regiment of
Vexin, and then, in confused masses, took the road to Paris, proclaiming
everywhere Dumouriez's treason and demanding his head. Dumouriez was
alarmed lest these ruffians should come in contact with his army, for
such bands sowed sedition wherever they went.

General Stengel, after having ravaged the country between Argonne and
Sainte-Menehould, in order to cut off all supplies from the Prussians,
fell back beyond the Tourbe, and posted himself with the vanguard on the
hills of Lyron, opposite the heights of La Lune, where the Duke of
Brunswick was posted.

Dampierre's camp, separated from that of Dumouriez by the trenches and
shallows of the Auve, was assigned to Kellermann, but he passed beyond
this spot, and posted his entire army and baggage on the heights of
Valmy, in advance of Dampierre, on the left of that of Sainte-Menehould.
The line of Kellermann's encampment, nearer to the enemy, on its left,
touched on its right the line of Dumouriez, and thus formed with the
principal army an angle, against which the enemy could not send forth
its attacking columns without being at once overwhelmed by the French
artillery in both flanks. Dumouriez, perceiving in a moment that
Kellermann, who was too much involved and too much isolated on the
plateau of Valmy, might be turned by the Prussian masses, sent General
Chazot, at the head of eight battalions and eight squadrons, to post
them behind the heights of Gizaucourt, and be under Kellermann's orders.
He next desired General Stengel and Beurnonville to advance to the right
of Valmy with twenty-six battalions--his rapid _coup d'oeil_ assuring
him that this would be the Duke of Brunswick's point of attack.

This plan displayed at a glance the intelligence of the warrior and the
politician. Defiance was thus cast by forty-five thousand men to one
hundred ten thousand soldiers of the coalition.

The French army had its right flank and retreat covered by the Argonne,
which was impassable by the enemy, and defended by its ravines and
forests. The centre, bristling with batteries and natural obstacles, was
impregnable. The army faced the country toward Champagne, leaving behind
it the road clear to Chalons and Lorraine.

"The Prussians," argued Dumouriez, "will either fight or advance on
Paris. If the former, they will find the French army in an intrenched
camp as a field of battle. Obliged, in order to attack the centre, to
pass the Auve, the Tourbe, and the Bionn