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CHAPTER XXIII: Austrians

Dumouriez, at the head of the French army, had found it impossible to prevent the entrance of the duke of Brunswick into Champagne; but disease and famine arrested his progress, and he was compelled to abandon all his conquests. The Austrians were also obliged to retreat. Savoy was conquered by a republican force, and Germany invaded. The Austrians were signally defeated at Jemappe; and this was quickly followed by the reduction of Brussels, Liege, Namur, and of the whole of the Netherlands, which were declared free and independent states. In September 1793, the royal captive was led to the bar of the Convention, where, after undergoing a long and insulting examination, he was unanimously declared guilty of conspiring against the national liberty, and sentenced to die by the guillotine. He conducted himself with dignity, and heard the decision of his fate with firmness and resignation. Thus perished, in the 39th year of his age and the 19th of his reign, Louis XVI., the amiable and unfortunate descendant of a long line of kings. Soon after this judicial murder, a decree of the national Convention promised assistance to every nation desirous of throwing off the yoke of its rulers. This was naturally regarded as a virtual declaration of war against all the kings of Europe; and England, Holland, and Spain were now added to the list of its enemies. The war for a time assumed a new feature; a British army, commanded by the duke of York, reduced Valenciennes, and attacked Dunkirk; and the French lost their conquests as rapidly as they had acquired them. But before the close of the year 1793, the fortune of war was again in their favor; the duke of York was obliged to raise the siege of Dunkirk, with great loss; while the Austrians were driven within their own frontiers.

The horrors of civil war now raged in France with unmitigated fury. The ferocious Robespierre was at the head of the fiercest Jacobins; and Paris daily witnessed the execution of the most respectable of its citizens. Nearly all, indeed, who were remarkable either for rank, property, or talents, were the victims of the reign of terror; and among the number who fell by the axe of the guillotine was the unfortunate queen, Marie Antoinette, who had been for some time immured within the dungeon of the Conciergerie. The royalists in La Vendée dared to oppose the revolutionary decrees; but the cities which resisted the regicide authorities, particularly Lyons and Nantes, were visited with the most horrid persecutions. Hundreds of victims were daily shot or guillotined, and the whole country was laid waste with demoniac vengeance. In the meantime extraordinary measures were taken by the convention to increase the armies by levies en masse; and private property was arbitrarily seized to support them. The English took possession of Toulon, but were soon forced to abandon it to the troops of the Convention. It is worthy of remark, that on this occasion the talents of Napoleon Bonaparte were first signally distinguished; this young officer having the command of the artillery of the besiegers. The war in the Netherlands was carried on with vigor, victory and defeat alternately changing the position of the allied armies.

The progress of the French revolution was naturally watched with feelings of intense interest by the people of England, but with sentiments very opposite in their nature; and it required all the talents and vigor of those who were at the helm of state to uphold her ancient institutions, and direct the national councils with safety.

During the year of 1794 the French armies were pretty generally successful. But whilst they spread terror abroad, the French nation groaned under the sanguinary despotism of Robespierre and his ruthless associates. The time had at length, however, arrived when this monster was to pay the forfeit of his own wretched life for the outrages he had committed, and the unparalleled misery he had caused. Being publicly accused of treason and tyranny by Tallien, he was arrested, and executed the following day, along with twenty-two of his principal accomplices, amidst the merited maledictions of the spectators. In a few days, above seventy members of the commune also shared a similar fate.