?90 F R A N C E. 
part of his conduCl had merited that he‘ fliould be con¬ 
demned as a traitor ? They all cried with one voice, 
that he had behaved with great courage, and that they 
mod: deferved the appellation who had called him fo. 
Soon as the commiflioners arrived, and Bournonville had 
made known their errand, Dumouriez affefted to receive 
them with great civility, and invited them to the place 
d’armes, where they had no fooner come, than he imme¬ 
diately put them under arreft, reproaching them with 
their folly in having undertaken fuch a bufinefs. He 
then took from them their fwords, and fent them under a 
file of grenadiers to the Auftrian general Clairfait’s head¬ 
quarters at Tournay, as hoflages for the fafety of the 
royal family. He next attempted to feduce his army 
from their fidelity to the convention ; but he fpeedily 
found that he had much miftaken the character of his 
troops: upon the firft report, that their general was to 
be carried as a criminal to Paris, they were feized with 
fudder. indignation ; but, when they found that an at¬ 
tempt was making to prevail with them to turn their 
arms againtt their country, their fentiments altered ; they 
chofe not to imbrue their hands in the blood of their 
fellow citizens. 
On the 5th. of April two proclamations were iffued ; 
one by Dumouriez, and the other by the prince of Saxe 
Cobourg, declaring, that their only purpofe was to reftore 
the French conftitution of 1789, 1790, and 1791. Co¬ 
bourg announced, that the allied powers wifhed merely 
to co-operate with Dumouriez in giving to France her 
conftituticnal king, without altering the conftitution the 
had formed for herfelf; declaring, on his word of honour, 
that he came not to the French territory for the purpofe 
of making conquefts. On the fame day Dumouriez went 
to the advanced guard of his owm camp at Maulde. He 
there learned that the corps of artillery had rifen upon 
their general, and were marching to Valenciennes ; and 
he foon found that the whole army had determined to 
fland by their country. Seven hundred cavalry and eight 
hundred infantry was the whole amount of the troops that 
deferted with Dumouriez to the Auftrians, and many of 
thefe afterwards returned, and rejoined their former corps. 
An event fo momentous as the defection of Dumouriez, 
excited great fpeculations and a confiderable ferment in 
Paris. Each of the contending factions endeavoured to 
make ufe of it againft their opponents. When the re¬ 
port of Cambaceres was read, an attempt was made to 
implicate Danton; who, however, difengaged himfelf 
with great dexterity, and rolled back the accufation on 
the Briftotines. Dumouriez himfelf had not an advocate 
or a friend ; he was unanimoufly declared a traitor to 
the nation by both parties, and outlawed, together with 
the companions of his flight. The convention fet a price 
on his head, and offered a reward of a hundred thoufand 
crowns (12,500!.) and a full reftoration of property, to 
any emigrant who fliould deftroy him. The fortune 
which afterwards befel him may be fummed up in a few 
words. Unemployed by the allies, he wifhed to take re¬ 
fuge in Swiflerland, but was forbid to enter the country ; 
he then went to Stutgard, and craved an audience of the 
duke of Wirtemberg, but was commanded to quit his 
territories. From that place he went to Margentheim in 
Franconia, profefling his intention to live in lolitude and 
write hiftory ; but he foon returned to Brulfels, and pub- 
■lifhed a proclamation to the French nation, and another 
to the convention. Foiled in every attempt to appear 
advantageoufly on the continent, he vifited England, hav¬ 
ing obtained a pairport under the feigned name and cha¬ 
racter of Peralta, an Italian merchant. On his arrival, 
20th June, 1793, he wrote to lord Grenville, foliciting, 
in abjeCt terms, leave to remain near London till the end 
of the revolution. A polite anfwer was returned, in 
which Dumouriez was informed that his continuance in 
England could not be permitted, and he remained only 
one day in London, After flaying a week at Dover in 
cautious privacy, he returned in obfeurity to the conti¬ 
nent, where he remained unpitied and unfought by all or¬ 
ders of fociety. He was in London in 1803. 
