“HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
out skirmishing. The country was 
hostile to them all the way. ‘he 
city of Groningen shut its gates 
against them, and like theother parts 
of the retreating army, they jabour- 
ed under all manner of distress. 
Such was the fate of as brave a 
body of men as ever Great Britain 
sent into the field. Both men and 
Officers behaved, throughout the 
whole of the campaigns of 1793, 
and 1794, with a spirit that 
distinguished them wherever they 
were employed, and that fully 
corresponded with that idea of 
British valour, so justly entertained 
by foreign nations. It was, how- 
ever, in the last stages of this un- 
successful campaign, that their cou- 
rage appeared withmost lustre. The 
undesponding perseverance with 
which they met and surmounted 
every hardship and obstacle, arising 
from the various incidents of war, 
was the more remarkable, that they 
contended against an enemy in the 
full possession of everyadvantage oc- 
curring from victory, and whom they 
could only expect to impress with 
the sense of their valour. Herein 
they certainly succeeded. The 
French officers and soldiers that 
ated against the British troops, in 
the winter campaign of 1794, gene- 
rously acknowledged their bravery 
upon all occasions, but especially 
during that retreat which they be- 
gan from Rhenen, on the fourteenth 
of January, and persisted in with 
inflexible intrepidity, through ail 
the storms of theseverest winter long 
known in those parts, and every ob- 
struétion that could be formed by a 
victorious foe, irresistibly superior in 
[55, 
numbers, and aided by the whole 
strength of the countries through 
which they were compelled to di- 
rect their march. Thus, assailed in 
every direction, they traversed, or 
rather fought their way through the 
provinces of Utrecht, Guelderland, 
Overissel, and Groningen, almost 
destitute of necessaries, aud incum- 
bered witha heavy train of artillery, 
baggage, and waggons leaded with 
sick and wounded, This dreadful 
trial of courage, patience, and mili. 
tary skill, lasted upwards of two 
months, and deservedly excited the 
admiration of all Europe. 
The savage hard-heartedness and 
hostility of the Dutch boors towards 
our suffering soldiers, was strongly 
and happily contrasted by the kind 
and cordial reception which they 
received from the inhabitants of 
Bremen.* ‘¢ It is something like a 
dream,’’ says a witness and partaker 
of those pains and pleasures, ** or 
fairy vision, and we could hardly: 
give credit to our own senses: We 
who had lately been so buffetted 
about by fortune, driven like vaga- 
bonds, through frostand snow, over 
all the wilds of Holland,’ and who, 
in our greatest extremities, when 
we asked for any thing to refresh 
ourselves, with the money in our 
hands, were answered only with a 
shrug of the shoulders, ‘ nothing fcr 
the Englissman!’—Now, to be 
seated in the most elegant apart. 
ments,—servants attending, ready 
to anticipate every wish,—beds of 
the softest down to repose upon, 
without being disturbed in tke 
morning with the thundering of can- 
non, or the usual alarms of ware 
_* Bremen is a dutchy in the Lower Saxony, lying between Ellie and the Weser. 
The capital is Bremen, a large and populous city on the Weser. ‘The dutchy of Bremem 
p formerly subject to the Swedes; but it was sold to the Elector of Hanover, ir 
9, What. 
-* [E4] 
Ig 
