effective troops. Before the end of February, the French force was augmented to sixty-five thousand men, of whom thirty-five thousand were in a condition immediately to commence operations. On the 27th March, the Republicans broke up and drew near to the Spanish position. A redoubt on the Spanish left was taken a few days after the cam was carried off by the malignant fever which had already made such ravages in both armies. The Marquis Amarillas upon that drew back all his forces into the intrenched camp at Boulon. He was shortly after succeeded in the command by La Union, who immediately transferred the headquarters to Ceret, a good position for an attacking, but defective for a defending army. They were there assailed on the 30th April by the whole French force. One of the redoubts in the centre of the Spanish position having been stormed, the whole army fell back in confusion, which was increased to a total rout on the follow ployed in its siege, to reinforce the army on the eastern Pyrenees; and it was resolved to act offensively at both extremities of that range of mountains. During the winter months, incessant exertions were made to recruit the armies, which the immense levies of the Republic enabled the southern departments to do to such a degree, that at the opening of the campaign, not-paign opened, and General Dagobert withstanding their late reverses, they were greatly superior in number to their opponents. On the other hand, the Spanish government, destitute of energy, and exhausted by the exertions they had already made, were unable to maintain their forces at the former complement. Before the end of the year 1793, they were reduced to the necessity of issuing above £12,000,000 sterling of paper money, secured on the produce of the tobacco-tax; but all their efforts to recruit their armies from the natives of the country having proved ineffectual, they were compelled to take the foreigners employed at the siege of Toulon into their service, and augmenting day, by the Republican troops havthe number of their mercenary troops. Everything on the Republican side indicated the energy and resolution of a rising, everything, on the Spanish, the decrepitude and vacillation of a declining state. Between such powers, victory could not long remain doubtful. 63. Dugommier, on his arrival at the end of December, found the army of the eastern Pyrenees raised by his junction to thirty-five thousand men, encamped under the cannon of Perpignan; but a large proportion of the troops were in hospital, and the remainder in a state of insubordination and dejection, which seemed to promise the most disastrous results. By entirely reorganising the regiments, appointing new officers in the staff, and communicating to all the vigour of his own character, he succeeded in a few months not only in restoring the efficiency of the army, but leading it to the most glorious successes. The Spanish army, recently so triumphant, had proportionally declined; above ten thousand men were in hospital, the expected reinforcements had not arrived, and the force in the field did not exceed twenty-five thousand ing made themselves masters of the road to Bellegarde, the principal line of their communication over the mountains into their own country. Finding themselves cut off from this route, the Spaniards were seized with one of those panics which afterwards became so common to their troops in the Peninsular war : the whole army fled in confusion over the hills, and could be rallied only under the cannon of Figueras, leaving one hundred and forty pieces of cannon, fifteen hundred prisoners, eight hundred mules, and all their baggage and ammunition, to the victors, whose loss did not amount to one thousand men. 64. Dugommier immediately took advantage of his successes to undertake the siege of the fortresses of which the Spaniards had possessed themselves on the French territory. Collioure and Bellegarde were besieged at the same time; and although the inconsiderate ardour of the Republicans exposed them to a severe check at Port Vendre, the siege of Fort St Elmo was pressed with so much vigour, that the garrison, abandoned to its own resources, was com pelled to evacuate the place, and retire | in their defence; the period had not to Collioure. Marshal Navarro, the arrived when the chord of religion was Spanish commander, at the head of a to vibrate through every Spanish heart, garrison of seven thousand men, made a and rouse the nation to glorious efforts gallant defence; and the rocky nature in the cause of their own and European of the ground exposed the besiegers freedom. to almost insurmountable difficulties. But the perseverance of the French engineers having transported artillery to places deemed inaccessible, the commander, after having made a vain attempt to escape by sea, which the tempestuous state of the weather rendered impracticable, laid down his arms with his whole garrison. 