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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32260-8.txt b/32260-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70f2f07 --- /dev/null +++ b/32260-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2935 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tourcoing, by Hilaire Belloc + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tourcoing + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: May 5, 2010 [EBook #32260] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +TOURCOING + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + TOURCOING + + + BY + HILAIRE BELLOC + + + MCMXII + STEPHEN SWIFT AND CO., LTD. + 16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN + LONDON + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART PAGE + + I. THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE 9 + + II. THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION 17 + + III. THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES 28 + + IV. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE 49 + + V. THE TERRAIN 57 + + VI. THE ACTION 67 + + + + +TOURCOING + + + + +PART I + +THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE + + +The Battle of Tourcoing is one of those actions upon which European +history in general is somewhat confused, and English history, in +particular, ignorant. + +That British troops formed part of those who suffered defeat, and that a +British commander, the Duke of York, was the chief figure in the reverse, +affords no explanation; for the almost exactly parallel case of +Fontenoy--in which another royal duke, also the son of the reigning King +of England, also very young, also an excellent general officer, and also +in command was defeated--is among the most familiar of actions in this +country. In both battles the posture of the British troops earned them as +great and as deserved a fame as they had acquired in victory; in both was +work done by the Guards in particular, which called forth the admiration +of the enemy. Yet Tourcoing remains unknown to the English general reader +of history, while Fontenoy is one of the few stock names of battles which +he can at once recall. + +The reason that British historians neglect this action is not, then, as +foreign and rival historians are too inclined to pretend, due to the fact +that among the forces that suffered disaster were present certain British +contingents. + +Again, as will be seen in the sequel, the overwhelming of the Duke of +York's forces at Tourcoing, by numbers so enormously superior to his own, +was not due to any tactical fault of his, though it is possible that the +faulty plan of the whole action may in some measure be ascribed to him. + +Now Tourcoing is a battle which Englishmen should know, both for its +importance in the military history of Europe, and for the not unworthy +demeanour which the British troops, though defeated, maintained upon its +field. + +The true reason that Tourcoing is so little known in this country is to be +discovered in that other historical fact attaching to the battle, which I +have mentioned. It occupied but a confused and an uncertain place in the +general history of Europe; though perhaps, were its military significance +fully understood, it would stand out in sharper relief. For though the +Battle of Tourcoing was not the beginning of any great military series, +nor the end of one; though no very striking immediate political +consequence followed upon it, yet it was Tourcoing which made Fleurus +possible, and it was Fleurus that opened the victorious advancing march of +the French which, looked at as a whole, proceeded triumphantly +thenceforward for nearly eighteen years and achieved the transformation of +European society. + +What, then, was the political circumstance under which this action was +fought? + +The French Revolution, by the novelty of its doctrines, by the fierceness +and rapidity of its action, and by that military character in it which was +instinctively divined upon the part of its opponents, challenged, shortly +after its inception, the armed interference of those ancient traditional +governments, external to and neighbouring upon French territory, which +felt themselves threatened by the rapid advance of democracy. + +With the steps that led from the first peril of conflict to its actual +outbreak, we are not concerned. That outbreak took place in April 1792, +almost exactly three years after the meeting of the first Revolutionary +Parliament in Versailles. + +The first stages of the war (which was conducted by Austria and Prussia +upon the one side, against the French forces upon the other) were +singularly slow. No general action was engaged in until the month of +September, and even then the struggle between the rival armies took the +form not so much of a pitched battle as of an inconclusive cannonade known +to history as that of VALMY. This inconclusive cannonade took place in the +heart of French territory during the march of the invaders upon Paris. +Disease, and the accident of weather, determined the retreat of the +invaders immediately afterwards. In the autumn of the year, the French +forces largely recruited by enthusiastic volunteer levies, but of low +military value, poured over the country then called the Austrian +Netherlands and now Belgium. But their success was shortlived. A mere +efflux of numbers could not hold against the trained and increasing +resistance of the Imperial soldiers. In the spring of 1793 the retreat +began, and through the summer of that year the military position of +Revolutionary France grew graver and graver. Internal rebellions of the +most serious character broke out over the whole territory of the Republic. +In Normandy, in the great town of Lyons, in Marseilles, and particularly +in the Western districts surrounding the mouth of the Loire, these +rebellions had each in turn their moment of success, while the great naval +station of Toulon opened its port to the enemy, and received the combined +English and Spanish Fleets. + +Coincidently with the enormous task of suppressing this widespread +domestic rebellion, the Revolutionary Government was compelled to meet the +now fully organised advance of its foreign enemies. It was at war no +longer with Austria and Prussia alone, but with England, with Holland, +with Spain as well, and the foreign powers not only thrust back the +incursion which the French had made beyond their frontiers, but proceeded +to attack and to capture, one after the other, that barrier of fortresses +in the north-east which guarded the advance on Paris. + +The succession of misfortune after misfortune befalling the French arms +was checked, and the tide turned by the victory won at Wattignies in +October 1793. After that victory the immediate peril of a successful +invasion, coupled with the capture of Paris, was dissipated. But it was +yet uncertain for many months which way the tide would turn--whether the +conflict would end in a sort of stale-mate by which the French should +indeed be left independent for the moment, but the armed governments of +Europe their enemies also left powerful to attack and in the end to ruin +them; or whether (as was actually the case) the French should ultimately +be able to take the offensive, to re-cross their frontiers, and to dictate +to their foes a triumphant peace. + +As I have said, the great action from which history must date the long +series of French triumphs, bears the name of Fleurus; but before Fleurus +there came that considerable success which made Fleurus possible, to which +history gives the name of TOURCOING (from the town standing in the midst +of the very large and uncertain area over which the struggle was +maintained), and which provides the subject of these pages. + +Fleurus was decided in June 1794. It was not a battle in which British +troops were concerned, and therefore can form no part of this series. +Tourcoing was decided in the preceding May, and though, I repeat, it +cannot be made the fixed and striking starting-point from which to date +the long years of the French advantages, yet it was, as it were, the seed +of those advantages, and it was Tourcoing, in its incomplete and +complicated success, which made possible all that was to follow. + +Tourcoing, then, must be regarded as an unexpected, not wholly conclusive, +but none the less fundamental phase in the development of political forces +which led to the establishment of the modern world. Its immediate result, +though not decisive, was appreciable. To use a metaphor, it was felt in +Paris, and to a less extent in London, Berlin, and in Vienna, that the +door against which the French were desperately pushing, though not fully +open, was thrust ajar. The defeat of a portion of the allied forces in +this general action, the inefficacy of the rest, the heartening which it +put into the French defence, and the moral effect of such trophies gained, +and such a rout inflicted, were of capital import to the whole story of +the war. + +This is the political aspect in which we must regard the Battle of +Tourcoing, but its chief interest by far lies in its purely military +aspect; in the indiscretion which so nearly led the French forces to +annihilation; in the plan which was laid to surround and to destroy those +forces by the convergence of the English, Prussian, and Austrian columns; +in the way in which that plan came to nothing, and resulted only in a +crushing disaster to one advanced portion of the forces so converging. + +Tourcoing is rather a battle for military than for civilian historians, +but those who find recreation in military problems upon their own account, +apart from their political connection, will always discover the accidents +of this engagement, its unexpected developments, and its final issue to be +of surpassing interest. + + + + +PART II + +THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION + + +In order to understand what happened at the Battle of Tourcoing, it is +first necessary to have in mind the general situation of the forces which +opposed each other round and about what is now the Franco-Belgian +frontier, in the spring of 1794. + +These forces were, of course, those of the French Republic upon the one +hand, upon the other the coalition with its varied troops furnished by +Austria, by Prussia, by England, and some few by sundry of the small +States which formed part of the general alliance for the destruction of +the new democracy. + +The whole campaign of 1794 stands apart from that of 1793. The intervening +winter was a period during which, if we disregard a number of small +actions in which the French took the offensive, nothing of moment was +done upon either side, and we must begin our study with the preparations, +originating in the month of February, for the active efforts which it was +proposed to attempt when the spring should break. + +In that month of February, Mack, recently promoted to the rank of +Major-General in the Austrian army, met the Duke of York, the young +soldier son of George III., in London, to concert the common plan. It was +upon the 12th of that month that this meeting took place. Mack brought the +news to the British Cabinet that the Emperor of Austria, his master, was +prepared to act as Commander-in-Chief of the allied army in the coming +campaign, proposed a general plan of advancing from the Belgian frontier +upon Paris after the capture of the frontier fortresses, and negotiated +for the largest possible British contingent. + +Coburg, it was arranged, should be the General in practical command (under +the nominal headship of the Emperor). Prussian troops, in excess of the +twenty thousand which Prussia owed as a member of the Empire, were +obtained upon the promise of a large subsidy from England and Holland, and +with the month of April some 120,000 men were holding the line from Treves +to the sea. This passed through and occupied Dinant, Bavai, Valenciennes, +St Amand, Denain, Tournai, Ypres, and Nieuport. To this number must be +added men in the garrisons, perhaps some 40,000 more. Of this long line +the strength lay in the centre. + +The central army, under the general command of Coburg, who had his +headquarters at Valenciennes, was, if we exclude men in garrisons, +somewhat over 65,000 in strength, or more than half the whole strength of +the long line. With Coburg in the central army was the Duke of York with +some 22,000, and the Prince of Orange with a rather smaller contingent of +Dutch. + +Over against this long line with its heavy central "knot" or bulk of men +under Coburg, in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes, the genius of Carnot +had mustered over 200,000 French troops, which, when we have deducted +various items for garrisons and other services, counted as effective more +than 150,000 but less than 160,000 men. This French line extended from the +sea to Maubeuge, passing through Dunquerque, Cassel, Lille, Cambrai, and +Bouchain. + +It was as a fact a little before the opening of April that the French +began the campaign by taking the offensive on a large scale upon the +29th of March. + + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE OPPOSING FRENCH AND ALLIED LINES. +APRIL 1794] + + +Pichegru, who was in command of that frontier army, attacked, with 30,000 +men, the positions of the allies near Le Cateau, well to the right or +south-east of their centre and his, and was beaten back. + +It was upon the 14th of April that the Emperor of Austria joined Coburg at +Valenciennes, held a review of his troops (including the British +contingent, which will be given later in detail), fixed his headquarters +in the French town of Le Cateau, and at once proceeded to the first +operation of the campaign, which was the siege of the stronghold of +Landrecies. The Dutch contingent of the allies drove in the French +outposts and carried the main French position in front of the town within +that week. By the 22nd of April the garrison of Landrecies was contained, +the beleaguering troops had encircled it, and the siege was begun. + +After certain actions (most of them partial, and one of peculiar +brilliance in the history of the British cavalry), actions each of +interest, and some upon a considerable scale, but serving only to confuse +the reader if they were here detailed, Landrecies fell after eight days' +siege, upon the 30th of April. An advance of the Austrian centre, after +this success, was naturally expected by the French. + +That normal development of the campaign did not take place on account of a +curious episode in the strategy of this moment to which I beg the reader +to give a peculiar attention. It is necessary to grasp exactly the nature +of that episode, for it determined all that was to follow. + +While the fate of Landrecies still hung in the balance, and before the +surrender of the town, Pichegru had, in another part of the long line, +scored one of those successes which in any game or struggle are worse than +losing a trick or suffering a defeat. It was one of those successes in +which one gets the better of one's opponent in one chance part of the +general contest, but so triumphs without a set plan, with no calculation +upon what should follow upon the achievement, and therefore with every +prospect of finding oneself in a worse posture after it than before. + +To take an analogy from chess: Pichegru's error, which I will presently +describe, might be compared to the action of a player who, taking a castle +of his opponent's with his queen, thereby leaves his king unguarded and +open to check-mate. + +Wherever men are opposed one to the other in lines, each line having the +mission to advance against the other, it is a fatal move to get what +footballers call "'fore side": to let a portion of your forces advance too +far from the general line held by the whole, and to have the advanced part +of that portion thus isolated from the support of its fellows. Such a +formation invites a concentration of your opponents against the isolated +body, and may lead to its destruction. + +It was precisely in this position that Pichegru placed a portion of his +forces by the ill-advised advance he made down the valley of the Lys to +Courtrai. + +Taking advantage of the way in which the main forces of the allies were +tied to the siege of Landrecies, the French commander wisely moved forward +the whole of his forces to the north and west, pushing the enemy back +before him to the line Ypres-Menin, and besieging Menin itself. But most +unwisely he not only permitted to advance, but himself directed and led, a +body of 30,000 men (the command of General Souham) far forward of this +general movement: he actually carried it on as far as the town of +Courtrai. + +The accompanying sketch map shows how much too far advanced this wedge +of men (so large a contingent to imperil by isolation!) was beyond the +general line, and, to repeat the phrase I have just used, a metaphor which +best expresses my meaning, Souham and his division, by Pichegru's direct +orders, had got "'fore side." + + +[Illustration] + + +The only excuse that can be pleaded for Pichegru's folly in this matter, +was the temptation presented by the weak garrison of Courtrai, and the +bait which a facile temporary success always holds out for a man who has +formed no consistent general plan. But that very excuse is the strongest +condemnation of the inexcusable error, and this strategical fault of +Pichegru's was soon paid for by the imperilling of all the great body of +French troops within that rashly projected triangle. + +For the moment Pichegru may have foolishly congratulated himself that he +had done something of military value, as he had certainly done something +striking. Menin fell to the French on the same day that Landrecies did to +the Austrians, and this further success doubtless tempted him to remain +with the head of his wedge at Courtrai, when every consideration of +strategy should have prompted him to retrace his steps and to recall the +over-advanced division back into line. + +This isolated position down the valley of the Lys, this wedge thrust out +in front of Lille, positively asked the allies to attack it. + +The enemy was a fortnight developing his plan, but his delay was equalled +by Pichegru's determination to hold the advanced post he had captured; and +when the allies did finally close in upon that advanced post, nothing but +a series of accidents, which we shall follow in detail when we come to the +story of the action, saved Souham from annihilation. And the destruction +of Souham's division, considering its numbers and its central position, +might have involved the whole French line in a general defeat. + +As I have said, it was at the end of April that this false success of +Pichegru's was achieved, and a whole fortnight was to elapse before the +allies concentrated to take advantage of that error, and to cut off +Souham's division. + +That fortnight was full of minor actions, not a few of them interesting to +the student of military history, and one again remarkable as a feat of +English horse. I deliberately omit all mention of these lest I should +confuse the reader and disturb his conception of the great battle that +was to follow. + +That battle proceeded upon a certain plan thought out in detail, perfectly +simple in character, and united in conception. It failed, as we shall see; +and by its failure turned what should have been the cutting-off and +destruction of Souham's command into a signal French victory. But before +we can understand the causes of its failure, we must grasp the plan itself +in its major lines, and with that object I shall discuss it in my next +section under the title of "The Plan of the Allies." + + + + +PART III + +THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES + + +If the reader will look at the map opposite he will see in what +disposition the armies of the allies were, at the end of April and the +first days of May 1794, to carry into effect the plan which I proceed to +describe. + +There, in its triangle or advanced wedge, with a base stretching across +Lille and an apex at Courtrai, lay the exposed French division, Souham's. + +Clerfayt was to the north of that wedge. The French, in pushing their +wedge up to Courtrai, had thus separated him from the rest of the allies. +Clerfayt lay with his command round about the district of Roulers; he +attempted to return and oust Souham, but he failed, and to the north of +the French wedge, and separated from the rest of the allies by its +intervening thousands, he remained up to, throughout, and after the great +battle that was to follow. + + +[Illustration] + + +Right away down south, nearly sixty miles as the crow flies, lay the bulk +of the Austrian army, Coburg's command, round the town which it had just +captured, Landrecies. The Duke of York's command, detached from this main +army of Coburg, had been ordered north, and was, by May 3rd, at Tournai. +To the east lay the Prussian forces together with a small body of +Hanoverians, about 4000 in number, which last could be brought up on to +the Scheldt River when necessary. + +It will thus be seen that the allies, at the moment when the plan was +about to be formulated, lay on either side of the French wedge, and that +any scheme for cutting off that wedge from the main French line must +consist in causing a great force of the allies to appear rapidly and +unexpectedly between Courtrai and Lille. + +In order to do this, it was necessary to get Clerfayt to march down south +to some point where he could cross the River Lys, while the rest of the +allies were marching north from their southern positions to join hands +with him. + +When this larger mass of the allies coming up from the south and the east +should have joined hands with Clerfayt, all the great French body lying +advanced in the valley of the Lys round Menin and Courtrai would be cut +off. + +Now the success of such a plan obviously depended upon two factors: +synchrony and surprise. That is, its success depended upon the accurate +keeping of a time-table, and upon carrying it out too quickly and +unexpectedly for Souham to fall back in time. + +Clerfayt's force coming down from the north, all the rest of the allies +coming up from the east and the south must march with the common object of +reaching "R," a fixed rendezvous, agreed upon beforehand, and of meeting +there together at some appointed time. If any considerable body lagged +behind the rest, if part of the great force marching up from the south, +for instance, failed to keep in line with the general advance, or if +Clerfayt bungled or delayed, the junction would be imperfect or might even +not take place at all, and the number of men present to cut off the French +when a partial and imperfect junction had been effected, might be too +small to maintain itself astraddle of the French communications, and to +prevent the great French force from breaking its way through back to +Lille. + +So much for synchrony: and as for surprise, it is obvious that for the +success of this plan it was necessary to work both rapidly and secretly. + +Here was Souham with a body of men which recent reinforcement had raised +to some 40,000, lying much too far ahead of the general French line and in +peril of being cut off. Pichegru was foolish to maintain him in that +advanced position, but, though that was an error, it was an error based +upon a certain amount of calculation. Pichegru, and Souham under his +orders, kept to their perilous position round Courtrai, because it did +after all cut the allies in two, and because they knew that they could +deal with Clerfayt's force upon the north (which was only half their own), +while they also knew that the bulk of their enemies were tied down, far +away to the south, by the operations round Landrecies. + +If Souham at Courtrai got news in time of the march northward of that main +southern force, he had only to fall back upon Lille to be saved. + +It was not until the 10th of May that the plan was elaborated whereby it +was hoped to annihilate Souham's command, and this plan seems to have +occurred first to the Duke of York upon the evening of that day, after a +successful minor action between his troops and the French just outside +Tournai. + +The Duke of York had been at Tournai a week, having come up there from +Landrecies after the fall of that fortress, though the mass of the +Austrian forces still remained away in the south. The week had been spent +in "feeling" the south-eastern front of the French advanced "wedge," and +it was by the evening of the 10th that the Duke of York appears to have +decided that the time was ripe for a general movement. + +At any rate, it was upon the morrow, the 11th, that the English Prince +sent word to Clerfayt that he intended to submit to the Emperor, who was +the ultimate authority upon the side of the allies, a plan for the general +and decisive action he desired to bring about. On the next day, the 12th, +a Monday, the Duke of York wrote to Clerfayt that he hoped, "on the day +after the morrow" (that is, upon the Wednesday, the 14th), "to take a +decisive movement against the enemy." And we may presume that the Duke had +communicated to the Emperor the nature of his plan. For on the 13th, the +Tuesday, the Emperor was in possession of it, and his orders, sent out +upon that day, set out the plan in detail.[1] That plan was as follows:-- + +Clerfayt, with his force, which was rather less than 20,000 all told, was +to march south from Thielt, his headquarters for the moment, and advance +upon the little town of Wervicq upon the River Lys. Here there was a +bridge, and Clerfayt was also in possession of pontoons wherewith to pass +the stream. Meanwhile, the southern mass of the allies was to concentrate +upon the Scheldt in the following manner: + +The few thousand Hanoverians, under Bussche, were to take up their +position at Warcoing, just upon and across that river. Two miles further +south, Otto, with a larger Austrian force accompanied by certain English +cavalry (the numbers will follow), was to concentrate at Bailleul. + +The Duke of York's own large force, which had been at Tournai for over a +week, was to go forward a little and concentrate at Templeuve. Five miles +to the south of Templeuve, at Froidmont, a column, somewhat larger than +the Duke of York's, under Kinsky, was to concentrate. + +There were thus to be concentrated upon the south of the French wedge +four separate bodies under orders to advance northward together. + +The first, under Bussche, was only about 4000 strong, the Hanoverians and +Prussians; the second, under Otto, from about 10,000 strong; the third, +under the Duke of York, of much the same strength, or a little less; and +the fourth, under Kinsky, some 11,000. + +These four numbered nearly, or quite, 35,000 men, less than the "nearly +40,000" at which certain French historians have estimated their strength. + +To these four columns (which I will beg the reader to remember by their +numbers of first, second, third, and fourth, as well as by the names of +their commanders, Bussche, Otto, York, and Kinsky) a fifth must be added, +the appreciation of whose movements and failure is the whole explanation +of the coming battle. + +The fifth column was a body of no less than 16,000 men coming from the +main Austrian body far south, and ordered to be at St Amand upon the +Scheldt somewhat before the concentration of the other four columns, and +to advance from St Amand to Pont-à-Marcq. Upon reaching Pont-à-Marcq this +fifth column would be in line with the other four at Warcoing, Bailleul, +Templeuve, and Froidmont, and ready to take its part in the great forward +movement towards the north. + +In order to appreciate the way in which the issue was bound to depend upon +this fifth column, I must now detail the orders given to all six, the five +columns in the valley of the Scheldt, and the sixth body, under Clerfayt, +north of the Lys; for it is these orders which constitute the soul of the +plan. + +Bussche, with his small body of 4000 Hanoverians, the first column, had +the task of "holding" the apex of the French wedge when the attack should +begin. That is, it was his task to do no more with his inferior forces +than send one portion up the road towards Courtrai, so that the advanced +French troops there should be engaged while another part of his small +command should attack the little town of Mouscron, which the French held, +of course, for it was within their wedge of occupation. It was obviously +not hoped that this little body could do more than keep the French +occupied, prevent their falling back towards Lille, and perhaps make them +believe that the main attack was coming from Bussche's men. + +The second column, under Otto, was to advance upon Tourcoing, in those +days a little town, now a great manufacturing city. + +The third column, that under the Duke of York, was to march side by side +with Otto's column, and to make for Mouveaux, a village upon a level with +Tourcoing upon this line of advance, and to be reached by marching through +Roubaix (now also a great manufacturing town, but then a small place). + +None of these advances, Bussche's, Otto's, or York's, was of any +considerable length. The longest march through which any of these three +columns had to fight its way was that of the Duke of York from Templeuve +to Mouveaux, and even this was not eight miles. + +The fourth column, under Kinsky, had a harder task and a longer march. It +was to carry Bouvines, which was in the hands of the French and nearly +seven miles from Froidmont (Kinsky's point of departure), and when it had +done this it was to turn to the north with one part of its force in order +to shelter the march of the Duke of York from attacks by the French troops +near Lille, while another part of its force was to join with the fifth +column and march up with it until both came upon a level with York and +Otto in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux. + +Now it was to this fifth column, the 16,000 men or more under the +Arch-Duke Charles, that the great work of the day was assigned. From +Pont-à-Marcq they must attack a great French body quite equal to their own +in numbers, even when part of Kinsky's force had joined them, which French +force lay in the camp at Sainghin. They must thrust this force back +towards Lille, pour up northward, and arrive in support of Otto and York +by the time these two commanders were respectively at Tourcoing and +Mouveaux. + +In other words, the fifth column, that of the Arch-Duke Charles, was asked +to make an advance of nearly fourteen miles, involving heavy fighting in +its first part, and yet to synchronise with columns who had to advance no +more than five miles or seven. + +Supposing all went well, Clerfayt--crossing the Lys at Wervicq at the same +hour which saw the departure of the five southern columns from Warcoing, +Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and Pont-à-Marcq respectively, was to +advance southward from the river towards Mouveaux and Tourcoing, a +distance of some seven miles, while the others were advancing on the same +points from the south. + +If the time-table were accurately kept and this great combined movement +all fitted in, Clerfayt would join hands with the second, third, fourth, +and fifth columns somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and +Mouveaux, a great force of over 60,000 men would lie between the French +troops at Lille and Souham's 40,000 in the "advanced wedge," and those +40,000 thus isolated were, in a military sense, destroyed. + +Such being the mechanism or map of the scheme, we must next inquire the +exact dates and hours upon which the working of the whole was planned. + +The Duke of York, as we have seen when he was arranging the business and +writing to Clerfayt and the Emperor, had talked of moving upon the 14th, +by which presumably he meant organising the attack on the 14th, and +setting the first columns in motion from their places of rendezvous in the +early hours of that day, Wednesday, before dawn. + +If that was in his mind, it shows him to have been a prompt and energetic +man, and to have had a full appreciation of the place which surprise +occupied in the chances of success. If, indeed, the Emperor got the Duke +of York's message in time on the 12th, if he had at once accepted the +plan, and had with Napoleonic rapidity ordered the bulk of his forces +(which were still right away south and east) to move, he might have had +them by forced marches upon and across the Scheldt, and ready to execute +the plan by the 14th, or at any rate by the morning of the 15th. + +But from what we know of the family to which the Duke of York belonged, it +is exceedingly improbable that this younger son of George III. had, on +this one occasion only, any lightning in his brain; and even if he did +appreciate more or less the importance of rapid action, the Emperor did +not appreciate it. He committed the two contradictory faults of delaying +the movement and of asking too much marching of his men, and it was not +until the morning of the Wednesday, May the 14th, that the bulk of the +Austrian army, which still lay in the Valenciennes and Landrecies +district, broke up for its northward march, to arrive at the rendezvous +beyond the Scheldt, and to carry out the plan.[2] + +It was not until Thursday the 15th of May that the Emperor joined the Duke +of York at Tournai, and very late upon the same day the Arch-Duke Charles +had brought up the main body of the Austrian forces from the south to the +town of St Amand. + +We shall see later what a grievous error it was to demand so violent an +effort from the men of the Arch-Duke Charles' command. From Landrecies +itself to St Amand is 30 miles as the crow flies; and though, of course, +the mass of the troops which the Arch-Duke Charles had been thus commanded +to bring up northward in such haste were most of them well on the right +side of Landrecies when the order to advance reached them, yet the +average march undertaken by his men in little more than twenty-four hours +was a full twenty miles, and some of his units must have covered nearer +thirty. I will not delay further on this point here; its full importance +will appear when we come to talk of the action itself. + +The Arch-Duke Charles being only as far as St Amand on the evening of +Thursday the 15th, and his rendezvous, that of the fifth column in the +great plan, being Pont-à-Marcq, a further good sixteen miles +north-westward, it was evident that the inception of that plan and the +simultaneous advance of all the five columns from their five +starting-points of Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and +Pont-à-Marcq, could not begin even upon the 16th. It would take the best +part of a day to bring the Arch-Duke Charles up to Pont-à-Marcq; his men +were in imperative need of rest during a full night at St Amand, and it is +probable, though I have no proof of it, that he had not even fully +concentrated there by the evening of the 15th, and that his last units +only joined him during the forenoon of the 16th. + +The whole of that day, therefore, the 16th, was consumed so far as the +first, second, third, and fourth columns were concerned, in merely +gathering and marshalling their forces, and occupying, before nightfall, +the points from which they were to depart simultaneously in the combined +advance of the morrow. They _had_ to wait thus for the dawn of the 17th, +because they had to allow time for the fifth column to come up. + +The time-table imposed upon the great plan by these delays is now +apparent. The moment when all the strings of the net were to be pulled +together round Souham was the space between midnight and dawn of Saturday +the 17th of May. And the hour when all the six bodies of the allies were +to join hands at "R" near Tourcoing was the noon of that day. + +Before day broke upon the 17th, Clerfayt was to find himself at Wervicq +upon the River Lys and across that stream, while of the five southern +columns the Arch-Duke Charles was to be attacking the French troops just +in front of Pont-à-Marcq with the fifth column at the same moment; Kinsky, +with the fourth, was to be well on the way from Froidmont to Bouvines +where he was to attack the French also and cross the bridge; the Duke of +York, with the third, was to be well on the way from Templeuve to Lannoy; +Otto, with the second, was to be equally advanced upon his line, somewhere +by Wattrelos in his march upon Tourcoing; while Bussche, with his small +first column, on the extreme north, was to be getting into contact with +the French posts south of Courtrai, which it was his duty to "hold," +impressing upon Souham the idea that a main attack might develop in that +quarter, and so deluding the French into maintaining their perilously +advanced stations until they were cut off from Lille by the rest of the +allies. + +The morning would be filled by the advance of Clerfayt from Wervicq +southward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing, while the corresponding fighting +advance northward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing also, of Otto, York, Kinsky, +and the Arch-Duke Charles, should result somewhere about noon in their +joining hands with Clerfayt and forming one great body: a body cutting off +Courtrai from Lille, and the 40,000 under Souham from their fellows in the +main French line. + +With such a time-table properly observed, the plan should have succeeded, +and between the noon and the evening of that Saturday, the great force +which Souham commanded should have been at the mercy of the allies. + + * * * * * + +Such was the plan and such the time-table upon which it was schemed. Its +success depended, of course, as I have said, upon an exact keeping of that +time-table, and also upon the net being drawn round Souham before he had +guessed what was happening. The second of these conditions, we shall see +when we come to speak of "The Preliminaries of the Action," was +successfully accomplished. The first was not; and its failure is the story +of the defeat suffered by the Duke of York in particular, and the +consequent break-down of the whole strategical conception of the allies. + + * * * * * + +But before dealing with this it is necessary to establish a disputed +point. + +I have spoken throughout of the plan as the Duke of York's. Because it +failed, and because the Duke of York was an English prince, historians in +this country have not only rejected this conclusion, but, as a rule, have +not even mentioned it. The plan has been represented as Mack's plan, as a +typical example of Austrian pedantry and folly, the Duke of York as the +victim of foolish foreigners who did not know their business, and it has +even been hinted that the Austrians desired defeat! With the latter +extravagant and even comic suggestion I will deal later in this study; for +the moment I am only concerned with the responsibility of the Duke of +York. + +It must, in the first place, be clearly understood that the failure of the +plan does not reflect upon the judgment of that commander. It failed +because Clerfayt was not up to time, and because too much had been asked +of the fifth column. The Duke came of a family not famous for genius; he +was exceedingly young, and whatever part he may have had in the framing of +this large conception ought surely to stand to his credit. + +It is true that Mack, the Austrian General, drafted details of the plan +immediately before it was carried into execution, and our principal +military historian in this country tells us how "on the 16th, Mack +prepared an elaborate plan which he designed."