BATTLE OF WATTIGNIES. 53 



It will be asked, no doubt, where Carnot had gained 

 this firmness, this vigour, the military coup d'ceil, that 

 knowledge of troops ? Seek not for the source but in his 

 ardent patriotism. It was at Wattignies that for the first 

 time he heard the musketry and cannon of the enemy. 

 But I am mistaken, Gentlemen ; it is the second, and not 

 the first time : the first time, Carnot, marching as at Wat- 

 tignies, musket in hand, at the head of a new levy of sol- 

 diers, carried the town of Furnez by assault, then occupied 

 by the English. 



The battle of Wattignies, considered as to its results, 

 will always occupy one of the foremost places in the 

 annals of the French Revolution. I should probably be 

 less positive on the difficulties of that day, compared 

 with so many others, if I could not support myself by 

 the opinion of the Prince of Cobourg himself. When he 

 saw the French battalions begin to break, that general 

 could not find terms too strong to express, in presence of 

 his staff, the confidence that he felt in the number and 

 ardour of his troops, and in the obstacles of all sorts, both 

 natural and artificial, that the uneven ground occupied by 

 the Austrians presented to the assailants. He exclaimed : 

 " The Republicans are excellent soldiers ; but if they dis- 

 lodge me from this position, I will consent to become a 

 Republican myself." Certainly nothing more decided or 

 more energetic could issue from the mouth of Cobourg. 

 For my part, I could not conceive a more glorious bulletin 

 of the battle of Wattignies ! 



The German author from whom I have borrowed this 

 anecdote does not say whether, after having dislodged him, 

 the French summoned the Austrian general to keep his 

 word. I have some reason to suppose that, notwithstand- 

 ing their spirit of propaganda, they disdained a recruit 



