784 . 
FRANCE. 
what brandy be chofe. They began the affault in the 
afternoon, and were beat back. That night the French 
lay upon their arms, and the next morning more brandy 
was given, when the volunteers marched with great fpirit 
quite up to the entrenchments, and were mowed down by 
the Andrian artillery by hundreds. In a (liort time the 
French gave way in the centre, on which Dumouriez or¬ 
dered the artillery that were in the rear to fire upon his 
own men, and flop their retreat. They were then obliged 
to turn, though thoufands had fallen, and the Auftrians 
had fcarcely loft a man. A fecond time the centre gave 
way, and the Auftrians incautioufly left their intrench- 
nients to purfue them. This was the objeft Dumouriez 
had in view ; and with his own flanks he turned the 
wings of the Auftrian army, and got behind them in their 
entrenchments. Here great daughter was made of the 
Auftrians, who loft in all about three thoufand five hun¬ 
dred men, and were entirely defeated. The French loft 
3 bout fourteen thoufand men, who were left dead on the 
field of battle. Dumouriez, during the greater part of 
the engagement, threw oft' his coat and waiftcoat, and 
fought as a common foldier; and thus far he refcues his 
name from the odium that attends the murder of his own 
men, that on nooccafion did he ever fpare himfelf. This 
viftory was decifive of the fate of the Netherlands. 
Monsand Bruftels furrendered to Dumouriez ; Tournay, 
Malines, Ghent, and Antwerp, were taken pofleffion of 
by general Labourdonnaye ; Louvain and Namur were 
taken by general Valence ; and the whole Auftrian Ne¬ 
therlands, Luxembourg only excepted, fell into the hands 
of the French : Liege was taken on the 28th of Novem¬ 
ber, after a fuccefsful engagement, in which the Auftrians 
loft fix hundred men, and an immenfe train of artillery. 
Thus was France, by means of an invincible fpirit of 
enthufiafm infufed into the heart and mind of her nume¬ 
rous army, more than a match for the formidable com¬ 
bination of foreign powers, and rofe fuperior to the ve¬ 
teran prowefs of the numerous invaders, who aflailed 
her on every fide. But while fhe was thus victorious in 
all quarters abroad, the was diftrafted by the moll violent 
factions at home. The two parties in the convention 
were engaged in a ftruggle, which daily became more im¬ 
placable and alarming. The party called the Mountain 
did not difguife their intention of bringing the king to 
trial : the moderate party as anxioufly meditated to fave 
him; which was a fufficient reafon for their antagonifts 
to refolve upon his ruin. This attempt was at once fo 
incompatible with every thing that had long been confi- 
dered as forming the French character, fo devoid of every 
ftiadow of juftice, and fo repugnant to every principle of 
true policy, that even the previous atrocities of the re¬ 
volution had not prepared mankind to believe that its 
accomplilhment could be feridufly meditated, much lefs 
that the people, the armies, and the eonftituted autho¬ 
rities of France, would have permitted it to take place. 
The conduCf and progrefs of this fcandalous perverfion 
of the forms of juftice and humanity, however, prove 
that the fpace is but fmall from the prifon of a prince to 
his final perfecution on a fcaffold, which the Mountain 
party were now ferocioufly engaged to enforce, by every 
cruel and oppreftive means. 
FATE of LOUIS XVI. and his QUEEN. 