[3] + +Well, the 16th was the Friday. + +Now we know that on the 11th of May, the Sunday, the Emperor and his +staff had no intention of making a combined attack to cut off Souham from +Lille, for orders were given to Clerfayt on that day to engage Souham +along the valley of the Lys for the purpose of holding the attention of +the French, and in the hope of recovering Menin--the exact opposite of +what would have been ordered if a secret and unexpected attempt to cut off +Souham by crossing further up the river had been intended. It was at the +same moment that the Duke of York was sending word to Clerfayt on his own +account, to the effect that he intended to submit a plan to the Emperor, +and it is worth noting that in the very order which was sent to Clerfayt +by the Emperor he was told to refer to the Duke of York as to his future +movements. + +The archives of the Ministry of War at Vienna have it on record that the +Duke of York made a definite statement of a plan to Clerfayt, which plan +he intended to submit to the Emperor immediately, and a letter dated upon +the Monday, the 12th--four days before there is any talk of Mack's +arranging details,--York writes to Clerfayt telling him that he hopes to +make his decisive movement against the enemy on the Wednesday, the 14th. + +On the 13th, Tuesday, the orders of the Emperor to both Clerfayt and the +Duke of York (which are also on record) set down this plan in detail, +mentioning the point Wervicq at which Clerfayt was expected to cross the +river Lys, and at the same time directing the Duke of York to march +northward with the object of joining Clerfayt, and thus cutting off the +French forces massed round Courtrai from their base. Further, in this same +despatch, the initiative is particularly left to the Duke of York, and it +is once more from him that Clerfayt is to await decisions as to the moment +and details of the operation. + +The same archives record the Duke of York sending Lieut.-Colonel Calvert +to Clerfayt upon the 14th, to tell him that he meant to attack upon the +morrow, the 15th, and they further inform us that it was on the English +Prince's learning how scattered were Clerfayt's units, and how long it +would therefore take him to concentrate, that action was delayed by some +thirty-six hours. + +Evidence of this sort is absolutely conclusive. The plan was not Mack's; +it was York's. + + + + +PART IV + +THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE + + +Tourcoing is an action the preliminaries of which are easy to describe, +and need occupy little of our space, because it was a battle in which the +plan of one side was developed and prosecuted almost to its conclusion +without a corresponding plan upon the other side. + +As a rule, the preliminaries of a battle consist in the dispositions taken +by each side for hours or for days--sometimes for weeks--beforehand, in +order to be in a posture to receive or to attack the other side. These +preliminaries include manoeuvring for position, and sometimes in the +fighting of minor subsidiary actions before the main action takes place. + +Now, in the case of Tourcoing, there was none of this, for the French at +Tourcoing were surprised. + +The surprise was not complete, but it was sufficiently thorough to make +the whole of the fighting during the first day, Saturday (at least, the +whole of the fighting in the centre of the field), a triumph for the +allied advance. + +Let us first appreciate exactly how matters looked to Souham when, on the +15th, the Thursday, the blow was about to fall upon him. + +He had under his orders, with headquarters now at Courtrai, now at Menin +(see sketch map on p. 58), rather less than 40,000. In that dash upon +Courtrai a fortnight before, which had led to the dangerous establishment +of so large an advanced body in front of the main French line, one main +effect of that advance had been to push back, away to the left beyond the +Lys, more than 16,000, but less than 20,000 men under the Austrian +General, Clerfayt. With that army, Clerfayt's body, Souham had remained +continually in touch. Detachments of it were continually returning to the +valley of the Lys to harass his posts, and, in a word, Clerfayt's was the +only force of the enemy which Souham thought he had need to bear in mind. + +The bulk of the Austrian army he knew to be quite four days' march away to +the south, at first occupied in the siege of Landrecies, and later +stationed in the vicinity of that fortress. + +Of course, lying in his exposed position, Souham knew that a general +attack upon him from the south was one of the possibilities of the +situation, but it was not a thing which he thought could come +unexpectedly: at any rate he thought himself prepared, by the use of his +scouts and his spies, to hear of any such advance in ample time. + +In case he should be attacked, the attack might take one of many forms. It +might try to drive him over the Lys, where Clerfayt would be ready to meet +him; or it might be a general attack upon Courtrai as a centre; or it +might be (what had, as we have seen, been actually determined) an attempt +to cut him and all his 40,000 off from the main French line. + +This main French line ran through the town of Lille, and Lille not only +had its garrison, but also at Sainghin, outside the fortifications to the +south-east, a camp, under Bonnaud, of 20,000 men. If the attack from the +south or from the north, or from both, managed to cut Souham off from +Bonnaud's camp, and from the garrison at Lille, he was ruined, and his +40,000 were lost; but he hoped to be kept sufficiently informed of the +enemy's movements to fall back in time, should such an attempt be made, +and to provide for it by effecting a junction with Bonnaud before it was +delivered. + +Pichegru, the Commander of the whole French army of the north, who had +ordered the advance on Courtrai, happened to be absent upon a visit to the +posts away south upon the Sambre River. Souham was therefore temporarily +in full command of all the troops which were to be concerned in the coming +battle. But the position was only a temporary one, and that must account +for the deference he paid to the advice of the four generals subordinate +to him, and for the council which he called at Menin on the critical +Saturday night which decided the issue. He himself quotes his commission +in the following terms:--"Commander-in-Chief of all the troops from the +camp at Sainghin to Courtrai inclusive." + +From the beginning of the week, when a detachment of his troops had but +just recovered from a sharp action with the Duke of York's men towards +Tournai, Souham appreciated that the forces of the enemy were gradually +increasing to the south of him, and that the posts upon the Scheldt were +receiving additional enforcements of men. But neither his judgment nor the +reports that came in to him led him to believe that the mass of the +Austrian army was coming north to attack him. And in this he was right, +for, as we have seen, the Emperor did not make up his mind until Wednesday +the 14th, which was the day when orders were sent to the Arch-Duke Charles +to march northward. + +Souham's attitude of mind up to, say, the Thursday may be fairly described +in some such terms as follows:-- + +"I know that a concentration is going on in the valley of the Scheldt to +the south and east of me; it is pretty big, but not yet exactly dangerous, +though I shouldn't wonder if I were attacked in a few days from that +quarter. What I am much more certain of is that active and mobile force +which I beat off the other day, but which is still intact under the best +General opposed to me, Clerfayt. I hear that it is marching south again, +and my best troops and my offensive must be directed against that. I am +far superior in numbers to Clerfayt, and if I can bring him to an action +and break him, I can then turn to the others at my leisure: for the moment +I have only one front to think of--that on the north." + +But the negligence which he or his informants were guilty of--a negligence +that was to prove so nearly fatal to all those 40,000 French +troops--consisted in the failure to discover what was up upon Friday the +16th. + +During those twenty-four hours the Arch-Duke Charles had brought up his +column to St Amand; the other four columns upon the Scheldt were +concentrated, and upon the north of the Lys, Clerfayt had got orders to +move upon Wervicq, and was, during the middle hours of Friday, actually +upon the march. Yet, during all that day, Friday the 16th, Souham remained +ignorant of the extremity of his peril. + +The orders which he dictated upon the Friday night, and largely repeated +upon the following morning of Saturday the 17th of May, show how little he +expected the general action that was upon him. He arranged, indeed, for a +cordon of troops to be watching, in insufficient numbers, the side towards +the Scheldt, and he sent to Bonnaud and the camp at Sainghin, outside +Lille, orders to keep more or less in touch with that cordon. The +instructions to this cordon of troops along the eastern side of the French +position is no more than one of general vigilance. It is still to +Clerfayt and towards the north alone that he directs an offensive and +vigorous movement. + +In a word, he was a good twenty-four hours behind with his information. He +was wasting troops north of the Lys in looking for Clerfayt at a time when +that General was already on the march to Wervicq, and he was leaving a +scattered line of insufficient bodies to meet what he did not in the least +expect, the rapid advance of Bussche, Otto, and York during that Saturday +upon Mouscron, Tourcoing, and Roubaix. + +Therefore it was that although Bussche's insufficient force was driven out +of Mouscron at last by superior numbers, Otto and York succeeded in +sweeping all the resistance before them, and, in the course of that +Saturday, reached the first Tourcoing, the second Roubaix, and even +Mouveaux. + +The whole problem of warfare consists in a comparison between the +information that each side has of the movements of the other. The whole +art of success in war pivots upon the using of your enemy's ignorance. Had +the allies upon this occasion been more accurate in keeping to their +time-table, and somewhat more rapid in their movements, they would have +caught the French commander still under the illusion that there was no +danger, save from the north, and would have succeeded in cutting off and +destroying the main French force by getting in all together between +Courtrai and Lille. For at that same moment, the early hours before +daybreak of the 17th, the allies had begun their movement. + + + + +PART V + +THE TERRAIN + + +The terrain over which the plan of the allies was to be tested must next +be grasped if we are to understand the causes which led to its ultimate +failure. + +That terrain is most conveniently described as an oblong standing up +lengthways north and south, and corresponding to the sketch map overleaf. +That oblong has a base of twenty miles from east to west, a length from +north to south of thirty-five. + +These dimensions are sufficient to show upon what a scale the great plan +of the allies for cutting off Souham at Courtrai was designed. + +At its south-eastern corner the reader will perceive the town of St Amand, +the furthest point south from which the combined movements of the allies +began; while somewhat to the left of its top or northern edge, at the +point marked "A," the northern-most body connected with that plan, the +body commanded by Clerfayt, was posted at the origin of the movement. + + +[Illustration] + + +The object of the whole convergence from the Scheldt on one hand, and from +Clerfayt's northern position upon the other, being to cut off the French +forces which lay at and south of Courtrai from Lille, and the main line of +the French army, it is evident that the actual fighting and the chances of +success or disaster would take place within a smaller interior oblong, +which I have also marked upon the sketch map. This smaller or interior +oblong measures about sixteen miles at its base by about twenty-five miles +in length, and includes all the significant points of the action. + +The points marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively are the points at which +the five columns advancing from the Scheldt valley northward were to find +themselves before dawn on the morning of Saturday the 17th of May. We are +already acquainted with them. They are Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, +Froidmont, and Pont-à-Marcq respectively; while the point marked 6 is +Wervicq, from which Clerfayt was to start simultaneously with the five +southern columns with the object of meeting his fellows round Tourcoing. + +The town of Courtrai will be perceived to lie in the north-eastern angle +of this inner oblong, the town of Lille rather below the middle of its +western side. In all the country round Courtrai, and especially to the +south of it, within the triangle X Y Z, lay the mass of Souham's command +of 40,000 men. There were many posts, of course, scattered outside that +triangle, and connecting Courtrai with Lille; but the links were weak, and +the main force was where I have indicated it to be. + +A large body of French troops being encamped just under the walls of Lille +at B (by which letter I mark Sainghin camp), and that fortress also +possessing a garrison, the plan of cutting both these off from the 40,000 +French that lay in the country near Courtrai involved getting the main +part of the allies up from these points of departure on the south, and +Clerfayt's body down from its point of departure on the north to meet upon +the line drawn between Lille and Courtrai. Upon this line (which also +roughly corresponds to the only main road between the two cities) may be +perceived, lying nearer Lille than the centre of such line, the small town +of Tourcoing and the village of Mouveaux. It was upon these two points +that four of the five southern columns were to converge northward, the +second and third column reaching them first, the fourth and fifth marching +up from the left in aid; and it was also, of course, upon these two points +that Clerfayt was to march southward from the post at Wervicq, that had +been given _him_ as _his_ point of departure before dawn upon that +Saturday morning. If everything went perfectly, the great mass of the +allied army should have found itself, by noon of Saturday the 17th, as I +have said, astraddle of the Lille-Courtrai road, and effectively cutting +off the French troops to the north. + +What was the nature of the wide countryside over which these various +movements were to take place? + +It was part of that great plain of Flanders which stretches from the River +Scheldt almost unbroken to the Straits of Dover and the North Sea. In the +whole of the great oblong represented by my sketch map there is hardly a +point 150 feet above the water level of the main river valleys, while the +great mass of that territory is diversified by no more than very broad and +very shallow rolls of land, the crests of which are sometimes and +exceptionally as much as fifty feet above the troughs, but the greater +part thirty, twenty, or even less. Here and there an isolated hummock +shows upon the landscape, but the general impression of one who walks +across from the valley of the Lys to that of the Scheldt is of a flat, +monotonous land in which one retains no memory of ascent or descent, and +in which the eye but rarely perceives, and that only from specially chosen +points, any wide horizon. + +To-day the greater part of this country suffers from the curse of +industrialism and repeats--of course, with far less degradation--the +terrible aspect of our own manufacturing towns. Roubaix and Tourcoing in +particular are huge straggling agglomerations of cotton-spinners and their +hands. A mass of railways and tramways cut the countryside, and the evil +presence of coal-smoke mars it everywhere: at least within the region of +Lille, Tourcoing, and Roubaix. + +In May 1794, though a considerable industry had begun to grow up in Lille +itself, the wide, open countryside round the town was entirely +agricultural. Much of it was what soldiers call "blind" country: that is, +it was cut up into fields with numerous hedges; there were long farm walls +and a great number of small watercourses fringed with trees. But, on the +other hand, there was very little wood. Moreover, though there were few +places from which one could overlook any considerable view, the +"blindness" of the field, as a whole, has been much exaggerated in the +attempt to excuse or explain the disaster of which it was the theatre. The +southern part of it is open enough, and so is the north-eastern portion, +in which the first column operated. Of the soil no particular mention is +needed; most of the great roads were paved; the weather had created no +difficulty in the going, and the only trouble in this respect lay in the +northern part, where Clerfayt's command was condemned to advance over +patches of loose and difficult sand, which made the road, or rather rare +lanes, very heavy. + +It will at once be perceived that, in view of the operations planned, one +principal obstacle exists in the terrain, the River Lys. Few bridges +crossed this stream, and for the purpose of turning the French position +and coming across the Lys from the north to the neighbourhood of Mouveaux, +there was in those days no bridge save the bridge at Wervicq (at the point +marked 6 on the plan at the beginning of this section); but this +difficulty we have seen to be lessened by the presence in Clerfayt's +command of a section of pontoons. + +At first sight one might perceive no other considerable obstacle save the +Lys to the general movement of the allied army. But when the peculiar +course of the little River Marque is pointed out, and the nature of its +stream described, the reader will perceive that it exercised some little +effect upon the fortunes of the battle, and might have exercised a much +greater one to the advantage of the British troops had not the Duke of +York blundered in a fashion which will be later described. + +In the first place, it should be noted that this little stream (it is no +wider than a canal, will barely allow two barges to pass in its lower +course, and will not float one to the southward of Lille) turns up quite +close to Roubaix, and at the nearest point is not a mile from the +market-place of that town. + +Now the significance of such a conformation to the battlefield of +Tourcoing lay in the fact that it was impossible for any considerable +force to manoeuvre between the third column (which was marching upon +Roubaix) and the Marque River. Had the Marque not existed, Kinsky, with +the fourth column, would have been free to march parallel with York, just +as York marched parallel with Otto, while the Arch-Duke with his fifth +column, instead of having been given a rendezvous right down south at +Pont-à-Marcq (the point marked 5 on my sketch), would have gone up the +main road from St Amand to Lille, and have marched parallel with Kinsky, +just as Kinsky would have marched parallel with York. In other words, the +fourth and the fifth columns, instead of being ordered along the dotted +lines marked upon my sketch (the elbows in which lines correspond to the +crossing places of the Marque), would have proceeded along the +uninterrupted arrow lines which I have put by the side of them. + +The Marque made all the difference. It compelled the fifth column to take +its roundabout road, and the fourth, detained by the delay of the fifth, +was held, as we shall see in what follows, for a whole day at one of the +crossings of the river. + +The little stream has a deep and muddy bottom, and the fields upon its +banks are occasionally marshy. This feature has been exaggerated, as have +the other features I have mentioned, in order to explain or excuse the +defeat, but, at any rate, it prevented the use of crossing places other +than bridges. The Marque has no true fords, and there is no taking an +army across it, narrow as it is, save by the few bridges which then +existed. These bridges I have marked upon the sketch. + +So far as the terrain is concerned, then, what we have to consider is +country, flat, but containing low defensive positions, largely cut up, +especially between the Scheldt and Roubaix, by hedges and walls, though +more open elsewhere, and particularly open towards the north: a serious +obstacle to the advance of one body in the shape of the River Lys; and +another obstacle, irritating rather than formidable in character, but +sufficient both by its course and its marshy soil to complicate the +advance, namely, the little River Marque. + + * * * * * + +As to the weather, it was misty but fine. The nights in bivouac were +passed without too much discomfort, and the only physical condition which +oppressed portions of the allied army consisted in the error of its +commanders, and proceeded from fatigue. + + + + +PART VI + +THE ACTION + + +At about ten o'clock in the morning of Friday the 16th of May, Clerfayt, +in his positions right up north beyond the Lys--positions which lay at and +in front of the town of Thielt, with outposts well to the south and west +of that town,--received the orders of the Emperor. + +These orders were what we know them to be: he was to march southward and +westward and strike the Lys at Wervicq. He was to arrive at that point at +or before nightfall, for in the very first hours of the morrow, Saturday, +and coincidently with the beginning of the advance of the five columns +from their southern posts, he was to cross the Lys and to proceed to join +hands with those columns in the following forenoon, when the heads of them +would have reached the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux. + +Bussche, with the first column, his 4000 Hanoverians, had no task during +that day but to proceed the mile and a half which separated Warcoing from +the little village of St Leger, and, with the head of his column in that +village, prepare to pass the night and be ready to march forward long +before dawn the next day. + +Field-Marshal Otto, with the second column, was similarly and leisurely +occupied marshalling his 10,000 Austrians and his contingent of British +cavalry, so that the head of his column was at Bailleul ready also to +advance with the early, dark, small hours of the ensuing morning. + +The Duke of York, with his third column of similar numbers, or somewhat +less, was performing a precisely similar task, and ordering his men so +that the head of that column should reach Templeuve by evening and be +ready to march at the same moment as the others did, shortly after +midnight. + +All these three, then, were absolutely ready, fresh from fatigue and in +good order, upon that Friday evening at their appointed posts. + +It is here necessary, as we are chiefly concerned with the British forces, +to detail the composition of this third column which the Duke of York +commanded. + +It consisted of twelve battalions and ten squadrons, with a further +reserve of sixteen British squadrons under General Erskine, which cavalry +lay somewhat south of Templeuve, but ready to follow up the advance when +it should begin. It was made of two portions, about equal in numbers, +British and foreign. The foreign half was composed of four squadrons of +Austrian Hussars and seven battalions of infantry, two Hessian and five +Austrian. The British half was composed of a Brigade of Guards counting +four battalions, with portions of the 14th, 37th, and 53rd Foot, while the +British cavalry accompanying it (apart from the squadrons under Erskine) +were six squadrons drawn from the 7th, 15th, and 16th Light Dragoons. It +is to the credit of the young commander[4] that this third column was the +best organised, the most prompt, and, as the event proved, the most +successful during the advance and the most tenacious in the subsequent +defeat. + +The fourth column, under Kinsky, about 11,000 strong, was also ready on +that Friday, the 16th of May, concentrated at its point of departure, +Froidmont, and ready to move at the same moment as all the others, shortly +after midnight. But unlike the other three commanders upon his right, +Kinsky was unfortunately handicapped by the position of the fifth column, +that great body of 18,000 to 20,000 men, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +which lay at St Amand, which was to advance next day parallel with Kinsky +and upon his left, and which it was his duty to keep in touch with, and to +link up with the Duke of York's upon the other side. He was handicapped, I +say, by the situation of the fifth column, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +the heavy strain already imposed upon which, and the accumulating +difficulties it was about to encounter, largely determining the +unfortunate issue of the battle. + +Kinsky got news on that Friday from the Arch-Duke at St Amand that it was +hardly possible for his great body of men to reach the appointed post of +Pont-à-Marcq at the arranged hour of daybreak the next morning. I have +already suggested that this delay cannot only have been due to the very +long march which had been imposed upon the Arch-Duke's command when it had +been hurriedly summoned up from the south to St Amand, forty-eight hours +before. It must also have been due to the fact that not all its units +reached St Amand by the evening of Thursday the 15th. It seemed certain +that there must have been stragglers or bad delays on the morning of the +16th, for it was not until long after nightfall--indeed not until ten +o'clock in the evening--of Friday the 16th that the Arch-Duke was able to +set out from St Amand and take the Pont-à-Marcq road. This unfortunate +body, therefore, the fifth column, which had all the hardest work before +it, which had but one road by which to march (although it was double any +of the others in size), was compelled, after the terrible fatigue of the +preceding days, to push forward sixteen miles through the night in a vain +attempt to reach Pont-à-Marcq, not indeed by daybreak, for that was +obviously impossible, but as soon after as haste and anxiety could +command. Kinsky was tied to Froidmont and unable to move forward until +that fifth column upon his left was at least approaching its goal. For he +had Bonnaud's 20,000 Frenchmen at Sainghin right in front of him, and +further, if he had moved, his left flank would have been exposed, and, +what is more, he would have failed in his purpose, which was to link up +the Arch-Duke on one side with the Duke of York upon the other. + +This first mishap, then, must be carefully noted as one prime lack of +synchrony in the origins of the combined movement, and a first clear cause +of the misfortune that was to attend the whole affair. The delay of the +fifth column was the chief cause of the disaster. + +Meanwhile, another failure to synchronise, and that a most grave one, was +taking place miles away in the north with Clerfayt's command beyond the +Lys. + +It is self-evident that where one isolated and distant body is being asked +to co-operate with comrades who are in touch with the commander-in-chief, +and with each other, the exact observation of orders on the part of that +isolated body is of supreme importance to the success of the combination. +_They_, all lying in much the same region and able to receive and transmit +orders with rapidity, may correct an error before it has developed evil +consequences. But the isolated commander co-operating from a distance, and +receiving orders from headquarters only after a long delay, is under no +such advantage. Thus the tardiness of the fifth column was, as we have +seen, communicated to the fourth, and the third, second, and first, all in +one line, could or should have easily appreciated the general situation +along the Scheldt. But the sixth body, under Clerfayt, which formed the +keystone of the whole plan, and without whose exact co-operation that plan +must necessarily fail, enjoyed no such advantage, and, if it indulged in +the luxuries of delay or misdirection, could not have its errors corrected +in useful time. A despatch, to reach Clerfayt from headquarters and from +the five columns that were advancing northward from the valley of the +Scheldt, must make a circuit round eastward to the back of Courtrai, and +it was a matter of nearly half a day to convey information from the +Emperor or his neighbouring subordinates in the region of Tournai to this +sixth corps which lay north of the Lys. + +Now it so happened that Clerfayt, though a most able man, and one who had +proved himself a prompt and active general, woefully miscalculated the +time-table of his march and the difficulties before him. + +He got his orders, as I have said, at ten o'clock on the Friday morning. +Whether to give his men a meal, or for whatever other reason, he did not +break up until between one and two. He then began ploughing forward with +his sixteen thousand men and more, in two huge columns, through the sandy +country that forms the plain north of the River Lys. He ought to have +known the difficulty of rapid advance over such a terrain, but he does not +seem to have provided for it with any care, and when night fell, so far +from finding himself in possession of Wervicq and master of the crossing +of the river there, the heads of his columns had only reached the great +highway between Menin and Ypres, nearly three miles short of his goal. +Three miles may sound a short distance to the civilian reader, but if he +will consider the efforts of a great body of men and vehicles, pushing +forward through the late hours of an afternoon by wretched lanes full of +loose sand, and finding the darkness upon them with that distance still to +do, he would perceive the importance of the gap. If he further considers +that it was only the heads of the columns that had reached the high road +by dark, and that two great bodies of men were stretched out two miles and +more behind, and if he will add to all this the fact that fighting would +have to be done before Wervicq, three miles away, could be occupied, let +alone the river crossed, he will discover that Clerfayt had missed his +appointment not by three miles only in space, but by the equivalent of +half a day in time. + +Even so he should have pushed on and have found himself at least in +contact with the French posts before his advance was halted. He did not do +so. He passed the night in bivouac with the heads of his columns no +further south than the great high road. + +So much for Clerfayt. The Republic would have cut off his head. + +While Clerfayt was thus mishandling his distant and all-important +department of the combined scheme, the corresponding advance from the +valley of the Scheldt northward was proceeding in a manner which is best +appreciated by taking the five columns seriatim and in three groups: the +first group consisting of the first column (Bussche), the second group of +the second and third columns (Otto and York), the third group of the +fourth and fifth (Kinsky and the Arch-Duke). + + +I + +THE FIRST COLUMN UNDER BUSSCHE + +This column, as we have seen, consisted of only 4000 men, Hanoverians. Its +function and general plan was to give the French the impression that they +were being attacked by considerable forces at the very extremity of their +advanced wedge, and thus to "hold" them there while the great bulk of the +allies were really encircling them to the south and cutting them off from +Lille. + +When we bear this object in view, we shall see that Bussche with his +little force did not do so badly. His orders were to advance with +two-thirds of his men against Mouscron, a little place about five miles in +front of the village of St Leger where he was concentrated; the remaining +third going up the high road towards Courtrai. This last decision, namely, +to detach a third of his troops, has been severely criticised, especially +by English authorities, but the criticism is hardly just if we consider +what Bussche had been sent out to do. He was, of course, to take Mouscron +if he could and hold it, and if that had been the main object of the +orders given him, it would indeed have been folly to weaken his already +weak body by the detaching of a whole third of it four miles away upon the +high road to the eastward. But the capture of Mouscron was not the main +object set before Bussche. The main object was to "hold" the large French +forces in the Courtrai district and to give them the impression of a main +attack coming in that direction, and with _that_ object in view it was +very wise so to separate his force as to give Souham the idea that the +French northern extremity was being attacked in several places at once. + +With the early morning, then, of Saturday the 17th, Bussche sent rather +less than 1500 men up the high road towards Courtrai, and, with rather +more than 2500, marched boldly up against Mouscron, where, considering the +immensely superior forces that the French could bring against him, it is +not surprising that he was badly hammered. Indeed, but for the fact that +the French were unprepared (as we saw in the section "The Preliminaries of +the Battle"), he could not have done as much as he did, which was, at the +first onslaught, to rush Mouscron and to hold it in the forenoon of that +day. But the French, thoroughly alarmed by the event (which was precisely +what the plan of the allies intended they should be), easily brought up +overwhelming reinforcements, and Bussche's little force was driven out of +the town. It was not only driven out of the town, it was pressed hard down +the road as far as Dottignies within a mile or two of the place from which +it had started; but there it rallied and stood, and for the rest of the +day kept the French engaged without further misfortune. A student of the +whole action, careful to keep its proportions in mind and not to +exaggerate a single instance, will not regard Bussche's gallant attempt +and failure before Mouscron as any part of the general breakdown. On the +contrary, the stand which his little force made against far superior +numbers, and the active cannonade which he kept up upon this extreme edge +of the French front, would have been one of the major conditions +determining the success of the allies if their enormously larger forces in +other parts of the field had all of them kept their time-table and done +what was expected of them. + + +II + +THE SECOND AND THIRD COLUMNS UNDER OTTO AND THE DUKE OF YORK + +On turning to the second group (the