374 FRANCE. 



afterwards Frankfort. He was eager to proceed to Coblentz, that 

 noted seat of the counter-revolutionists ; but the Prussians and Aus- 

 trians at length indicated a renewal of hostilities by garrisoning that 

 town, and encamping in the adjacent country. 



The conquest of the Austrian Netherlands forms the next grand 

 object. Dumouriez had promised to pass his Christmas at Brussels ; 

 and what was regarded as an idle vaunt proved very modest, for that 

 city was in his hands by the 14th of November. That able general, 

 having entered the Netherlands on the 1st or 2d of that month, with 

 an army of forty thousand men, and with a most formidable train of 

 artillery, occupied the first five days in repeated engagements with 

 the Austrian army, commanded by the duke of Saxe-Teschen, gover- 

 nor of the Austrian Netherlands, and by general Beaulieu ; which, 

 however, exceeded not twenty thousand. At length, on the 6th of 

 November, a decisive battle was fought at Jemappe, which decided 

 the fate of the Netherlands. The contest was very general : all the 

 points of the enemy's flanks and lines were attacked at once ; all the 

 bodies of the French were in action, and almost every individual 

 fought personally. The cannonade began at seven in the morning. 

 Dumouriez ordered the village of Carignon to be attacked, because 

 he could not attempt the heights of Jemappe till he had taken that 

 village. At noon the French infantry lormed in columns, and rapidly 

 advanced to decide the affair by the bayonet. After an obstinate de- 

 fence, the Austrians at two o'clock retired in the utmost disorder. 



Dumouriez immediately advanced, and took possession of the 

 neighbouring town of Mons, where the French were received as 

 brethren. The tidings arriving at Brussels, the court was struck 

 with an indescribable panic, and instantly fled to Ruremond ; whence 

 it was again to be driven by the arms of Miranda. Tournay surren- 

 dered to a detachment on the 8th of November. Dumouriez, hav- 

 ing refreshed his troops at Mons, advanced to Brussels; where, after 

 an indecisive engagement between his van and the Austrian rear, he 

 was received with acclamations on the 1 4th of that month Ghent, 

 Charleroi, Antwerp, Maimes (or Mechlin) Louvain, Ostend, Nmur, 

 in short, all the Austrian Netherlands except Luxembourg, succes- 

 sively followed the example of the capital ; and the conquests of 

 Lewis XIV were not more rapid. 



Many of the priests, who were banished, came to England, and 

 were received with great benevolence ; this was followed by the de- 

 cree of the national convention against the emigrants ; by which they 

 were declared dead in law, their effects confiscated, and themselves 

 adjudged to immediate death if they appeared in France. 



Another decree, of the 19th of November, attracted the attention 

 of every nation in Europe. It is in the following terms : " The na- 

 tional convention declare, in the name of the French nation, that they 

 will -grant fraternity and assistance to all those people who wish to 

 procure liberty ; and they charge the executive power to send orders 

 to the generals to give assistance to such people, and to defend citi- 

 zens who have suffered, or are now suffering, in the cause of liber- 

 ty." This decree, and others of a similar tendency, seemed to insti- 

 tute a political crusade against all the powers of Europe. 



No sooner had Antwerp yielded to the French arms, than, in order 

 to conciliate the Belgians, the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt 

 (shut up by the treaty of Munster, in 1 648) was projected and or- 

 dered ; notwithstanding this treaty, so far as respects the shutting up 



