The powers of Europe and fall of Sebastopol

Front matter

©S III 1A8I®^«

A Panoramic View of the Seat of War around Sebastopol, includJng^anubian Provinces, Turkey, Asia Minor, ^\ m Russ i a and the Crimea, froma Surveyj ^order of Louis Napoleon, Emperor ofFrance.

1. Bukowina.

Preface

This work makes no pretensions to absolute originality being partially a compilation, with incidents in the life of the Author, who was an actor in many of the scenes narrated. He has striven to be judicious in selecting, from the most authentic sources, only that which would be interesting, at this crisis, to the general reader.

Some extracts are given entire; in other cases, long passages have been abridged and condensed.

Information from a vast variety of sources has, in many instances, been put together, and presented in a new and more graphic form.

Minute details, as far as practicable, have been avoided ; whilst the whole ground has been, more or less, completely surveyed. The Author has sought to make a popular volume, which might be read with pleasure, and be permanently serviceable as a book of reference.

The bloody sieges of Saragossa, Gerona, and Badajos, have been referred to more in detail to afford the opportunity of comparison with that of Sebastopol ; while the battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo have been described for comparison with those of Alma and Inkermann. The origin and progress of the present war are detailed. The biographies of the principal characters now engaged in the East will be found entertaining ; and the Author confidently hopes it may prove a volume of interest and permanent value.

H.F. G.

Contents

CHAPTER L •

Summary survey of Europe — Aristocracy of France — France previous tc the Revolution — Revolutionary Symptoms — The Great Powers, 1792-6 — William Pitt — Execution of Louis XVI. — The Allies against France — Siege of Toulon — Invasion of Holland — Napoleon — His early youth — Thirteenth Vendemiaire — The Campaign in Italy — Rapid victories oi Bonaparte — Expedition to Egypt — Return of Bonaparte — First Consu late — The passage of the Alps — Second Campaign in Italy — Napoleon Emperor — War with England — Alliance between the Great Powers, 1805 — Indecision of Prussia — Alexander visits the tomb of Frederick the Great — Battle of Austerlitz — Treaty of Tilsit — Secret understanding respecting Turkey — British orders in Council — Battle of Wagram — ■ Annexation of Finland — Campaign of Moscow — The Grand Alliance, 1813 — Battle of Leipsic — Allies enter Paris.

Chapter II

Origin of the War in the Peninsula. — Siege of Saragossa. — Murderous Character of the War. — Success of the French in Portugal. — Battle of Rolica. — Battle of Vimiero. — Convention of Cintra. — The French evacuate Portugal. — Preparations of Napoleon for another Campaign. — He subdues the Country, and enters Madrid. — Address to the Spanish People. — Napoleon recalled by the War with Austria. — Soult and Ney intnisted with the Command of the French Army in Spain. — Retreat of Sir John Moore. — Battle of Corunna. — Death of Sir John Moore. — The British Army sail for England, 50

Chapter III

Joseph Bonaparte again King of Spain. — Hi3 Difficulties with Soult. — Second Siege of Saragossa. — Another English Army, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, lands at Lisbon. — Battle of Ta^avera. — The English retire into Portugal. — Siege of Gerona. — Principal Events of the Campaign of 1810. — The English Troops make a Stand at Torres Vedras. — Retreat of Massena. — Siege of Cadiz. — Escape of French Prisoners. — Opening of the Campaign of 1811, 99

Chapter IV

The Author, with his Regiment, leaves Gibraltar, for Tarifa. — Dissensions between the Spanish and English Officers. — Battle of Barossa. — Retreat of the French. — Suffering of the Pursuing Army. — Guerillas. — Don Julian Sanchez. — Juan Martin Diaz. — Xavier Mina. — Continued Privations of the British Army. — Adventures of the Author in Search of Food. — Arrival of the Commissariat with Provisions. — Extravagant Joy of the Troops. — Departure of the British Army for Badajos, . 123

