to Furnes. If Houchard had followed up his
success he might have crushed York's army. He turned aside to attack the
Dutch quartered on the Lys and routed them at Menin. Le Quesnoy
surrendered to the Austrians on the 11th, and Coburg invested Maubeuge.
Jourdan, the new commander of the army of the north, and Carnot, who
accompanied him, attacked and defeated the Austrian covering army at
Wattignies on October 16, and forced Coburg to raise the siege. This was
practically the end of the campaign, which closed far more favourably
for France than it had begun.

On the German frontier political disunion was fatal to the success of
the allies. Frederick William believed that the emperor's refusal to
accept the partition treaty encouraged the Poles to resist his demands.
He left the army of the Rhine, and went off to Posen to establish his
rule in his new dominions, ordering Brunswick not to engage in any
operations which might prevent him from sending him such troops as he
might call for. Wurmser, the Austrian commander, drove the French from
their lines at Weissenburg on October 13, but the limited co-operation
of the Prussian army was not enough to secure any material progress, and
finally, on December 26, Hoche inflicted a severe defeat on the
Austrians at the Geisberg. Wurmser retreated across the Rhine, and the
Prussians were forced to abandon the greater part of the Palatinate, and
withdrew to Mainz. No French territory on the north or east remained in
the hands of the allies except Conde, Valenciennes and Le Quesnoy, while
on the Italian frontier forward movements of the Piedmontese had ended
in failure and the King of Sardinia was reduced to a merely defensive
attitude.

The republican armies were not less successful against domestic foes
than against foreign invasion. The loss of Mainz in July set free a
large force which was used to lay waste La Vendee. The Vendeans applied
for help to the emigrant princes and to England. Pitt, though he would
not encourage the hopes of the princes, was willing to support a
movement which was weakening the enemy and might forward the
establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Stores were sent to
Noirmoutier for the insurgents and further help was promised. Some
80,000 Vendeans, of both sexes and all ages, crossed the Loire, marched
through Anjou, and made an attempt on Granville, in the hope of gaining
a port at which they might receive succour from England. An expedition
was pre