66. Towards the end of July, the French drove the Spaniards out of the whole of the valley of Bastan, forced the heights of San Marcial, captured the intrenched camp and fortified posts on the Bidassoa, defended by two hundred pieces of cannon, and pushed on to Fontarabia, which surrendered on the first summons. Following up the career of success, they advanced to San Sebastian; and that important fortress, though garrisoned by seventeen hundred regular troops, capitulated without firing a shot. Colomera took post at Tolosa, to cover the roads leading to Pampeluna and Madrid; but at the first appearance of the enemy the whole infantry took to flight, and left the enemy's attack to be sustained by the cavalry alone, who, by a gallant charge, succeeded in arresting the advance of the pursuers. By these successes, the French were firmly posted in the Span 65. At the other extremity of the Pyrenees, the French army, weakened by the detachment of considerable forces to Roussillon to repair the disasters of the preceding campaign, remained in the early part of the year on the defensive. The Republicans in that quarter did not amount to forty thousand men, of whom one-half were national guards, totally unfit to take the field. An attack by the Spaniards on the French intrenchments early in February having been repulsed, nothing was undertaken of importance in that quarter till the beginning of June, when the gov-ish territory, and their wants amply ernment, encouraged by the great advantages gained in Roussillon, resolved to invade the Peninsula at once at both extremities of the Pyrenees, while the improved organisation of the new levies around Bayonne afforded every prospect of success. The invasion on the west took place by the valley of Bastan, the destined theatre of more memorable achievements between the armies of Britain and France. The Republicans were divided into three columns, which successively forced the Col de Maya and the valley of Roncesvalles. Some weeks afterwards, an attempt was made by the 67. While these events were occurSpanish commander to regain the posi-ring in Biscay, successes still more de tion which he had lost; but he was re- cisive were gained on the eastern fronpulsed with the loss of eight hundred tier. Twenty thousand of the Repubmen, and soon after resigned the com- licans were employed in the blockade mand of an army, the disorder and de- of Bellegarde; and the Catalonians, almoralisation of which were daily in- ways ready to take up arms when their creasing. The Count Colomera, who hearths were threatened, turned out in succeeded to the command, was not great numbers to reinforce the army of more successful. He in vain endea- La Union. After three months of invoured, by proclamations, to rouse the cessant efforts, the Spanish commander mountaineers of the Pyrenees to arms deemed his troops sufficiently reinstated supplied from the great magazines and stores, both of ammunition and provisions, which fell into their hands in the fortified places on the frontier. The British historian, who recounts the facility with which these victories were achieved by the inexperienced troops of France, cannot help feeling a conscious pride at the recollection of the very different actions of which that country was afterwards the theatre, and at marking, in the scenes of Spanish disgrace, the destined theatre of British glory. extremely probable, from the superior forces which the enemy could bring to bear upon one point. Should such a catastrophe occur, it appeared hardly reparable. to resume the offensive, and attempt the | of arresting an enterprising and able relief of Bellegarde, which was now re- assailant. The artillery, perched upon duced to the last extremity. The prin- eminences, produced but an inconsidercipal attack was made against the right able effect, with its plunging shot, on wing of Dugommier, and, if it had been the masses in the valleys beneath; while assailed with sufficient force, the suc- the distance and difficulty of communicess of the Spaniards could hardly have cation between the different parts of the been doubtful. But the columns of at-line rendered a disaster in any quarter tack having been imprudently divided, the convoy destined to revictual the fortress never reached its destination; and General AUGEREAU,* afterwards Duke of Castiglione and Marshal of France, who commanded the right wing, though 69. On the night of the 16th Nodriven back to the camp of La Made-vember, the French attacking army, leine, succeeded in baffling the objects thirty thousand strong, was put in moof the enemy. The consequence was, tion. It was divided into three columns. that the Spaniards, after having at first The right, under the command of Augained some advantages, were compelled gereau, after an arduous march of to retreat, and Bellegarde, seeing no eighteen hours over rocks and preciprospect of relief, capitulated a few days pices, drove the Spaniards, under Genafterwards. The Spanish general ex- eral Courten, from the neighbourhood cused himself for the bad success of his of the camp of La Madeleine, and made arms, by alleging the insubordination themselves masters of the whole inand misconduct of the troops. "With- trenchments in that quarter; but the out," said he, in his report to govern- left, under General Lauret, was rement, "consideration, without obeying pulsed by the heavy fire from the battheir chiefs or their officers, who did teries to which