nge
fled to England; the Duke of York retreated to Bremen, and there
embarked; and on the 28th the French were welcomed by the democracy of
Amsterdam. A body of cavalry rode up to the fleet on the ice, and
received its surrender. There was no cause left for it to defend.
Holland was to be the salvation of French credit. It gave France
trade, a fleet, a position from which to enter Germany on the
undefended side. The tables were turned against Pitt and his policy.
His Prussian ally made peace in April, giving up to France all Germany
as far as the Rhine, and undertaking to occupy Hanover, if George
III., as elector, refused to be neutral. Spain almost immediately
followed. Manuel Godoy, lately a guardsman, but Prime Minister and
Duke of Alcudia since November 1792, had declined Pitt's proposals for
an alliance as long as there were hopes of saving the life of Lewis by
the promise of neutrality. When those hopes came to an end, he
consented. The joint occupation of Toulon had not been amicable; and
when George III. was made King of Corsica, it was an injury to Spain
as a Mediterranean Power. The animosity against regicide France faded
away; the war was not popular, and the Duke of Alcudia became, amid
general rejoicing, Prince of the Peace.

We saw how the first invasion in 1792, brought the worst men to power.
In 1793, the Reign of Terror coincided exactly with the season of
public danger. Robespierre became the head of the government on the
very day when the bad news came from the fortresses, and he fell
immediately after the occupation of Brussels, July 11, 1794, exposed
the effects of Fleurus. We cannot dissociate these events, or disprove
the contention that the Reign of Terror was the salvation of France.
It is certain that the conscription of March 1793, under Girondin
auspices, scarcely yielded half the required amount, whilst the levies
of the following August, decreed and carried out by the Mountain,
inundated the country with soldiers, who were prepared by the
slaughter going on at home to face the slaughter at the front. This,
then, was the result which Conservative Europe obtained by its attack
on the Republic. The French had subjugated Savoy, the Rhineland,
Belgium, Holland, whilst Prussia and Spain had been made to sue for
peace. England had deprived France of her colonies, but had lost
repute as a military Power. Austria alone, with her dependent
neighbours, maintained the unequal struggle on the Continen