Chapter V

Badajos. — Its Capture by the French. — Attempts to retake it by the English. — "Wellington invests it in Person. — Assault upon Fort Christoval. — Storming of the Town. — Terrific Conflict. — The place sacked by the Victors. — Disgraceful Drunkenness and Debauchery of the Troops. — The Main Body of the Army depart for Beira, .... 160

Chapter VI

Brief Summary of Events for Four Tears preceding the Battle of Waterloo. — Author's Narrative resumed at that Period. — Preparation of Troops for the Battle. — Skirmishing preceding its Commencement. — Reception of the News at Brussels. — Departure of the English for the Field of Battle. — Disposition of the Forces. — Attack upon Hougomont. — Progress of the Battle. — Arrival of the Prussian Reinforcements. — Charge of the Old Guard. — Flight of the French 217

Chapter VII. Turkey And Russia

Origin of the Ottoman Empire — Siege and Capture of Constantinople by the Turks— Mahomet — The Sultans — Abdul Medjid—Kis, popularity and power — The Koran.

The Russian Empire — Area and population — Social organization — Religious policy — Nobility — Serfs — Conscription — The Army — Progress cf Russia and extension of her frontiers — Nicholas — Poland . . . 221

Chapter VIII. History Of The War

Arrival of Menschikoff at Constantinople — Demands of the Czar — The Sultan — Occupation of Moldavia and Wallaehia — Conference of Vienna — r Protest of the Porte — Turkish forces — Commencement of hostilities . 258

Chapter IX. Omer Pacha

Anecdote — His Birth — Reforms — Sultan Mahmud — Enlistment in the Turkish army — His application — Expeditions among the wild tribes — Appointed Generalissimo — Present high position — Domestic life — Marriage — Personal habits — Kossuth and Hungarian refugees — War on the Danube —Battle of Oltenitza 268

Chapter X. Schamyl, The Prophet-warrior Of The Caucasus

Caucasus — Character of the tribes — Circassian slave trade — Birth of Schamyl — Personal appearance — Form of government — His army and body-guard — Financial rule — Struggles with Russia — Personal habits — Legend — Circassian women in battle — Escape from the Russians . 283

Chapter XI

Town of Sinope — Osman Pacha — The Mussulmans — The Black Sea squadron — Exploit of Captain Drummond — Sebastopol harbor — Achmet Pacha — Citate — The Battle — Turkey, as a military power — Christian population — War in Asia — England and France — Declaration of War — Embarkation of Troops , . . 298

Chapter XII. Treaty Of Alliance

The Five Articles of the Treaty — "War on the Danube— General Luders — The Pestilence — Decree of the Czar — Governor of Moscow— Loss of the frigate Tiger — Captain Gifford — Black Sea fleet — Duke of Cambridge—, Arrival at Varna — Captain Hall — Admiral Plumridge — General Bodisc< — Silistria — The Siege— Mussa Pacha — Evacuation of the Principalities bj the Russians 309

Chapter XIII. Crimean Expedition

The Crimea — The Fleet — Appearance in the Bay of Baltjik — Sail from Varna — Land atEupatoria — March inland — Battle of Alma — Lord Raglan — Appearance of the Troops — Distance from Sebastapol — The morning of battle — Advance to the river Alma — Russian Position — The Zouaves — Storming the heights — March to Sebastopol — Death of Marshal St. Arnaud — General Canrobert 323

Chapter XIV. Siege Of Sebastopol

Bay of Balaklava — Landing of the Siege guns — Russian guns — Sebastopol — Its appearance — Military harbor — Fortifications — Vessels of war— The country around Sebastopol — Allies opening trenches — Message of the governor to Lord Raglan — Bombardment — Lancaster guns — Explosion in the French batteries — Russian powder magazine explodes — The Allied Fleet — The Cannonade — Riflemen — Battle of Balaklava — British and French Position — The Combat — The Turks — The Highlanders — The Russian Cavalry — Captain Nolan — Lord Cardigan 344

