Menin on the 18th of August, where several severe contests took place,
and the post of Lincelles, lost by the Dutch, was recovered by a gallant
charge of the English guards, led on by General Sir John Lake. His royal
highness now laid siege to Dunkirk, where he was attacked by Houchard
and Jourdan, and from whence, after losing a great number of his forces,
he was compelled to make a precipitate retreat. This victory excited
great joy at Paris, and changed the aspect of the war from the German
Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Relieved from the immediate danger of
invasion, the convention had now time to mature its plans of conquest,
and to organise its numerous troops. Houchard, however, did not follow
up his success as a skilful general would have done. He neglected to
concentrate his forces and to attack the English, and after a series of
actions against detached corps and gaining a victory over the Dutch,
he was defeated at Courtray by General Beau-lieu, and driven behind
the Lys. His army sought shelter under the cannon of Lisle, but he
was exposed to the fury of the convention; he was accused by his own
officers, brought before the revolutionary tribunal, condemned, and
executed.

By this time the French had formed an overwhelming force on the Belgian
frontier. Had they made a series of single concentrated attacks on
the divided forces of the allies, they could scarcely have failed of
crushing them in detail. Instead of acting thus, however, a scattered
enemy was attacked by separate corps, and there was fighting from
Dunkirk to Maubeuge, and from Maubeuge to Luxembourg.

After the retreat of the Duke of York, the French attacked every post
on that long frontier line, but were everywhere repulsed. They were more
successful at Maubeuge. The Austrians, after the capture of Quesnoy,
laid siege to this place, but the French under General Jourdan, attacked
them in their trenches on the 15th of October, and after sustaining a
great loss, forced them to raise the siege. Nothing more of importance
was undertaken in Flanders, and both parties went into winter-quarters:
the Austrians at Bavay, and the French at Guice. Jourdan was removed
from the chief command, and it was conferred on Pichegru, who had
all the talent, energy, and enterprise which the situation of the
republicans demanded.

After the capture of Mayence, and after having gained some trifling
advantages in skirmishes on the Rhine, the King of Prussia, impati