ne in the allied camp spoke any more of the
shortest road to Paris; but they still held the places they had
conquered. Two months later, Hoche, who had distinguished himself at
Dunkirk, took the command in the Vosges, and stormed the lines of
Weissenburg at the scene of the first action in the war of 1870. By
the end of December the Prussians were shut up in Mayence, and Wurmser
had retired beyond the Rhine. By that time, too, La Vendee, and Lyons,
and Toulon had fallen. The campaign of 1794 was to be devoted to
foreign war.

During that autumn and winter, Carnot, somewhat unmindful of what went
on near him and heedless of the signatures he gave, was organising the
enormous force the requisition provided, and laying the plans that
were to give him so great a name in the history of his country. He
divided the troops into thirteen armies. They call them fourteen, I
believe, because there were _cadres_ for an army of reserve. Two were
required for the Spanish war, for the Pyrenees are impassable by
artillery except at the two ends, where narrow valleys lead from
France to Spain near San Sebastian, and by a strip of more open
country near the Mediterranean. What passed there did not influence
events; but it is well to know that the Spaniards under Ricardos
gained important advantages in 1794, and fought better than they ever
did in the field during their struggle with Napoleon. A third army was
placed on the Italian frontier, a fourth on the Rhine, and a fifth
against the allies in Flanders. Carnot increased the number because he
had no men who had proved their fitness for the direction of very
large forces. He meant that his armies should be everywhere
sufficient, but in Belgium they were to be overwhelming. That was the
point of danger, and there a great body of Austrians, Dutch, English,
and Hanoverians had been collected. The Emperor himself appeared
among them in May; and his brother, the Archduke Charles, was the best
officer in the allied camp.

At the end of April Coburg took Landrecies, the fourth of the line of
fortresses that had fallen. On May 18 the French were victorious at
Tourcoing, where the English suffered severely, and the Duke of York
sought safety in precipitate flight. There was even talk of a court
martial. The day was lost in consequence of the absence of the
Archduke, who suffered from fits like Julius Caesar, and is said to
have been lying unconscious many miles away. For a month longer the
all