d south of Warsaw the readiest means of indemnifying Austria for the
loss of her Belgic Provinces, which after the defeat of Wattignies
(October 1793) he probably expected and welcomed.

In this orientation of Hapsburg policy Thugut did but follow the impulse
first imparted by Hertzberg at Berlin. As we have seen, Frederick
William II entered on the French war in one of his chivalrous moods,
which passed away amidst the smoke of Valmy. The miseries of the retreat
Rhinewards, and the incursion of the French into the valley of the Main
taught him prudence, while the ease of his conquest of Great Poland
early in the year 1793 assured the victory of statecraft over chivalry.
Morton Eden reported from Berlin that, had the preparations for the
Valmy campaign equalled in thoroughness those for the invasion of
Poland, events must have gone very differently in Champagne. The
circumspection with which the Prussians conducted the siege of Mainz in
the summer of 1793, and the long delays of the autumn, have already been
noticed. The result of it was that at Christmastide of the year 1793
Pichegru and Hoche threw back Wurmser in disastrous rout, and compelled
Brunswick hurriedly to retire to the Rhine.

As always happens between discordant allies after defeats, Berlin and
Vienna indulged in a war of words, amidst which the Coalition would
probably have broken up but for the efforts of British diplomacy. The
Pitt Ministry had despatched to Berlin the ablest of British
diplomatists, Lord Malmesbury, with a view to strengthening the accord
between the three Powers; and the mingled charm and authority of his
presence did much to thwart the petty prejudices and intrigues prevalent
at that capital. He took Brussels and Frankfurt on his way to Berlin,
and his diary shows the listlessness or discontent which had infected
the officers of the British army. Many of them openly brought against
the Duke of York the most outrageous and unfounded charges, and it seems
that about fifty of them went on furlough to England, where they spread
those slanders and played into the hands of the Opposition.[339]
Malmesbury's converse with the Duke and others at Ath convinced him that
the commander-in-chief was striving manfully and generously against a
situation full of difficulty.

At Frankfurt, and again at Berlin, Malmesbury found signs that Frederick
William was ashamed at the ignominious issue of the campaign, and
professed a desire to take up the du