urg was leisurely preparing to drive the
levies of Dumouriez from the district between Verviers and
Aix-la-Chapelle, the latter laid his plans for a dash into the almost
unprotected Dutch Netherlands, where he hoped to find precious spoils
and valuable munitions of war.[210] Breaking up therefore from Antwerp
on 16th February, the Republicans quickly advanced towards the estuary
known as the Hollandsdiep, while two other columns marched on Breda and
Bergen-op-Zoom. As Dumouriez had foreseen, the torpor of the
Stadholder's forces was as marked as the eagerness of the Dutch Patriots
to welcome the invaders. Breda fell on 26th February; but he failed to
cross the Hollandsdiep, for there the Sea Power intervened.

On 15th February Auckland begged that the Duke of York might be sent
over with a few battalions. The Ministry at once answered the appeal. On
20th February seven battalions of the British Guards were paraded at
Whitehall; the Duke of York announced that the first three would go to
Holland, and asked for volunteers from the other four. The whole line
stepped forward. Huddled on to small transports, the little force
reached the Dutch estuaries in time to thwart the efforts of Dumouriez.
Their arrival heartened the defenders of the Hollandsdiep, and held the
French at bay. Meanwhile Coburg had bestirred himself, and, marching on
Miranda's vanguard on the River Roer, threw it back in utter rout.
Dumouriez, falling back hastily to succour his lieutenant, encountered
the Austrian force at Neerwinden, where the unsteadiness of the
Republican levies enabled Coburg and his brilliant lieutenant, the
Archduke Charles, to win a decisive triumph (18th March). A great part
of the French levies melted away. The Belgians rose against the
retreating bands; and in a few days that land was lost to France. The
failure of Dumouriez to turn his army against the Convention, and his
flight to the Austrian outposts, need not be described here.[211]
Suffice it to say that the northern frontier of France lay open to
attack. An advance in force in the month of April or May might have
ended the war.

But, as we have seen, the Allies were too jealous and too distrustful to
act with the necessary vigour. Austria refused to recognize the Prussian
scheme for the Partition of Poland; and the North German Power
retaliated by withholding its contingent from the support of
Coburg.[212] That commander, finding himself duped by the Prussians,
pressed