Chapter XV. Siege Of Sebastopol

Lord Raglan — His life — Battle of Inkerman — Morning of battle — Sons of Emperor Nicholas — The attack — Troops engaged — Fierce encounters — Sir George Cathcart — His death — Russian cruelty — French infantry — The Zouaves — Chasseurs — Russians retire — Renewed attack — Repulsed b} 7 the French — Defeat — Sorties — Night after battle — Treaty with Austria of 2d ' jj) ec . — Negotiations for peace — The four points — Landing of Omer Pacha

at Eupatoria — Death of the Emperor Nicholas — Alaxander II Fall of

Sebastopol. . . . ; • 372

Chapter XVI. Siege Op Sebastopol

Siege of Sebastopol continues — Sardinia joins the Western Alliance — Battle of Eupatoria — Sudden death of Emperor Nicholas — His love and pride for his Army — His last "Words — Alexander II. ascends the Throne — His 1vTa.-mfp.fitr> to his Subjects — A Sketch of him — Recall of Prince Menschikoff from command in the Crimea — His abilities and failings — His Successors — Gortschakoff's Military Career 175

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

Summary survey of Europe — Aristocracy of France — France previous to the Revolution — Revolutionary Symptoms — The Great Powers, 1792-6 — "William Pitt — Execution of Louis XVI. — The Allies against France — Siege of Toulon — Invasion of Holland — Xapoleon — His earl}- youth — Thirteenth YenJemiaire — The Campaign in Italy — Rapid victories of Bonaparte — Expedition to Egypt — Return of Bonaparte — First Consulate — The passage of the Alps — Second Campaign in Italy — Xapoh on Emperor — War with England — Alliance between the Great Powers, 1S05 — Indecision of Prussia — Alexander visits the tomb of Frederick the Great — Battle of Austerlitz — Treaty of Tilsit — Secret understanding respecting Turkey — British orders in Council — Battle of Wagram — Annexation of Finland — Campaign of Moscow — The Grand Alliance, 1813 — Battle of Leipsic — Allies enter Paris.

"The fate of the East depends upon yon petty town," was the exclamation of Bonaparte to Murat, as he pointed towards Acre, which even his military genius was unable to subdue. Repeated and desperate assaults proved that the consequence which he attached to the taking of it was as great as the words expressed. The imagination reverts from the position of the army of Egypt before that oriental city, arid rapidly traversing the events of succeeding history, runs down to the position of the army of the successor of Bonaparte, and of his English and Turkish allies, who, on nearly the precise parallel of longitude, are unitedly engaged in besieging one of the first strongholds of Europe.

In recounting some of the great events of the times

2 EUROPE AJSTD TEE ALLIES.

which have filled the world with their grandeur, and whose present and future place in history overshadows the preceding ages, a rapid resume, of the situation of Europe, just previous to and at the commencement of the great drama, may be useful, and serve to recall facts and events which may to the general reader have been known but forgotten.

One who stands amid the gardens and grounds of Versailles, and contemplates the enormous luxury and expenditure of its builder, while he recalls his vast wars, his policy, and his intrigues, can better understand the declaration of Louis XIY. to his assembled parliament. " The State ! I am the State!" And such an observer can also discover the truth of that statement, that it was that builder who laid the foundations of the French Revolution with the stones of Versailles. The keen sagacity of the polite Chesterfield could detect that approaching revolution a quarter of a century before it took place ; and his remarkable prediction shows how rapidly the signs of the gathering storm must have accumulated in the years succeeding the Augustan age of France. The energies of the nation had been devoted to the service and pleasure of the monarch ; they now began to be directed to their proper end, the examination of their own interests. From the theatre and the pulpit the genius of the French people hurried precipitately into morals and politics, a sudden revolution took place in the minds of all, and the conflict it produced lasted during a whole century.