second column under Otto and the third +under York), we discover a record of continuous success throughout the +whole of that day, Saturday the 17th of May, which deserved a better fate +than befell them upon the morrow. + +(A) THE SECOND COLUMN UNDER OTTO + +The second column under Otto, consisting of twelve battalions and ten +squadrons, certain of the latter being English horse, and the whole +command numbering some 10,000 men, advanced with the early morning of that +same Saturday the 17th simultaneously with Bussche from Bailleul to Leers. +It drove the French outposts in, carried Leers, and advanced further to +Wattrelos. It carried Wattrelos. + +It continued its successful march another three miles, still pressing in +and thrusting off to its right the French soldiers of Compere's command, +until it came to what was then the little market-town of Tourcoing. It +carried Tourcoing and held it. This uninterrupted series of successes had +brought Otto's troops forward by some eight miles from their +starting-point, and had filled the whole morning, and Otto stood during +the afternoon in possession of this advanced point, right on the line +between Courtrai and Lille, and having fully accomplished the object which +his superiors had set him. + +From the somewhat higher roll of land which his cavalry could reach, and +from which they could observe the valley of the Lys four miles beyond, +they must have strained their eyes to catch some hint of Clerfayt's +troops, upon whose presence across the river on their side they had so +confidently calculated, and which, had Clerfayt kept to his time-table and +crossed the Lys at dawn, would now have been in the close neighbourhood of +Tourcoing and in junction with this successful second column. + +But there was no sign of any such welcome sight. The dull rolling plain, +with its occasional low crests falling towards the river, betrayed the +presence of troops in more than one position to the north and west. But +those troops were not moving: they were holding positions, or, if moving, +were obviously doing so with the object of contesting the passage of the +river. They were French troops, not Austrian, that thus showed distinctly +in rare and insufficient numbers along the southern bank of the Lys, and +indeed, as we know, Clerfayt, during the whole of that afternoon of the +17th, was painfully bringing up his delayed pontoons, and was, until it +was far advanced, upon the wrong side of the river. + +Otto maintained his position, hoped against hope that Clerfayt might yet +force his way through before nightfall, and was still master of Tourcoing +and the surrounding fields when darkness came. + +(B) THE THIRD COLUMN UNDER YORK + +Meanwhile York, with his 10,000 half British and half Austro-Hessian, had +marched with similar success but against greater obstacles parallel with +Otto, and to his left, and had successively taken every point in his +advance until he also had reached the goal which had been set before him. + +Details of that fine piece of work deserve full mention. + +Delayed somewhat by a mist in the dark hours before dawn, York's command +had marched north-westward up the road from Templeuve, where now runs the +little tramway reaching the Belgian frontier. + +The French troops in front of him, as much as those who had met Otto a +mile or two off to the right, and Bussche still further off at Mouscron, +were taken aback by the suddenness and the strength of the unexpected +blow. They stood at Lannoy. York cannonaded that position, sent certain of +the British Light Dragoons round to the left to turn it, and attacked it +in front with the Brigade of Guards. The enemy did not stand, and the +British forces poured through Lannoy and held it just as Otto in those +same hours was pouring into and holding Leers and Wattrelos. Beyond +Lannoy, a matter of two miles or so, and still on that same road, was the +small town, now swollen to a great industrial city, called Roubaix. The +Duke of York left a couple of battalions of his allied troops (Hessians) +to hold Lannoy, and with the rest of the column pursued his march. + +Roubaix offered far more serious resistance than Lannoy had done. The +element of surprise was, of course, no longer present. The French forces +were concentrating. The peril they were in of being cut off was by this +time thoroughly seized at their headquarters, and the roll of land +immediately before Roubaix was entrenched and held by a sufficient force +well gunned. A strong resistance was offered to the British advance, but +once more the Brigade of Guards broke down that resistance and the place +was taken with the bayonet. + +York's next objective, and the goal to which his advance had been ordered, +was Mouveaux. Mouveaux is a village standing upon a somewhat higher roll +of land rather more than two miles from the centre of Roubaix, in +continuation of the direction which York's advance had hitherto pursued. +From Mouveaux the eye could overlook the plain reaching to the Lys and to +Wervicq, some seven odd miles away, a plain broken by one or two slight +hummocks of which the least inconspicuous holds the village of Linselles. +Mouveaux was the point to which Clerfayt was expected to advance from his +side. It was on a level with Tourcoing, and lay, as Tourcoing did, +precisely upon the line between Courtrai and Lille. To reach Mouveaux, +therefore, and not to be content with the capture of Roubaix, was +consistent with and necessary to the general plan of the allies. Moreover, +as Otto with the second column had taken Tourcoing, it was necessary that +the third column should proceed to Mouveaux, unless Otto's left or +southern flank was to remain exposed and in peril. One may say, in +general, that until Mouveaux was occupied the chance of joining hands with +Clerfayt (supposing that General to have kept to his time-table and to be +across the Lys and marching up to meet the columns from the Scheldt) was +in peril. Therefore, until one has learnt what was happening to the fourth +and the fifth columns, it is difficult to understand why the Duke of York, +after the difficult capture of Roubaix, desired to make that point the +utmost limit of his advance and for the moment to proceed no further. +Without anticipating the story of the fourth and fifth columns, it is +enough to say that the Duke of York's desire not to advance beyond Roubaix +was sufficiently excused by the aspect of the country to the west and +south upon his left. + +Roubaix overlooks from a slight elevation the valley of the Marque. Lest +the word "valley" be misleading, let me hasten to add that that stream +here flows at the bottom of a very slight and very broad depression. But, +at any rate, from Roubaix one overlooks that depression for some miles; +one sees five miles distant the fortifications of Lille, and the +intervening country is open enough to betray the presence of troops. +Indeed, once Roubaix was captured, the English commander could see across +those fields, a couple of hours' march away, the tents of the great French +camp at Sainghin under the walls of the fortress. + +Now, along that river valley and across those fields there should have +been apparent in those mid hours of the day, when the Guards had stormed +Roubaix, the great host of the fourth and fifth columns coming up in +support of the second and third. + +If the time-table had been observed, the Arch-Duke and Kinsky, over 25,000 +men, should have been across the Marque before dawn, should have pushed +back the French forces outside Lille, and should, long before noon, have +been covering those fields between Roubaix and Lille with their advancing +squadrons and battalions. There was no sign of them. If, or when, the +French body near Lille were free to advance and attack the Duke of York's +left flank, there was no one between to prevent their doing so. That great +body of the third and fourth columns, more than half of all the men who +were advancing from the Scheldt to meet Clerfayt, had failed to come up to +time. That was why the Duke of York desired to push no further than +Roubaix, and even to leave only an advance guard to hold that place while +he withdrew the bulk of his command to Lannoy. + +But his decision was overruled. The Emperor and his staff, who, following +up the march of this third column, were now at Templeuve, thought it +imperative that Mouveaux should be held. Only thus, in their judgment, +could the junction with Clerfayt (who, though late, must surely be now +near at hand) be accomplished. And certainly, unless Mouveaux were held, +Otto could not hold his advanced position at Tourcoing. The order was +therefore sent to York to take Mouveaux. In the disastrous issue that +order has naturally come in for sharp blame; but it must be remembered +that much of the plan was already successfully accomplished, that Clerfayt +was thought to be across the Lys, and that if the French around Courtrai, +and hitherward from Courtrai to Tourcoing, were to be cut off, it was +imperative to effect the junction with Clerfayt without delay. Had +Clerfayt been, as he should have been at that hour in the afternoon of +Saturday the 17th, between the Lys and the line Mouveaux-Tourcoing, the +order given by the Austrian staff to the Duke of York would not only have +been approved by the military opinion of posterity, but any other order +would have been thought a proof of indecision and bad judgment. + +Upon receiving this order to take Mouveaux, York obeyed. The afternoon was +now far advanced, very heavy work had been done, a forward march of nearly +six miles had been undertaken, accompanied by continual +fighting--latterly, outside Roubaix, of a heavy sort. But if Mouveaux was +to be held before nightfall, an immediate attack must be made, and York +ordered his men forward. + +Mouveaux stands upon one of those very slight crests which barely +diversify the flat country in which Roubaix and Tourcoing stand. The +summit of that crest is but little more than fifty feet higher than the +bottom of the low, broad depression between it and the centre of Roubaix, +of which swollen town it is to-day a western suburb. Slight as is the +elevation, it does, as I have said, command a view towards the Lys and +Wervicq; and the evenness and length of the very gentle slope upon the +Roubaix side make it an excellent defensive position. + +I have pointed out how the columns of attack as they advanced could not +fail to find an increasing resistance. Roubaix had held out more strongly +than Lannoy, Mouveaux was to hold out more strongly than Roubaix. The +position was palisaded and entrenched. Redoubts had even been hastily +thrown up by the French at either end of it, but the weight of the +attacking column told. It was again the Guards who were given the task of +carrying the trenches at the bayonet, and after a sharp struggle they were +successful. The French, as they retired, set fire to the village (which +stands upon the very summit of that roll of land), and were charged in +their retirement by Abercromby with the English Dragoons. They left three +hundred upon the field, and three field-pieces as well. Despite the great +superiority of numbers which York's columns still commanded over the enemy +immediately before him, it was a brilliant feat, especially when one +considers that it came at the very end of a day that was hot for the +season, that had begun before one o'clock in the morning, and that had +involved the carrying of three positions, each more stoutly defended than +the last, within an advance of over seven miles. + +Mouveaux thus carried, the head of York's column was on a line with the +head of Otto's, which held Tourcoing just two miles away. The heads of +either column now occupied the main road between Lille and Courtrai (which +passes through Mouveaux and Tourcoing), and the heads of either column +also held the slight crests from which the belated advance of Clerfayt +from the Lys could be watched and awaited. + +But though there was evidence of heavy fighting down in the river valley +five miles to the north and west, and though it seemed probable from the +sound of the firing that Clerfayt with the sixth body had crossed the Lys +at Wervicq and was now on the right side of it, upon the southern bank, +there was no sign of his advancing columns in those empty fields towards +Linselles and the river over which the setting sun glared. + +Neither, as his troops prepared to bivouac for the night upon the slopes +of Mouveaux, could York, looking southward, find any indication of the +fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the Arch-Duke which should have +come up to this same position at Mouveaux by noon seven hours before. The +flat and marshy fields upon either bank of the Marque were anxiously +scanned in vain as the twilight deepened. Down there, far off, the cannon +had been heard all that afternoon round the French camp at Sainghin, but +nothing had come through. + +It was therefore under a sense of isolation and of confusion, with the +knowledge that their left flank was open, that Clerfayt in front of them +was not yet in reach, that the second and third columns, which had so +thoroughly accomplished their task, established their posts under the +early summer night to await the chances of the morning. + + +III + +THE FOURTH AND FIFTH COLUMNS UNDER KINSKY AND THE ARCH-DUKE CHARLES + +Now what had happened to the fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the +Arch-Duke? I must describe their fortunes, show why they had failed to +come up, and thus complete the picture of the general advance from the +Scheldt, before I turn to conclude the explanation of the disaster by +detailing the further adventures of Clerfayt after he had crossed the Lys. + +(A) THE FOURTH COLUMN UNDER KINSKY + +Kinsky with his 11,000 men had been delayed, as we have seen, at Froidmont +by the message which the Arch-Duke had sent him from St Amand, to the +effect that the fifth column could not hope to be at Pont-à-Marcq before +dawn upon the 17th. + +At the moment, therefore, when in the small hours of Saturday the 17th +Otto and the Duke of York started out simultaneously from Bailleul and +Templeuve, Kinsky was still pinned to Froidmont. But he knew that the +Arch-Duke had started with his great column some time after dark in the +Friday night from St Amand, and when he estimated that they had proceeded +far enough along the road to Pont-à-Marcq to be up level with him upon his +left, Kinsky set his men in march and made for the Bridge of Bouvines, +which was the crossing of the Marque immediately in front of him. + +The Bridge of Bouvines lay right in front of the great French camp. It was +strongly held, and the hither side of the river, as Kinsky approached it, +was found to be entrenched. His men drove the French from those +entrenchments, they retired over the bridge, and as they retired they +broke it down. Upon the far side of the river in front of their camp the +French further established a battery of heavy guns upon that slight slope +which is now crowned by the Fort of Sainghin, and Kinsky could not force +the passage until the fifth column, or at any rate the head of it, should +begin to appear upon his left. + +It will be seen upon the frontispiece map that when the Arch-Duke's men +reached Pont-à-Marcq and crossed the river there, they would take the +French camp and the main French forces there in reserve, weaken the power +of the French resistance at the Bridge of Bouvines, afford Kinsky the +opportunity of crossing at that point, and that, immediately after that +crossing, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke, having joined hands, would be in +sufficient strength to push back the French from Sainghin and to march up +north together towards Mouveaux. The appearance of their combined force at +Mouveaux by noon would fulfil the time-table, and at mid-day of Saturday, +if the time-table were thus fulfilled, the whole combined force of the +second, third, fourth, and fifth columns would have been astraddle of the +Lille-Courtrai Road, would have cut off Souham's corps from Lille, and +could await Clerfayt if he had not yet arrived. When, therefore, the +Arch-Duke and the fifth column should have crossed the Marque at +Pont-à-Marcq, the fortunes of the fourth column would have blended with +it, and the story of the two would have been one. We may therefore leave +Kinsky still waiting anxiously in front of the broken bridge at Bouvines +for news of the Arch-Duke, and conclude the picture of the whole advance +from the Scheldt by describing what had happened and was happening to that +Commander and his great force of 17,000 to 18,000 men. + +(B) THE FIFTH COLUMN UNDER THE ARCH-DUKE CHARLES + +When the Arch-Duke Charles had let Kinsky know upon the day before, the +Friday, that he could not be at the appointed post of Pont-à-Marcq by the +next daybreak, he had implied that somewhere in the early morning of that +Saturday, at least, he would be there. Exactly how early neither he nor +Kinsky could tell. His troops had sixteen full miles to march; they had +but one road by which to advance, and they were fatigued with the enormous +exertion of that hurried march northward to St Amand, which has already +been set down. + +Such were the delays at St Amand in preparing that advance, that the night +was far gone before the fifth column took the road to Pont-à-Marcq, and +the effort that was to be demanded of it was more than should have been +justly demanded of any troops. Indeed, the idea that a body of this great +size, tied to one road, could suffer the severe effort of the rush from +the south to St Amand, followed by a night-march, that march to be +followed by heavy fighting during the ensuing morning and a further +advance of eight or nine miles during the forenoon, was one of the weakest +points in the plan of the allies. No such weakness would have been +apparent if the main body of the Austrians under the Arch-Duke had been +called up on the 12th instead of the 14th, and had been given two more +days in which to cover the great distance. But, as it was, the delay of +the Emperor and his staff in calling up that main body had gravely +weakened its effective power. + +The league-long column thrust up the road through the darkness hour upon +hour, with its confusion of vehicles and that difficulty in marshalling +all units which is the necessary handicap of an advance in the darkness. +Long before their task was so much as half accomplished, it was apparent +not only that Pont-à-Marcq would not be reached at dawn, but that the mass +of the infantry would not be at that river-crossing until the morning was +far spent. + +When day broke, though cavalry had been set forward at greater speed, the +heads of the infantry column were but under the Hill of Beuvry. It was +long after six before the force had passed through Orchies, and though +Kinsky learnt, in the neighbourhood of eight o'clock, that the cavalry of +the fifth column were up on a level with him and had reached the river, +the main force of the fifth column was not available for crossing +Pont-à-Marcq until noon, and past noon. + +Kinsky, thus tied to the broken Bridge of Bouvines until Pont-à-Marcq +should be forced, saw mid-day come and pass, and still his force and that +of the Arch-Duke upon his left were upon the wrong side of the stream. + +Yet another hour went by. His fourth column and the fifth should already +have been nine miles up north, by Mouveaux, and they were not yet even +across the Marque! + +It was not until two o'clock that the passage of the river at Pont-à-Marcq +was forced by the Arch-Duke Charles, and that, as the consequence of that +passage of the stream, the French were taken in reverse in their camp at +Sainghin and were compelled to fall back northward, leaving the passage at +Bouvines free. Kinsky repaired the bridge, and was free to bring his +11,000 over, and the two extreme columns, the fourth and the fifth, would +then have joined forces in the mid-afternoon of the Saturday, having +accomplished their object of forcing the Marque and uniting for the common +advance northward in support of Otto and the Duke of York. + +Now, had the Arch-Duke Charles' men been machines, this section of the +general plan would yet have failed by half a day to keep its time-table: +and by more than half a day: by all the useful part of a working day. By +the scheme of time upon which the plan was based, the fifth column should +have been across the Marque at dawn; by six, or at latest by seven o'clock +the French should have been compelled to fall back from Sainghin, and the +combined fourth and fifth columns should have been upon their northward +march for Mouveaux. It was not seven o'clock, it was _between three and +four_ o'clock by the time the Arch-Duke was well across the Marque and the +French retired; but still, if the men of this fifth column had been +machines, Kinsky was now free to effect his junction across the Bridge of +Bouvines, and the combined force would have reached the neighbourhood of +Mouveaux and Tourcoing by nightfall, or shortly after dark. + +But the men of the fifth column were not machines, and at that hour of the +mid-afternoon of Saturday they had come to the limits of physical +endurance. It was impossible to ask further efforts of them, or, if those +efforts were demanded, to hope for success. In the Arch-Duke's column by +far the greater part of the 17,000 or 18,000 men had been awake and +working for thirty-six hours. All had been on foot for at least +twenty-four; they had been actually marching for seventeen, and had been +fighting hard at the end of the effort and after sixteen miles of road. +There could be no question of further movement that day: they bivouacked +just north of the river, near where the French had been before their +retirement, and Kinsky, seeing no combined movement could be made that +day, kept his men also bivouacked near the Bridge of Bouvines.[5] + +Thus it was that when night fell upon that Saturday the left wing of the +advance from the Scheldt had failed. And that is why those watching from +the head of the successful third column at Mouveaux and Roubaix, under the +sunset of that evening, saw no reinforcement coming up the valley of the +Marque, caught no sign of their thirty thousand comrades advancing from +the south, and despaired of the morrow. + + +SUMMARY OF SITUATION ON THE SOUTH BY THE EVENING OF SATURDAY, MAY 17th. + +If we take stock of the whole situation, so far as the advance of the five +columns from the Scheldt was concerned, when darkness fell upon that +Saturday we can appreciate the peril in which the second and third column +under Otto and York lay. + +The position which the plan had assigned to the four columns, second, +third, fourth, and fifth, by noon of that Saturday (let alone by +nightfall), is that marked upon the map by the middle four of the six +oblongs in dotted lines marked B. Of these, the two positions on the +_right_ were filled, for the second and third columns had amply +accomplished their mission. But the two on the _left_, so far from being +filled, were missed by miles of space and hours of time. At mid-day, or a +little after, when Kinsky and the Arch-Duke should have been occupying the +second and third dotted oblong respectively, neither of them was as yet +even across the Marque. Both were far away back at E, E: and these +hopeless positions, E, E, right away behind the line of positions across +the Courtrai-Lille road which the plan expected them to occupy by +Saturday noon, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke pacifically maintained up to and +including the night between Saturday and Sunday! + + +[Illustration: THE ELEMENTS OF TOURCOING] + + +It is evident, therefore, that instead of all four columns of nearly +_sixty_ thousand men barring the road between Souham and Lille and +effecting the isolation of the French "wedge" round Courtrai, a bare, +unsupported _twenty_ thousand found themselves that night alone: holding +Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lannoy, Mouveaux, and thrust forward isolated in the +midst of overwhelmingly superior and rapidly gathering numbers. + +In such an isolation nothing could save Otto and York but the abandonment +during the night of their advanced positions and a retreat upon the points +near the Scheldt from which they had started twenty hours before. + +The French forces round Lille were upon one side of them to the south and +west, in number perhaps 20,000. On the other side of them, towards +Courtrai, was the mass of Souham's force which they had hoped to cut off, +nearly 40,000 strong. Between these two great bodies of men, the 20,000 of +Otto and York were in peril of destruction if the French awoke to the +position before the retirement of the second and third columns was decided +on. + +It is here worthy of remark that the only real cause of peril was the +absence of Kinsky and the Arch-Duke. + +Certain historians have committed the strange error of blaming Bussche for +what followed. Bussche, it will be remembered, had been driven out of +Mouscron early in the day, and was holding on stubbornly enough, keeping +up an engagement principally by cannonade with the French upon the line of +Dottignies. It is obvious that from such a position he could be of no use +to the isolated Otto and York five miles away. But on the other hand, he +was not expected to be of any use. What could his 4000 have done to shield +the 20,000 of Otto and York from those 40,000 French under Souham's +command? His business was to keep as many of the French as possible +occupied away on the far north-east of the field, and that object he was +fulfilling. + +Finally, it may be asked why, in a posture so patently perilous, Otto and +York clung to their advanced positions throughout the night? The answer is +simple enough. If, even during the night, the fourth and fifth columns +should appear, the battle was half won. If Clerfayt, of whom they had no +news, but whom they rightly judged to be by this time across the Lys, were +to arrive before the French began to close in, the battle would be not +half won, but all won. Between 55,000 and 60,000 men would then be lying +united across the line which joined the 40,000 of the enemy to the north +with the 20,000 to the south. If such a junction were effected even at the +eleventh hour, so long as it took place before the 20,000 French outside +Lille and the 40,000 to the north moved upon them, the allies would have +won a decisive action, and the surrender of all Souham's command would +have been the matter of a few hours. For a force cut in two is a force +destroyed. + +But the night passed without Clerfayt's appearing, and before closing the +story of that Saturday I must briefly tell why, though he had crossed the +Lys in the afternoon, he failed to advance southward through the +intervening five or six miles to Mouveaux. + + +CLERFAYT'S COLUMN. + +Clerfayt had, in that extraordinary slow march of his, advanced by the +Friday night, as I have said, no further than the great high road between +Menin and Ypres. I further pointed out that though only three miles +separated that point from Wervicq, yet those three miles meant, under the +military circumstances of the moment, a loss of time equivalent to at +least half a day. + +We therefore left Clerfayt at Saturday's dawn, as we left the Arch-Duke at +the same time, far short of the starting-point which had been assigned to +him. + +Whereas the Arch-Duke, miles away over there to the south, had at least +pushed on to the best of his ability through the night towards +Pont-à-Marcq, Clerfayt did _not_ push on by night to Wervicq as he should +have done. He bivouacked with the heads of his columns no further than the +Ypres road. + +Nor did he even break up and proceed over the remaining three miles during +the very earliest hours. For one reason or another (the point has never +been cleared up) the morning was fairly well advanced when he set +forth--possibly because his units had got out of touch and straggling in +the sandy country, or blocked by vehicles stuck fast. Whatever the cause +may have been, he did not exchange shots with the French outposts at +Wervicq until well after noon upon that Saturday the 17th of May. + +When at last he had forced his way into the town (the great bulk of which +lies north of the river), he found the bridge so well defended that he +could not cross it, or, at any rate, that the carrying of it--the chances +of its being broken after the French should have retired and the business +of bringing his great force across, with the narrow streets of the town to +negotiate and the one narrow bridge, even if intact to use--would put him +upon the further bank at a hopelessly late hour. Therefore did he call for +his pontoons in order to solve the difficulty by bridging the river +somewhat lower down. The Lys is here but a narrow stream, and it would be +easy, with the pontoons at his disposal, to pass his troops over rapidly +upon a broader front, making, if necessary, two wide bridges. I say "with +the pontoons at his disposal." But by the time Clerfayt had taken this +decision and had sent for the pontoons, he found that they were not there! + +His section of pontoons had not kept abreast with the rest of the army, +and their delay had not been notified to him. It was not until quite late +in the day that they arrived; it was not until evening that the laying of +the pontoons began,[6] nor till midnight that he was passing the first of +his troops over. + +He did not get nor attempt to get the mass of his sixteen or seventeen +thousand across in the darkness. He bivouacked the remainder upon the +wrong side of the river and waited for the morrow. + + * * * * * + +So that Saturday ended, with Otto and York isolated at the central +meeting-place round Tourcoing-Mouveaux, which they alone had reached; with +the Arch-Duke Charles and Kinsky bivouacked miles away to the south on +either side of the Bridge of Bouvines; and with Clerfayt still, as to the +bulk of his force, on the wrong side of the Lys. + +It was no wonder that the next day, Sunday, was to see the beginning of +disaster. + + +SUNDAY, MAY THE 18TH, 1794. + +I have said that, considering the isolated position in which York and Otto +found themselves, with no more than perhaps 18,000 in the six positions of +Leers, Wattrelos, and Tourcoing, Lannoy, Roubaix, and Mouveaux, the French +had only to wake up to the situation, and Otto and York would be +overwhelmed. + +The French did wake up. How thoroughly taken by surprise they had been by +the prompt and exact advance of Otto and York the day before, the reader +has already been told. Throughout Saturday they remained in some confusion +as to the intention of the enemy; and indeed it was not easy to grasp a +movement which was at once of such great size, and whose very miscarriage +rendered it the more baffling of comprehension. But by the evening of the +day, Souham, calling a council of his generals at Menin, came to a +decision as rapid as it was wise. Reynier, Moreau, and Macdonald, the +generals of divisions that were under his orders, all took part in the +brief discussion and the united resolve to which it led. "It was," in the +words of a contemporary, "one of those rare occasions in which the +decision of several men in council has proved as effective as the decision +of a single will." + +Of the troops which were, it will be remembered, dispersed to the north of +the Lys, only one brigade was left upon the wrong side of the river to +keep an eye on Clerfayt; all the rest were recalled across the stream and +sent forward to take up positions north of Otto's and Kinsky's columns. +Meanwhile the bulk of the French troops lying between Courtrai and +Tourcoing were disposed in such fashion as to attack from the north and +east, south and westward. Some 40,000 men all told were ready to close in +with the first light from both sides upon the two isolated bodies of the +allies. To complete their discomfiture, word was sent to Bonnaud and +Osten, the generals of divisions who commanded the 20,000 about Lille, +ordering them to march north and east, and to attack simultaneously with +their comrades upon that third exposed side where York would receive the +shock. In other words, the 18,000 or so distributed on the six points +under Otto and York occupied an oblong the two long sides of which and the +top were about to be attacked by close upon 60,000 men. The hour from +which this general combined advance inwards upon the doomed commands of +the allies was to begin was given identically to all the French generals. +They were to break up at three in the morning. With such an early start, +the sun would not have been long risen before the pressure upon Otto and +York would begin. + +When the sun rose, the head of Otto's column upon the little height of +Tourcoing saw to the north, to the north-east, and to the east, distant +moving bodies, which were the columns of the French attack advancing from +those quarters. As they came nearer, their numbers could be distinguished. +A brigade was approaching them from the north and the Lys valley, +descending the slopes of the hillock called Mont Halhuin. It was +Macdonald's. Another was on the march from Mouscron and the east. It was +Compere's. The General who was commanding for Otto in Tourcoing itself was +Montfrault. He perceived the extremity of the danger and sent over to York +for reinforcement. York spared him two Austrian battalions, but with +reluctance, for he knew that the attack must soon develop upon his side +also. In spite of the peril, in the vain hope that Clerfayt might yet +appear, Mouveaux and Tourcoing were still held, and upon the latter +position, between five and six o'clock in the morning, fell the first +shots of the French advance. The resistance at Tourcoing could not last +long against such odds, and Montfrault, after a gallant attempt to hold +the town, yielded to a violent artillery attack and prepared to retreat. +Slowly gathering his command into a great square, he began to move +south-eastward along the road to Wattrelos. It was half-past eight when +that beginning of defeat was acknowledged. + +Meanwhile York, on his side, had begun to feel the pressure. Mouveaux was +attacked from the north somewhat before seven o'clock in the morning, and, +simultaneously with that attack, a portion of Bonnaud's troops which had +come up from the neighbourhood of Lille, was driving in York's outposts to +the west of Roubaix. + +How, it may be asked, did the French, in order thus to advance from Lille, +negotiate the passage of that little River Marque, which obstacle had +proved so formidable a feature in the miscarriage of the great allied plan +the day before? The answer is, unfortunately, easily forthcoming. York had +left the bridges over the Marque unguarded. Why, we do not know. Whether +from sheer inadvertence, or because he hoped that Kinsky had detached men +for the purpose, for one reason or another he had left those passages +free, and, by the bridge of Hempempont against Lannoy, by that of Breuck +against Roubaix, Bonnaud's and Osten's men poured over. + +As at Tourcoing, so at Mouveaux, a desperate attempt was made to hold the +position. Indeed it was clung to far too late, but the straits to which +Mouveaux was reduced at least afforded an opportunity for something of +which the British service should not be unmindful. Immediately between +Roubaix and the River Marque, Fox, with the English battalions of the +line, was desperately trying to hold the flank and to withstand the +pressure of the French, who were coming across the river more than twice +his superiors in number. He was supported by a couple of Austrian +battalions, and the two services dispute as to which half of this +defending force was first broken. But the dispute is idle. No troops could +have stood the pressure, and at any rate the defence broke down--with this +result: that the British troops holding Mouveaux, Abercrombie's Dragoons, +and the Brigade of Guards, were cut off from their comrades in Roubaix. +Meanwhile, Tourcoing having been carried and the Austrians driven out from +thence, the eastern and western forces of the French had come into touch +in the depression between Mouveaux and Roubaix, and it seemed as though +the surrender or destruction of that force was imminent. Abercrombie saved +it. A narrow gap appeared between certain forces of the French, eastward +of the position at Mouveaux, and leaving a way open round to Roubaix. He +took advantage of it and won through: the Guards keeping a perfect order, +the rear defended by the mobility and daring of the Dragoons. The village +of Roubaix, in those days, consisted in the main of one long straight +street, though what is now the great town had already then so far +increased in size as to have suburbs upon the north and south. The +skirmishers of the French were in these suburbs. (Fox's flank command had +long ago retired, keeping its order, however, and making across country as +best it could for Lannoy.) It was about half-past nine when Abercrombie's +force, which had been saved by so