a severe defeat at Neerwinden; and, by a convention. of March 21, the French evacuated Brussels and fell back towards their own frontier. Dumouriez was intriguing with the Austrians, partly from a genuine disapproval of the Jacobin excesses, and partly because he foresaw that want of success in any campaign would lead to the guillotine, as was found by Custine and Houchard not long afterwards. He failed to carry over his troops, and was forced to take refuge with the Austrians. The French armies, still further discouraged and disorganised by his desertion, retired to Valenciennes, Lisle and Condé, within the French frontier. They also formed an entrenched camp at Famars, about three miles to the south of Valenciennes commanded by General Dampierre, who attempted an advance, but was driven back to his camp. The camp of Famars itself was stormed three weeks later by a combined British and German army; Valenciennes was taken; and it appears that only the jealousies and separate interests of the Allies prevented a march upon Paris.

The tide then turned again. Carnot, "the Organiser of Victory," became military member of the Committee in August 1793. In the same month the British, under the incapable Duke of York, sat down before Dunkirk, and narrowly escaped destruction when Houchard defeated the Hanoverian troops under Freitag at Hoondschoote on September 8. But Houchard failed in the decision which would have completed his success, and paid for the failure with his head. Jourdan, his successor, defeated the Austrians at Wattignies in October, and so compelled Coburg to raise the siege of Maubeuge. This marked the end of the Austrian advance. They retired into winter quarters across the Sambre, while the French armies were encamped for the winter on the Belgian frontier.

Such was the position of the armies in the North when Morritt travelled from Ostend to Dresden-in sixteen stages, as his diary shows. The chief places on his route were Ghent, Brussels, Tirlemont, Liége, Aix-la-Chapelle, Düsseldorf, Cassel, Erfurt, Leipzig. It will thus be seen that much of the country over which he travelled had been fought over in the previous year, as he describes in some of his letters. Later in the same year it was again overspread by French

1794]

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armies within ten or twelve weeks of Morritt's passage.

At Dresden Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, had his Court. He was grandson of Augustus III., King of Poland, and great-grandson of Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, and afterwards King of Poland, surnamed "The Strong," who formed the famous collection of art treasures which Morritt found at Dresden. Frederick Augustus abstained as much as possible from war against France, and only took up arms when he was called upon to furnish a contingent for the defence of the German Empire. After Jena he made peace with Napoleon, and received the title of King of Saxony in 1806, as a member of the Confederation of the Rhine.

DEAR MOTHER,

SITTING BOUrne,

February 27, 1794.

Though I did not trouble you with any descriptions of London and its environs (for, to say the truth, the subject has been so fully treated of by Master Jacky Curious in his letters to his mamma that I thought it needless), yet now I have begun my tour you may depend upon hearing regularly from me. However, to give some account of London, which the afore-mentioned writer has, I believe, omitted, you may tell Anne that Bond Street is as gay as usual, the dear Mount undeserted by any of its adherents, and Warren's Hotel frequented by all the beau-monde of the present day, amongst whom I first enumerate Mr. Bert Champneys, who, in his pretty way, desired his very best compliments.

Stockdale and I set off to-day at three o'clock on our journey after having amused our friends in Pall Mall with our mode of packing, and setting off for such a tour, not a little. Augusta and Elizabeth came in with Mrs. J. Stanley just before we set out, and send their love. We are now, after supper, or in reality dinner, at the inn at Sittingbourne, and I take the opportunity of his being in a comfortable nap to write to you and

tell you of our motions. We shall arrive at Dover to-morrow, and sail at twelve o'clock at night for Ostend, from which place you shall certainly have a note from me to say I am safe, though not a very long letter, unless I write it at Dover, as I did the last time I toured. We have got all sorts of letters, and have been presented to the Mussulman, so we are more determined on our Grecian tour than ever, especially as we have met with men who themselves have made it and who represent the dangers of it as entirely imaginary.

I was much obliged to you for the letters you got me, though, as we do not mean to stop before we arrive at Dresden, they will many of them be useless. I left all my papers and worldly concerns with Walton, so you will hear all that sort of thing from him. Perhaps you would hear he has for some days been extremely ill, though he was much better when I left

town.

I must tell you the character we go in to the Sublime Porte, as it will give you some idea of the understandings of the Faithful. The Ambassador asked Mr. Frederick North if we as Englishmen were not very well acquainted with the art of fortification, as he would give us letters to his own brother, the Grand Master of the Ordnance in Turkey, whom he hoped we should enrich with some very valuable secrets about European tactics. Mr. North represented us as great engineers, and says that they know so little of the matter that we may keep up our character with ease out of an old German almanac on fortified towns, so do not be surprised if you hear of General Stockdale and me fortifying the Dardanelles. We shall very soon, I hope, be equal to the Duke of Richmond in making batteries against buckram men, and ramparts with nothing to defend.' I believe the Duke of York sails at the same time we do to-morrow,

The third Duke of Richmond was Master-General of the Ordnance, 1782-95.