The King of the French, [Ocx. 



belief in a soul, in the principles of truth, honour, or morality, or in a God ; 

 its only law the will of a populace of cut- throats inured to make confessions 

 once a quarter, and receive absolution as often, let the iniquity be what 

 it might, the simple condition being the amount of the fee ; and its 

 only freedom the liberty to murder every body, and be murdered in their 

 turn : the delight of the legislature and the populace alike being the 

 general clearance of the prisons, the streets, and the houses by the pike, 

 the grapeshot, and the guillotine ; France declaring herself at war with 

 all the world, all the world compelled to war with France ; every day a 

 massacre in Paris, or in the provinces, a battle on the frontier, or a new 

 burst of horrible retaliatory rage in La Vendee ; The whole aspect of 

 that immense country one cloud of conflagration and slaughter ; France 

 bleeding at every pore. 



The Due de Chartres served his first campaign under Biron in 1792, 

 in the army of the north, where he was in several general actions, and 

 commanded a brigade of cavalry. Under Luckner and Dumouriez he 

 fought against the Prussian invasion, and on the famous 6th of Novem- 

 ber, 1 702, the day of Gemappe, he is said to have decided the battle. 

 The French had found the Austrian army strongly intrenched on the 

 heights of Gemappe. But he, as Dumouriez afterwards declared, had no 

 alternative but to attack them, for he had no bread ; and he gave one of 

 his columns to the Due de Chartres, who rushed upon the lines. The 

 Austrians repulsed the first charge, and drove back the column, 

 which had led the centre attack. Dumouriez thought that all was lost, 

 and was galloping across the field to recover the day if possible, when 

 he met an aide-de-camp sent to give him the news of victory. The 

 Due de Chartres had rallied his young troops, put himself at the 

 head of a regiment, and rushing forward, burst into the Austrian lines. 

 All was now rout ; the charge decided the battle, and the battle decided 

 the fate of the Austrian dominion in Flanders. The enemy lost upwards 

 of six thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners, and Dumouriez in- 

 instantly overran the whole of Belgium. 



But Dumouriez, that fortunate and extraordinary soldier, who first 

 taught the French Republican how to fight, and whose genius was the 

 only one that might have anticipated the splendour of Napoleon's 

 triumphs, was soon forced to acknowledge the uncertainty of military 

 fortune. In February 1 793, at the battle of Nerwinde, he was utterly 

 defeated. With the Republic, misfortune was always a crime, and the 

 general was summoned to Paris to give an account of himself. This 

 was notoriously but a summons to have his head cut off. He knew the 

 world, and he contrived to elude the command ; while he revolved 

 the idea of overthrowing his masters in their turn. He was said to have 

 then conceived the idea of placing the Due de Chartres on the throne. 

 But he found that his army would not follow him. Commissioners 

 from Paris arrived to seize the refractory general. By a last instance 

 of dexterity, he turned the tables on the commissioners, cleverly seized 

 them, sent them as an introduction for himself to the Austrian camp, 

 and galloped after them with the young duke at his side. The seizure 

 of these commissioners was of service to more than himself, for they 

 were afterwards exchanged for the Dauphiness, the present Duchess of 

 Angouleme, then in prison in Paris. 



The duke had fled, only on knowing that an order for his arrest had 

 been issued from Paris. But though a fugitive by necessity he refused 