astonishing a mixture of chance, skill, +coolness, and daring, filed into the long street of Roubaix. The Guards +and the guns went through the passage in perfect formation in spite of the +shots dropping from the suburbs, which were already beginning to harass +the cavalry behind them. Immediately to their rear was the Austrian horse, +while, last of all, defending the retreat, the English Dragoons were just +entering the village. In the centre of this long street a market-place +opened out. The Austrian cavalry, arrived at it, took advantage of the +room afforded them; they doubled and quadrupled their files until they +formed a fairly compact body, almost filling the square. It was precisely +at this moment that the French advance upon the eastern side of the +village brought a gun to bear down the long straight street and road, +which led from the market square to Wattrelos. The moment it opened fire, +the Austrians, after a vain attempt to find cover, pressed into the side +streets down the market-place, fell into confusion. There is no question +here of praise or blame: a great body of horsemen, huddled in a narrow +space, suddenly pounded by artillery, necessarily became in a moment a +mass of hopeless confusion. The body galloped in panic out of the village, +swerved round the sharp corner into the narrower road (where the French +had closed in so nearly that there was some bayonet work), and then came +full tilt against the British guns, which lay blocking the way because the +drivers had dismounted or cut the traces and fled. In the midst of this +intolerable confusion a second gun was brought to bear by the French, and +the whole mob of ridden and riderless horses, some dragging limbers, some +pack-horses charged, many more the dispersed and maddened fragments of the +cavalry, broke into the Guards, who had still kept their formation and +were leading what had been but a few moments before an orderly retreat. + +It is at this point, I think, that the merit of this famous brigade and +its right to regard the disaster not with humiliation but with pride, is +best established. For that upon which soldiers chiefly look is the power +of a regiment to reform. The Guards, thus broken up under conditions which +made formation for the moment impossible, and would have excused the +destruction of any other force, cleared themselves of the welter, +recovered their formation, held the road, permitted the British cavalry to +collect itself and once more form a rearguard, and the retreat upon Lannoy +was resumed by this fragment of York's command in good order: in good +order, although it was subjected to heavy and increasing fire upon either +side. + +It was a great feat of arms. + +As for the Duke of York, he was not present with his men. He had ridden +off with a small escort of cavalry to see whether it might not be possible +to obtain some reinforcement from Otto, but the French were everywhere in +those fields. He found himself with a squadron, with a handful, and at +last alone, until, a conspicuous figure with the Star of the Garter still +pinned to his coat, he was chivied hither and thither across country, +followed and flanked by the sniping shots of the French skirmishers in +thicket and hedge; after that brief but exceedingly troubled ride, +Providence discovered him a brook and a bridge still held by some of +Otto's Hessians. He crossed it, and was in safety. + +His retreating men--those of them that remained, and notably the remnant +of the Dragoons and the Guards--were still in order as they approached +Lannoy. They believed, or hoped, that that village was still in possession +of the Hessians whom York had left there. But the French attack had been +ubiquitous that morning. It had struck simultaneously upon all the flanks. +At Roubaix as at Mouveaux, at Lannoy as at Roubaix, and the Guards and the +Dragoons within musket shot of Lannoy discovered it, in the most +convincing fashion, to be in the hands of the enemy. After that check +order and formation were lost, and the remaining fragment of the Austrian +and British who had marched out from Templeuve the day before 10,000 +strong, hurried, dispersed over the open field, crossed what is now the +Belgian border, and made their way back to camp. + +Thus was destroyed the third column, which, of all portions of the allied +army, had fought hardest, had most faithfully executed its orders, had +longest preserved discipline during a terrible retreat and against +overwhelming numbers: it was to that discipline that the Guards in +particular owed the saving from the wreck of so considerable a portion of +their body. Of their whole brigade just under 200 were lost, killed, +wounded or taken prisoners. The total loss of the British was not quite +five times this--just under 1000,--but of their guns, twenty-eight in +number, nineteen were left in the hands of the enemy. + +There is no need to recount in detail the fate of Otto's column. As it had +advanced parallel in direction and success to the Duke of York's, it +suffered a similar and parallel misfortune. As the English had found +Lannoy occupied upon their line of retreat, so Otto's column had found +Wattrelos. As the English column had broken at Lannoy, so the Austrian at +Leers. And the second column came drifting back dispersed to camp, +precisely as the third had done. When the fragments were mustered and the +defeat acknowledged, it was about three o'clock in the afternoon. + +For the rest of the allied army there is no tale to tell, save with regard +to Clerfayt's command; the fourth and the fifth columns, miles away behind +the scene of the disaster, did not come into action. Long before they +could have broken up after the breakdown through exhaustion of the day +before, the French were over the Marque and between them and York. When a +move was made at noon, it was not to relieve the second and third columns, +for that was impossible, though, perhaps, if they had marched earlier, the +pressure they would have brought to bear upon Bonnaud's men might have +done something to lessen the disaster. It is doubtful, for the Marque +stood in between and the French did not leave it unguarded. + +Bussche, true to his conduct of the day before, held his positions all day +and maintained his cannonade with the enemy. It is true that there was no +severe pressure upon him, but still he held his own even when the rout +upon his left might have tempted him to withdraw his little force. + +As for Clerfayt, he had not all his men across the Lys until that very +hour of seven in the morning when York at Mouveaux was beginning to suffer +the intolerable pressure of the French, and Otto's men at Tourcoing were +in a similar plight. + +By the time he had got all his men over, he found Vandamme holding +positions, hastily prepared but sufficiently well chosen, and blocking his +way to the south. With a defensive thus organised, though only half as +strong as the attack, Vandamme was capable of a prolonged resistance; and +while it was in progress, reinforcements, summoned from the northern parts +of the French line beyond Lille, had had time to appear towards the west. +He must have heard from eight o'clock till noon the fire of his retreating +comrades falling back in their disastrous retreat, and, rightly judging +that he would have after mid-day the whole French army to face, he +withdrew to the river, and had the luck to cross it the next day without +loss: a thing that the French now free from the enemy to the south should +never have permitted. + +So ended the Battle of Tourcoing, an action which, for the interest of its +scheme, for the weight of its results, and, above all, for the fine +display of courage and endurance which British troops showed under +conditions that should normally have meant annihilation, deserves a much +wider fame in this country than it has obtained. + + +PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. + + + + +BOOKS _that compel_ + +_Supplementary Spring List, 1912_ + + + _For him was levere have at his beddes heed + Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed ... + Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye._ + + CHAUCER. + +_Telegrams "Lumenifer, London"_ + +_Telephone 6223 City_ + + + _STEPHEN SWIFT & CO. LTD. + 16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN + LONDON, W.C._ + +_Complete list of "Books that Compel" post free on application_ + + + + +HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY + +=BRITISH BATTLE BOOKS.= By HILAIRE BELLOC. Illustrated with Coloured Maps. +Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 1s. net; leather, 2s. 6d. net. + + HISTORY IN WARFARE + + The British Battle Series will consist of a number of monographs upon + actions in which British troops have taken part. Each battle will be + the subject of a separate booklet illustrated with coloured maps, + illustrative of the movements described in the text, together with a + large number of line maps showing the successive details of the + action. In each case the political circumstances which led to the + battle will be explained; next, the stages leading up to it; lastly, + the action in detail. 1. BLENHEIM; 2. MALPLAQUET; 3. WATERLOO; 4. + TOURCOING. Later volumes will deal with Crecy, Poitiers, Corunna, + Talaveras, Flodden, The Siege of Valenciennes, Vittoria, Toulouse. + +=TRIPOLI AND YOUNG ITALY.= By CHARLES LAPWORTH and HELEN ZIMMERN. Demy +8vo, cloth. Illustrated. Price 10s. 6d. net. A book of international +importance. This is the first systematic account of the Tripoli expedition +written from the Italian point of view which has yet been published in +Europe. Italy's case against Turkey is fully stated, and the annexation of +Tripoli, which has constantly been misrepresented by biassed critics as an +arbitrary and capricious act of rapacity on the part of the Italian +Government, is conclusively shown to have been an imperative political +necessity. The highest authorities in Italy have heartily assisted the +authors in their task of drawing up a reliable account of the inner +history of the Tripoli expedition and of vindicating Italy from the many +false accusations which have been levelled against her. The MSS. have been +submitted to the Italian Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign +Affairs. The book is illustrated with portraits of leading Italians and +with photographs of Libya. + +=PSYCHOLOGY, A NEW SYSTEM OF.= By ARTHUR LYNCH, M.P. 2 vols. 10s. 6d. each +net. Based on the study of Fundamental Processes of the Human Mind. The +principles established will afford criteria in regard to every position in +Psychology. New light will be thrown, for instance, on Kant's Categories, +Spencer's Hedonism, Fechner's Law, the foundation of Mathematics, Memory, +Association, Externality, Will, the Feeling of Effort, Brain +Localisations, and finally on the veritable nature of Reason. + +=AN INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS=. By HENRI BERGSON. Translated by T. E. +Hulme. Fcap. 8vo, Cloth, price, 2s. 6d. net. The "Introduction to +Metaphysics," although the shortest, is one of the most important of +Bergson's writings. It not only provides the best introduction to his +thought, but is also a book which even those familiar with the rest of his +work will find necessary to read, for in it he develops at greater length +and in greater detail than elsewhere, the exact significance of what he +intends by the word "intuition." Every expositor of Bergson has hitherto +found it necessary to quote "An Introduction to Metaphysics" at +considerable length, yet the book has never before been available in +English. + +=AN INTRODUCTION TO BERGSON=. By T. E. HULME. 7s. 6d. Besides giving a +general exposition of the better known parts of Bergson's philosophy, the +author has discussed at some length Bergson's "Theory of Art," which may +prove to many people the most interesting part of his whole philosophy, +although it has so far been written about very little. At the same time +this book is no running commentary on a great number of separate ideas; +the author has endeavoured by subordinating everything to one dominating +conception, to leave in the reader's mind a clearly outlined picture of +Bergson's system. During the last few years the author has been able to +discuss many points of difficulty with M. Bergson himself. + + +SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SERIES + +=FROM THEATRE TO MUSIC-HALL=. By W. R. TITTERTON. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. +6d. net. This book is neither a history of the drama nor a critical study +of well-known playwrights. It is an attempt to account for the weakening +of the dramatic sense in modern England, and to explain the enormous +importance of the music-hall, and the desperate necessity of maintaining +it as a means of popular expression. The theories put forward are bold, +and are likely to excite great agreement and great opposition. + +=THE DOCTOR AND HIS WORK.= With a Hint of his Destiny and Ideals. By +CHARLES J. WHITBY, M.D. Cantab., Author of "Triumphant Vulgarity," "Makers +of Man," "A Study of Human Initiative," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 3s. +6d. net. In this book the author has reviewed the existing position of the +doctor and indicated the signs of a new sociological era in which he will +be called upon to accept new and important functions. The profession has +in the past consisted of a mere mob of unorganised units; that of the +future will be a disciplined army of experts co-operating for the good of +the State. "The Doctor and His Work" may be described as a summary of the +modern medical point of view. It appeals not less to the lay than to the +professional reader. + +=IRISH HOME RULE.= The Last Phase. By S. G. HOBSON. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +=NATIONAL EDUCATION.= By BARON VON TAUBE, author of "Manual Training," "In +Defence of America," "Only a Dog's Life," etc. Crown 8vo, Cloth. 3s. 6d. +net. Two basic and dominating conceptions underlie the theory of education +put forward in this treatise. The first is the necessity for a national +education which will evoke, foster, develop and not level down and destroy +all the peculiar and unique characteristics which go to make a nation a +nation, and endow it with an individuality distinct from that of all other +nations. The second is the necessity for the encouragement of originality +and the full development of individual capacity, as contrasted with the +mass-drill measures which are all too prevalent nowadays. The author's +theories are based on ascertained sociological and psychological data and +on numerous practical experiments in pedagogy which have been successfully +carried out by him. Discontent with the modern stereotyped system of cram +education is increasing daily, and this book should prove a valuable +contribution to the literature on this vitally important subject. + + +BELLES LETTRES + +=EPISODES OF VATHEK.= By WILLIAM BECKFORD. Translated by Sir Frank T. +Marzials, with an Introduction by Lewis Melville. Medium 8vo, cloth. 21s. +net. These Episodes or Eastern Tales, related in the Halls of Eblis, were +discovered recently by Mr. Lewis Melville in the archives of Hamilton +Palace. They were conceived by Beckford as three episodes complete within +themselves, which he proposed to interpolate, in the manner of the +"Arabian Nights," into his famous Oriental story of "Vathek." The original +in French is given after the English translation, and the reader will find +this volume extremely interesting both as treasure trove and literature. + +=SONNETS AND BALLATE OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI.= Translated by EZRA POUND. Crown +8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. We have had many translations of the Divina +Commedia, a few of the Vita Nuova. Rosetti has translated a miscellany of +"Early Italian Poets," but in these "Sonnets and Ballate" of Guido +Cavalcanti we have a new thing, the endeavour to present a 13th century +Tuscan poet, other than Dante, as an individual. More than one Italian +critic of authority has considered Cavalcanti second to Dante alone in +their literature. Dante places him first among his forerunners. + + +=LEAVES OF PROSE=, interleaved with verse. By ANNIE MATHESON, with which +are included two papers by May Sinclair. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. This volume +is composed of a selection of those short studies for which Miss Matheson +is so justly famous. Literature, Sociology, Art, Nature, all receive her +attention in turn, and on each she stamps the impression of her own +personality. The prose is soft and rhythmic, infused with the atmosphere +of the country-side, while the lyrics scattered throughout the volume +reflect a temperament that has remained equable under the most severe +trials. No book more aptly expresses the spirit of Christianity and good +fellowship as understood in England. + +=OFF BEATEN TRACKS IN BRITTANY.= By EMIL DAVIES. Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. +net. In this book the author, who has already won for himself a position +in a surprisingly large variety of fields, goes off the beaten track in +more than one direction. It is a book of travel, philosophy and humour, +describing the adventures, impressions and reflections of two "advanced" +individuals who chose their route across Brittany by ruling a straight +line across the map from Brest to St. Malo--and then went another way! + +=IMAGINARY SPEECHES AND OTHER PARODIES IN PROSE AND VERSE.= By JACK +COLLINGS SQUIRE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. This is probably the most +comprehensive volume of Parodies ever issued. The author is as much at his +ease in hitting off the style of Mr. Burns or Mr. Balfour, as he is in +imitating the methods and effects of the new Celtic or Imperialist poets; +whilst he is as happy in his series illustrating "The Sort of Prose +Articles that modern Prose-writers write" as he is in his model newspaper +with its various amusing features. + +=SHADOWS OUT OF THE CROWD.= By RICHARD CURLE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. This +book consists of twelve stories of a curious and psychological kind. Some +deal with the West Indian and South American tropics, some with London, +some with Scotland, and one with South Africa. The author's sense of +atmosphere is impressive, and there is about all his stories the +fatalistic spirit of the Russians. They have been written over a period of +several years, and show signs of a close study of method and a deep +insight into certain descriptions of fevered imagination. All are the work +of a writer of power, and of an artist of a rare and rather un-English +type. + +=LONDON WINDOWS.= By ETHEL TALBOT. Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. 6d. net. In this +little volume Miss Talbot, who is a well known and gifted singer in the +younger choir of England's poets, pictures London in many moods. She has +won themes from the city's life without that capitulation to the merely +actual which is the pitfall of so many artists. London is seen grieving, +sordid, grey, as well as magical and alluring. All who love the London of +to-day must perforce respond to the appeal which lies in these moving and +poignant verses. + +=BOHEMIA IN LONDON.= By ARTHUR RANSOME. Crown 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. 2s. +net. + +=SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY.= By LEWIS MELVILLE. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. As +a literary study the book incites interest, and commands attention as a +further revelation of a brilliant and many-sided literary genius. There +are admirably written chapters on "Thackeray as a Reader and Critic," +"Thackeray as an Artist," "Thackeray's Country," "Thackeray's Ballads," +"Thackeray and his Illustrators," "Prototypes of Thackeray's Characters," +etc. The volume is fully illustrated. + +=ENGLISH LITERATURE.= 1880-1905. Pater, Wilde, and after. By J. M. +KENNEDY. Demy 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net. Mr. J. M. Kennedy has written the +first history of the dynamic movement in English literature between 1880 +and 1905. The work begins with a sketch of romanticism and classicism, and +continues with chapters on Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, who, in their +different ways, exercised so great an influence on various poets and +essayists of the time, all of whom are dealt with. + +=ONLY A DOG'S LIFE.= By BARON VON TAUBE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This +fascinating work was originally published in German, and is now issued in +the author's own English rendering. It has been most favourably received +in Germany. A Siberian hound, whose sire was a wolf, tells his own story. +The book, in fact, is a very clever satire on human nature, a satire which +gains much charm and piquancy from its coming from the mouth of a +masterful self-respecting hound. + +=SOME OLD ENGLISH WORTHIES.= Thomas of Reading, George a Green, Roger +Bacon, Friar Rush. Edited with notes and introduction by DOROTHY SENIOR. +Medium 8vo, cloth. 10s. 6d. net. + +=BY DIVERS PATHS.= By ELEANOR TYRRELL, ANNIE MATHESON, MAUDE P. KING, MAY +SINCLAIR, Professor C. H. HERFORD, Dr. GREVILLE MACDONALD, and C. C. +COTTERILL. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 3s. 6d. net. A volume of +natural studies and descriptive and meditative essays interspersed with +verse. + +=IN DEFENCE OF AMERICA.= By BARON VON TAUBE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. +This very remarkable book gives the American point of view in reply to +criticisms of "Uncle Sam" frequently made by representatives of "John +Bull." The author, a Russo-German, who has spent many active years in the +United States, draws up about thirty "popular indictments against the +citizens of Uncle Sam's realm," and discusses them at length in a very +original and dispassionate way, exhibiting a large amount of German +critical acumen together with much American shrewdness. Both "Uncle Sam" +and "John Bull" will find in the book general appreciations of their +several characteristics and not a few valuable suggestions. + + +FICTION + +Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. each + +=LADY ERMYNTRUDE AND THE PLUMBER.= By PERCY FENDALL. This is a tale +fantastical and satirical, of the year 1920, its quaint humours arising +out of the fact that a Radical-Socialist Government has passed an Act of +Parliament requiring every man and woman to earn a living and to live on +their earnings. There are many admirable strokes of wit dispersed +throughout, not the least of these being the schedule of charges which the +king is permitted to make, for he also, under the Work Act, is compelled +to earn a living. + +=AN EXCELLENT MYSTERY.= By Countess RUSSELL. The scene opens in Ireland +with a fascinating child, Will-o'-the-Wisp, and a doting father. A poor +mother and a selfish elder sister drive her to a marriage which has no +sound foundation. The husband turns out eccentric, unsympathetic, and even +cowardly. Will-o'-the-Wisp has to face at a tender age and with no +experience the most serious and difficult problems of sex, motherhood and +marriage. Then with the help of friends, her own good sense and +determination, and the sensible divorce law of Scotland, she escapes her +troubles. This forms the conclusion of an artless but thrilling narrative. + +=A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG= (Une Nuit au Luxembourg). By REMY DE GOURMONT. +Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. With preface and appendix by Arthur Ransome. M. +Remy de Gourmont is, perhaps, the greatest of contemporary French writers. +His books are translated into all languages but ours. "Une Nuit au +Luxembourg" is the first of his works to appear in English, and will be +followed by others. It will certainly arouse considerable discussion. It +moves the reader with something more than a purely æsthetic emotion. + +=HUSBAND AND LOVER.= By WALTER RIDDALL. In this book is given a discerning +study of a temperament. The author has taken an average artistic man and +laid bare his feelings and impulses, his desires and innermost thoughts +under the supreme influence of sex. Frankness is the key-note of the work; +its truth will be recognised by everyone who faces the facts of his own +nature and neither blushes nor apologises for them. + +=THE CONSIDINE LUCK.= By H. A. HINKSON. The Considine Luck is primarily a +story of the Union of Hearts, an English girl's love affair with an +Irishman, and the conflict of character between the self-made man who is +the charming heroine's father and the Irish environment in which he finds +himself. The writer can rollick with the best, and the Considine Luck is +not without its rollicking element. But it is in the main a delicate and +serious love story, with its setting in the green Irish country, among the +poetical, unpractical people among whom Mr. Hinkson is so thoroughly at +home. + +=A SUPER-MAN IN BEING.= By LITCHFIELD WOODS. Both in its subject-matter +and craftsmanship this is an arresting piece of work. It is not, in the +usual sense, a story of love and marriage. Rather, it is the biographical +presentment of Professor Snaggs, who has lost his eyesight, but who is yet +known to the outside world as a distinguished historian. The revelation of +the Professor's home life is accomplished with a literary skill of the +highest kind, showing him to be a combination of super-man and +super-devil, not so much in the domain of action as in the domain of +intellect. An extraordinary situation occurs--a problem in psychology +intensely interesting to the reader, not so much on its emotional as on +its intellectual side, and is solved by this super-man in the domain of +intellect. + +=GREAT POSSESSIONS.= By Mrs. CAMPBELL. A story of modern Americans in +America and England, this novel deals with the suffering bequeathed by the +malice of a dead man to the woman he once loved. In imposing upon her son +the temptations of leisure and great wealth he is a means of making him a +prey to inherited weakness, and the train of events thus set in motion +leads to an unexpected outcome. The author is equally familiar with life +in either country, and the book is an earnest attempt to represent the +enervating influences of a certain type of existence prevailing among the +monied classes in New York to-day. + +=THE DARKSOME MAIDS OF BAGLEERE.= By WILLIAM KERSEY. A delightful novel of +Somerset farming-life. Although a tragedy of the countryside, it is at the +same time alive with racy country humour. The character drawing is clear +and strong, and the theme is handled with the restraint of great tragedy. +This book is of real literary value--in fact, it recalls to our minds the +earlier works of Thomas Hardy. + + +PLAYS + +=THE KING.= A Daring Tragedy. By STEPHEN PHILLIPS, Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. +6d. net. Don Carlos, heir to the throne of Spain, learns that Christina, +a young lady of the Court, with whom he is secretly in love, is really his +sister. The gloom of the tragedy is deepened by the discovery that +Christina is about to be a mother. Brother and sister, who are at the same +time husband and wife, die by the same dagger. The king, who has already +abdicated in favour of his son, whom he desired to marry the Princess of +Spain, resolves to put an end to his life also, but is persuaded by his +minister that the task of living as king will be a greater punishment for +all the misery he has created. The story is developed with skill, +reticence, simplicity, in solemn harmonies and with tragic beauty. + +=SHAKESPEARE'S END AND TWO OTHER IRISH PLAYS.= By CONAL O'RIORDAN (Norreys +Connell). Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net. Mr. O'Riordan, who is better known by +his nom-de-guerre of "Norreys Connell," which has served him for twenty +years, has brought together in this volume the three plays in which he has +given expression to his view of the relation between England and Ireland. +In a prefatory letter to Mr. Joseph Conrad he presents a synthesis of the +trilogy, and explains why this, of his several books, is the first which +he wishes to associate with his proper name. + + +UNCLASSIFIED + +=OH, MY UNCLE!= By W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE, author of "The Talking Master," +"D'Orsay," etc. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. Wit, fun, frolic, fairy tale, +nonsense verses, satire, comedy, farce, criticism; a touch of each, an +_olla podrida_ which cannot be classified. It certainly is not history, +yet cannot fairly be put under the heading fiction; it is not realism, yet +fairy-taleism does not fully describe it; it deals with well-known folk, +yet it is not a "romance with a key"; it is not a love story, yet there is +love in it; in short, again, it cannot be classified. It is a book for +those who love laughter, yet it is not merely frivolous. It deals with the +lights of life, with just a touch now and again of delicate shadow. One +thing may safely be said--Miss Blue-Eyes and Uncle Daddy will make many +friends. + + +STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] These dates are important in another aspect of the matter--the +authorship of the plan. I will, therefore, return to them in more detail +at the close of this section. + +[2] I pay no attention to the ridiculous suggestion that the delay was due +to the contemporary peril in Poland, and to Thugut's anxiety to have +Austrian troops in the east rather than on the western frontier. People +who write modern history thus seem to forget that the electric telegraph +did not exist in the eighteenth century. The more reasonable pretension +that the Austrians hesitated between marching north to effect the plan +against Souham, and marching east to relieve the pressure upon Kaunitz, +who was hard pressed upon the Sambre, deserves consideration. But +Kaunitz's despatch, telling how he had been forced to fall back, did not +reach headquarters until the 12th, and if immediate orders had been given +for the northern march, that march would have begun before the news of +Kaunitz's reverse had arrived. The only reasonable explanation in this as +in most problems in human history, is the psychological one. You have to +explain the delay of George III.'s son, and Joseph II.'s nephew. To anyone +not obsessed by the superstition of rank, the mere portraits of these +eminent soldiers would be enough to explain it. + +[3] Fortescue, vol. iv., part i., p. 255. + +[4] After so many allusions to his youth, I may as well give the date of +his birth. Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. of +England, was not yet thirty when he suffered at Tourcoing, having been +born in 1765. He had the misfortune to die in 1827. + +[5] The reader not indifferent to comedy will hear with pleasure that, +among various accounts of Kinsky's communication with the Arch-Duke +Charles at this juncture, one describes that Royalty as inaccessible after +the fatigue of the day. His colleague is represented as asking in vain for +an interview, and receiving from a servant the reply "that his Imperial +Highness must not be disturbed, as he was occupied in having a fit." + +[6] At a point somewhat below Wervicq: much where the private ferry now +plies. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tourcoing, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + +***** This file should be named 32260-8.txt or 32260-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/6/32260/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tourcoing + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: May 5, 2010 [EBook #32260] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>TOURCOING</h1> + +<p> </p><p><a name="front" id="front"></a> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i004tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/i004.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<h1>TOURCOING</h1> +<p> </p> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>HILAIRE BELLOC</h2> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i005.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>MCMXII<br /> +STEPHEN SWIFT AND CO., LTD.<br /> +16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN<br /> +LONDON</h4> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="contents"> +<tr><td><span class="smcaplc">PART</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right"><span class="smcaplc">PAGE</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_I">I.</a></td><td>THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_II">II.</a></td><td>THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_III">III.</a></td><td>THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_IV">IV.</a></td><td>THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_V">V.</a></td><td>THE TERRAIN</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#PART_VI">VI.</a></td><td>THE ACTION</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h1>TOURCOING</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I</h2> +<h3>THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE</h3> + +<p>The Battle of Tourcoing is one of those actions upon which European +history in general is somewhat confused, and English history, in +particular, ignorant.</p> + +<p>That British troops formed part of those who suffered defeat, and that a +British commander, the Duke of York, was the chief figure in the reverse, +affords no explanation; for the almost exactly parallel case of +Fontenoy—in which another royal duke, also the son of the reigning King +of England, also very young, also an excellent general officer, and also +in command was defeated—is among the most familiar of actions in this +country. In both battles the posture of the British troops earned them as +great and as deserved a fame as they had acquired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> in victory; in both was +work done by the Guards in particular, which called forth the admiration +of the enemy. Yet Tourcoing remains unknown to the English general reader +of history, while Fontenoy is one of the few stock names of battles which +he can at once recall.</p> + +<p>The reason that British historians neglect this action is not, then, as +foreign and rival historians are too inclined to pretend, due to the fact +that among the forces that suffered disaster were present certain British +contingents.</p> + +<p>Again, as will be seen in the sequel, the overwhelming of the Duke of +York’s forces at Tourcoing, by numbers so enormously superior to his own, +was not due to any tactical fault of his, though it is possible that the +faulty plan of the whole action may in some measure be ascribed to him.</p> + +<p>Now Tourcoing is a battle which Englishmen should know, both for its +importance in the military history of Europe, and for the not unworthy +demeanour which the British troops, though defeated, maintained upon its +field.</p> + +<p>The true reason that Tourcoing is so little known in this country is to be +discovered in that other historical fact attaching to the battle, which I +have mentioned. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> occupied but a confused and an uncertain place in the +general history of Europe; though perhaps, were its military significance +fully understood, it would stand out in sharper relief. For though the +Battle of Tourcoing was not the beginning of any great military series, +nor the end of one; though no very striking immediate political +consequence followed upon it, yet it was Tourcoing which made Fleurus +possible, and it was Fleurus that opened the victorious advancing march of +the French which, looked at as a whole, proceeded triumphantly +thenceforward for nearly eighteen years and achieved the transformation of +European society.</p> + +<p>What, then, was the political circumstance under which this action was +fought?</p> + +<p>The French Revolution, by the novelty of its doctrines, by the fierceness +and rapidity of its action, and by that military character in it which was +instinctively divined upon the part of its opponents, challenged, shortly +after its inception, the armed interference of those ancient traditional +governments, external to and neighbouring upon French territory, which +felt themselves threatened by the rapid advance of democracy.</p> + +<p>With the steps that led from the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> peril of conflict to its actual +outbreak, we are not concerned. That outbreak took place in April 1792, +almost exactly three years after the meeting of the first Revolutionary +Parliament in Versailles.