all back upon Neerwinden. This was on the
16th of March, and two days after Durnouriez moved to attack the Prince,
but received a signal defeat; 4,000 killed and wounded remained on the
field of battle, and ten thousand deserted, and scarcely paused in
their flight until they reached the other side of the French frontier.
Durnouriez attributed the origin of all his misfortunes to the Jacobin
Club of Paris, and to the Mountain, which at this time was preparing
to crush the Gironde. Half-crazed, he retreated towards Louvaine and
Brussels, and in his route he was met by Danton and Lacroix, who came
as commissioners from the convention to draw up a report on his conduct,
both civil and military. He was devoted to destruction by the Jacobins,
if they could get hold of him, for he had long ago offended Marat and
Camus, two of the prime leaders of that fraternity. Dumouriez knew this,
and the commissioners had scarcely left him, when he sent an officer of
his staff to the head-quarters of the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, to make
some arrangements relative to the wounded and prisoners. This officer
was referred to General Mack, who was considered to be a consummate
politician, and it was agreed that Mack and Durnouriez should meet
and confer together. When they met it was agreed that the Imperialists
should not again attack the French army in force; that Durnouriez should
be allowed to retire to Brussels; and that after the French should have
evacuated Brussels the two generals should have another interview.
All this was done, and at the future meeting, which took place at
Ath, Durnouriez, knowing that there was nothing for him but a
counter-revolution, or death, or flight, agreed with Mack to co-operate
with the Imperialists against the Republicans; to give up to them the
whole of Belgium; to march with his own army to Paris; and to call
in the aid of the Austrians, if he should not prove strong enough to
disperse the Jacobin rulers of France, and dictate the law at Paris. It
is supposed that Dumouriez intended setting the Duke of Chartres on
the throne of France, and that the Duke of Saxe-Cobourg assented to
his project, hoping that if a counter-revolution could be effected, the
young dauphin might be liberated from the Temple, and the regular
line of the monarchy restored in him. The project seemed the more
practicable, because the Prussians were preparing to invade France from
the Moselle; the Spaniards, against whom the conventio