, and it was avowed that the war would
be carried on, that the financial needs of France might be supplied,
at the expense of the populations which the French arms delivered.
These things offended the political, if not the moral sense of
Dumouriez. He became alienated from the Convention; and as England
went to war on the death of the king, there was no consideration of
policy protecting Holland. The invasion was undertaken, and
immediately failed. The Austrians, under the duke of Coburg, who on
that day founded the great fortunes of his house, came back in force,
and gave battle at Neerwinden, close to the fields of Landen and of
Ramillies. Here, March 18, Clerfayt crushed Dumouriez's left wing, and
recovered the Belgic provinces as suddenly as he had lost them four
months earlier.

Dumouriez had already resolved to treat with the Imperialists for
common action against the Regicides. Five days after his defeat he
informed Coburg that, with his support, he would lead his army against
Paris, disperse the Convention, and establish a constitutional
monarchy without the _emigres_. He promised that the better part of
his force would follow him. The volunteers were Jacobinical; but the
regulars were jealous of the volunteers, and would obey their general.
As he felt his way, hostile officers watched him, and reported what
was going on in the camp of the new Wallenstein. Twice the Jacobins
attempted to avert the peril. They invited Dumouriez to Paris, that he
might place himself at their head and overpower the Girondin majority,
and they employed men to assassinate him. At last they sent the
minister of war, accompanied by four deputies, to arrest him. There
was to have been a fifth, but he did not arrive in time, and his
absence saved France. For Dumouriez seized the envoys of the
Convention, and handed them over to Coburg, to be hostages for the
life of the queen. The deputy who failed to appear was Carnot. After
that, Dumouriez was deserted by his men, and fled to the Austrian
camp. He survived for thirty years. He became one of the shrewdest
observers of Napoleon's career, and was the confidential correspondent
of Wellington on the art they understood so well. The future "king of
the French," who went over with him, remained true to his chief during
the strange vicissitudes of their lives; and at the Restoration he
asked that he should be made a marshal. "How could you think," was the
proud comment of Dumouriez, "that the