</p> + +<p>The first stages of the war (which was conducted by Austria and Prussia +upon the one side, against the French forces upon the other) were +singularly slow. No general action was engaged in until the month of +September, and even then the struggle between the rival armies took the +form not so much of a pitched battle as of an inconclusive cannonade known +to history as that of <span class="smcap">Valmy</span>. This inconclusive cannonade took place in the +heart of French territory during the march of the invaders upon Paris. +Disease, and the accident of weather, determined the retreat of the +invaders immediately afterwards. In the autumn of the year, the French +forces largely recruited by enthusiastic volunteer levies, but of low +military value, poured over the country then called the Austrian +Netherlands and now Belgium. But their success was shortlived. A mere +efflux of numbers could not hold against the trained and increasing +resistance of the Imperial soldiers. In the spring of 1793 the retreat +began, and through the summer of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> year the military position of +Revolutionary France grew graver and graver. Internal rebellions of the +most serious character broke out over the whole territory of the Republic. +In Normandy, in the great town of Lyons, in Marseilles, and particularly +in the Western districts surrounding the mouth of the Loire, these +rebellions had each in turn their moment of success, while the great naval +station of Toulon opened its port to the enemy, and received the combined +English and Spanish Fleets.</p> + +<p>Coincidently with the enormous task of suppressing this widespread +domestic rebellion, the Revolutionary Government was compelled to meet the +now fully organised advance of its foreign enemies. It was at war no +longer with Austria and Prussia alone, but with England, with Holland, +with Spain as well, and the foreign powers not only thrust back the +incursion which the French had made beyond their frontiers, but proceeded +to attack and to capture, one after the other, that barrier of fortresses +in the north-east which guarded the advance on Paris.</p> + +<p>The succession of misfortune after misfortune befalling the French arms +was checked, and the tide turned by the victory won at Wattignies in +October 1793. After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> that victory the immediate peril of a successful +invasion, coupled with the capture of Paris, was dissipated. But it was +yet uncertain for many months which way the tide would turn—whether the +conflict would end in a sort of stale-mate by which the French should +indeed be left independent for the moment, but the armed governments of +Europe their enemies also left powerful to attack and in the end to ruin +them; or whether (as was actually the case) the French should ultimately +be able to take the offensive, to re-cross their frontiers, and to dictate +to their foes a triumphant peace.</p> + +<p>As I have said, the great action from which history must date the long +series of French triumphs, bears the name of Fleurus; but before Fleurus +there came that considerable success which made Fleurus possible, to which +history gives the name of <span class="smcap">Tourcoing</span> (from the town standing in the midst +of the very large and uncertain area over which the struggle was +maintained), and which provides the subject of these pages.</p> + +<p>Fleurus was decided in June 1794. It was not a battle in which British +troops were concerned, and therefore can form no part of this series. +Tourcoing was decided in the preceding May, and though,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> I repeat, it +cannot be made the fixed and striking starting-point from which to date +the long years of the French advantages, yet it was, as it were, the seed +of those advantages, and it was Tourcoing, in its incomplete and +complicated success, which made possible all that was to follow.</p> + +<p>Tourcoing, then, must be regarded as an unexpected, not wholly conclusive, +but none the less fundamental phase in the development of political forces +which led to the establishment of the modern world. Its immediate result, +though not decisive, was appreciable. To use a metaphor, it was felt in +Paris, and to a less extent in London, Berlin, and in Vienna, that the +door against which the French were desperately pushing, though not fully +open, was thrust ajar. The defeat of a portion of the allied forces in +this general action, the inefficacy of the rest, the heartening which it +put into the French defence, and the moral effect of such trophies gained, +and such a rout inflicted, were of capital import to the whole story of +the war.</p> + +<p>This is the political aspect in which we must regard the Battle of +Tourcoing, but its chief interest by far lies in its purely military +aspect; in the indiscretion which so nearly led the French forces to +annihilation;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> in the plan which was laid to surround and to destroy those +forces by the convergence of the English, Prussian, and Austrian columns; +in the way in which that plan came to nothing, and resulted only in a +crushing disaster to one advanced portion of the forces so converging.</p> + +<p>Tourcoing is rather a battle for military than for civilian historians, +but those who find recreation in military problems upon their own account, +apart from their political connection, will always discover the accidents +of this engagement, its unexpected developments, and its final issue to be +of surpassing interest.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II</h2> +<h3>THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION</h3> + +<p>In order to understand what happened at the Battle of Tourcoing, it is +first necessary to have in mind the general situation of the forces which +opposed each other round and about what is now the Franco-Belgian +frontier, in the spring of 1794.</p> + +<p>These forces were, of course, those of the French Republic upon the one +hand, upon the other the coalition with its varied troops furnished by +Austria, by Prussia, by England, and some few by sundry of the small +States which formed part of the general alliance for the destruction of +the new democracy.</p> + +<p>The whole campaign of 1794 stands apart from that of 1793. The intervening +winter was a period during which, if we disregard a number of small +actions in which the French took the offensive, nothing of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> moment was +done upon either side, and we must begin our study with the preparations, +originating in the month of February, for the active efforts which it was +proposed to attempt when the spring should break.</p> + +<p>In that month of February, Mack, recently promoted to the rank of +Major-General in the Austrian army, met the Duke of York, the young +soldier son of George III., in London, to concert the common plan. It was +upon the 12th of that month that this meeting took place. Mack brought the +news to the British Cabinet that the Emperor of Austria, his master, was +prepared to act as Commander-in-Chief of the allied army in the coming +campaign, proposed a general plan of advancing from the Belgian frontier +upon Paris after the capture of the frontier fortresses, and negotiated +for the largest possible British contingent.</p> + +<p>Coburg, it was arranged, should be the General in practical command (under +the nominal headship of the Emperor). Prussian troops, in excess of the +twenty thousand which Prussia owed as a member of the Empire, were +obtained upon the promise of a large subsidy from England and Holland, and +with the month of April some 120,000 men were holding the line from Treves +to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> the sea. This passed through and occupied Dinant, Bavai, Valenciennes, +St Amand, Denain, Tournai, Ypres, and Nieuport. To this number must be +added men in the garrisons, perhaps some 40,000 more. Of this long line +the strength lay in the centre.</p> + +<p>The central army, under the general command of Coburg, who had his +headquarters at Valenciennes, was, if we exclude men in garrisons, +somewhat over 65,000 in strength, or more than half the whole strength of +the long line. With Coburg in the central army was the Duke of York with +some 22,000, and the Prince of Orange with a rather smaller contingent of +Dutch.</p> + +<p>Over against this long line with its heavy central “knot” or bulk of men +under Coburg, in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes, the genius of Carnot +had mustered over 200,000 French troops, which, when we have deducted +various items for garrisons and other services, counted as effective more +than 150,000 but less than 160,000 men. This French line extended from the +sea to Maubeuge, passing through Dunquerque, Cassel, Lille, Cambrai, and +Bouchain.</p> + +<p>It was as a fact a little before the opening of April that the French +began the campaign by taking the offensive on a large scale upon the +29th of March.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i020tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/i020.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p class="center">Sketch Map showing the opposing French and Allied lines. April 1794</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>Pichegru, who was in command of that frontier army, attacked, with 30,000 +men, the positions of the allies near Le Cateau, well to the right or +south-east of their centre and his, and was beaten back.</p> + +<p>It was upon the 14th of April that the Emperor of Austria joined Coburg at +Valenciennes, held a review of his troops (including the British +contingent, which will be given later in detail), fixed his headquarters +in the French town of Le Cateau, and at once proceeded to the first +operation of the campaign, which was the siege of the stronghold of +Landrecies. The Dutch contingent of the allies drove in the French +outposts and carried the main French position in front of the town within +that week. By the 22nd of April the garrison of Landrecies was contained, +the beleaguering troops had encircled it, and the siege was begun.</p> + +<p>After certain actions (most of them partial, and one of peculiar +brilliance in the history of the British cavalry), actions each of +interest, and some upon a considerable scale, but serving only to confuse +the reader if they were here detailed, Landrecies fell after eight days’ +siege, upon the 30th of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> April. An advance of the Austrian centre, after +this success, was naturally expected by the French.</p> + +<p>That normal development of the campaign did not take place on account of a +curious episode in the strategy of this moment to which I beg the reader +to give a peculiar attention. It is necessary to grasp exactly the nature +of that episode, for it determined all that was to follow.</p> + +<p>While the fate of Landrecies still hung in the balance, and before the +surrender of the town, Pichegru had, in another part of the long line, +scored one of those successes which in any game or struggle are worse than +losing a trick or suffering a defeat. It was one of those successes in +which one gets the better of one’s opponent in one chance part of the +general contest, but so triumphs without a set plan, with no calculation +upon what should follow upon the achievement, and therefore with every +prospect of finding oneself in a worse posture after it than before.</p> + +<p>To take an analogy from chess: Pichegru’s error, which I will presently +describe, might be compared to the action of a player who, taking a castle +of his opponent’s with his queen, thereby leaves his king unguarded and +open to check-mate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Wherever men are opposed one to the other in lines, each line having the +mission to advance against the other, it is a fatal move to get what +footballers call “’fore side”: to let a portion of your forces advance too +far from the general line held by the whole, and to have the advanced part +of that portion thus isolated from the support of its fellows. Such a +formation invites a concentration of your opponents against the isolated +body, and may lead to its destruction.</p> + +<p>It was precisely in this position that Pichegru placed a portion of his +forces by the ill-advised advance he made down the valley of the Lys to +Courtrai.</p> + +<p>Taking advantage of the way in which the main forces of the allies were +tied to the siege of Landrecies, the French commander wisely moved forward +the whole of his forces to the north and west, pushing the enemy back +before him to the line Ypres-Menin, and besieging Menin itself. But most +unwisely he not only permitted to advance, but himself directed and led, a +body of 30,000 men (the command of General Souham) far forward of this +general movement: he actually carried it on as far as the town of +Courtrai.</p> + +<p>The accompanying sketch map shows how much too far advanced this wedge +of men (so large a contingent to imperil by isolation!) was beyond the +general line, and, to repeat the phrase I have just used, a metaphor which +best expresses my meaning, Souham and his division, by Pichegru’s direct +orders, had got “’fore side.”</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i024.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>The only excuse that can be pleaded for Pichegru’s folly in this matter, +was the temptation presented by the weak garrison of Courtrai, and the +bait which a facile temporary success always holds out for a man who has +formed no consistent general plan. But that very excuse is the strongest +condemnation of the inexcusable error, and this strategical fault of +Pichegru’s was soon paid for by the imperilling of all the great body of +French troops within that rashly projected triangle.</p> + +<p>For the moment Pichegru may have foolishly congratulated himself that he +had done something of military value, as he had certainly done something +striking. Menin fell to the French on the same day that Landrecies did to +the Austrians, and this further success doubtless tempted him to remain +with the head of his wedge at Courtrai, when every consideration of +strategy should have prompted him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> retrace his steps and to recall the +over-advanced division back into line.</p> + +<p>This isolated position down the valley of the Lys, this wedge thrust out +in front of Lille, positively asked the allies to attack it.</p> + +<p>The enemy was a fortnight developing his plan, but his delay was equalled +by Pichegru’s determination to hold the advanced post he had captured; and +when the allies did finally close in upon that advanced post, nothing but +a series of accidents, which we shall follow in detail when we come to the +story of the action, saved Souham from annihilation. And the destruction +of Souham’s division, considering its numbers and its central position, +might have involved the whole French line in a general defeat.</p> + +<p>As I have said, it was at the end of April that this false success of +Pichegru’s was achieved, and a whole fortnight was to elapse before the +allies concentrated to take advantage of that error, and to cut off +Souham’s division.</p> + +<p>That fortnight was full of minor actions, not a few of them interesting to +the student of military history, and one again remarkable as a feat of +English horse. I deliberately omit all mention of these lest I should +confuse the reader and disturb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> his conception of the great battle that +was to follow.</p> + +<p>That battle proceeded upon a certain plan thought out in detail, perfectly +simple in character, and united in conception. It failed, as we shall see; +and by its failure turned what should have been the cutting-off and +destruction of Souham’s command into a signal French victory. But before +we can understand the causes of its failure, we must grasp the plan itself +in its major lines, and with that object I shall discuss it in my next +section under the title of “The Plan of the Allies.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III</h2> +<h3>THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES</h3> + +<p>If the reader will look at the map opposite he will see in what +disposition the armies of the allies were, at the end of April and the +first days of May 1794, to carry into effect the plan which I proceed to +describe.</p> + +<p>There, in its triangle or advanced wedge, with a base stretching across +Lille and an apex at Courtrai, lay the exposed French division, Souham’s.</p> + +<p>Clerfayt was to the north of that wedge. The French, in pushing their +wedge up to Courtrai, had thus separated him from the rest of the allies. +Clerfayt lay with his command round about the district of Roulers; he +attempted to return and oust Souham, but he failed, and to the north of +the French wedge, and separated from the rest of the allies by its +intervening thousands, he remained up to, throughout, and after the great +battle that was to follow.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i029tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/i029.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>Right away down south, nearly sixty miles as the crow flies, lay the bulk +of the Austrian army, Coburg’s command, round the town which it had just +captured, Landrecies. The Duke of York’s command, detached from this main +army of Coburg, had been ordered north, and was, by May 3rd, at Tournai. +To the east lay the Prussian forces together with a small body of +Hanoverians, about 4000 in number, which last could be brought up on to +the Scheldt River when necessary.</p> + +<p>It will thus be seen that the allies, at the moment when the plan was +about to be formulated, lay on either side of the French wedge, and that +any scheme for cutting off that wedge from the main French line must +consist in causing a great force of the allies to appear rapidly and +unexpectedly between Courtrai and Lille.</p> + +<p>In order to do this, it was necessary to get Clerfayt to march down south +to some point where he could cross the River Lys, while the rest of the +allies were marching north from their southern positions to join hands +with him.</p> + +<p>When this larger mass of the allies coming up from the south and the east +should have joined hands with Clerfayt, all the great French body lying +advanced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> in the valley of the Lys round Menin and Courtrai would be cut +off.</p> + +<p>Now the success of such a plan obviously depended upon two factors: +synchrony and surprise. That is, its success depended upon the accurate +keeping of a time-table, and upon carrying it out too quickly and +unexpectedly for Souham to fall back in time.</p> + +<p>Clerfayt’s force coming down from the north, all the rest of the allies +coming up from the east and the south must march with the common object of +reaching “R,” a fixed rendezvous, agreed upon beforehand, and of meeting +there together at some appointed time. If any considerable body lagged +behind the rest, if part of the great force marching up from the south, +for instance, failed to keep in line with the general advance, or if +Clerfayt bungled or delayed, the junction would be imperfect or might even +not take place at all, and the number of men present to cut off the French +when a partial and imperfect junction had been effected, might be too +small to maintain itself astraddle of the French communications, and to +prevent the great French force from breaking its way through back to +Lille.</p> + +<p>So much for synchrony: and as for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> surprise, it is obvious that for the +success of this plan it was necessary to work both rapidly and secretly.</p> + +<p>Here was Souham with a body of men which recent reinforcement had raised +to some 40,000, lying much too far ahead of the general French line and in +peril of being cut off. Pichegru was foolish to maintain him in that +advanced position, but, though that was an error, it was an error based +upon a certain amount of calculation. Pichegru, and Souham under his +orders, kept to their perilous position round Courtrai, because it did +after all cut the allies in two, and because they knew that they could +deal with Clerfayt’s force upon the north (which was only half their own), +while they also knew that the bulk of their enemies were tied down, far +away to the south, by the operations round Landrecies.</p> + +<p>If Souham at Courtrai got news in time of the march northward of that main +southern force, he had only to fall back upon Lille to be saved.</p> + +<p>It was not until the 10th of May that the plan was elaborated whereby it +was hoped to annihilate Souham’s command, and this plan seems to have +occurred first to the Duke of York upon the evening of that day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> after a +successful minor action between his troops and the French just outside +Tournai.</p> + +<p>The Duke of York had been at Tournai a week, having come up there from +Landrecies after the fall of that fortress, though the mass of the +Austrian forces still remained away in the south. The week had been spent +in “feeling” the south-eastern front of the French advanced “wedge,” and +it was by the evening of the 10th that the Duke of York appears to have +decided that the time was ripe for a general movement.</p> + +<p>At any rate, it was upon the morrow, the 11th, that the English Prince +sent word to Clerfayt that he intended to submit to the Emperor, who was +the ultimate authority upon the side of the allies, a plan for the general +and decisive action he desired to bring about. On the next day, the 12th, +a Monday, the Duke of York wrote to Clerfayt that he hoped, “on the day +after the morrow” (that is, upon the Wednesday, the 14th), “to take a +decisive movement against the enemy.” And we may presume that the Duke had +communicated to the Emperor the nature of his plan. For on the 13th, the +Tuesday, the Emperor was in possession of it, and his orders, sent out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +upon that day, set out the plan in detail.<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> That plan was as follows:—</p> + +<p>Clerfayt, with his force, which was rather less than 20,000 all told, was +to march south from Thielt, his headquarters for the moment, and advance +upon the little town of Wervicq upon the River Lys. Here there was a +bridge, and Clerfayt was also in possession of pontoons wherewith to pass +the stream. Meanwhile, the southern mass of the allies was to concentrate +upon the Scheldt in the following manner:</p> + +<p>The few thousand Hanoverians, under Bussche, were to take up their +position at Warcoing, just upon and across that river. Two miles further +south, Otto, with a larger Austrian force accompanied by certain English +cavalry (the numbers will follow), was to concentrate at Bailleul.</p> + +<p>The Duke of York’s own large force, which had been at Tournai for over a +week, was to go forward a little and concentrate at Templeuve. Five miles +to the south of Templeuve, at Froidmont, a column, somewhat larger than +the Duke of York’s, under Kinsky, was to concentrate.</p> + +<p>There were thus to be concentrated upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> the south of the French wedge +four separate bodies under orders to advance northward together.</p> + +<p>The first, under Bussche, was only about 4000 strong, the Hanoverians and +Prussians; the second, under Otto, from about 10,000 strong; the third, +under the Duke of York, of much the same strength, or a little less; and +the fourth, under Kinsky, some 11,000.</p> + +<p>These four numbered nearly, or quite, 35,000 men, less than the “nearly +40,000” at which certain French historians have estimated their strength.</p> + +<p>To these four columns (which I will beg the reader to remember by their +numbers of first, second, third, and fourth, as well as by the names of +their commanders, Bussche, Otto, York, and Kinsky) a fifth must be added, +the appreciation of whose movements and failure is the whole explanation +of the coming battle.</p> + +<p>The fifth column was a body of no less than 16,000 men coming from the +main Austrian body far south, and ordered to be at St Amand upon the +Scheldt somewhat before the concentration of the other four columns, and +to advance from St Amand to Pont-à-Marcq. Upon reaching Pont-à-Marcq this +fifth column would be in line with the other four at Warcoing, Bailleul,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +Templeuve, and Froidmont, and ready to take its part in the great forward +movement towards the north.</p> + +<p>In order to appreciate the way in which the issue was bound to depend upon +this fifth column, I must now detail the orders given to all six, the five +columns in the valley of the Scheldt, and the sixth body, under Clerfayt, +north of the Lys; for it is these orders which constitute the soul of the +plan.</p> + +<p>Bussche, with his small body of 4000 Hanoverians, the first column, had +the task of “holding” the apex of the French wedge when the attack should +begin. That is, it was his task to do no more with his inferior forces +than send one portion up the road towards Courtrai, so that the advanced +French troops there should be engaged while another part of his small +command should attack the little town of Mouscron, which the French held, +of course, for it was within their wedge of occupation. It was obviously +not hoped that this little body could do more than keep the French +occupied, prevent their falling back towards Lille, and perhaps make them +believe that the main attack was coming from Bussche’s men.</p> + +<p>The second column, under Otto, was to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> advance upon Tourcoing, in those +days a little town, now a great manufacturing city.</p> + +<p>The third column, that under the Duke of York, was to march side by side +with Otto’s column, and to make for Mouveaux, a village upon a level with +Tourcoing upon this line of advance, and to be reached by marching through +Roubaix (now also a great manufacturing town, but then a small place).</p> + +<p>None of these advances, Bussche’s, Otto’s, or York’s, was of any +considerable length. The longest march through which any of these three +columns had to fight its way was that of the Duke of York from Templeuve +to Mouveaux, and even this was not eight miles.</p> + +<p>The fourth column, under Kinsky, had a harder task and a longer march. It +was to carry Bouvines, which was in the hands of the French and nearly +seven miles from Froidmont (Kinsky’s point of departure), and when it had +done this it was to turn to the north with one part of its force in order +to shelter the march of the Duke of York from attacks by the French troops +near Lille, while another part of its force was to join with the fifth +column and march up with it until both came upon a level<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> with York and +Otto in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux.</p> + +<p>Now it was to this fifth column, the 16,000 men or more under the +Arch-Duke Charles, that the great work of the day was assigned. From +Pont-à-Marcq they must attack a great French body quite equal to their own +in numbers, even when part of Kinsky’s force had joined them, which French +force lay in the camp at Sainghin. They must thrust this force back +towards Lille, pour up northward, and arrive in support of Otto and York +by the time these two commanders were respectively at Tourcoing and +Mouveaux.</p> + +<p>In other words, the fifth column, that of the Arch-Duke Charles, was asked +to make an advance of nearly fourteen miles, involving heavy fighting in +its first part, and yet to synchronise with columns who had to advance no +more than five miles or seven.</p> + +<p>Supposing all went well, Clerfayt—crossing the Lys at Wervicq at the same +hour which saw the departure of the five southern columns from Warcoing, +Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and Pont-à-Marcq respectively, was to +advance southward from the river towards Mouveaux and Tourcoing, a +distance of some seven miles, while the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> others were advancing on the same +points from the south.</p> + +<p>If the time-table were accurately kept and this great combined movement +all fitted in, Clerfayt would join hands with the second, third, fourth, +and fifth columns somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and +Mouveaux, a great force of over 60,000 men would lie between the French +troops at Lille and Souham’s 40,000 in the “advanced wedge,” and those +40,000 thus isolated were, in a military sense, destroyed.</p> + +<p>Such being the mechanism or map of the scheme, we must next inquire the +exact dates and hours upon which the working of the whole was planned.</p> + +<p>The Duke of York, as we have seen when he was arranging the business and +writing to Clerfayt and the Emperor, had talked of moving upon the 14th, +by which presumably he meant organising the attack on the 14th, and +setting the first columns in motion from their places of rendezvous in the +early hours of that day, Wednesday, before dawn.</p> + +<p>If that was in his mind, it shows him to have been a prompt and energetic +man, and to have had a full appreciation of the place which surprise +occupied in the chances of success. If, indeed, the Emperor got the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Duke +of York’s message in time on the 12th, if he had at once accepted the +plan, and had with Napoleonic rapidity ordered the bulk of his forces +(which were still right away south and east) to move, he might have had +them by forced marches upon and across the Scheldt, and ready to execute +the plan by the 14th, or at any rate by the morning of the 15th.</p> + +<p>But from what we know of the family to which the Duke of York belonged, it +is exceedingly improbable that this younger son of George III. had, on +this one occasion only, any lightning in his brain; and even if he did +appreciate more or less the importance of rapid action, the Emperor did +not appreciate it. He committed the two contradictory faults of delaying +the movement and of asking too much marching of his men, and it was not +until the morning of the Wednesday, May the 14th, that the bulk of the +Austrian army, which still lay in the Valenciennes and Landrecies +district, broke up for its northward march, to arrive at the rendezvous +beyond the Scheldt, and to carry out the plan.<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>It was not until Thursday the 15th of May that the Emperor joined the Duke +of York at Tournai, and very late upon the same day the Arch-Duke Charles +had brought up the main body of the Austrian forces from the south to the +town of St Amand.</p> + +<p>We shall see later what a grievous error it was to demand so violent an +effort from the men of the Arch-Duke Charles’ command. From Landrecies +itself to St Amand is 30 miles as the crow flies; and though, of course, +the mass of the troops which the Arch-Duke Charles had been thus commanded +to bring up northward in such haste were most of them well on the right +side of Landrecies when the order to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> advance reached them, yet the +average march undertaken by his men in little more than twenty-four hours +was a full twenty miles, and some of his units must have covered nearer +thirty. I will not delay further on this point here; its full importance +will appear when we come to talk of the action itself.</p> + +<p>The Arch-Duke Charles being only as far as St Amand on the evening of +Thursday the 15th, and his rendezvous, that of the fifth column in the +great plan, being Pont-à-Marcq, a further good sixteen miles +north-westward, it was evident that the inception of that plan and the +simultaneous advance of all the five columns from their five +starting-points of Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and +Pont-à-Marcq, could not begin even upon the 16th. It would take the best +part of a day to bring the Arch-Duke Charles up to Pont-à-Marcq; his men +were in imperative need of rest during a full night at St Amand, and it is +probable, though I have no proof of it, that he had not even fully +concentrated there by the evening of the 15th, and that his last units +only joined him during the forenoon of the 16th.</p> + +<p>The whole of that day, therefore, the 16th, was consumed so far as the +first, second,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> third, and fourth columns were concerned, in merely +gathering and marshalling their forces, and occupying, before nightfall, +the points from which they were to depart simultaneously in the combined +advance of the morrow. They <i>had</i> to wait thus for the dawn of the 17th, +because they had to allow time for the fifth column to come up.</p> + +<p>The time-table imposed upon the great plan by these delays is now +apparent. The moment when all the strings of the net were to be pulled +together round Souham was the space between midnight and dawn of Saturday +the 17th of May. And the hour when all the six bodies of the allies were +to join hands at “R” near Tourcoing was the noon of that day.</p> + +<p>Before day broke upon the 17th, Clerfayt was to find himself at Wervicq +upon the River Lys and across that stream, while of the five southern +columns the Arch-Duke Charles was to be attacking the French troops just +in front of Pont-à-Marcq with the fifth column at the same moment; Kinsky, +with the fourth, was to be well on the way from Froidmont to Bouvines +where he was to attack the French also and cross the bridge; the Duke of +York, with the third, was to be well on the way from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Templeuve to Lannoy; +Otto, with the second, was to be equally advanced upon his line, somewhere +by Wattrelos in his march upon Tourcoing; while Bussche, with his small +first column, on the extreme north, was to be getting into contact with +the French posts south of Courtrai, which it was his duty to “hold,” +impressing upon Souham the idea that a main attack might develop in that +quarter, and so deluding the French into maintaining their perilously +advanced stations until they were cut off from Lille by the rest of the +allies.</p> + +<p>The morning would be filled by the advance of Clerfayt from Wervicq +southward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing, while the corresponding fighting +advance northward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing also, of Otto, York, Kinsky, +and the Arch-Duke Charles, should result somewhere about noon in their +joining hands with Clerfayt and forming one great body: a body cutting off +Courtrai from Lille, and the 40,000 under Souham from their fellows in the +main French line.</p> + +<p>With such a time-table properly observed, the plan should have succeeded, +and between the noon and the evening of that Saturday, the great force +which Souham<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> commanded should have been at the mercy of the allies.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>Such was the plan and such the time-table upon which it was schemed. Its +success depended, of course, as I have said, upon an exact keeping of that +time-table, and also upon the net being drawn round Souham before he had +guessed what was happening. The second of these conditions, we shall see +when we come to speak of “The Preliminaries of the Action,” was +successfully accomplished. The first was not; and its failure is the story +of the defeat suffered by the Duke of York in particular, and the +consequent break-down of the whole strategical conception of the allies.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>But before dealing with this it is necessary to establish a disputed +point.</p> + +<p>I have spoken throughout of the plan as the Duke of York’s. Because it +failed, and because the Duke of York was an English prince, historians in +this country have not only rejected this conclusion, but, as a rule, have +not even mentioned it. The plan has been represented as Mack’s plan, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +typical example of Austrian pedantry and folly, the Duke of York as the +victim of foolish foreigners who did not know their business, and it has +even been hinted that the Austrians desired defeat! With the latter +extravagant and even comic suggestion I will deal later in this study; for +the moment I am only concerned with the responsibility of the Duke of +York.</p> + +<p>It must, in the first place, be clearly understood that the failure of the +plan does not reflect upon the judgment of that commander. It failed +because Clerfayt was not up to time, and because too much had been asked +of the fifth column. The Duke came of a family not famous for genius; he +was exceedingly young, and whatever part he may have had in the framing of +this large conception ought surely to stand to his credit.