ls forth into five distinct schemes, is to be found
the cause for the Jacobin triumphs which shattered the First Coalition.

Austria and Prussia were equally puffed up with unreal hopes. At the
conference at Antwerp in the second week of April occurred the first of
the many blunders which helped to rally Frenchmen around the tricolour.
Coburg's promise, in a recent proclamation to Dumouriez and the French
nation, that the Allies would not make conquests at the expense of
France, was warmly disavowed at the first sitting. Accordingly, a few
days later, Coburg issued a second proclamation, announcing the end of
the armistice and omitting all reference to his disinterested views. The
change of tone speedily convinced the French people of the imminence of
schemes of partition. This it was, quite as much as Jacobin fanaticism,
which banded Frenchmen enthusiastically in the defence of the Republic.
Patriotism strengthened the enthusiasm for liberty, and nerved
twenty-five million Frenchmen with a resolve to fling back the
sacrilegious invaders.

About this time the French Government sent pacific proposals to London,
which met with no very encouraging reception, Pitt and Grenville
probably regarding them as a means of sowing discord among the Allies,
of worming out their plans, or of gaining time for the French
preparations. It is indeed difficult to believe that they had any other
object. After the defection of Dumouriez and his Staff, France was in a
desperate state, and her rulers naturally sought to gain a brief
respite. Grenville therefore replied that if France really desired to
end the war which she had forced upon England, definite proposals might
be sent to the British headquarters in the Netherlands.[223] None was
sent.

Meanwhile, the jealousies of the German Powers, the delay of Austria in
coming to terms with England, and the refusal of Coburg to define his
plan of campaign, paralysed the actions of the Allies and saved France.
As for the British force, it was too weak to act independently; and yet
the pride of George III forbade its fusion in Coburg's army.[224] By the
third week of April the Duke of York had with him 4,200 British
infantry, 2,300 horsemen, besides 13,000 Hanoverians (clamorous for more
pay), and 15,000 Dutch troops of poor quality and doubtful fidelity;
8,000 hired Hessians had not yet arrived.[225] Yet the King and his
Ministers persisted in hoping for the conquest of French Flanders. The
Wa