he was opposed; and their utmost to retain them, the sol- when Dugommier was preparing to diers took to flight, after having for the support him, he was killed by a shell most part thrown away their arms." A from the central redoubts of the enemy. battalion was ordered to be decimated This unlooked-for disaster for a time for its cowardice, and La Union, de- paralysed the movements of the Respairing of success, solicited his dis- publican army, till Pérignon, having missal. been invested with the command, moved a considerable force to the relief of Lauret, and with some difficulty extricated him from his perilous situation. But Augereau had meanwhile vigorously followed up his successes. After giving his troops breath, he moved them to the centre, and forced the great redoubt, though bravely defended by twelve hundred men; the result of which was, that the Spaniards abandoned five other redoubts, and almost all their artillery, and fell back to their intrenched camp in the neighbourhood of Figueras. 68. Discouraged by such repeated reverses, the Spanish government made proposals of peace; but the terms were deemed so inadmissible by the Committee of Public Salvation, that they ordered Dugommier to give their answer from the cannon's mouth. In the meanwhile the Spanish commander had leisure to strengthen his position. Two hundred and fifty guns, in two lines, arranged along a succession of heights, nearly seven leagues in extent, presented a front of the most formidable kind; while a smaller intrenched camp in the rear, around Figueras, afforded a secure asylum in case of disaster. But the result proved how rare it is that a position of that description, how strong soever in appearance, is capable *See a biography of AUGEREAU, infra, chap. xx. § 51. 70. Pérignon instantly prepared to follow up his successes. Wisely judging that the left was the weak point of the. enemy's position, he reinforced Augereau in the night with two fresh brigades, and on the morning of the 20th moved all his forces to the attack. garrison, threatened with an immediate assault by a practicable breach, retired by sea in the beginning of February, leaving the fortress to the enemy. 71. Nor was the fortune of war more favourable to the Spanish forces at the other extremity of the line. After the fall of San Sebastian, Colomera endeavoured without effect to rouse the population of the Pyrenean valleys; and the Republicans attempted to erect Biscay into a Republic, to be independent of the Spanish crown. The usual fruits of democratic insurrection speedily appeared. The guillotine was erected at San Sebastian, and, in defiance of a solemn capitulation, the blood of the priests and the nobles was shed by the French commissioners, with as much inveteracy as if Guipuzcoa had been La Vendée. Meanwhile disease, the result of the misery they had produced, made deeper ravages than the Spanish sword in the ranks of the invaders; in a short time above thirty thousand men perished in the hospitals. At length, the Republican columns having been recruited by the never-failing levies in the interior, a general attack, late in autumn, was commenced on the Spanish positions. In the valley of Roncesvalles, their best division, after a vigorous resistance, was routed with the loss of forty pieces of cannon and fifteen hundred prisoners, and a severe tempest of wind and rain alone prevented its total destruction. This success enabled the invaders to seize and burn the founderies of Orbaizita and D'Enguy, which had so long served for the supply of the Spanish marine; after which they retired to the neighbourhood of San Sebastian and Fontarabia, still occupying in force the valley of Bastan. General Bon, intrusted with the con- | reduced on the 7th January; and the duct of the vanguard of the right wing, defiled over tracts hardly practicable for single passengers, and crossed the river Muga repeatedly, with the water up to the soldiers' waists. Arrived in the presence of the redoubts, he ascended the mount Escaulas, under a tremendous fire from the Spanish redoubts, and carried, at the point of the bayonet, the central intrenchment. La Union, hastening with the reserve to the redoubt of La Rosére, was killed on the spot; and that fort, regarded as impregnable, having been stormed, its whole defenders were put to the sword. These disasters discouraged the Spaniards along the whole line. Several other redoubts having been carried by the bayonet, the defenders evacuated the remainder, and applied the torch to their mines. In a few minutes, twenty bastions, constructed with immense labour, were blown into the air; and the troops charged with their defence, flying in confusion to Figueras, overthrew a column of fresh troops advancing to their support, and rushed in confusion into the gates of the fortress. Such was the dismay of the Spaniards, that when the Republican outposts, a few days afterwards, approached Figueras, the garrison, consisting of above nine thousand men, amply provided with provisions and stores of every sort, laid down their arms; and one of the strongest places in Spain, amidst the general acclamation of the inhabitants, was delivered up to the invaders. This