dépôt of arms which was placed there for greater security, and drove out the incompetent committee, who, abandoning the care of the public safety, now only sought their own. They fled the country, and left the people to their fate,— even Gendebien, the only one of the members from whom more resolution was expected; Baron D'Hoogvorst being the only one who remained, but in close concealment until the fearful events of the ensuing days had passed by.

The whole power now devolved, as if in the regular succession of revolutionary inheritance, to the people and their immediate chiefs. Yet it cannot be truly said that anarchy at any time reigned in Brussels. No act of spoliation or violence took place even during the last three days, from the 20th to the 23d of September, during which the very rabble formed the government, and the pike and bayonet were the law. All the degrading impulses of mob ferocity were suppressed; and every feeling was concentrated in the one absorbing object of a desperate defence.

At length the agony of expectation was set at rest by the fiercer excitement of actual combat. On the morning of the 24th, the attack on the city was made at three several points; and, to the great astonishment of Prince Frederick and his troops, they found on all a determined resistance, instead of the easy triumph on which they had reckoned.

We must resist the temptation of recording here the details of the four days in which the people of Brussels so gallantly fought and conquered. A crowd of recollections cautions us to altogether avoid an attempt to select from among the various events even a few of the most striking; for our limits do not admit of sufficient examples being given of those heroic incidents, without doing injustice to the actors in the many which deserve mention.

A few names must, however, be specified among those who particularly distinguished themselves. At the head of these must be placed that of Charles Rogier, who gave to the country the first impulse of armed resistance; who had been foremost in leading his detachment of the men of Liege to the attack on the Dutch at Diegham, the day before the assault of Brussels took place; and who had, as soon as resistance was actually offered to that assault, boldly taken upon himself, in company with M. Jolly, a retired officer of engineers, the responsibility of a government, and the

organization of the desultory and scattered elements, which ended in so complete a triumph. Next came Van Halen, the commander-in-chief, appointed by Rogier and Jolly; Niellon, Mellinet, Kessels, Vandermeere, Borremans, Grégoire ; Baron Felner, killed on the field of battle; and a host of others equally brave, and more or less celebrated.

ers,

The news of the heroic defence of Brussels was borne across the frontiers in every direction, and, while it created in Holland consternation and rage, it caused unbounded joy in France. Several of the runaway members of the Committee of Public Safety were assembled at Valenciennes, where they had been joined by M. Louis de Potter, one of the early causes and victims of government severity, who had hurried from Paris, and now waited with Vandeweyer and some othnot to mix in the mêlée and take chance with the country they had roused to resistance, but to "await the triumph and partake the gale." The first of those who repassed the frontiers was Gendebien, a man of energy and nerve, notwithstanding his recent flight, led away by the bad example of his colleagues. The others followed; and the generous people of Brussels, drowning resentment and reproach in the shouts of victory, and feeling the urgent necessity of union, consented to the nomination of D'Hoogvorst, Gendebien, and Vandeweyer, as joint members of the Provisional Government, with Charles Rogier and Jolly, to whose intrepid firmness the preservation of order had been entirely owing. To maintain a show of aristocratic support the name of Count Felix de Merode was added; but he did not reappear from his hiding-place for some days after the expulsion of the Dutch.

Thousands upon thousands crowded into Brussels as soon as the attacking army had fairly retreated, to view the different places of combat, to gaze on the shattered buildings, the torn up and lacerated trees, the smoking ruins, the barricades. and batteries; and above all to see the heroic defenders, some living and unhurt, the wounded stretched on their pallets in the hospitals and churches; and, finally, the glorious dead carried to their last common resting-place. It was altogether a combination exciting and affecting in no ordinary degree; and one never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.

But the victors did not suffer themselves to be, in their turn, overcome by the delirium of triumph. They organized themselves under chosen leaders, and pushed on to new

combats and successes. They pursued the retreating enemy, hung on and harassed them, and had several severe though irregular actions with them, up to the walls of Antwerp, to which sanctuary Prince Frederick had conducted his discomfited troops.

The Provisional Government promptly proceeded to dispose of and secure the important interests confided to their care. And their first act, in compliance with the popular will, was to add De Potter's name to their number, and to recall him from a now nominal banishment to a sure ovation. But his worst enemy could not have done him a worse service. Happy had it been for him that he had remained an exile and a martyr. No stronger example was ever afforded of that fatality which places men on the highest pinnacle of their ambition, merely to dash them down to a surer destruction. De Potter now hastened across the frontier he had so lately shrunk from passing; and from the hour he touched the soil of Belgium he was borne forward to Brussels on the tide of popular enthusiasm. The members of the Provisional Government hailed his coming with pretended sympathy, but with serious misgivings. They knew his vast ambition; they saw his unlimited influence. But they had yet to learn that he, who, for the best years of his life had labored to bring about a crisis like that, was, at the moment of its realization, impotent to turn it to account.