The exclusive privileges of the aristocracy, who monopolised every official position, and who alone were eligible to rank in the army, choked the developement of the great

CONDITION OF FRANCE, 1787-8. 3

body of the people ; and while they consumed the revenues of the State they were in a great measure exempt from taxation. Cradled in the luxury of courts, the aristocracy were sunk in vice and effeminacy. And they looked upon the great body of the people as only a necessary appendage to a government in which they had neither right nor control.

In the most martial nation of Europe the private soldier could not, by the greatest daring or genius, elevate himself, because only the aristocracy could obtain rank. The effects of the opposite system were afterwards seen with Napoleon, who boasted that he conquered Europe with the bivouac ; with generals raised from the ranks.

The oppressions of the feudal tenure in France exceeded belief ; the people were even obliged to grind corn at the landlord's mill, press their grapes at his press, and bake their bread at his oven on his own terms.

The fermentation which had long been going on in the public mind; "the revolt against* eighteen centuries of oppression" began to develop itself rapidly. Yet the monopolizers of all the national rights continued to dispute for a worn out authority. The court, careless and tranquil in the midst of the struggle, were wasting the property of the people while surrounded by the most frightful disorders. When it was told to the effeminate and dissolute Louis XY. that the nation could not suffer much longer, he characteristically said, "Nevermind, if it last my time it is sufficient for me !" Such was the eighteenth century.

It was during the years 1787 and '88, that the French nation first conceived the idea of passing from theory to

EUROPE AXD THE ALLIES.

practice. The weak and vacillating Louis XVI., the least fitted of all men to guide the destinies of a nation in the throes of political convulsion, had successively tried ministry after ministry, and one expedient after the other ; yet the ship of state was swiftly approaching the vortex of the whirlpool in which it had entered.

" Upon what trivial events often depend the most important affairs. The mistake of a captain, who bore away instead of forcing his passage to the place of his destination, has prevented the face of the world from being totally changed," said Napoleon. " Acre," continued he, " would otherwise have fallen : I would have flown to Damascus and Aleppo ; and in the twinkling of an eye, would have been at the Euphrates. I would have reached Constantinople and the Indies, and would have changed the face of the world." It was thus in the assembly of the Notables, called by the intelligent, brilliant, and careless Calonne, then minister of state, that a member, complaining of the prodigality of the court, demanded a statement of the expenses. Another member, punning on the word, exclaimed, " It is not statements, but States General that we want." This single random expression struck every one with astonishment, and seized by the people was immediately acted upon ; the States General were called, and the public mind was filled with the wildest fermentation : France and Europe were to be immediately regenerated ; visionary schemes without number were formed ; and that general unhinging of opinions took place, which is the surest prelude of revolution. That revolu tion now came, and in its tumults and convulsions the Ancient French Monarchy rapidly approached its extinction.

DECLAEATION OF WAB, 1788-92. 5

Amid frightful disorders, famine appeared ; the elements seemed to partake of the savagery of the times ; and the severity of the tempests of summer which destroyed the harvests, was succeeded by a winter, 1TSS-9, of unparalleled rigor. Soon began that vast emigration of the nobility, which was afterwards succeeded by the attempted flight of the king ; while all authority but that of the Sans Culottes seemed abolished. Foreign affairs became daily more menacing ; the young Emperor, Francis II. of Austria, was gathering his armies, and soon demanded the reestablishment of the monarchy on its ancient footing. All classes in France now anxiously desired war; the aristocracy hoped to regain their lost privileges with the assistance of Germany ; the democracy hoped, amid the tumult of victorious campaigns, to establish their principles.

At length, on the 20th of April, 1792, oppressed with the solemnity and grandeur of the occasion, the declaration of war against Austria was received by the National Assembly of France in solemn silence. Thus commenced the greatest, the most bloody, and the most interesting war which has agitated mankind since the fall of the Roman Empire. Eising from feeble beginnings, it at length involved the world in its conflagration; rousing the passions of every class, it brought unheard of armies into the field ; and it was carried on with a degree of exasperation unknown in modern times. " A revolution in France," says Xapoleon, " is always followed, sooner or later, by a revolution in Europe." Situated in the centre of modern civilization, it has in every age communicated the impulse of its own changes to the adjoining states

D EUROPE AKT> THE ALLIES.

