LETTERS OF MR. MORRITT OF ROKEBY CHAPTER I JOURNEY FROM OSTEND TO DRESDEN A FEW notes on the position of affairs in Europe when Morritt started on his travels, at the end of February 1794, may help to an understanding of some allusions in his letters. In France the destruction of the Girondists four months before had left the various Jacobin parties in power, and Robespierre was engaged in removing his rivals the extreme party of the Hebertists on the one side, and the less immoderate section headed by Danton on the other. The month of March, just as Morritt reached Dresden, saw the overthrow and execution of both Hebertists and Dantonists, leaving the supreme power for the time in the hands of Robespierre and his coadjutors, St. Just and Couthon, acting through the Committee of Public Safety. The Terror was at its height. The frontier warfare had surged backwards and forwards. More than a year earlier, in November 1792, Dumouriez's victory at Jemappes had opened all Belgium (still the Austrian Netherlands) to the French, who occupied Brussels and other Belgian towns through the winter; but with the spring campaign came reverses. The Prince of Coburg in March 1793 moved forward; the siege of Maestricht was raised; the French army was driven beyond the Meuse, routed near Liége, fell back on Tirlemont and then on Louvain. On March 18 Dumouriez suffered |