120] 
but it being late before it was ter- 
minated, Dumouriez judged it pru- 
‘dent not to take possession of the 
town till the next morning. At 
‘nine o’clock he marched in, amidst 
‘the joy and acclamations of the 
people, who, as the General ob- 
served, were lively, sensible, and 
dignified. It appears, from the 
same letter to the minister at war, 
that desertion still continued a- 
mongst the Austrian troops; and, 
‘in justice to the General it ought to 
be noticed, that when he mentions 
the great disproportion in the killed 
‘and wounded between his army and 
that of his opponents, he accounts 
for it, by extolling the address and 
vivacity of his artillery. 
This siege was carried on with an 
extraordinary celerity; the trenches 
having been opened only on the 
“25th, by General Miranda. This 
“General found that La Bourdon- 
“maye, far from pressing the citadel, 
had not even brought the artillery 
for the siege to the park: he im- 
mediately sent General Duval for 
it, and in the course of four days 
the artillery was brought to the 
spot; batteries and trenches were 
“finished; and the citadel, after a 
violent attack, having been on fire, 
surrendered. La Bourdonnaye was 
much suspected of acting in concert 
with Dumouriez’s enemies, such as 
Pache, minister of war, and others 
~with whom he was very much con- 
“nected, for the purpose of stopping 
Dumouriez in his career, and 
checking his success; which ap- 
peared pretty evident by his delays 
in marching forwards and taking 
the citadel of Antwerp. 
On the 29th of the month, the 
citadel of Antwerp surrendered to 
the forces under General Miranda ; 
after he had set fire to and done 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
considerable damageto the barracks 
and storehouses for provisions. 
General Valence continued un- 
remittingly to prosecute the siege 
of Namur, and at the same time 
drove the Austrians, to the amount 
of 5,000 men, from a well entrench- 
ed camp on the Bois d’Asche, on 
the opposite side of the Meuse. 
Although the whole of this affair 
was a work of difficulty and danger, 
and likewise of very great enter- 
prize, it was luckily effected by the 
French troops. Fortunately for Va- 
lence, a junction had been previ- 
ously formed between the army 
under the command of d’?Harville, 
otherwise he might have been at- 
tacked with great advantage by the 
enemy. ‘The greatest praise is due 
to d’Harville for his ready co-ope- 
rations, by which the fall of the 
fortress of Namur was secured. 
On the 2d of December, articles 
of capitulation were signed for the 
surrender of this important frontier, 
to the army under general Va- 
lence; the garrison being made 
prisoners of war. 
It would appear that at the same 
moment an equal spirit of energy 
and enterprize pervaded the armies 
of France, and that their leaders 
were only emulous who should ex- 
ceed in not only forming, but in 
succeeding in new schemes of con- 
quest and aggrandizement. Scarce- 
ly was the capture of the citadel 
finally settled, when General Mi- 
randa became anxious to push his 
victorious army into Austrian Guel- 
dres. On the ‘st of December, the 
next day after he had taken posses=: 
sion of the city of Antwerp, Gene- 
ral Miranda sent La Marliere with 
the advanced guard of the army to- 
wards Maseyck to try, by a rapid 
march, to surprize the Austrian: 
posts 