Thus, the great changes which had taken place in France had excited all Europe, and spread the utmost alarm in all her monarchies.

Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England were at that period, as now, the great powers of Em-ope, and they were the principal actors in the desperate struggle which ensued. They were in a situation capable of great exertion ; years of repose had fitted them, to enter upon a gigantic war. England, although she had lost one empire in the west, had gained another in the east ; and the wealth of India began to pour into her bosom. The public funds had risen from 57, at the close of the American War, to 99. Her army consisted of 32,000 men in the British Isles, be sides an equal force in the East and West Indies ; but these forces were rapidly augmented after the commencement of the war, and before 1796, the regular force amounted to 206,000 men, including 42,000 militia. Yet experience proves that Britain could never collect above 40,000 men upon any one point of the continent of Europe. But her real strength consisted in her great wealth, in the public spirit and energy of her people, and in a fleet of 150 ships of the line, which commanded the seas.

England, like other monarchies, had slumbered on contented and prosperous, and for the most part inglorious, during the eighteenth century. A great writer observed, that while America was doubling her population every twenty-five years, Europe was lumbering on with an increase, which would hardly arrive at the same result in five hundred ; and Gibbon lamented that the age of interesting incidents was past, and that the modern historian would never again have to record the moving events,

AUSTRIAN EMPIRE, 1792. 7

and dismal catastrophes of ancient story. Such were the anticipations of the greatest men on the verge of a period that was to usher in a new Caesar, and to be illustrated by an Austerlitz and a Trafalgar, a "Wellington and a Waterloo ; and the human race, mowed down by unparalleled wars, was to spring up again with an elasticity before unknown. William Pitt was the great Prime Minister of England at this time, and modern history cannot exhibit a statesman more fertile in resources, and whose expedients seemed as exhaustless as his great abilities. Fox and Burke, each distinguished by a high order of intellect, filled the British Parliament with their reasoning and eloquence.

The great Austrian empire contained at that time nearly 25,000,000 of inhabitants, with a revenue of 95,000,000 florins, and numbered the richest and most fertile districts of Europe among its provinces. The wealth of Flanders, the riches of Lombardy, and the valor of the Hungarians added to the strength of the Empire. Her armies had acquired immortal renown in the wars of Maria Theresa. At the commencement of the war, her force amounted to 240,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry, and 100,000 artillery. Her court, the most aristocratic in Europe, was strongly attached to old institutions, and the marriage of Maria Antoinette to Louis XYI. gave the Austrian court a family interest in the affairs which preceded and followed the French Revolution.

The military strength of Prussia, raised to the highest pitch by the genius of Frederic the Great, had rendered her one of the first powers of Europe ; her army of 165,- 000 strong was in the highest state of discipline and equip-

8 EUBOPE AND THE ALLIES.

ment, and by a system of organization the whole youth of the kingdom were compelled to serve a limited number of years in the army, so that she had within herself an inexhaustible reserve of men trained to arms. Her cavalry was the finest in Europe.

The majesty and power of Russia was beginning to fill the north with its greatness, and in her struggles and battles from the time of Peter the Great, through her wars with Sweden, with Frederic and with the Turks, she had constantly advanced with gigantic strides towards the Orient and the West. Her immense dominions comprehended nearly the half of Europe and Asia ; while she was secure from invasion by her position, and by the severity of her climate. The Empress Catharine, endowed with masculine energy and ambition, had waged a bloody war with Turkey, in which the zeal of a religious crusade was directed by motives of policy and desire for the acquisition of new territory which should pave the way for that future expected conquest of the whole of European Turkey, and which should give Russia the shores ot the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora as her southern boundary, and should make Constantinople, the seat of her commerce and her power over the Mediterranean and the East, the centre through which she might command the world. The infantry of Russia has long been celebrated for its invincible firmness, and the cavalry, though greatly inferior to its present state of discipline and equipment, was formidable. The artillery, now so splendid, was then only remarkable for its cumbrous carriages and the obstinate valor of its men. Inured to hardship from infancy, the Russian soldier is better able to bear