By the defection of Dumouriez, however, the whole 
French army of the north was diffolved. The Pruflians 
were, at the fame time, advancing on the Rhine with an 
immenfe force, andabout tocommence the fiegeof Mentz. 
In the interior of the republic more ferious evils, if pof- 
fible, were arifing. In the departments of la Vendee and 
la Loire, formerly the provinces of Brittany and Poitou, 
immenfe multitudes of emigrants and other royalifts, had 
gradually aflembled in the courfe of the winter : they 
profelfed to a6t in the name of Monfieur, as regent of 
France. About the middle of March they advanced 
againft Muntz to the amount of forty thoufand ; in the 
beginning of April they defeated the republicans in two 
pitched battles, and poflefied themfelves of fifty leagues 
of country; they even threatened, by their own efforts, 
to (hake the new republic to its foundation. 
On the 8th of April, 1793, a congrefs of the combined 
powers inimical to France alfembled at Antwerp. It was 
attended by the prince of Orange and his two fons, with 
his excellency Vander Spiegel, on the part of Holland ; 
by the duke of York and lord Auckland on the part of x 
Great Britain ; by the prince of Saxe Cobourg, counts 
Metterinch, Starenberg, and Mercy d’Argenteau, with 
the Pruflian, Spanifh, and Neapolitan, envoys. It was 
here determined to commence adtive operations againft; 
France. The prince of Cobourg’s proclamation was re¬ 
called, and a fcheme of complete conqueft announced. 
In the mean time commidioners from the convention 
induftrioufly fet up the ftandard of the republic anew, 
and the fcattered battalions flocked around it. General 
Dampierre was appointed to the chief command in Flan¬ 
ders, and on the 13th he was able to refift a general at¬ 
tack made upon his advanced polls. On the 14th, his 
advanced guard yielded to fuperior numbers ; but on the 
15th he was victorious in a long and well fought battle. 
On the 23d, the Auftrians were again reptilfed ; and on 
the 1 ft of May, general Dampierre was himfelf repulfed 
in an attack upon the enemy. On the 8th, another en¬ 
gagement took place, in which the French general was 
killed by a cannon ball. On the 23d, a very determined 
attack was made by the allies upon the French fortified 
camp of Famars, which covered the town of Valenciennes. 
The French were overcome, and in the night abandoned 
their camp. In confequence of this, the allies were en¬ 
abled tocommence the fiege of Valenciennes; for Conde 
had been blockaded ever fince the ift of April. About 
the fame time, general Cuftine, on the Rhine, made a 
violent but unfuccefsful attack upon the Pruflians ; in 
confequence of which they were now enabled to lay fiege 
to Mentz. The Coriican general Paoli revolted at this 
period ; and the new republic, alfaulted from without by 
the whole ftrength of Europe, was undermined by trea¬ 
chery and faftion within. 
While France was in a ftate verging upon ruin, parties 
in the convention were becoming daily more fierce in 
their animofity ; and, regardlefs of what was palling at a 
diftance, they feemed only anxious for the extermination 
of each other. In the month of March, the celebrated 
Revolutionary Tribunal was eftablifhed for the purpofe 
of trying crimes committed againft the ftate ; and the 
Girondift party, the mildnefs of whofe aominiftration had 
fuffered the evils of their country to increafe, began to 
feel the neceftity of adopting meafures of feverity. But 
the public calamities which now rapidly followed each 
other in fucceflion, were aferibed by their countrymen to 
their imbecility or perfidy. This gave to the party of 
the Mountain a fatal advantage. On the 15th of April, 
the communes of the forty-eight feCtions of Paris pre- 
fented a petition, requiring that the chiefs of the Giron- 
difts therein named fhould be impeached and expelled 
from the convention. This was followed up on the ift of 
May, by another petition from the fuburb of St. Antoine. 
The Girondift party, in the mean time, impeached Marat; 