</p> + +<p>It is true that Mack, the Austrian General, drafted details of the plan +immediately before it was carried into execution, and our principal +military historian in this country tells us how “on the 16th, Mack +prepared an elaborate plan which he designed.”<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small></p> + +<p>Well, the 16th was the Friday.</p> + +<p>Now we know that on the 11th of May,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> the Sunday, the Emperor and his +staff had no intention of making a combined attack to cut off Souham from +Lille, for orders were given to Clerfayt on that day to engage Souham +along the valley of the Lys for the purpose of holding the attention of +the French, and in the hope of recovering Menin—the exact opposite of +what would have been ordered if a secret and unexpected attempt to cut off +Souham by crossing further up the river had been intended. It was at the +same moment that the Duke of York was sending word to Clerfayt on his own +account, to the effect that he intended to submit a plan to the Emperor, +and it is worth noting that in the very order which was sent to Clerfayt +by the Emperor he was told to refer to the Duke of York as to his future +movements.</p> + +<p>The archives of the Ministry of War at Vienna have it on record that the +Duke of York made a definite statement of a plan to Clerfayt, which plan +he intended to submit to the Emperor immediately, and a letter dated upon +the Monday, the 12th—four days before there is any talk of Mack’s +arranging details,—York writes to Clerfayt telling him that he hopes to +make his decisive movement against the enemy on the Wednesday, the 14th.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>On the 13th, Tuesday, the orders of the Emperor to both Clerfayt and the +Duke of York (which are also on record) set down this plan in detail, +mentioning the point Wervicq at which Clerfayt was expected to cross the +river Lys, and at the same time directing the Duke of York to march +northward with the object of joining Clerfayt, and thus cutting off the +French forces massed round Courtrai from their base. Further, in this same +despatch, the initiative is particularly left to the Duke of York, and it +is once more from him that Clerfayt is to await decisions as to the moment +and details of the operation.</p> + +<p>The same archives record the Duke of York sending Lieut.-Colonel Calvert +to Clerfayt upon the 14th, to tell him that he meant to attack upon the +morrow, the 15th, and they further inform us that it was on the English +Prince’s learning how scattered were Clerfayt’s units, and how long it +would therefore take him to concentrate, that action was delayed by some +thirty-six hours.</p> + +<p>Evidence of this sort is absolutely conclusive. The plan was not Mack’s; +it was York’s.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV</h2> +<h3>THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE</h3> + +<p>Tourcoing is an action the preliminaries of which are easy to describe, +and need occupy little of our space, because it was a battle in which the +plan of one side was developed and prosecuted almost to its conclusion +without a corresponding plan upon the other side.</p> + +<p>As a rule, the preliminaries of a battle consist in the dispositions taken +by each side for hours or for days—sometimes for weeks—beforehand, in +order to be in a posture to receive or to attack the other side. These +preliminaries include manœuvring for position, and sometimes in the +fighting of minor subsidiary actions before the main action takes place.</p> + +<p>Now, in the case of Tourcoing, there was none of this, for the French at +Tourcoing were surprised.</p> + +<p>The surprise was not complete, but it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> was sufficiently thorough to make +the whole of the fighting during the first day, Saturday (at least, the +whole of the fighting in the centre of the field), a triumph for the +allied advance.</p> + +<p>Let us first appreciate exactly how matters looked to Souham when, on the +15th, the Thursday, the blow was about to fall upon him.</p> + +<p>He had under his orders, with headquarters now at Courtrai, now at Menin +(see sketch map on p. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>), rather less than 40,000. In that dash upon +Courtrai a fortnight before, which had led to the dangerous establishment +of so large an advanced body in front of the main French line, one main +effect of that advance had been to push back, away to the left beyond the +Lys, more than 16,000, but less than 20,000 men under the Austrian +General, Clerfayt. With that army, Clerfayt’s body, Souham had remained +continually in touch. Detachments of it were continually returning to the +valley of the Lys to harass his posts, and, in a word, Clerfayt’s was the +only force of the enemy which Souham thought he had need to bear in mind.</p> + +<p>The bulk of the Austrian army he knew to be quite four days’ march away to +the south, at first occupied in the siege of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Landrecies, and later +stationed in the vicinity of that fortress.</p> + +<p>Of course, lying in his exposed position, Souham knew that a general +attack upon him from the south was one of the possibilities of the +situation, but it was not a thing which he thought could come +unexpectedly: at any rate he thought himself prepared, by the use of his +scouts and his spies, to hear of any such advance in ample time.</p> + +<p>In case he should be attacked, the attack might take one of many forms. It +might try to drive him over the Lys, where Clerfayt would be ready to meet +him; or it might be a general attack upon Courtrai as a centre; or it +might be (what had, as we have seen, been actually determined) an attempt +to cut him and all his 40,000 off from the main French line.</p> + +<p>This main French line ran through the town of Lille, and Lille not only +had its garrison, but also at Sainghin, outside the fortifications to the +south-east, a camp, under Bonnaud, of 20,000 men. If the attack from the +south or from the north, or from both, managed to cut Souham off from +Bonnaud’s camp, and from the garrison at Lille, he was ruined, and his +40,000 were lost; but he hoped to be kept sufficiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> informed of the +enemy’s movements to fall back in time, should such an attempt be made, +and to provide for it by effecting a junction with Bonnaud before it was +delivered.</p> + +<p>Pichegru, the Commander of the whole French army of the north, who had +ordered the advance on Courtrai, happened to be absent upon a visit to the +posts away south upon the Sambre River. Souham was therefore temporarily +in full command of all the troops which were to be concerned in the coming +battle. But the position was only a temporary one, and that must account +for the deference he paid to the advice of the four generals subordinate +to him, and for the council which he called at Menin on the critical +Saturday night which decided the issue. He himself quotes his commission +in the following terms:—“Commander-in-Chief of all the troops from the +camp at Sainghin to Courtrai inclusive.”</p> + +<p>From the beginning of the week, when a detachment of his troops had but +just recovered from a sharp action with the Duke of York’s men towards +Tournai, Souham appreciated that the forces of the enemy were gradually +increasing to the south of him, and that the posts upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Scheldt were +receiving additional enforcements of men. But neither his judgment nor the +reports that came in to him led him to believe that the mass of the +Austrian army was coming north to attack him. And in this he was right, +for, as we have seen, the Emperor did not make up his mind until Wednesday +the 14th, which was the day when orders were sent to the Arch-Duke Charles +to march northward.</p> + +<p>Souham’s attitude of mind up to, say, the Thursday may be fairly described +in some such terms as follows:—</p> + +<p>“I know that a concentration is going on in the valley of the Scheldt to +the south and east of me; it is pretty big, but not yet exactly dangerous, +though I shouldn’t wonder if I were attacked in a few days from that +quarter. What I am much more certain of is that active and mobile force +which I beat off the other day, but which is still intact under the best +General opposed to me, Clerfayt. I hear that it is marching south again, +and my best troops and my offensive must be directed against that. I am +far superior in numbers to Clerfayt, and if I can bring him to an action +and break him, I can then turn to the others at my leisure: for the moment +I have only one front to think of—that on the north.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>But the negligence which he or his informants were guilty of—a negligence +that was to prove so nearly fatal to all those 40,000 French +troops—consisted in the failure to discover what was up upon Friday the +16th.</p> + +<p>During those twenty-four hours the Arch-Duke Charles had brought up his +column to St Amand; the other four columns upon the Scheldt were +concentrated, and upon the north of the Lys, Clerfayt had got orders to +move upon Wervicq, and was, during the middle hours of Friday, actually +upon the march. Yet, during all that day, Friday the 16th, Souham remained +ignorant of the extremity of his peril.</p> + +<p>The orders which he dictated upon the Friday night, and largely repeated +upon the following morning of Saturday the 17th of May, show how little he +expected the general action that was upon him. He arranged, indeed, for a +cordon of troops to be watching, in insufficient numbers, the side towards +the Scheldt, and he sent to Bonnaud and the camp at Sainghin, outside +Lille, orders to keep more or less in touch with that cordon. The +instructions to this cordon of troops along the eastern side of the French +position is no more than one of general vigilance. It is still to +Clerfayt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> and towards the north alone that he directs an offensive and +vigorous movement.</p> + +<p>In a word, he was a good twenty-four hours behind with his information. He +was wasting troops north of the Lys in looking for Clerfayt at a time when +that General was already on the march to Wervicq, and he was leaving a +scattered line of insufficient bodies to meet what he did not in the least +expect, the rapid advance of Bussche, Otto, and York during that Saturday +upon Mouscron, Tourcoing, and Roubaix.</p> + +<p>Therefore it was that although Bussche’s insufficient force was driven out +of Mouscron at last by superior numbers, Otto and York succeeded in +sweeping all the resistance before them, and, in the course of that +Saturday, reached the first Tourcoing, the second Roubaix, and even +Mouveaux.</p> + +<p>The whole problem of warfare consists in a comparison between the +information that each side has of the movements of the other. The whole +art of success in war pivots upon the using of your enemy’s ignorance. Had +the allies upon this occasion been more accurate in keeping to their +time-table, and somewhat more rapid in their movements, they would have +caught the French commander still under the illusion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> that there was no +danger, save from the north, and would have succeeded in cutting off and +destroying the main French force by getting in all together between +Courtrai and Lille. For at that same moment, the early hours before +daybreak of the 17th, the allies had begun their movement.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PART_V" id="PART_V"></a>PART V</h2> +<h3>THE TERRAIN</h3> + +<p>The terrain over which the plan of the allies was to be tested must next +be grasped if we are to understand the causes which led to its ultimate +failure.</p> + +<p>That terrain is most conveniently described as an oblong standing up +lengthways north and south, and corresponding to the sketch map overleaf. +That oblong has a base of twenty miles from east to west, a length from +north to south of thirty-five.</p> + +<p>These dimensions are sufficient to show upon what a scale the great plan +of the allies for cutting off Souham at Courtrai was designed.</p> + +<p>At its south-eastern corner the reader will perceive the town of St Amand, +the furthest point south from which the combined movements of the allies +began; while somewhat to the left of its top or northern edge, at the +point marked “A,” the northern-most body connected with that plan, the +body commanded by Clerfayt, was posted at the origin of the movement.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i058tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/i058.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>The object of the whole convergence from the Scheldt on one hand, and from +Clerfayt’s northern position upon the other, being to cut off the French +forces which lay at and south of Courtrai from Lille, and the main line of +the French army, it is evident that the actual fighting and the chances of +success or disaster would take place within a smaller interior oblong, +which I have also marked upon the sketch map. This smaller or interior +oblong measures about sixteen miles at its base by about twenty-five miles +in length, and includes all the significant points of the action.</p> + +<p>The points marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively are the points at which +the five columns advancing from the Scheldt valley northward were to find +themselves before dawn on the morning of Saturday the 17th of May. We are +already acquainted with them. They are Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, +Froidmont, and Pont-à-Marcq respectively; while the point marked 6 is +Wervicq, from which Clerfayt was to start simultaneously with the five +southern columns with the object of meeting his fellows round Tourcoing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>The town of Courtrai will be perceived to lie in the north-eastern angle +of this inner oblong, the town of Lille rather below the middle of its +western side. In all the country round Courtrai, and especially to the +south of it, within the triangle X Y Z, lay the mass of Souham’s command +of 40,000 men. There were many posts, of course, scattered outside that +triangle, and connecting Courtrai with Lille; but the links were weak, and +the main force was where I have indicated it to be.</p> + +<p>A large body of French troops being encamped just under the walls of Lille +at B (by which letter I mark Sainghin camp), and that fortress also +possessing a garrison, the plan of cutting both these off from the 40,000 +French that lay in the country near Courtrai involved getting the main +part of the allies up from these points of departure on the south, and +Clerfayt’s body down from its point of departure on the north to meet upon +the line drawn between Lille and Courtrai. Upon this line (which also +roughly corresponds to the only main road between the two cities) may be +perceived, lying nearer Lille than the centre of such line, the small town +of Tourcoing and the village of Mouveaux. It was upon these two points +that four of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> five southern columns were to converge northward, the +second and third column reaching them first, the fourth and fifth marching +up from the left in aid; and it was also, of course, upon these two points +that Clerfayt was to march southward from the post at Wervicq, that had +been given <i>him</i> as <i>his</i> point of departure before dawn upon that +Saturday morning. If everything went perfectly, the great mass of the +allied army should have found itself, by noon of Saturday the 17th, as I +have said, astraddle of the Lille-Courtrai road, and effectively cutting +off the French troops to the north.</p> + +<p>What was the nature of the wide countryside over which these various +movements were to take place?</p> + +<p>It was part of that great plain of Flanders which stretches from the River +Scheldt almost unbroken to the Straits of Dover and the North Sea. In the +whole of the great oblong represented by my sketch map there is hardly a +point 150 feet above the water level of the main river valleys, while the +great mass of that territory is diversified by no more than very broad and +very shallow rolls of land, the crests of which are sometimes and +exceptionally as much as fifty feet above the troughs, but the greater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +part thirty, twenty, or even less. Here and there an isolated hummock +shows upon the landscape, but the general impression of one who walks +across from the valley of the Lys to that of the Scheldt is of a flat, +monotonous land in which one retains no memory of ascent or descent, and +in which the eye but rarely perceives, and that only from specially chosen +points, any wide horizon.</p> + +<p>To-day the greater part of this country suffers from the curse of +industrialism and repeats—of course, with far less degradation—the +terrible aspect of our own manufacturing towns. Roubaix and Tourcoing in +particular are huge straggling agglomerations of cotton-spinners and their +hands. A mass of railways and tramways cut the countryside, and the evil +presence of coal-smoke mars it everywhere: at least within the region of +Lille, Tourcoing, and Roubaix.</p> + +<p>In May 1794, though a considerable industry had begun to grow up in Lille +itself, the wide, open countryside round the town was entirely +agricultural. Much of it was what soldiers call “blind” country: that is, +it was cut up into fields with numerous hedges; there were long farm walls +and a great number of small watercourses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> fringed with trees. But, on the +other hand, there was very little wood. Moreover, though there were few +places from which one could overlook any considerable view, the +“blindness” of the field, as a whole, has been much exaggerated in the +attempt to excuse or explain the disaster of which it was the theatre. The +southern part of it is open enough, and so is the north-eastern portion, +in which the first column operated. Of the soil no particular mention is +needed; most of the great roads were paved; the weather had created no +difficulty in the going, and the only trouble in this respect lay in the +northern part, where Clerfayt’s command was condemned to advance over +patches of loose and difficult sand, which made the road, or rather rare +lanes, very heavy.</p> + +<p>It will at once be perceived that, in view of the operations planned, one +principal obstacle exists in the terrain, the River Lys. Few bridges +crossed this stream, and for the purpose of turning the French position +and coming across the Lys from the north to the neighbourhood of Mouveaux, +there was in those days no bridge save the bridge at Wervicq (at the point +marked 6 on the plan at the beginning of this section); but this +difficulty we have seen to be lessened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> by the presence in Clerfayt’s +command of a section of pontoons.</p> + +<p>At first sight one might perceive no other considerable obstacle save the +Lys to the general movement of the allied army. But when the peculiar +course of the little River Marque is pointed out, and the nature of its +stream described, the reader will perceive that it exercised some little +effect upon the fortunes of the battle, and might have exercised a much +greater one to the advantage of the British troops had not the Duke of +York blundered in a fashion which will be later described.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it should be noted that this little stream (it is no +wider than a canal, will barely allow two barges to pass in its lower +course, and will not float one to the southward of Lille) turns up quite +close to Roubaix, and at the nearest point is not a mile from the +market-place of that town.</p> + +<p>Now the significance of such a conformation to the battlefield of +Tourcoing lay in the fact that it was impossible for any considerable +force to manœuvre between the third column (which was marching upon +Roubaix) and the Marque River. Had the Marque not existed, Kinsky, with +the fourth column, would have been free to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> march parallel with York, just +as York marched parallel with Otto, while the Arch-Duke with his fifth +column, instead of having been given a rendezvous right down south at +Pont-à-Marcq (the point marked 5 on my sketch), would have gone up the +main road from St Amand to Lille, and have marched parallel with Kinsky, +just as Kinsky would have marched parallel with York. In other words, the +fourth and the fifth columns, instead of being ordered along the dotted +lines marked upon my sketch (the elbows in which lines correspond to the +crossing places of the Marque), would have proceeded along the +uninterrupted arrow lines which I have put by the side of them.</p> + +<p>The Marque made all the difference. It compelled the fifth column to take +its roundabout road, and the fourth, detained by the delay of the fifth, +was held, as we shall see in what follows, for a whole day at one of the +crossings of the river.</p> + +<p>The little stream has a deep and muddy bottom, and the fields upon its +banks are occasionally marshy. This feature has been exaggerated, as have +the other features I have mentioned, in order to explain or excuse the +defeat, but, at any rate, it prevented the use of crossing places other +than bridges. The Marque has no true<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> fords, and there is no taking an +army across it, narrow as it is, save by the few bridges which then +existed. These bridges I have marked upon the sketch.</p> + +<p>So far as the terrain is concerned, then, what we have to consider is +country, flat, but containing low defensive positions, largely cut up, +especially between the Scheldt and Roubaix, by hedges and walls, though +more open elsewhere, and particularly open towards the north: a serious +obstacle to the advance of one body in the shape of the River Lys; and +another obstacle, irritating rather than formidable in character, but +sufficient both by its course and its marshy soil to complicate the +advance, namely, the little River Marque.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>As to the weather, it was misty but fine. The nights in bivouac were +passed without too much discomfort, and the only physical condition which +oppressed portions of the allied army consisted in the error of its +commanders, and proceeded from fatigue.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PART_VI" id="PART_VI"></a>PART VI</h2> +<h3>THE ACTION</h3> + +<p>At about ten o’clock in the morning of Friday the 16th of May, Clerfayt, +in his positions right up north beyond the Lys—positions which lay at and +in front of the town of Thielt, with outposts well to the south and west +of that town,—received the orders of the Emperor.</p> + +<p>These orders were what we know them to be: he was to march southward and +westward and strike the Lys at Wervicq. He was to arrive at that point at +or before nightfall, for in the very first hours of the morrow, Saturday, +and coincidently with the beginning of the advance of the five columns +from their southern posts, he was to cross the Lys and to proceed to join +hands with those columns in the following forenoon, when the heads of them +would have reached the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux.</p> + +<p>Bussche, with the first column, his 4000<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Hanoverians, had no task during +that day but to proceed the mile and a half which separated Warcoing from +the little village of St Leger, and, with the head of his column in that +village, prepare to pass the night and be ready to march forward long +before dawn the next day.</p> + +<p>Field-Marshal Otto, with the second column, was similarly and leisurely +occupied marshalling his 10,000 Austrians and his contingent of British +cavalry, so that the head of his column was at Bailleul ready also to +advance with the early, dark, small hours of the ensuing morning.</p> + +<p>The Duke of York, with his third column of similar numbers, or somewhat +less, was performing a precisely similar task, and ordering his men so +that the head of that column should reach Templeuve by evening and be +ready to march at the same moment as the others did, shortly after +midnight.</p> + +<p>All these three, then, were absolutely ready, fresh from fatigue and in +good order, upon that Friday evening at their appointed posts.</p> + +<p>It is here necessary, as we are chiefly concerned with the British forces, +to detail the composition of this third column which the Duke of York +commanded.</p> + +<p>It consisted of twelve battalions and ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> squadrons, with a further +reserve of sixteen British squadrons under General Erskine, which cavalry +lay somewhat south of Templeuve, but ready to follow up the advance when +it should begin. It was made of two portions, about equal in numbers, + +British and foreign. The foreign half was composed of four squadrons of +Austrian Hussars and seven battalions of infantry, two Hessian and five +Austrian. The British half was composed of a Brigade of Guards counting +four battalions, with portions of the 14th, 37th, and 53rd Foot, while the +British cavalry accompanying it (apart from the squadrons under Erskine) +were six squadrons drawn from the 7th, 15th, and 16th Light Dragoons. It +is to the credit of the young commander<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> that this third column was the +best organised, the most prompt, and, as the event proved, the most +successful during the advance and the most tenacious in the subsequent +defeat.</p> + +<p>The fourth column, under Kinsky, about 11,000 strong, was also ready on +that Friday,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> the 16th of May, concentrated at its point of departure, +Froidmont, and ready to move at the same moment as all the others, shortly +after midnight. But unlike the other three commanders upon his right, +Kinsky was unfortunately handicapped by the position of the fifth column, +that great body of 18,000 to 20,000 men, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +which lay at St Amand, which was to advance next day parallel with Kinsky +and upon his left, and which it was his duty to keep in touch with, and to +link up with the Duke of York’s upon the other side. He was handicapped, I +say, by the situation of the fifth column, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +the heavy strain already imposed upon which, and the accumulating +difficulties it was about to encounter, largely determining the +unfortunate issue of the battle.</p> + +<p>Kinsky got news on that Friday from the Arch-Duke at St Amand that it was +hardly possible for his great body of men to reach the appointed post of +Pont-à-Marcq at the arranged hour of daybreak the next morning. I have +already suggested that this delay cannot only have been due to the very +long march which had been imposed upon the Arch-Duke’s command when it had +been hurriedly summoned up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> from the south to St Amand, forty-eight hours +before. It must also have been due to the fact that not all its units +reached St Amand by the evening of Thursday the 15th. It seemed certain +that there must have been stragglers or bad delays on the morning of the +16th, for it was not until long after nightfall—indeed not until ten +o’clock in the evening—of Friday the 16th that the Arch-Duke was able to +set out from St Amand and take the Pont-à-Marcq road. This unfortunate +body, therefore, the fifth column, which had all the hardest work before +it, which had but one road by which to march (although it was double any +of the others in size), was compelled, after the terrible fatigue of the +preceding days, to push forward sixteen miles through the night in a vain +attempt to reach Pont-à-Marcq, not indeed by daybreak, for that was +obviously impossible, but as soon after as haste and anxiety could +command. Kinsky was tied to Froidmont and unable to move forward until +that fifth column upon his left was at least approaching its goal. For he +had Bonnaud’s 20,000 Frenchmen at Sainghin right in front of him, and +further, if he had moved, his left flank would have been exposed, and, +what is more, he would have failed in his purpose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> which was to link up +the Arch-Duke on one side with the Duke of York upon the other.</p> + +<p>This first mishap, then, must be carefully noted as one prime lack of +synchrony in the origins of the combined movement, and a first clear cause +of the misfortune that was to attend the whole affair. The delay of the +fifth column was the chief cause of the disaster.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, another failure to synchronise, and that a most grave one, was +taking place miles away in the north with Clerfayt’s command beyond the +Lys.</p> + +<p>It is self-evident that where one isolated and distant body is being asked +to co-operate with comrades who are in touch with the commander-in-chief, +and with each other, the exact observation of orders on the part of that +isolated body is of supreme importance to the success of the combination. +<i>They</i>, all lying in much the same region and able to receive and transmit +orders with rapidity, may correct an error before it has developed evil +consequences. But the isolated commander co-operating from a distance, and +receiving orders from headquarters only after a long delay, is under no +such advantage. Thus the tardiness of the fifth column was, as we have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +seen, communicated to the fourth, and the third, second, and first, all in +one line, could or should have easily appreciated the general situation +along the Scheldt. But the sixth body, under Clerfayt, which formed the +keystone of the whole plan, and without whose exact co-operation that plan +must necessarily fail, enjoyed no such advantage, and, if it indulged in +the luxuries of delay or misdirection, could not have its errors corrected +in useful time. A despatch, to reach Clerfayt from headquarters and from +the five columns that were advancing northward from the valley of the +Scheldt, must make a circuit round eastward to the back of Courtrai, and +it was a matter of nearly half a day to convey information from the +Emperor or his neighbouring subordinates in the region of Tournai to this +sixth corps which lay north of the Lys.</p> + +<p>Now it so happened that Clerfayt, though a most able man, and one who had +proved himself a prompt and active general, woefully miscalculated the +time-table of his march and the difficulties before him.</p> + +<p>He got his orders, as I have said, at ten o’clock on the Friday morning. +Whether to give his men a meal, or for whatever other reason, he did not +break up until between one and two. He then began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> ploughing forward with +his sixteen thousand men and more, in two huge columns, through the sandy +country that forms the plain north of the River Lys. He ought to have +known the difficulty of rapid advance over such a terrain, but he does not +seem to have provided for it with any care, and when night fell, so far +from finding himself in possession of Wervicq and master of the crossing +of the river there, the heads of his columns had only reached the great +highway between Menin and Ypres, nearly three miles short of his goal. +Three miles may sound a short distance to the civilian reader, but if he +will consider the efforts of a great body of men and vehicles, pushing +forward through the late hours of an afternoon by wretched lanes full of +loose sand, and finding the darkness upon them with that distance still to +do, he would perceive the importance of the gap. If he further considers +that it was only the heads of the columns that had reached the high road +by dark, and that two great bodies of men were stretched out two miles and +more behind, and if he will add to all this the fact that fighting would +have to be done before Wervicq, three miles away, could be occupied, let +alone the river crossed, he will discover that Clerfayt had missed his +appointment not by three miles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> only in space, but by the equivalent of +half a day in time.</p> + +<p>Even so he should have pushed on and have found himself at least in +contact with the French posts before his advance was halted. He did not do +so. He passed the night in bivouac with the heads of his columns no +further south than the great high road.</p> + +<p>So much for Clerfayt. The Republic would have cut off his head.</p> + +<p>While Clerfayt was thus mishandling his distant and all-important +department of the combined scheme, the corresponding advance from the +valley of the Scheldt northward was proceeding in a manner which is best +appreciated by taking the five columns seriatim and in three groups: the + +first group consisting of the first column (Bussche), the second group of +the second and third columns (Otto and York), the third group of the +fourth and fifth (Kinsky and the Arch-Duke).</p> + +<p> </p> +<h3>I</h3> +<p class="center">THE FIRST COLUMN UNDER BUSSCHE</p> + +<p>This column, as we have seen, consisted of only 4000 men, Hanoverians. Its +function and general plan was to give the French the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> impression that they +were being attacked by considerable forces at the very extremity of their +advanced wedge, and thus to “hold” them there while the great bulk of the +allies were really encircling them to the south and cutting them off from +Lille.</p> + +<p>When we bear this object in view, we shall see that Bussche with his +little force did not do so badly. His orders were to advance with +two-thirds of his men against Mouscron, a little place about five miles in +front of the village of St Leger where he was concentrated; the remaining +third going up the high road towards Courtrai. This last decision, namely, +to detach a third of his troops, has been severely criticised, especially +by English authorities, but the criticism is hardly just if we consider +what Bussche had been sent out to do. He was, of course, to take Mouscron +if he could and hold it, and if that had been the main object of the +orders given him, it would indeed have been folly to weaken his already +weak body by the detaching of a whole third of it four miles away upon the +high road to the eastward. But the capture of Mouscron was not the main +object set before Bussche. The main object was to “hold” the large French +forces in the Courtrai district and to give them the impression of a main +attack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> coming in that direction, and with <i>that</i> object in view it was +very wise so to separate his force as to give Souham the idea that the +French northern extremity was being attacked in several places at once.</p> + +<p>With the early morning, then, of Saturday the 17th, Bussche sent rather +less than 1500 men up the high road towards Courtrai, and, with rather +more than 2500, marched boldly up against Mouscron, where, considering the +immensely superior forces that the French could bring against him, it is +not surprising that he was badly hammered. Indeed, but for the fact that +the French were unprepared (as we saw in the section “The Preliminaries of +the Battle”), he could not have done as much as he did, which was, at the +first onslaught, to rush Mouscron and to hold it in the forenoon of that +day. But the French, thoroughly alarmed by the event (which was precisely +what the plan of the allies intended they should be), easily brought up +overwhelming reinforcements, and Bussche’s little force was driven out of +the town. It was not only driven out of the town, it was pressed hard down +the road as far as Dottignies within a mile or two of the place from which +it had started; but there it rallied and stood, and for the rest of the +day kept the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> French engaged without further misfortune. A student of the +whole action, careful to keep its proportions in mind and not to +exaggerate a single instance, will not regard Bussche’s gallant attempt +and failure before Mouscron as any part of the general breakdown. On the +contrary, the stand which his little force made against far superior +numbers, and the active cannonade which he kept up upon this extreme edge +of the French front, would have been one of the major conditions +determining the success of the allies if their enormously larger forces in +other parts of the field had all of them kept their time-table and done +what was expected of them.