force besieging Charleroi. A decisive victory in front of
Charleroi would not only save that place, but would give pause to the
French forces further west, now advancing rapidly towards Ghent.
Accordingly Coburg, advancing as far as Fleurus, hard by the village of
Ligny, attacked the Republicans. He had on the whole the best of the
fight, when the arrival of news of the surrender of Charleroi led him
most tamely to call off his men and fall back. The retirement took place
in discreditably good order, not a single gun being lost (25th June
1794). A bold leader would have beaten the enemy and probably would have
saved Charleroi. With the same excess of prudence Coburg conducted his
retreat, several positions and strongholds being abandoned in craven
fashion.

Meanwhile Pitt and Dundas made great efforts to save West Flanders. In
haste they despatched reinforcements to Ostend; and among the regiments
which landed there on 25th and 26th June was the 33rd, commanded by
Colonel Wellesley. The future Duke of Wellington found the small
garrison of Ostend in a state of panic; and his chief, the Earl of
Moira, deemed it best to meet the French in the open. By great good
fortune Moira, with most of the regiments, reached Bruges, and beyond
that town came into touch with Clerfait's force. Wellesley, taking ship,
sailed round to Antwerp and reached that column by a safer route and
earlier than his chief. His action is characteristic of a judgement that
never erred, a will that never faltered. In this campaign, as he
afterwards said, he learnt how not to make war. But success not seldom
crowns the efforts of him who has the good sense to probe the causes of
failure. Certainly it rarely comes to British commanders save after very
chastening experiences; and Wellesley now took part in what was, for the
Austrians, a fore-ordained retreat. Despite the manly appeals of the
Duke of York, Coburg declined to make a stand on the fateful ridge of
Mount St. Jean; and the name of Waterloo appears in the tepid records of
1794 at the head of a plan for arranging the stages of the retreat (5th
July) which the nervousness of Coburg soon condemned to the limbo of
unfulfilled promises.[353] Is it surprising that, two days later, the
Duke of York declared to him that the British were "betrayed and sold to
the enemy"? Worse still, the garrisons of Valenciennes, Conde, Quesnoy,
and Landrecies, amounting to nearly 11,000 men, were now left to their
fate.