The royal family had for fome time been confined in 
the Temple, an ancient building belonging to the grand- 
prior of the knights-templars, littiated at the north-eaft 
extremity of Paris, in a divifion which formed a refuge 
for debtors, crowded with buildings of the meaneft de- 
fcription, and particularly dirty, unwholefome, and me¬ 
lancholy. Great pains had been taken to render the 
apartments fecure, and thefe precautions added to their 
gloom; but the greateft cruelty arofe, not fo much from 
the care taken to detain their perfons, as from the folici- 
tude conftantly difplayed in loading them with every in- 
fult which malice, meannefs, and obduracy of heart, could 
1 
devife. The decree for abolifhing royalty was announced 
to them with ftudied malice ; the comrniflioners hoping 
to extort from fhe monarch fome unguarded expreliions, 
which might give more colour to their nefarious proceed¬ 
ings ; but to their great difappointment, he bore the 
event with heroic fortitude. The anxieties of the royal 
family were unfeelingly kept alive by every diungenuous 
means ; and all newfpapers were denied them, except 
thofe which contained infolent libels on the king, or 
fcandalous refleftions on the infidelity of the queen, or 
ftigmas on fome branch of the royal family. One of 
thefe papers contained the petition of a cannoneer, that a 
piece of artillery might be caft of a fufficient calibre to 
receive the head of Louis XVI. and that the petitioner 
might difcharge it at the enemy. Another exhibited a 
rancorous untruth of the princefs Elizabeth having had 
a child by a bilhop : this young wolf, the writer added, 
ought to be ftrangled as w'ell as the two (the dauphin and 
madame Royale) in the tower. The diftrefs of the cap¬ 
tives was fo great, that the king was obliged to borrow 
changes of raiment from his valet-de-chambre; and the 
queen and the dauphin were fupplied by the bounty of 
the countefs of Sutherland, and fome other ladies; but 
even this intercourfe was now fuperfeded ; and the royal 
unfortunates were ordered to be kept apart, while mea- 
fures were adopted againft their lives. 
The papers on which it was intended to found the 
charges againft Louis, were referred to a committee, and 
delay was judged neceftary to prepare the public mind 
for the horrid cataftrophe ; but the exertions of the regi¬ 
cide faftion, and the inefficient oppofition made by the 
Girondifts, removed every fear ; the harangues in the con¬ 
vention boldly proceeded on the principle, that no trial 
for the afcertainment of guilt was neceftary, but the only 
exertion requifite was to defeat the plea of inviolability, 
and pronounce immediate fentence of death. Such were 
the fentiments avowed by Robefpiere, who faid, “ fen- 
tence of death ought to be pronounced againft Louis, as 
a tyrant, condemned by the infurreftion of the people : 
inftead of which, proceedings were inftituted againft him, 
as in the cafe of an accufed citizen, whofe criminality was 
doubtful. The revolution ought to have been cemented 
by his death ; inftead of which, the revolution itfelf was 
rendered a fubje6t of litigation.” Similar to thefe were 
the fentiments of Legendre, Tallien, St. Andre, and the 
Mountain in general, and all their faction. On the other 
hand the Briflotines, timidly, and with hefitation, main¬ 
tained the king’s inviolability. They could not venture 
to pronounce, as their confciences dictated, that Louis 
was not guilty ; they could not fupport his conduct on 
any general principle which they had not oppofed, or 
weakened, in the legiflative aftembly ; and fuch had been 
the atrocity and violence of their attacks in that legifla- 
ture, that they were evenafraid to move, as an inftruftion 
to the committee, that the king ihould not be accufed of 
any fafts which had taken place before his accepting the 
conftitution: Angular as it might appear, this folitary aft 
of juftice was left to the incendiary Marat. 
While thefe meafures were purfuing, a new incident 
occafioned confiderable agitation. A fecret iron clofet, 
in which the king kept his papers, fixed in a wall of the 
palace of the Thuilleries, and covered with a pannel, was 
pointed out to Roland, by fhe workmen who conltrufted 
it. The minifter, without making any communication to 
the legiflature, or to his colleagues, and unaccompanied 
even by a Angle municipal officer, went to the palace, and 
poftefled himlelf of the whole collection of writings, pre- 
lenting fuch of them as he thought fit to the convention, 
as documents capable of throwing great light on the events of 
the loth of Aug 11 ft, on the revolution in general, and on thofe 
characters who had taken the moft a&ive part in it. He de¬ 
clared that feveral members of the firft and fecond aftem- 
blies were implicated in the contents, and required a 
committee to take cognizance of them. The popularity 
of Roland fuffered by the irregularity and impropriety of 