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h3>II</h3> +<p class="center">THE SECOND AND THIRD COLUMNS UNDER OTTO AND THE DUKE OF YORK</p> + +<p>On turning to the second group (the second column under Otto and the third +under York), we discover a record of continuous success throughout the +whole of that day, Saturday the 17th of May, which deserved a better fate +than befell them upon the morrow.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>(A) <span class="smcap">The Second Column under Otto</span></p> + +<p>The second column under Otto, consisting of twelve battalions and ten +squadrons, certain of the latter being English horse, and the whole +command numbering some 10,000 men, advanced with the early morning of that +same Saturday the 17th simultaneously with Bussche from Bailleul to Leers. +It drove the French outposts in, carried Leers, and advanced further to +Wattrelos. It carried Wattrelos.</p> + +<p>It continued its successful march another three miles, still pressing in +and thrusting off to its right the French soldiers of Compere’s command, +until it came to what was then the little market-town of Tourcoing. It +carried Tourcoing and held it. This uninterrupted series of successes had +brought Otto’s troops forward by some eight miles from their +starting-point, and had filled the whole morning, and Otto stood during +the afternoon in possession of this advanced point, right on the line +between Courtrai and Lille, and having fully accomplished the object which +his superiors had set him.</p> + +<p>From the somewhat higher roll of land which his cavalry could reach, and +from which they could observe the valley of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Lys four miles beyond, +they must have strained their eyes to catch some hint of Clerfayt’s +troops, upon whose presence across the river on their side they had so +confidently calculated, and which, had Clerfayt kept to his time-table and +crossed the Lys at dawn, would now have been in the close neighbourhood of +Tourcoing and in junction with this successful second column.</p> + +<p>But there was no sign of any such welcome sight. The dull rolling plain, +with its occasional low crests falling towards the river, betrayed the +presence of troops in more than one position to the north and west. But +those troops were not moving: they were holding positions, or, if moving, +were obviously doing so with the object of contesting the passage of the +river. They were French troops, not Austrian, that thus showed distinctly +in rare and insufficient numbers along the southern bank of the Lys, and +indeed, as we know, Clerfayt, during the whole of that afternoon of the +17th, was painfully bringing up his delayed pontoons, and was, until it +was far advanced, upon the wrong side of the river.</p> + +<p>Otto maintained his position, hoped against hope that Clerfayt might yet +force his way through before nightfall, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> still master of Tourcoing +and the surrounding fields when darkness came.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">(B) The Third Column under York</span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile York, with his 10,000 half British and half Austro-Hessian, had +marched with similar success but against greater obstacles parallel with +Otto, and to his left, and had successively taken every point in his +advance until he also had reached the goal which had been set before him.</p> + +<p>Details of that fine piece of work deserve full mention.</p> + +<p>Delayed somewhat by a mist in the dark hours before dawn, York’s command +had marched north-westward up the road from Templeuve, where now runs the +little tramway reaching the Belgian frontier.</p> + +<p>The French troops in front of him, as much as those who had met Otto a +mile or two off to the right, and Bussche still further off at Mouscron, +were taken aback by the suddenness and the strength of the unexpected +blow. They stood at Lannoy. York cannonaded that position, sent certain of +the British Light Dragoons round to the left to turn it, and attacked it +in front with the Brigade of Guards. The enemy did not stand, and the +British forces poured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> through Lannoy and held it just as Otto in those +same hours was pouring into and holding Leers and Wattrelos. Beyond +Lannoy, a matter of two miles or so, and still on that same road, was the +small town, now swollen to a great industrial city, called Roubaix. The +Duke of York left a couple of battalions of his allied troops (Hessians) +to hold Lannoy, and with the rest of the column pursued his march.</p> + +<p>Roubaix offered far more serious resistance than Lannoy had done. The +element of surprise was, of course, no longer present. The French forces +were concentrating. The peril they were in of being cut off was by this +time thoroughly seized at their headquarters, and the roll of land +immediately before Roubaix was entrenched and held by a sufficient force +well gunned. A strong resistance was offered to the British advance, but +once more the Brigade of Guards broke down that resistance and the place +was taken with the bayonet.</p> + +<p>York’s next objective, and the goal to which his advance had been ordered, +was Mouveaux. Mouveaux is a village standing upon a somewhat higher roll +of land rather more than two miles from the centre of Roubaix, in +continuation of the direction which York’s advance had hitherto pursued.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +From Mouveaux the eye could overlook the plain reaching to the Lys and to +Wervicq, some seven odd miles away, a plain broken by one or two slight +hummocks of which the least inconspicuous holds the village of Linselles. +Mouveaux was the point to which Clerfayt was expected to advance from his +side. It was on a level with Tourcoing, and lay, as Tourcoing did, +precisely upon the line between Courtrai and Lille. To reach Mouveaux, +therefore, and not to be content with the capture of Roubaix, was +consistent with and necessary to the general plan of the allies. Moreover, +as Otto with the second column had taken Tourcoing, it was necessary that +the third column should proceed to Mouveaux, unless Otto’s left or +southern flank was to remain exposed and in peril. One may say, in +general, that until Mouveaux was occupied the chance of joining hands with +Clerfayt (supposing that General to have kept to his time-table and to be +across the Lys and marching up to meet the columns from the Scheldt) was +in peril. Therefore, until one has learnt what was happening to the fourth +and the fifth columns, it is difficult to understand why the Duke of York, +after the difficult capture of Roubaix, desired to make that point the +utmost limit of his advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> and for the moment to proceed no further. +Without anticipating the story of the fourth and fifth columns, it is +enough to say that the Duke of York’s desire not to advance beyond Roubaix +was sufficiently excused by the aspect of the country to the west and +south upon his left.</p> + +<p>Roubaix overlooks from a slight elevation the valley of the Marque. Lest +the word “valley” be misleading, let me hasten to add that that stream +here flows at the bottom of a very slight and very broad depression. But, +at any rate, from Roubaix one overlooks that depression for some miles; +one sees five miles distant the fortifications of Lille, and the +intervening country is open enough to betray the presence of troops. +Indeed, once Roubaix was captured, the English commander could see across +those fields, a couple of hours’ march away, the tents of the great French +camp at Sainghin under the walls of the fortress.</p> + +<p>Now, along that river valley and across those fields there should have +been apparent in those mid hours of the day, when the Guards had stormed +Roubaix, the great host of the fourth and fifth columns coming up in +support of the second and third.</p> + +<p>If the time-table had been observed, the Arch-Duke and Kinsky, over 25,000 +men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> should have been across the Marque before dawn, should have pushed +back the French forces outside Lille, and should, long before noon, have +been covering those fields between Roubaix and Lille with their advancing +squadrons and battalions. There was no sign of them. If, or when, the +French body near Lille were free to advance and attack the Duke of York’s +left flank, there was no one between to prevent their doing so. That great +body of the third and fourth columns, more than half of all the men who +were advancing from the Scheldt to meet Clerfayt, had failed to come up to +time. That was why the Duke of York desired to push no further than +Roubaix, and even to leave only an advance guard to hold that place while +he withdrew the bulk of his command to Lannoy.</p> + +<p>But his decision was overruled. The Emperor and his staff, who, following +up the march of this third column, were now at Templeuve, thought it +imperative that Mouveaux should be held. Only thus, in their judgment, +could the junction with Clerfayt (who, though late, must surely be now +near at hand) be accomplished. And certainly, unless Mouveaux were held, +Otto could not hold his advanced position at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> Tourcoing. The order was +therefore sent to York to take Mouveaux. In the disastrous issue that +order has naturally come in for sharp blame; but it must be remembered +that much of the plan was already successfully accomplished, that Clerfayt +was thought to be across the Lys, and that if the French around Courtrai, +and hitherward from Courtrai to Tourcoing, were to be cut off, it was +imperative to effect the junction with Clerfayt without delay. Had +Clerfayt been, as he should have been at that hour in the afternoon of +Saturday the 17th, between the Lys and the line Mouveaux-Tourcoing, the +order given by the Austrian staff to the Duke of York would not only have +been approved by the military opinion of posterity, but any other order +would have been thought a proof of indecision and bad judgment.</p> + +<p>Upon receiving this order to take Mouveaux, York obeyed. The afternoon was +now far advanced, very heavy work had been done, a forward march of nearly +six miles had been undertaken, accompanied by continual +fighting—latterly, outside Roubaix, of a heavy sort. But if Mouveaux was +to be held before nightfall, an immediate attack must be made, and York +ordered his men forward.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>Mouveaux stands upon one of those very slight crests which barely +diversify the flat country in which Roubaix and Tourcoing stand. The +summit of that crest is but little more than fifty feet higher than the +bottom of the low, broad depression between it and the centre of Roubaix, +of which swollen town it is to-day a western suburb. Slight as is the +elevation, it does, as I have said, command a view towards the Lys and +Wervicq; and the evenness and length of the very gentle slope upon the +Roubaix side make it an excellent defensive position.</p> + +<p>I have pointed out how the columns of attack as they advanced could not +fail to find an increasing resistance. Roubaix had held out more strongly +than Lannoy, Mouveaux was to hold out more strongly than Roubaix. The +position was palisaded and entrenched. Redoubts had even been hastily +thrown up by the French at either end of it, but the weight of the +attacking column told. It was again the Guards who were given the task of +carrying the trenches at the bayonet, and after a sharp struggle they were +successful. The French, as they retired, set fire to the village (which +stands upon the very summit of that roll of land), and were charged in +their retirement by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> Abercromby with the English Dragoons. They left three +hundred upon the field, and three field-pieces as well. Despite the great +superiority of numbers which York’s columns still commanded over the enemy +immediately before him, it was a brilliant feat, especially when one +considers that it came at the very end of a day that was hot for the +season, that had begun before one o’clock in the morning, and that had +involved the carrying of three positions, each more stoutly defended than +the last, within an advance of over seven miles.</p> + +<p>Mouveaux thus carried, the head of York’s column was on a line with the +head of Otto’s, which held Tourcoing just two miles away. The heads of +either column now occupied the main road between Lille and Courtrai (which +passes through Mouveaux and Tourcoing), and the heads of either column +also held the slight crests from which the belated advance of Clerfayt +from the Lys could be watched and awaited.</p> + +<p>But though there was evidence of heavy fighting down in the river valley +five miles to the north and west, and though it seemed probable from the +sound of the firing that Clerfayt with the sixth body had crossed the Lys +at Wervicq and was now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> on the right side of it, upon the southern bank, +there was no sign of his advancing columns in those empty fields towards +Linselles and the river over which the setting sun glared.</p> + +<p>Neither, as his troops prepared to bivouac for the night upon the slopes +of Mouveaux, could York, looking southward, find any indication of the +fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the Arch-Duke which should have +come up to this same position at Mouveaux by noon seven hours before. The +flat and marshy fields upon either bank of the Marque were anxiously +scanned in vain as the twilight deepened. Down there, far off, the cannon +had been heard all that afternoon round the French camp at Sainghin, but +nothing had come through.</p> + +<p>It was therefore under a sense of isolation and of confusion, with the +knowledge that their left flank was open, that Clerfayt in front of them +was not yet in reach, that the second and third columns, which had so +thoroughly accomplished their task, established their posts under the +early summer night to await the chances of the morning.</p> + + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> +<h3>III</h3> +<p class="center">THE FOURTH AND FIFTH COLUMNS UNDER KINSKY AND THE ARCH-DUKE CHARLES</p> + +<p>Now what had happened to the fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the +Arch-Duke? I must describe their fortunes, show why they had failed to +come up, and thus complete the picture of the general advance from the +Scheldt, before I turn to conclude the explanation of the disaster by +detailing the further adventures of Clerfayt after he had crossed the Lys.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">(A) The Fourth Column under Kinsky</span></p> + +<p>Kinsky with his 11,000 men had been delayed, as we have seen, at Froidmont +by the message which the Arch-Duke had sent him from St Amand, to the +effect that the fifth column could not hope to be at Pont-à-Marcq before +dawn upon the 17th.</p> + +<p>At the moment, therefore, when in the small hours of Saturday the 17th +Otto and the Duke of York started out simultaneously from Bailleul and +Templeuve, Kinsky was still pinned to Froidmont. But he knew that the +Arch-Duke had started with his great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> column some time after dark in the +Friday night from St Amand, and when he estimated that they had proceeded +far enough along the road to Pont-à-Marcq to be up level with him upon his +left, Kinsky set his men in march and made for the Bridge of Bouvines, +which was the crossing of the Marque immediately in front of him.</p> + +<p>The Bridge of Bouvines lay right in front of the great French camp. It was +strongly held, and the hither side of the river, as Kinsky approached it, +was found to be entrenched. His men drove the French from those +entrenchments, they retired over the bridge, and as they retired they +broke it down. Upon the far side of the river in front of their camp the +French further established a battery of heavy guns upon that slight slope +which is now crowned by the Fort of Sainghin, and Kinsky could not force +the passage until the fifth column, or at any rate the head of it, should +begin to appear upon his left.</p> + +<p>It will be seen upon the <a href="#front">frontispiece map</a> that when the Arch-Duke’s men +reached Pont-à-Marcq and crossed the river there, they would take the +French camp and the main French forces there in reserve, weaken the power +of the French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> resistance at the Bridge of Bouvines, afford Kinsky the +opportunity of crossing at that point, and that, immediately after that +crossing, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke, having joined hands, would be in +sufficient strength to push back the French from Sainghin and to march up +north together towards Mouveaux. The appearance of their combined force at +Mouveaux by noon would fulfil the time-table, and at mid-day of Saturday, +if the time-table were thus fulfilled, the whole combined force of the +second, third, fourth, and fifth columns would have been astraddle of the +Lille-Courtrai Road, would have cut off Souham’s corps from Lille, and +could await Clerfayt if he had not yet arrived. When, therefore, the +Arch-Duke and the fifth column should have crossed the Marque at +Pont-à-Marcq, the fortunes of the fourth column would have blended with +it, and the story of the two would have been one. We may therefore leave +Kinsky still waiting anxiously in front of the broken bridge at Bouvines +for news of the Arch-Duke, and conclude the picture of the whole advance +from the Scheldt by describing what had happened and was happening to that +Commander and his great force of 17,000 to 18,000 men.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span><span class="smcap">(B) The Fifth Column under the Arch-Duke Charles</span></p> + +<p>When the Arch-Duke Charles had let Kinsky know upon the day before, the +Friday, that he could not be at the appointed post of Pont-à-Marcq by the +next daybreak, he had implied that somewhere in the early morning of that +Saturday, at least, he would be there. Exactly how early neither he nor +Kinsky could tell. His troops had sixteen full miles to march; they had +but one road by which to advance, and they were fatigued with the enormous +exertion of that hurried march northward to St Amand, which has already +been set down.</p> + +<p>Such were the delays at St Amand in preparing that advance, that the night +was far gone before the fifth column took the road to Pont-à-Marcq, and +the effort that was to be demanded of it was more than should have been +justly demanded of any troops. Indeed, the idea that a body of this great +size, tied to one road, could suffer the severe effort of the rush from +the south to St Amand, followed by a night-march, that march to be +followed by heavy fighting during the ensuing morning and a further +advance of eight or nine miles during the forenoon, was one of the weakest +points in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> the plan of the allies. No such weakness would have been +apparent if the main body of the Austrians under the Arch-Duke had been +called up on the 12th instead of the 14th, and had been given two more +days in which to cover the great distance. But, as it was, the delay of +the Emperor and his staff in calling up that main body had gravely +weakened its effective power.</p> + +<p>The league-long column thrust up the road through the darkness hour upon +hour, with its confusion of vehicles and that difficulty in marshalling +all units which is the necessary handicap of an advance in the darkness. +Long before their task was so much as half accomplished, it was apparent +not only that Pont-à-Marcq would not be reached at dawn, but that the mass +of the infantry would not be at that river-crossing until the morning was +far spent.</p> + +<p>When day broke, though cavalry had been set forward at greater speed, the +heads of the infantry column were but under the Hill of Beuvry. It was +long after six before the force had passed through Orchies, and though +Kinsky learnt, in the neighbourhood of eight o’clock, that the cavalry of +the fifth column were up on a level with him and had reached the river, +the main force of the fifth column was not available for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> crossing +Pont-à-Marcq until noon, and past noon.</p> + +<p>Kinsky, thus tied to the broken Bridge of Bouvines until Pont-à-Marcq +should be forced, saw mid-day come and pass, and still his force and that +of the Arch-Duke upon his left were upon the wrong side of the stream.</p> + +<p>Yet another hour went by. His fourth column and the fifth should already +have been nine miles up north, by Mouveaux, and they were not yet even +across the Marque!</p> + +<p>It was not until two o’clock that the passage of the river at Pont-à-Marcq +was forced by the Arch-Duke Charles, and that, as the consequence of that +passage of the stream, the French were taken in reverse in their camp at +Sainghin and were compelled to fall back northward, leaving the passage at +Bouvines free. Kinsky repaired the bridge, and was free to bring his +11,000 over, and the two extreme columns, the fourth and the fifth, would +then have joined forces in the mid-afternoon of the Saturday, having +accomplished their object of forcing the Marque and uniting for the common +advance northward in support of Otto and the Duke of York.</p> + +<p>Now, had the Arch-Duke Charles’ men been machines, this section of the +general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> plan would yet have failed by half a day to keep its time-table: +and by more than half a day: by all the useful part of a working day. By +the scheme of time upon which the plan was based, the fifth column should +have been across the Marque at dawn; by six, or at latest by seven o’clock +the French should have been compelled to fall back from Sainghin, and the +combined fourth and fifth columns should have been upon their northward +march for Mouveaux. It was not seven o’clock, it was <i>between three and +four</i> o’clock by the time the Arch-Duke was well across the Marque and the +French retired; but still, if the men of this fifth column had been +machines, Kinsky was now free to effect his junction across the Bridge of +Bouvines, and the combined force would have reached the neighbourhood of +Mouveaux and Tourcoing by nightfall, or shortly after dark.</p> + +<p>But the men of the fifth column were not machines, and at that hour of the +mid-afternoon of Saturday they had come to the limits of physical +endurance. It was impossible to ask further efforts of them, or, if those +efforts were demanded, to hope for success. In the Arch-Duke’s column by +far the greater part of the 17,000 or 18,000 men had been awake and +working for thirty-six<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> hours. All had been on foot for at least +twenty-four; they had been actually marching for seventeen, and had been +fighting hard at the end of the effort and after sixteen miles of road. +There could be no question of further movement that day: they bivouacked +just north of the river, near where the French had been before their +retirement, and Kinsky, seeing no combined movement could be made that +day, kept his men also bivouacked near the Bridge of Bouvines.<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small></p> + +<p>Thus it was that when night fell upon that Saturday the left wing of the +advance from the Scheldt had failed. And that is why those watching from +the head of the successful third column at Mouveaux and Roubaix, under the +sunset of that evening, saw no reinforcement coming up the valley of the +Marque, caught no sign of their thirty thousand comrades advancing from +the south, and despaired of the morrow.</p> + + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> +<h3>SUMMARY OF SITUATION ON THE SOUTH BY THE EVENING OF SATURDAY, MAY 17th.</h3> + +<p>If we take stock of the whole situation, so far as the advance of the five +columns from the Scheldt was concerned, when darkness fell upon that +Saturday we can appreciate the peril in which the second and third column +under Otto and York lay.</p> + +<p>The position which the plan had assigned to the four columns, second, +third, fourth, and fifth, by noon of that Saturday (let alone by +nightfall), is that marked upon the map by the middle four of the six +oblongs in dotted lines marked B. Of these, the two positions on the +<i>right</i> were filled, for the second and third columns had amply +accomplished their mission. But the two on the <i>left</i>, so far from being +filled, were missed by miles of space and hours of time. At mid-day, or a +little after, when Kinsky and the Arch-Duke should have been occupying the +second and third dotted oblong respectively, neither of them was as yet +even across the Marque. Both were far away back at E, E: and these +hopeless positions, E, E, right away behind the line of positions across +the Courtrai-Lille road which the plan expected them to occupy by +Saturday noon, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke pacifically maintained up to and +including the night between Saturday and Sunday!</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i099tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/i099.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p class="center">The Elements of Tourcoing</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>It is evident, therefore, that instead of all four columns of nearly +<i>sixty</i> thousand men barring the road between Souham and Lille and +effecting the isolation of the French “wedge” round Courtrai, a bare, +unsupported <i>twenty</i> thousand found themselves that night alone: holding +Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lannoy, Mouveaux, and thrust forward isolated in the +midst of overwhelmingly superior and rapidly gathering numbers.</p> + +<p>In such an isolation nothing could save Otto and York but the abandonment +during the night of their advanced positions and a retreat upon the points +near the Scheldt from which they had started twenty hours before.</p> + +<p>The French forces round Lille were upon one side of them to the south and +west, in number perhaps 20,000. On the other side of them, towards +Courtrai, was the mass of Souham’s force which they had hoped to cut off, +nearly 40,000 strong. Between these two great bodies of men, the 20,000 of +Otto and York were in peril of destruction if the French awoke to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +position before the retirement of the second and third columns was decided +on.</p> + +<p>It is here worthy of remark that the only real cause of peril was the +absence of Kinsky and the Arch-Duke.</p> + +<p>Certain historians have committed the strange error of blaming Bussche for +what followed. Bussche, it will be remembered, had been driven out of +Mouscron early in the day, and was holding on stubbornly enough, keeping +up an engagement principally by cannonade with the French upon the line of +Dottignies. It is obvious that from such a position he could be of no use +to the isolated Otto and York five miles away. But on the other hand, he +was not expected to be of any use. What could his 4000 have done to shield +the 20,000 of Otto and York from those 40,000 French under Souham’s +command? His business was to keep as many of the French as possible +occupied away on the far north-east of the field, and that object he was +fulfilling.</p> + +<p>Finally, it may be asked why, in a posture so patently perilous, Otto and +York clung to their advanced positions throughout the night? The answer is +simple enough. If, even during the night, the fourth and fifth columns +should appear, the battle was half won. If Clerfayt, of whom they had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +news, but whom they rightly judged to be by this time across the Lys, were +to arrive before the French began to close in, the battle would be not +half won, but all won. Between 55,000 and 60,000 men would then be lying +united across the line which joined the 40,000 of the enemy to the north +with the 20,000 to the south. If such a junction were effected even at the + +eleventh hour, so long as it took place before the 20,000 French outside +Lille and the 40,000 to the north moved upon them, the allies would have +won a decisive action, and the surrender of all Souham’s command would +have been the matter of a few hours. For a force cut in two is a force +destroyed.</p> + +<p>But the night passed without Clerfayt’s appearing, and before closing the +story of that Saturday I must briefly tell why, though he had crossed the +Lys in the afternoon, he failed to advance southward through the +intervening five or six miles to Mouveaux.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h3>CLERFAYT’S COLUMN.</h3> + +<p>Clerfayt had, in that extraordinary slow march of his, advanced by the +Friday night, as I have said, no further than the great high road between +Menin and Ypres. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> further pointed out that though only three miles +separated that point from Wervicq, yet those three miles meant, under the +military circumstances of the moment, a loss of time equivalent to at +least half a day.</p> + +<p>We therefore left Clerfayt at Saturday’s dawn, as we left the Arch-Duke at +the same time, far short of the starting-point which had been assigned to +him.</p> + +<p>Whereas the Arch-Duke, miles away over there to the south, had at least +pushed on to the best of his ability through the night towards +Pont-à-Marcq, Clerfayt did <i>not</i> push on by night to Wervicq as he should +have done. He bivouacked with the heads of his columns no further than the +Ypres road.</p> + +<p>Nor did he even break up and proceed over the remaining three miles during +the very earliest hours. For one reason or another (the point has never +been cleared up) the morning was fairly well advanced when he set +forth—possibly because his units had got out of touch and straggling in +the sandy country, or blocked by vehicles stuck fast. Whatever the cause +may have been, he did not exchange shots with the French outposts at +Wervicq until well after noon upon that Saturday the 17th of May.</p> + +<p>When at last he had forced his way into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> the town (the great bulk of which +lies north of the river), he found the bridge so well defended that he +could not cross it, or, at any rate, that the carrying of it—the chances +of its being broken after the French should have retired and the business +of bringing his great force across, with the narrow streets of the town to +negotiate and the one narrow bridge, even if intact to use—would put him +upon the further bank at a hopelessly late hour. Therefore did he call for +his pontoons in order to solve the difficulty by bridging the river +somewhat lower down. The Lys is here but a narrow stream, and it would be +easy, with the pontoons at his disposal, to pass his troops over rapidly +upon a broader front, making, if necessary, two wide bridges. I say “with +the pontoons at his disposal.” But by the time Clerfayt had taken this +decision and had sent for the pontoons, he found that they were not there!</p> + +<p>His section of pontoons had not kept abreast with the rest of the army, +and their delay had not been notified to him. It was not until quite late +in the day that they arrived; it was not until evening that the laying of +the pontoons began,<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small> nor till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> midnight that he was passing the first of +his troops over.</p> + +<p>He did not get nor attempt to get the mass of his sixteen or seventeen +thousand across in the darkness. He bivouacked the remainder upon the +wrong side of the river and waited for the morrow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>So that Saturday ended, with Otto and York isolated at the central +meeting-place round Tourcoing-Mouveaux, which they alone had reached; with +the Arch-Duke Charles and Kinsky bivouacked miles away to the south on +either side of the Bridge of Bouvines; and with Clerfayt still, as to the +bulk of his force, on the wrong side of the Lys.</p> + +<p>It was no wonder that the next day, Sunday, was to see the beginning of +disaster.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h3>SUNDAY, MAY <span class="smcap">the</span> 18<span class="smcap">th</span>, 1794.</h3> + +<p>I have said that, considering the isolated position in which York and Otto +found themselves, with no more than perhaps 18,000 in the six positions of +Leers, Wattrelos, and Tourcoing, Lannoy, Roubaix, and Mouveaux, the French +had only to wake up to the situation, and Otto and York would be +overwhelmed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>The French did wake up. How thoroughly taken by surprise they had been by +the prompt and exact advance of Otto and York the day before, the reader +has already been told. Throughout Saturday they remained in some confusion +as to the intention of the enemy; and indeed it was not easy to grasp a +movement which was at once of such great size, and whose very miscarriage +rendered it the more baffling of comprehension. But by the evening of the +day, Souham, calling a council of his generals at Menin, came to a +decision as rapid as it was wise. Reynier, Moreau, and Macdonald, the +generals of divisions that were under his orders, all took part in the +brief discussion and the united resolve to which it led. “It was,” in the +words of a contemporary, “one of those rare occasions in which the +decision of several men in council has proved as effective as the decision +of a single will.”</p> + +<p>Of the troops which were, it will be remembered, dispersed to the north of +the Lys, only one brigade was left upon the wrong side of the river to +keep an eye on Clerfayt; all the rest were recalled across the stream and +sent forward to take up positions north of Otto’s and Kinsky’s columns. +Meanwhile the bulk of the French troops lying between Courtrai and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +Tourcoing were disposed in such fashion as to attack from the north and +east, south and westward. Some 40,000 men all told were ready to close in +with the first light from both sides upon the two isolated bodies of the +allies. To complete their discomfiture, word was sent to Bonnaud and +Osten, the generals of divisions who commanded the 20,000 about Lille, +ordering them to march north and east, and to attack simultaneously with +their comrades upon that third exposed side where York would receive the +shock. In other words, the 18,000 or so distributed on the six points +under Otto and York occupied an oblong the two long sides of which and the +top were about to be attacked by close upon 60,000 men. The hour from +which this general combined advance inwards upon the doomed commands of +the allies was to begin was given identically to all the French generals. +They were to break up at three in the morning. With such an early start, +the sun would not have been long risen before the pressure upon Otto and +York would begin.</p> + +<p>When the sun rose, the head of Otto’s column upon the little height of +Tourcoing saw to the north, to the north-east, and to the east, distant +moving bodies, which were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the columns of the French attack advancing from +those quarters. As they came nearer, their numbers could be distinguished. +A brigade was approaching them from the north and the Lys valley, +descending the slopes of the hillock called Mont Halhuin. It was +Macdonald’s. Another was on the march from Mouscron and the east. It was +Compere’s. The General who was commanding for Otto in Tourcoing itself was +Montfrault. He perceived the extremity of the danger and sent over to York +for reinforcement. York spared him two Austrian battalions, but with +reluctance, for he knew that the attack must soon develop upon his side +also. In spite of the peril, in the vain hope that Clerfayt might yet +appear, Mouveaux and Tourcoing were still held, and upon the latter +position, between five and six o’clock in the morning, fell the first +shots of the French advance. The resistance at Tourcoing could not last +long against such odds, and Montfrault, after a gallant attempt to hold +the town, yielded to a violent artillery attack and prepared to retreat. +Slowly gathering his command into a great square, he began to move +south-eastward along the road to Wattrelos. It was half-past eight when +that beginning of defeat was acknowledged.