possible for them to negociate a
separate peace, sent ambassadors to request the ruling faction at Paris
to grant such terms as their _known good faith and generosity_ should
dictate. The convention flattered the ambassadors with hopes of peace,
while at the same time they sent their orders to Pichegru to force his
way to Amsterdam. They depended on the disaffection of the people to
accelerate their advances, more than the most formidable inundations
could check them; in which opinion they were confirmed by frequent
invitations sent from the principal towns in every part of the United
States, with promises of a cordial reception. It is a notorious fact,
indeed, that the English who were defending them were considered by the
Dutch people in general to be their enemies, rather than the French who
invaded their country; and their antipathy to their defenders was seen
in the total inattention paid to their comforts. At this time, from the
increasing severity of the weather, sickness greatly prevailed in the
English camp; but scarcely any accommodations were prepared for the sick
in the hospitals, a scanty allowance of straw only being obtained for a
covering. It is said that hundreds were found dead on the banks of the
rivers and canals, and that a straggling Englishman, finally, at the
close of this campaign, became an object, not only of ill treatment, but
of frequent assassination.

THE INTERNAL CONDITION OF FRANCE.

It has been seen that the French had decreed that there was no God:
a day soon arrived which demonstrated, not only to France, but to
all Europe, that there is a God, and that He is "the Judge of all the
earth." Hitherto the Jacobins had been one and indivisible as regards
crime; but shortly after this display of madness, they split into two
contending parties. Danton, the cruel Danton, became sated with
blood, and wished to stop its effusion. But not so did his colleague
Robespierre; and, fearing his vengeance, Danton retired into the
country, and left his colleague to rule in cruelty alone. His vengeance
first fell upon the heads of Rousin, Vincent, Chaumette, the apostle
of reason, Hebert, the apostate archbishop of Paris, and Anacharisis
Clootz; these were arrested on a charge of conspiring to overturn
the government, and were hurried from the bar of the tribunal of the
Jacobins, Robespierre being at their head, to the scaffold. Then fell
Herault-d-Sechelles, the friend of Danton, who was guilloti