MILITARY STRENGTH OF RUSSIA, 1788-92. D

the fatigues of war than any in Europe ; he knows no duty so sacred as obedience to his officers. Submissive to his discipline as to his religion, no privation or fatigue makes him forget his obligations. The whole of the energies of the Empire are turned to the army. Commerce, the law, and civil employment are held in no esteem. Immense military schools, in different parts of the Empire, annually send forth the flower of the population to this dazzling career. Precedence depends entirely upon military rank, and the heirs of the greatest families are compelled to enter the army at the lowest grade. Promotion is open equally to all, and the greater part of the officers have risen from inferior stations of society.

The military strength of France, which was destined to oppose and triumph over these immense forces, consisted at the commencement of the struggle of 165,000 infantry, 35,000, cavalry and 10,000 artillery. But her troops had relaxed their discipline during the revolution, and her soldiers had been so accustomed to political discussion, that it had introduced a license unfavorable to discipline. At first they lacked steadiness and organization, but these defects were speedily remedied by the pressure of necessity, and by the talent which emerged from the lower classes of society.

Such was the state of the principal European powers at the commencement of the war. The celebrated 10th of August, 1792, came, and the throne was overturned, the royal family put in captivity, while the massacres of September drenched Paris with blood. The victories of Dumourier rolled back the tide off oreign invasion to the "Rhine. War was declared against Sardinia, 15th Sep-

1* tember, and Savoj and Nice were seized and united to the Frencli Republic.

"The die is thrown, we have rushed into the career; all governments are our enemies, all people are our friends ; we must be destroyed or they shall be free," exclaimed the orator of the convention. Geneva surrendered to the French without a blow, and > the Convention declared it would grant its assistance to all people who wished to recover their liberty. Flanders was overrun by the French in a fortnight, and they committed an aggression on the Dutch by opening the Scheldt, and by pursuing the fugitive Austrians into Dutch territorv.

While the tide of Austrian and Prussian invasion was rolled back to the Rhine, the great frontier city of Germany was wrested from Austria almost under the eyes of' the imperial armies; and although the campaign commenced only in August, under the greatest apparent disadvantage to the French, yet before the close of December all this had been accomplished. The execution of Louis XYI. on the 21st Jan., 1793, completed the destruction of the French monarchy, accelerated the Reign of Terror, and brought the accession of England to the league of the Allied Sovereigns y Chauvelin, the French Ambassador, received orders immediately to quit London ; and this was succeeded in a few days by a declaration of war, l"3t February, 1793, by France against England, Spain, and Holland. The audacity of the Convention, which thus threw down the gauntlet to nearly all of Europe, excited universal astonishment. The feeling of national honor, in all ages so powerful among the French, was awakened to its highest pitch. Every species of

CONGRESS OF THE ALLIES, 1793. 11

requisition was cheerfully furnished under the pressure of impending calamity ; and in the dread of foreign subjugation the loss of fortune and employment was forgotten only one path, that of honor, was open to the brave. The Jacobins, the ruling power in France, were no longer despised but feared by the European powers, and terror prompts more vigorous efforts than contempt. Ko sooner did the news of the execution of Louis reach St. Petersburg than the Empress Catharine took the most decisive measures, and all Frenchmen who did not renounce the principles of the revolution were ordered to quit her territory; the most intimate relations were established between the courts of London and St. Petersburg ; and a treaty between them, which laid the basis of the Grand Alliance, was signed, 25th March, in which they engaged to carry on the war against France, and not to lay down their arms without restitution of all the conquests which France had made from either of them, or such states and allies to whom the benefit of the treaty should extend. Treaties of the same nature were made w T ith Sardinia and Portugal, and thus all Europe was arrayed against France. A congress of the allies assembled at Antwerp, which came to the resolution of totally altering the objects of the war; and it was openly announced there that the object was to provide indemnities and securities for the allied powers by partitioning the frontier territories of France among the invading states. Soon after, when Valenciennes and Conde were taken, the Austrian flag, and not that of the Allies, was hoisted on the walls. The Prussians and Austrians, numbering 100,000, were on the Rhine early in the spring, and the King of Prussia crossed in

