annihilation upon the army. Dumouriez acknowledged that Belgium could no longer be maintained. It is true that some of the French divisions fought three battles near Tirlemont and Louvain, but they could no longer stop the march of the Austrians, and the great mass of the army was completely useless. The number of deserters increased in two days to 10,000; it was more especially the Volunteers and the Nationales-about three-quarters of the army-who having been most implicated in the machinations of the Clubs, now spread tumult and confusion in every direction, loudly cursed the further defence of Belgium, and hastened towards the French frontier in disorderly crowds. Dumouriez resolved to leave them to their own devices, and to form a special corps of about 15,000 .men from the troops of the line and the artillery, with which he in some degree covered the further retreat. 1 Moniteur, April 12th. The French have lost at least from 5,000 to 6,000-the Austrians at most from 3,000 to 5,000; the regiments Royal Allemand, the Cuirassiers of Nassau, the free corps of Grün-Laudon and O'Donnel have suffered considerably. CHAPTER VI. CHANGE OF MINISTRY IN AUSTRIA. PARTIES IN THE CABINET OF VIENNA.-NEGOTIATION WITH ENGLAND.-SPIELMANN THREATENS BAVARIA.-ENGLAND WISHES TO ENLARGE BELGIUM.— DUMOURIEZ'S Catastrophe.—CONFERENCE at antwerp.-COBURG'S NEGOTIATION WITH FRANCE.-CHANGE OF MINISTRY IN VIENNA -BARON THUGUT OPPOSES THE PARTITION OF POLAND.PRUSSIA'S SUCCESSES AGAINST CUSTINE. EFFECT OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN VIENNA UPON PRUSSIA. WHILE the Austrian army was making its rapid and victorious progress through Belgium, the Court of Vienna found itself in a position by no means agreeable to its wishes. The satisfaction of recovering its former possessions was disturbed by the uncertainty of its new plans of conquest. The secret dissension in the Ministry, moreover, between Colloredo, Cobenzl and Spielmann continued, and the Emperor -who as usual troubled himself but little with business, and after his slow and reserved fashion, seldom expressed his will decidedly-manifested more clearly every day his secret dissatisfaction with the position of affairs. Even Colloredo no longer enjoyed his full confidence; but the scientific preceptor of Francis, Schloissnigg,-insignificant as his vain and unpractical character rendered him-obtained a very influential voice in the Cabinet by his readiness on all occasions to flatter the self-sufficiency and ambition of the Emperor. The Ministers had a more than vexatious proof of his influence during this very Belgian campaign. No sooner had the Prince of Coburg driven the French from Liége than he put the Bishopric under imperial sequestration, excluded the episcopal officials from the exercise of their functions, and CH. VI.] ENGLAND OPPOSES THE BAVARIAN EXCHANGE. 449 paid no attention to the orders of the Bishop himself. This conduct excited no little surprise, and called forth lively opposition from all quarters; but no one was more astonished than the Austrian Ministers, who, not having the slightest intention of pursuing such a course, called the Prince to account for his arbitrary and unwarrantable conduct; they were soon, however, obliged to hold their tongues, when Coburg laid before them in his own justification an order proceeding directly from the Cabinet. They contented themselves by a subsequent compromise of the matter, so that for the present it had no further consequences; but of course such a state of affairs was not well adapted to further the ends of Austrian diplomacy. The darling wish of the Emperor-the acquisition of Bavaria-was moreover surrounded with ever-increasing diffificulties. There was, as we have seen, a moment in January when England seemed favourable to the plan, because it was her object to gain over Austria to the English scheme for saving Poland, and making peace with France. But this whole plan was only too soon rendered impossible by the ardent desire for war which prevailed in the Convention, and forthwith the old disinclination to the Bavarian-Belgian Exchange once more showed itself in London. At the very first conference which Count Stadion held with Lord Grenville on this point in London, the latter declared generally, that no proposals for compensation by the acquisition or exchange of lands, could expect to meet with any favour in England. On the contrary, he said that it was the decided wish of his royal master that projects of that kind--which necessarily exercised an unfavourable influence on general questions-should for the present be postponed, that they might not destroy the most essential condition of victory, a general feeling of confidence among the Powers themselves.1 II. 1 Haeften to Spiegel. 2 F |