Van Halen, a man of a different stamp, was another most prominent person at that period. De Potter saw a dangerous rival in the gallant Spaniard, who had rendered such good service to his adopted country; and he had sufficient cunning to propagate suspicions against him in the public mind, which forced him to resign his command, and leave to others to follow up his victory.

In

The effect produced throughout the Belgian provinces by the events of Brussels was instantaneous and general. a few days all the fortresses, with the exception of Antwerp, Maestricht, and Venloo, surrendered to the commanders named by the Provisional Government, which had by the 10th of October entirely supplanted the authority of the King.

The defence of Brussels had decided the States-Generl to consent to the legislative separation, so long demanded by Belgium, but now forgotten, in the broad prospect of abso

once

lute independence which opened out before the nation's view. The King, seeing the state of the public mind, tried a new course of policy. He despatched the prince of Orange more to Belgium; and Antwerp was chosen as the strong-hold, whence he might, with most effect, send forth his emissaries or issue his addresses to the now formidable rebels, in the hope of persuading them into submission. The Prince, sanguine and confiding, readily undertook to attempt this impracticable scheme. But there was no good faith in his father who sent him, nor any sincerity in the council of Belgians who were appointed to act with him; and no chance of coöperation on the part of the millions who identified him with all the violence and hypocrisy of his brother and his father. After some weeks of humiliating failure, deceived, abandoned, and exposed to all the bitterness of regret, he quitted Antwerp, on the night of the 25th of October, in a steamboat for Rotterdam, lighted by the flames from the burning houses, set fire to by the Dutch troops in their retreat from the pursuing Belgians. He now returned to Holland for the second time during six weeks, as pure as any public man who ever went through ordeals so severe and so unfortunate.

The Prince's departure from Antwerp immediately led to a state of total anarchy. On the 27th, matters came to a fearful crisis. The populace, having risen in arms on the previous day, at length obtained possession of two of the gates of the town and opened them to the patriot forces. These, flushed with success, easily drove the scattered detachments of the royal troops into the citadel. A truce, hastily concluded, was quickly violated by some desultory acts of warfare between the vedettes on either side; upon which General Chassé, the Dutch commander, commenced a bombardment of the defenceless city, assisted by the artillery of the Dutch flotilla, moored in the river Scheldt before the quay, and bringing to bear a combination of nearly one hundred pieces of cannon.

This was unquestionably one of the most important events of the Revolution. Had the Belgian volunteers not been checked in their triumphant career, they would certainly have crossed the frontiers and have overrun Holland altogether. But although the revolution was by this catastrophe paralyzed in its most important extremities, the vital principle of national

independence was untouched. And it was perhaps favorable for its preservation, that the inflated valor of the people, from which it apprehended its greatest risks, should have met this great, but not the most serious, check.

In the mean while, the Prince of Orange had returned to the Hague, under circumstances the most mortifying, unthought of amidst the rejoicing which the vindictive people indulged in, in honor of their avenger Chassé; and the heir to the throne took possession, almost by stealth, of the homely residence, that presented so humiliating a contrast to the splendid palace, which, by no fault of his, he had for ever lost at Brussels.

The stirring interest of the Belgian revolution expired amidst the embers of the conflagration of Antwerp. The social and political disruption was complete. Violence and the force of arms had done their work. To reorganize the materials of this moral chaos was the business of diplomacy; and under its tutelage the destinies of the country immediately passed.

Belgium having thrown off the yoke of Holland, had now to decide between two alternatives; a republic, leading to a junction with France and a general war; or a monarchy, independence, and negotiation. The latter of these was chosen ; and from the moment her decision was known, she became identified with the interests of Europe, as she had been already admitted to its sympathies.

The first great object of the Provisional Government was to put the country in harmony with the great powers; and then to proceed to the arrangement of several serious topics of domestic importance. Missions were despatched to Paris and London; but a great want of competent persons was evident from the first. The lucky accident of an acquaintance with the English language was allowed to stand in the stead of higher qualifications in the individuals chosen for the latter place. But the dearth of talent, and the lack of station, in the plebeian agitators, thrown to the surface by the late commotions, were, for a long time, serious obstacles to their

success.

On the 10th of November, the National Congress, which had been summoned some weeks previously, began its sittings; and its business commenced by an address from De Potter, who represented the Provisional Government. On the 18th,