t at the head of two brigades, six squadrons of his best
troops, four pieces of cannon, besides the artillery belonging to the
battalions, and ordered him to attack the place at the bayonet's point,
and recover the position at any sacrifice. Every hour the impatient
commander despatched aides-de-camp to Chazot to expedite his march and
bring him back information. Twenty-four hours passed away thus in doubt.
On the 14th Dumouriez heard the sound of firing on his left, and judged
by the noise, which receded, that the Imperialists were in retreat and
Chazot had gained the forest. In the evening a note from Chazot informed
him that he had forced the intrenchments of the Austrians, in spite of
their desperate defence; that eight hundred dead lay in the defile,
among whom was the Prince de Ligne.

Scarcely, however, had this note reached Dumouriez, whose mind had been
thereby set at ease, than Clerfayt, burning to avenge the death of the
Prince de Ligne and make a decisive attack on this rampart of the French
army, advanced all his columns into this defile, gained the heights,
rushed headlong down on Chazot's column in front and on both flanks,
took his cannon, and compelled Chazot himself to leave the forest for
the plain, cutting off his communication with the camp of Grandpre, and
driving him in full flight on the road to Vouziers. At the same moment
the corps of the emigres attacked General Dubouquet, in the defile of
the Chene-Populeux. Frenchman against Frenchman, their valor was equal:
the one side fighting to save, the other to reconquer, their country.
Dubouquet gave way and retreated upon Chalons. These two disasters came
upon Dumouriez at the same moment. Chazot and Dubouquet seemed to trace
out to him the road. The clamor of his whole army pointed out to him
Chalons as a refuge. Clerfayt, with twenty-five thousand men, was about
to cut off his communication with Chalons. The Duke of Brunswick, with
eighty thousand Prussians, enclosed him on the three other sides in the
camp of Grandpre. His detachments cut off reduced his army to fifteen
thousand men.

A retreat before an enemy, conquering in two partial encounters, was to
prostrate the fortune of France before the foreigner. The "audacity" of
Danton passed into the mind and tactics of Dumouriez. He conceived a
plan even more bold than that of Argonne, and closed his ear to the
timid counsels of art. He dictated to his aides-de-camp orders to the
following effect