and of
General Clairfait; he having evinced, on several occasions, his
indifference to the common interests of the coalition, and even a
readiness to sacrifice that interest to the views of his own government.
When the quarrel was settled it was agreed that the campaign should be
opened with vigour on the French frontier; that the heads of the columns
should be again turned towards Paris; that the army of the King of
Prussia should move from the Rhine by the valley of the Moselle,
traverse Luxembourg, and join the allies on the Sambre, or co-operate
with them on their advance; and that England should send 10,000 men,
under Lord Moira, to the coast of Brittany, in order to assist the
Vendeans, and to advance with them from the west towards Paris. It was
hoped also that the Spaniards might advance from the Pyrenees, and that
the King of Sardinia might repossess himself of Savoy, and once more
open the road to Lyons.

His imperial majesty arrived at Brussels early in April; and after
reviewing the whole army on the heights above Cateau, it marched in
eight columns to invest Landrecies. As the allies were already in
possession, on the same frontier, of Valenciennes, Coude, and Quesnoy,
this place was not worth the trouble and time it cost to take it. The
fortress fell, after a short siege, into the hands of the Prince of Saxe
Cobourg; but while the allies were engaged here, Pichegru had penetrated
into West Flanders, where General Clairfait was stationed with a
division of the imperial army, and had captured Courtrai and Menin.
Jourdan, another republican general also, who was already stationed in
the country of Luxembourg, had, in the meantime, increased his army to
a prodigious extent; after which he fell upon the Austrian general
Beaulieu, who attempted to check his progress, and drove him from
his lines with great loss. After his conquest of Courtrai and Menin,
Pichegru wheeled round upon the Duke of York, who with about 30,000
men, English and Hanoverians, were stationed at Tournay; but here the
republican general was signally defeated. Yet, on the next day, Pichegru
attacked Clairfait, who was advancing to retake Courtrai, and compelled
him to retreat to Flanders. A few days after this Pichegru threw his
right wing under Kleber and Marceau, across the Sambre, to attack the
Austrian general Kaunitz; but he was defeated with the loss of 4.000
men.

These victories revived the spirits of the allies, and, without waitin