12 EUBOPE AND THE ALLIES.

great force. The French, army, inferior in numbers and discipline, retreated. Mentz capitulated to the Allies aftei a long and dreadful siege, and the French continued tc retreat in disorder. But the Allies wasted their splendid opportunity. The French retreated to their entrenched camp before Arras, after which there was no place capable of defence on the road to Paris. The Republican authorities took to flight, the utmost consternation prevailed, and a rapid advance of the Allies would have changed the history of Europe. But from this time dissension began among them; and from this period may be dated a series of disasters to them, which went on constantly increasing until the French arms were planted on the Kremlin, and all Europe, from Gibraltar to the North Cape: had yielded to their arms.

The mighty genius of Carnot, who, in the energetic language of Napoleon, " organized victory" soon appeared at the head of the military department of France. Austere in character, unbending in discipline, and of indefatigable energy, he resembled the great patriots of antiquity more that any other statesman of modern times, and in the midst of peril and disaster he infused his unparalleled vigor into his department, and France became one vast workshop of arms, resounding with the note of military preparation. The roads were covered with conscripts hastening to their destination ; and fourteen armies, and 1,200,000 men, were soon under arms. The siege of Dunkirk, undertaken by the English, was raised, and the Austrian and Prussian armies were driven back to the Rhine.

The siege of Toulon, whose inhabitants had revolted from the horrors of the Reign of Terror, was remarkable

REPUBLICAN ARMIES OF FRANCE, 1794. 13

for the horrible carnage with which it was accompanied, as well as for the appearance of a young officer of artillery, then chief of battalion, Napoleon Bonaparte. Its capture, which was owing to his genius, was accompanied by the destruction of nearly the whole French fleet in its harbor by the retreating English. At eight in the evening a fireship was towed into the harbor ; soon the flames arose in every quarter, and fifteen ships of the line and eight frigates were consumed. The volume of smoke which filled the sky, the flames which burst as it were out of the sea, the red light which illuminated the most distant mountains, and the awful explosions of the magazines formed, says Napoleon, "a grand and terrible spectacle." The arms of France, on the frontiers of Flanders and elsewhere, now began to be successful, while the dubious conduct or evident defection of Prussia paralysed all operations on the Rhine ; and before the close of 179-i the Republican armies, in a winter campaign, invaded Holland and subdued almost the whole of that rich country without a battle. Amsterdam, which had defied the whole powet of Louis XIV., was conquered ; these successes were fol lowed by others still more marvellous. On the same day on which General Dandels entered Amsterdam, the left wing of the army made themselves masters of Dordrecht, containing six hundred pieces of cannon, ten thousand muskets, and immense stores of ammunition. The same division passed through Rotterdam and took possession of the Hague, where the States General were assembled ; and to complete the wonders of the campaign, a body of cavalry and flying artillery crossed the Zuyder Zee on the ice, and summoned the fleet lying frozen up at the Texel j and the commander, confounded at the hardihood of the enterprise, surrendered his ships to this novel species of assailant ; and at the conclusion of the campaign, the Spaniards, defeated, were suing for peace. The Piedmontese were driven over the Alps ; the Allies had everywhere crossed the Rhine; Flanders and Holland were subjugated ; La Vendee pacificated ; and the English fled for refuge to Hanover ; 1,700,000 men had combated under the banners of France ; and peace was concluded soon after between France, Spain, and Prussia.