96] 
and drove out the French troops. 
Biron made some efforts to regain 
it; but the troops, exhausted by 
fatigue, insisted on being led back 
to Valenciennes: with which de- 
mand Biron was obliged to comply. 
The camp was plundered by the 
Hulans: all the camp-equipage, and 
every thing else was lost ; and the 
French re-entered Valenciennes in 
the greatest disorder. 
A fate similar to that of the army 
under Biron, awaited also the expe- 
dition from Lisle; but which end- 
ed still more unhappily in the death 
of M. Dillon, the commanding of- 
ficer, as well as that of many other 
of the officers. The system was, 
that the whole nobility of the army 
should be put to death. 
M. Dillon, on the 28th of April, 
set out from Lisle, and arrived by 
day-break on the next morning, 
withina short distance of Tournay. 
A small body of the enemy ap- 
pearing in sight, commenced a dis- 
tant cannonade. The French ca- 
valry, abandoning their artillery, 
fied to Lisle in their utmost disorder: 
the infantry followed with great 
precipitation. One half of the 
men and horses were killed and 
disabled on the road, partly through 
fatigue, and partly by the sword of 
the enemy. The fugitives, whe- 
ther with a view to palliate their 
own disgrace, or from a conviction 
of the fact, exclaimed that the men 
were betrayed by their officers, and 
hanged M. Chaumont, brother of 
the Adjutant General, M.de Ber- 
thier, officer of engineers, a priest, 
and some Austrian chasseurs that 
had beentaken prisoners. An eye- 
witness of this scene says, “I 
heard theridicule and thebarbarous 
shouts of the soldiers, and saw them 
amuse themselves in striking the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1792. 
dead bodies with their hands. They 
were crowded ina wheel- barrow, 
with the officers of engineers. I 
shuddered at the sight. The muni- 
cipal officers arrived with a cart, in 
which they placed the dead bodies, 
and continued to abuse them: It is — 
two o’clock, and I have not been 
able to hear the last news of the 
General, or the action. Not a 
wounded man has yet appeared ; 
and among all the. solders, not one 
seems to have been in a battle, ex- 
cept a foot-soldier, who has receiy- 
ed some shot through his hat. + 
** T remained in the street to ob-. 
serve the dispositions of the people., 
About four o’clock 1 went towards 
Fife’s Gate. In the entrance of the _ 
street the agitation was great, and 
the howling most terrible. At last 
I heard the cry of ** He’s coming, — 
he’s coming to the lantern.” 
asked, with a trembling voice,— 
“© Who??? — 
I . 
* Dillon,” they an- — 
swered, the traitor, the aristocrat : 4A 
we are a-going to tear him to pieces, 
he and all that belong to him.” 
‘‘Rochambeau must also perish, 
and all the nobility in the army. — 
Dillon is coming in a cabriole: his 
thigh is already broken—let’s go 
and finish him? The cabriole 
es “as oe. ee 
> 
soon appeared ; the General was in 
it without a hat, with a calm and ~ 
firm look. He was escorted by 
four horse-guards. He had hardly 
passed through the gate when more 
than a hundred bayonets were ‘ 
thrust into the cabriole, amidst the 
most horrible shouts! The horse- — 
guards made use of their sabres, it 
is true; 
but I don’t know whether _ 
it was to defend themselves or to © 
protect the General. 
who drove the cabriole disappear- 
The man — 
a 
ed, the horse plunged, and no bayeas , 
onets had yet been fatal, when a 
shot 