unexpected conquest having made the French masters of the rich and fertile plain of the Ampurdan, and of an ample supply of stores and artillery of every description, preparations were soon afterwards made for the siege of Rosas. The garrison consisted of nearly five thousand men, and the place, in itself strong, as the glorious siege of 1809 demonstrated, was capable of being reinforced to any extent by sea. Nevertheless, such was the vigour of the Republicans, and the dejection of the Spaniards, that the assailants pushed the siege during the severest months of winter, without any molestation. The fort of Trinity was 72. These repeated disasters, and the evident disaffection of a considerable portion of their subjects, who were infected by the rage for democratic institutions, at length disposed the Spanish government to an accommodation. Nor were the Committee of Public Salvation inclined to insist on rigorous conditions, as the liberation of two experienced and victorious armies promised to be of the utmost importance to the Republican armies, in | Condé, Valenciennes, Quesnoy, and the conquests which they meditated to Landrecies, the Republicans in the end the south of the Alps. With these dis- of August resumed the offensive. The positions on both sides, the work of fort of Ecleuse having surrendered to negotiation was not difficult. Although General Moreau, the Army of the North, the conclusion of the treaty was deferred reinforced by his division, commenced to the succeeding year, yet it was un- the invasion of Holland, while the derstood on both sides that negotiations States-General obstinately persisted in were in progress, and no operations of maintaining half their troops, amountimportance were undertaken after this ing to twenty thousand men, in garriperiod. The severe winter of 1794-5, son in the interior, thirty leagues from which gave the Republican troops the the theatre of war, thereby leaving the mastery of Holland, likewise closed protection of the frontier to the comtheir operations on the snows of the paratively inconsiderable force of the Pyrenees. British commander. With little more than half the invader's troops, the Duke of York was charged with the defence of a frontier twenty leagues in extent. He first took up a defensive position behind the Aa; but his advanced posts having been defeated by the French with the loss of fifteen hundred prisoners, he was compelled to retire to the right bank of the Meuse, leaving the important places of Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda, and Bois-le-Duc, to their own resources. 75. Meanwhile the army of the Sambre and Meuse, under Jourdan, made preparations for a general attack on the scattered forces of Clairfait. On the 18th, the Republicans, divided into six columns, broke up, and a number of partial actions took place along the whole line; but the post of Ayvaile having been forced by the French, the Austrians fell back with the loss of fifteen hundred men and thirty-six pieces of cannon; and, after several ineffectual attempts to make a stand, finally evacuated their positions on the Meuse, and retired towards Rolduc and Aix 73. The approach of winter, however, afforded no respite to the armies on the northern frontier. After a delay of two months, occasioned by the secret negotiations which the fall of Robespierre had broken off, the Republican armies recommenced those active operations which their immense superiority of physical force speedily rendered decisive. The Army of the North had 70,000 effective men under its banners; that of the Sambre and Meuse, nominally 145,000 strong, presented an efficient force of 116,000 men; while the Duke of York, to cover the United Provinces, had hardly 50,000; and General Clairfait, who had replaced Prince Cobourg, could only muster 100,000 to maintain the footing of the Imperialists in the Flemish provinces. The French armies were so situated, that they could mutually communicate with and support each other: the Austrians and British were far asunder, incapable of rendering mutual aid, and alienated by long-continued common disaster. But, considered morally, the inequality be-la-Chapelle. Jourdan immediately foltween the contending armies was still greater. On the one side was the triumph of victory, the vigour of democratic ambition, the ardour of patriotic enthusiasm, the confidence of increasing numbers, conscious ability, and a novel system of warfare; on the other, the dejection of defeat, the recrimination of commanders, the jealousies of nations, declining numbers, and an obstinate adherence to antiquated tactics. 74. All anxiety about their rear having been removed by the reduction of lowed them; and while Kléber, with fifteen thousand men, formed the blockade of Maestricht, the commander himself, with a hundred thousand, pressed the discomfited forces of Clairfait, now hardly in a condition to keep the field, from the confusion and precipitance of their retreat. In vain the Imperialists took up a strong defensive position behind the Roer: On the 2d of October, the Republican columns were in motion at break of day, to assail their position; and, for the first time since the Revolu |