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>Meanwhile York, on his side, had begun to feel the pressure. Mouveaux was +attacked from the north somewhat before seven o’clock in the morning, and, +simultaneously with that attack, a portion of Bonnaud’s troops which had +come up from the neighbourhood of Lille, was driving in York’s outposts to +the west of Roubaix.</p> + +<p>How, it may be asked, did the French, in order thus to advance from Lille, +negotiate the passage of that little River Marque, which obstacle had +proved so formidable a feature in the miscarriage of the great allied plan +the day before? The answer is, unfortunately, easily forthcoming. York had +left the bridges over the Marque unguarded. Why, we do not know. Whether +from sheer inadvertence, or because he hoped that Kinsky had detached men +for the purpose, for one reason or another he had left those passages +free, and, by the bridge of Hempempont against Lannoy, by that of Breuck +against Roubaix, Bonnaud’s and Osten’s men poured over.</p> + +<p>As at Tourcoing, so at Mouveaux, a desperate attempt was made to hold the +position. Indeed it was clung to far too late, but the straits to which +Mouveaux was reduced at least afforded an opportunity for something of +which the British service should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> not be unmindful. Immediately between +Roubaix and the River Marque, Fox, with the English battalions of the +line, was desperately trying to hold the flank and to withstand the +pressure of the French, who were coming across the river more than twice +his superiors in number. He was supported by a couple of Austrian +battalions, and the two services dispute as to which half of this +defending force was first broken. But the dispute is idle. No troops could +have stood the pressure, and at any rate the defence broke down—with this +result: that the British troops holding Mouveaux, Abercrombie’s Dragoons, +and the Brigade of Guards, were cut off from their comrades in Roubaix. +Meanwhile, Tourcoing having been carried and the Austrians driven out from +thence, the eastern and western forces of the French had come into touch +in the depression between Mouveaux and Roubaix, and it seemed as though +the surrender or destruction of that force was imminent. Abercrombie saved +it. A narrow gap appeared between certain forces of the French, eastward +of the position at Mouveaux, and leaving a way open round to Roubaix. He +took advantage of it and won through: the Guards keeping a perfect order, +the rear defended by the mobility and daring of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Dragoons. The village +of Roubaix, in those days, consisted in the main of one long straight +street, though what is now the great town had already then so far +increased in size as to have suburbs upon the north and south. The +skirmishers of the French were in these suburbs. (Fox’s flank command had +long ago retired, keeping its order, however, and making across country as +best it could for Lannoy.) It was about half-past nine when Abercrombie’s +force, which had been saved by so astonishing a mixture of chance, skill, +coolness, and daring, filed into the long street of Roubaix. The Guards +and the guns went through the passage in perfect formation in spite of the +shots dropping from the suburbs, which were already beginning to harass +the cavalry behind them. Immediately to their rear was the Austrian horse, +while, last of all, defending the retreat, the English Dragoons were just +entering the village. In the centre of this long street a market-place +opened out. The Austrian cavalry, arrived at it, took advantage of the +room afforded them; they doubled and quadrupled their files until they +formed a fairly compact body, almost filling the square. It was precisely +at this moment that the French advance upon the eastern side of the +village brought a gun to bear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> down the long straight street and road, +which led from the market square to Wattrelos. The moment it opened fire, +the Austrians, after a vain attempt to find cover, pressed into the side +streets down the market-place, fell into confusion. There is no question +here of praise or blame: a great body of horsemen, huddled in a narrow +space, suddenly pounded by artillery, necessarily became in a moment a +mass of hopeless confusion. The body galloped in panic out of the village, +swerved round the sharp corner into the narrower road (where the French +had closed in so nearly that there was some bayonet work), and then came +full tilt against the British guns, which lay blocking the way because the +drivers had dismounted or cut the traces and fled. In the midst of this +intolerable confusion a second gun was brought to bear by the French, and +the whole mob of ridden and riderless horses, some dragging limbers, some +pack-horses charged, many more the dispersed and maddened fragments of the +cavalry, broke into the Guards, who had still kept their formation and +were leading what had been but a few moments before an orderly retreat.</p> + +<p>It is at this point, I think, that the merit of this famous brigade and +its right to regard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the disaster not with humiliation but with pride, is +best established. For that upon which soldiers chiefly look is the power +of a regiment to reform. The Guards, thus broken up under conditions which +made formation for the moment impossible, and would have excused the +destruction of any other force, cleared themselves of the welter, +recovered their formation, held the road, permitted the British cavalry to +collect itself and once more form a rearguard, and the retreat upon Lannoy +was resumed by this fragment of York’s command in good order: in good +order, although it was subjected to heavy and increasing fire upon either +side.</p> + +<p>It was a great feat of arms.</p> + +<p>As for the Duke of York, he was not present with his men. He had ridden +off with a small escort of cavalry to see whether it might not be possible +to obtain some reinforcement from Otto, but the French were everywhere in +those fields. He found himself with a squadron, with a handful, and at +last alone, until, a conspicuous figure with the Star of the Garter still +pinned to his coat, he was chivied hither and thither across country, +followed and flanked by the sniping shots of the French skirmishers in +thicket and hedge; after that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> brief but exceedingly troubled ride, +Providence discovered him a brook and a bridge still held by some of +Otto’s Hessians. He crossed it, and was in safety.</p> + +<p>His retreating men—those of them that remained, and notably the remnant +of the Dragoons and the Guards—were still in order as they approached +Lannoy. They believed, or hoped, that that village was still in possession +of the Hessians whom York had left there. But the French attack had been +ubiquitous that morning. It had struck simultaneously upon all the flanks. +At Roubaix as at Mouveaux, at Lannoy as at Roubaix, and the Guards and the +Dragoons within musket shot of Lannoy discovered it, in the most +convincing fashion, to be in the hands of the enemy. After that check +order and formation were lost, and the remaining fragment of the Austrian +and British who had marched out from Templeuve the day before 10,000 +strong, hurried, dispersed over the open field, crossed what is now the +Belgian border, and made their way back to camp.</p> + +<p>Thus was destroyed the third column, which, of all portions of the allied +army, had fought hardest, had most faithfully executed its orders, had +longest preserved discipline during a terrible retreat and against +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>overwhelming numbers: it was to that discipline that the Guards in +particular owed the saving from the wreck of so considerable a portion of +their body. Of their whole brigade just under 200 were lost, killed, +wounded or taken prisoners. The total loss of the British was not quite +five times this—just under 1000,—but of their guns, twenty-eight in +number, nineteen were left in the hands of the enemy.</p> + +<p>There is no need to recount in detail the fate of Otto’s column. As it had +advanced parallel in direction and success to the Duke of York’s, it +suffered a similar and parallel misfortune. As the English had found +Lannoy occupied upon their line of retreat, so Otto’s column had found +Wattrelos. As the English column had broken at Lannoy, so the Austrian at +Leers. And the second column came drifting back dispersed to camp, +precisely as the third had done. When the fragments were mustered and the +defeat acknowledged, it was about three o’clock in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>For the rest of the allied army there is no tale to tell, save with regard +to Clerfayt’s command; the fourth and the fifth columns, miles away behind +the scene of the disaster, did not come into action. Long before they +could have broken up after the breakdown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> through exhaustion of the day +before, the French were over the Marque and between them and York. When a +move was made at noon, it was not to relieve the second and third columns, +for that was impossible, though, perhaps, if they had marched earlier, the +pressure they would have brought to bear upon Bonnaud’s men might have +done something to lessen the disaster. It is doubtful, for the Marque +stood in between and the French did not leave it unguarded.</p> + +<p>Bussche, true to his conduct of the day before, held his positions all day +and maintained his cannonade with the enemy. It is true that there was no +severe pressure upon him, but still he held his own even when the rout +upon his left might have tempted him to withdraw his little force.</p> + +<p>As for Clerfayt, he had not all his men across the Lys until that very +hour of seven in the morning when York at Mouveaux was beginning to suffer +the intolerable pressure of the French, and Otto’s men at Tourcoing were +in a similar plight.</p> + +<p>By the time he had got all his men over, he found Vandamme holding +positions, hastily prepared but sufficiently well chosen, and blocking his +way to the south. With a defensive thus organised, though only half as +strong as the attack, Vandamme was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> capable of a prolonged resistance; and +while it was in progress, reinforcements, summoned from the northern parts +of the French line beyond Lille, had had time to appear towards the west. +He must have heard from eight o’clock till noon the fire of his retreating +comrades falling back in their disastrous retreat, and, rightly judging +that he would have after mid-day the whole French army to face, he +withdrew to the river, and had the luck to cross it the next day without +loss: a thing that the French now free from the enemy to the south should +never have permitted.</p> + +<p>So ended the Battle of Tourcoing, an action which, for the interest of its +scheme, for the weight of its results, and, above all, for the fine +display of courage and endurance which British troops showed under +conditions that should normally have meant annihilation, deserves a much +wider fame in this country than it has obtained.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h5>PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.</h5> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="adverts"><div class="adbox"> +<h2><i>BOOKS</i><br /> +<i>that</i><br /> +<i>compel</i></h2> +<h3><i>Supplementary Spring List, 1912</i></h3></div></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="adverts"><div class="adbox"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="ad"> +<tr><td colspan="3"><i>For him was levere have at his beddes heed</i><br /> +<i>Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed ...</i><br /> +<i>Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Chaucer.</span></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><img src="images/i119.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><i>Telegrams</i><br /><i>“Lumenifer,</i><br /><i>London”</i></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><i>Telephone</i><br /><i>6223</i><br /><i>City</i></td></tr></table></div></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="adverts"><div class="adbox"> +<p class="center"><i>STEPHEN SWIFT & CO. LTD.</i><br /> +<i>16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN</i><br /> +<i>LONDON, W.C.</i><br /> +<i>Complete list of “Books that Compel” post free</i><br /><i>on application</i></p></div></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h2>HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY</h2> + +<p class="hang"><b>BRITISH BATTLE BOOKS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Hilaire Belloc</span>. Illustrated with Coloured Maps. +Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 1s. net; leather, 2s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">HISTORY IN WARFARE</span></p> + +<p class="dent">The British Battle Series will consist of a number of monographs upon +actions in which British troops have taken part. Each battle will be +the subject of a separate booklet illustrated with coloured maps, +illustrative of the movements described in the text, together with a +large number of line maps showing the successive details of the +action. In each case the political circumstances which led to the +battle will be explained; next, the stages leading up to it; lastly, +the action in detail. 1. <span class="smcap">Blenheim</span>; 2. <span class="smcap">Malplaquet</span>; 3. <span class="smcap">Waterloo</span>; 4. +<span class="smcap">Tourcoing</span>. Later volumes will deal with Crecy, Poitiers, Corunna, +Talaveras, Flodden, The Siege of Valenciennes, Vittoria, Toulouse.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>TRIPOLI AND YOUNG ITALY.</b> By <span class="smcap">Charles Lapworth</span> and <span class="smcap">Helen Zimmern</span>. Demy 8vo, +cloth. Illustrated. Price 10s. 6d. net. A book of international +importance. This is the first systematic account of the Tripoli expedition +written from the Italian point of view which has yet been published in +Europe. Italy’s case against Turkey is fully stated, and the annexation of +Tripoli, which has constantly been misrepresented by biassed critics as an +arbitrary and capricious act of rapacity on the part of the Italian +Government, is conclusively shown to have been an imperative political +necessity. The highest authorities in Italy have heartily assisted the +authors in their task of drawing up a reliable account of the inner +history of the Tripoli expedition and of vindicating Italy from the many +false accusations which have been levelled against her. The MSS. have been +submitted to the Italian Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign +Affairs. The book is illustrated with portraits of leading Italians and +with photographs of Libya.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>PSYCHOLOGY, A NEW SYSTEM OF.</b> By <span class="smcap">Arthur Lynch</span>, M.P. 2 vols. 10s. 6d. each +net. Based on the study of Fundamental Processes of the Human Mind. The +principles established will afford criteria in regard to every position in +Psychology. New light will be thrown, for instance, on Kant’s Categories, +Spencer’s Hedonism, Fechner’s Law, the foundation of Mathematics, Memory, +Association, Externality, Will, the Feeling of Effort, Brain +Localisations, and finally on the veritable nature of Reason.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>AN INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS</b>. By <span class="smcap">Henri Bergson</span>. Translated by T. E. +Hulme. Fcap. 8vo, Cloth, price, 2s. 6d. net. The “Introduction to +Metaphysics,” although the shortest, is one of the most important of +Bergson’s writings. It not only provides the best introduction to his +thought, but is also a book which even those familiar with the rest of his +work will find necessary to read, for in it he develops at greater length +and in greater detail than elsewhere, the exact significance of what he +intends by the word “intuition.” Every expositor of Bergson has hitherto +found it necessary to quote “An Introduction to Metaphysics” at +considerable length, yet the book has never before been available in +English.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>AN INTRODUCTION TO BERGSON</b>. By <span class="smcap">T. E. Hulme</span>. 7s. 6d. Besides giving a +general exposition of the better known parts of Bergson’s philosophy, the +author has discussed at some length Bergson’s “Theory of Art,” which may +prove to many people the most interesting part of his whole philosophy, +although it has so far been written about very little. At the same time +this book is no running commentary on a great number of separate ideas; +the author has endeavoured by subordinating everything to one dominating +conception, to leave in the reader’s mind a clearly outlined picture of +Bergson’s system. During the last few years the author has been able to +discuss many points of difficulty with M. Bergson himself.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SERIES</h2> + +<p class="hang"><b>FROM THEATRE TO MUSIC-HALL</b>. By <span class="smcap">W. R. Titterton</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. +net. This book is neither a history of the drama nor a critical study of +well-known playwrights. It is an attempt to account for the weakening of +the dramatic sense in modern England, and to explain the enormous +importance of the music-hall, and the desperate necessity of maintaining +it as a means of popular expression. The theories put forward are bold, +and are likely to excite great agreement and great opposition.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>THE DOCTOR AND HIS WORK.</b> With a Hint of his Destiny and Ideals. By <span class="smcap">Charles +J. Whitby</span>, M.D. Cantab., Author of “Triumphant Vulgarity,” “Makers of +Man,” “A Study of Human Initiative,” etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 3s. 6d. +net. In this book the author has reviewed the existing position of the +doctor and indicated the signs of a new sociological era in which he will +be called upon to accept new and important functions. The profession has +in the past consisted of a mere mob of unorganised units; that of the +future will be a disciplined army of experts co-operating for the good of +the State. “The Doctor and His Work” may be described as a summary of the +modern medical point of view. It appeals not less to the lay than to the +professional reader.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>IRISH HOME RULE.</b> The Last Phase. By <span class="smcap">S. G. Hobson</span>. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>NATIONAL EDUCATION.</b> By <span class="smcap">Baron von Taube</span>, author of “Manual Training,” “In +Defence of America,” “Only a Dog’s Life,” etc. Crown 8vo, Cloth. 3s. 6d. +net. Two basic and dominating conceptions underlie the theory of education +put forward in this treatise. The first is the necessity for a national +education which will evoke, foster, develop and not level down and destroy +all the peculiar and unique characteristics which go to make a nation a +nation, and endow it with an individuality distinct from that of all other +nations. The second is the necessity for the encouragement of originality +and the full development of individual capacity, as contrasted with the +mass-drill measures which are all too prevalent nowadays. The author’s +theories are based on ascertained sociological and psychological data and +on numerous practical experiments in pedagogy which have been successfully +carried out by him. Discontent with the modern stereotyped system of cram +education is increasing daily, and this book should prove a valuable +contribution to the literature on this vitally important subject.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>BELLES LETTRES</h2> + +<p class="hang"><b>EPISODES OF VATHEK.</b> By <span class="smcap">William Beckford</span>. Translated by Sir Frank T. +Marzials, with an Introduction by Lewis Melville. Medium 8vo, cloth. 21s. +net. These Episodes or Eastern Tales, related in the Halls of Eblis, were +discovered recently by Mr. Lewis Melville in the archives of Hamilton +Palace. They were conceived by Beckford as three episodes complete within +themselves, which he proposed to interpolate, in the manner of the +“Arabian Nights,” into his famous Oriental story of “Vathek.” The original +in French is given after the English translation, and the reader will find +this volume extremely interesting both as treasure trove and literature.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>SONNETS AND BALLATE OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI.</b> Translated by <span class="smcap">Ezra Pound</span>. Crown +8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. We have had many translations of the Divina +Commedia, a few of the Vita Nuova. Rosetti has translated a miscellany of +“Early Italian Poets,” but in these “Sonnets and Ballate” of Guido +Cavalcanti we have a new thing, the endeavour to present a 13th century +Tuscan poet, other than Dante, as an individual. More than one Italian +critic of authority has considered Cavalcanti second to Dante alone in +their literature. Dante places him first among his forerunners.</p> + + +<p class="hang"><b>LEAVES OF PROSE</b>, interleaved with verse. By <span class="smcap">Annie Matheson</span>, with which are +included two papers by May Sinclair. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. This volume is +composed of a selection of those short studies for which Miss Matheson is +so justly famous. Literature, Sociology, Art, Nature, all receive her +attention in turn, and on each she stamps the impression of her own +personality. The prose is soft and rhythmic, infused with the atmosphere +of the country-side, while the lyrics scattered throughout the volume +reflect a temperament that has remained equable under the most severe +trials. No book more aptly expresses the spirit of Christianity and good +fellowship as understood in England.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>OFF BEATEN TRACKS IN BRITTANY.</b> By <span class="smcap">Emil Davies</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. +net. In this book the author, who has already won for himself a position +in a surprisingly large variety of fields, goes off the beaten track in +more than one direction. It is a book of travel, philosophy and humour, +describing the adventures, impressions and reflections of two “advanced” +individuals who chose their route across Brittany by ruling a straight +line across the map from Brest to St. Malo—and then went another way!</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>IMAGINARY SPEECHES AND OTHER PARODIES IN PROSE AND VERSE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Jack Collings +Squire</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. This is probably the most +comprehensive volume of Parodies ever issued. The author is as much at his +ease in hitting off the style of Mr. Burns or Mr. Balfour, as he is in +imitating the methods and effects of the new Celtic or Imperialist poets; +whilst he is as happy in his series illustrating “The Sort of Prose +Articles that modern Prose-writers write” as he is in his model newspaper +with its various amusing features.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>SHADOWS OUT OF THE CROWD.</b> By <span class="smcap">Richard Curle</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. This +book consists of twelve stories of a curious and psychological kind. Some +deal with the West Indian and South American tropics, some with London, +some with Scotland, and one with South Africa. The author’s sense of +atmosphere is impressive, and there is about all his stories the +fatalistic spirit of the Russians. They have been written over a period of +several years, and show signs of a close study of method and a deep +insight into certain descriptions of fevered imagination. All are the work +of a writer of power, and of an artist of a rare and rather un-English +type.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>LONDON WINDOWS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Ethel Talbot</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. 6d. net. In this +little volume Miss Talbot, who is a well known and gifted singer in the +younger choir of England’s poets, pictures London in many moods. She has +won themes from the city’s life without that capitulation to the merely +actual which is the pitfall of so many artists. London is seen grieving, +sordid, grey, as well as magical and alluring. All who love the London of +to-day must perforce respond to the appeal which lies in these moving and +poignant verses.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>BOHEMIA IN LONDON.</b> By <span class="smcap">Arthur Ransome</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. 2s. net.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY.</b> By <span class="smcap">Lewis Melville</span>. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. As a +literary study the book incites interest, and commands attention as a +further revelation of a brilliant and many-sided literary genius. There +are admirably written chapters on “Thackeray as a Reader and Critic,” +“Thackeray as an Artist,” “Thackeray’s Country,” “Thackeray’s Ballads,” +“Thackeray and his Illustrators,” “Prototypes of Thackeray’s Characters,” +etc. The volume is fully illustrated.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>ENGLISH LITERATURE.</b> 1880-1905. Pater, Wilde, and after. By <span class="smcap">J. M. Kennedy</span>. +Demy 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net. Mr. J. M. Kennedy has written the first +history of the dynamic movement in English literature between 1880 and +1905. The work begins with a sketch of romanticism and classicism, and +continues with chapters on Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, who, in their +different ways, exercised so great an influence on various poets and +essayists of the time, all of whom are dealt with.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>ONLY A DOG’S LIFE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Baron von Taube</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This +fascinating work was originally published in German, and is now issued in +the author’s own English rendering. It has been most favourably received +in Germany. A Siberian hound, whose sire was a wolf, tells his own story. +The book, in fact, is a very clever satire on human nature, a satire which +gains much charm and piquancy from its coming from the mouth of a +masterful self-respecting hound.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>SOME OLD ENGLISH WORTHIES.</b> Thomas of Reading, George a Green, Roger Bacon, +Friar Rush. Edited with notes and introduction by <span class="smcap">Dorothy Senior</span>. Medium +8vo, cloth. 10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>BY DIVERS PATHS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Eleanor Tyrrell, Annie Matheson, Maude P. King, May +Sinclair</span>, Professor <span class="smcap">C. H. Herford</span>, Dr. <span class="smcap">Greville Macdonald</span>, and <span class="smcap">C. C. +Cotterill</span>. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 3s. 6d. net. A volume of +natural studies and descriptive and meditative essays interspersed with +verse.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>IN DEFENCE OF AMERICA.</b> By <span class="smcap">Baron von Taube</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This +very remarkable book gives the American point of view in reply to +criticisms of “Uncle Sam” frequently made by representatives of “John +Bull.” The author, a Russo-German, who has spent many active years in the +United States, draws up about thirty “popular indictments against the +citizens of Uncle Sam’s realm,” and discusses them at length in a very +original and dispassionate way, exhibiting a large amount of German +critical acumen together with much American shrewdness. Both “Uncle Sam” +and “John Bull” will find in the book general appreciations of their +several characteristics and not a few valuable suggestions.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>FICTION</h2> +<p class="center">Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. each</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>LADY ERMYNTRUDE AND THE PLUMBER.</b> By <span class="smcap">Percy Fendall</span>. This is a tale +fantastical and satirical, of the year 1920, its quaint humours arising +out of the fact that a Radical-Socialist Government has passed an Act of +Parliament requiring every man and woman to earn a living and to live on +their earnings. There are many admirable strokes of wit dispersed +throughout, not the least of these being the schedule of charges which the +king is permitted to make, for he also, under the Work Act, is compelled +to earn a living.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>AN EXCELLENT MYSTERY.</b> By Countess <span class="smcap">Russell</span>. The scene opens in Ireland with +a fascinating child, Will-o’-the-Wisp, and a doting father. A poor mother +and a selfish elder sister drive her to a marriage which has no sound +foundation. The husband turns out eccentric, unsympathetic, and even +cowardly. Will-o’-the-Wisp has to face at a tender age and with no +experience the most serious and difficult problems of sex, motherhood and +marriage. Then with the help of friends, her own good sense and +determination, and the sensible divorce law of Scotland, she escapes her +troubles. This forms the conclusion of an artless but thrilling narrative.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG</b> (Une Nuit au Luxembourg). By <span class="smcap">Remy de Gourmont</span>. +Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. With preface and appendix by Arthur Ransome. M. +Remy de Gourmont is, perhaps, the greatest of contemporary French writers. +His books are translated into all languages but ours. “Une Nuit au +Luxembourg” is the first of his works to appear in English, and will be +followed by others. It will certainly arouse considerable discussion. It +moves the reader with something more than a purely æsthetic emotion.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>HUSBAND AND LOVER.</b> By <span class="smcap">Walter Riddall</span>. In this book is given a discerning +study of a temperament. The author has taken an average artistic man and +laid bare his feelings and impulses, his desires and innermost thoughts +under the supreme influence of sex. Frankness is the key-note of the work; +its truth will be recognised by everyone who faces the facts of his own +nature and neither blushes nor apologises for them.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>THE CONSIDINE LUCK.</b> By <span class="smcap">H. A. Hinkson</span>. The Considine Luck is primarily a +story of the Union of Hearts, an English girl’s love affair with an +Irishman, and the conflict of character between the self-made man who is +the charming heroine’s father and the Irish environment in which he finds +himself. The writer can rollick with the best, and the Considine Luck is +not without its rollicking element. But it is in the main a delicate and +serious love story, with its setting in the green Irish country, among the +poetical, unpractical people among whom Mr. Hinkson is so thoroughly at +home.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>A SUPER-MAN IN BEING.</b> By <span class="smcap">Litchfield Woods</span>. Both in its subject-matter and +craftsmanship this is an arresting piece of work. It is not, in the usual +sense, a story of love and marriage. Rather, it is the biographical +presentment of Professor Snaggs, who has lost his eyesight, but who is yet +known to the outside world as a distinguished historian. The revelation of +the Professor’s home life is accomplished with a literary skill of the +highest kind, showing him to be a combination of super-man and +super-devil, not so much in the domain of action as in the domain of +intellect. An extraordinary situation occurs—a problem in psychology +intensely interesting to the reader, not so much on its emotional as on +its intellectual side, and is solved by this super-man in the domain of +intellect.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>GREAT POSSESSIONS.</b> By Mrs. <span class="smcap">Campbell</span>. A story of modern Americans in +America and England, this novel deals with the suffering bequeathed by the +malice of a dead man to the woman he once loved. In imposing upon her son +the temptations of leisure and great wealth he is a means of making him a +prey to inherited weakness, and the train of events thus set in motion +leads to an unexpected outcome. The author is equally familiar with life +in either country, and the book is an earnest attempt to represent the +enervating influences of a certain type of existence prevailing among the +monied classes in New York to-day.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>THE DARKSOME MAIDS OF BAGLEERE.</b> By <span class="smcap">William Kersey</span>. A delightful novel of +Somerset farming-life. Although a tragedy of the countryside, it is at the +same time alive with racy country humour. The character drawing is clear +and strong, and the theme is handled with the restraint of great tragedy. +This book is of real literary value—in fact, it recalls to our minds the +earlier works of Thomas Hardy.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>PLAYS</h2> + +<p class="hang"><b>THE KING.</b> A Daring Tragedy. By <span class="smcap">Stephen Phillips</span>, Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. 6d. +net. Don Carlos, heir to the throne of Spain, learns that Christina, a +young lady of the Court, with whom he is secretly in love, is really his +sister. The gloom of the tragedy is deepened by the discovery that +Christina is about to be a mother. Brother and sister, who are at the same +time husband and wife, die by the same dagger. The king, who has already +abdicated in favour of his son, whom he desired to marry the Princess of +Spain, resolves to put an end to his life also, but is persuaded by his +minister that the task of living as king will be a greater punishment for +all the misery he has created. The story is developed with skill, +reticence, simplicity, in solemn harmonies and with tragic beauty.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>SHAKESPEARE’S END AND TWO OTHER IRISH PLAYS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Conal O’Riordan</span> (Norreys +Connell). Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net. Mr. O’Riordan, who is better known by +his nom-de-guerre of “Norreys Connell,” which has served him for twenty +years, has brought together in this volume the three plays in which he has +given expression to his view of the relation between England and Ireland. +In a prefatory letter to Mr. Joseph Conrad he presents a synthesis of the +trilogy, and explains why this, of his several books, is the first which +he wishes to associate with his proper name.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>UNCLASSIFIED</h2> + +<p class="hang"><b>OH, MY UNCLE!</b> By <span class="smcap">W. Teignmouth Shore</span>, author of “The Talking Master,” +“D’Orsay,” etc. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. Wit, fun, frolic, fairy tale, +nonsense verses, satire, comedy, farce, criticism; a touch of each, an +<i>olla podrida</i> which cannot be classified. It certainly is not history, +yet cannot fairly be put under the heading fiction; it is not realism, yet +fairy-taleism does not fully describe it; it deals with well-known folk, +yet it is not a “romance with a key”; it is not a love story, yet there is +love in it; in short, again, it cannot be classified. It is a book for +those who love laughter, yet it is not merely frivolous. It deals with the +lights of life, with just a touch now and again of delicate shadow. One +thing may safely be said—Miss Blue-Eyes and Uncle Daddy will make many +friends.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> These dates are important in another aspect of the matter—the +authorship of the plan. I will, therefore, return to them in more detail +at the close of this section.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> I pay no attention to the ridiculous suggestion that the delay was due +to the contemporary peril in Poland, and to Thugut’s anxiety to have +Austrian troops in the east rather than on the western frontier. People +who write modern history thus seem to forget that the electric telegraph +did not exist in the eighteenth century. The more reasonable pretension +that the Austrians hesitated between marching north to effect the plan +against Souham, and marching east to relieve the pressure upon Kaunitz, +who was hard pressed upon the Sambre, deserves consideration. But +Kaunitz’s despatch, telling how he had been forced to fall back, did not +reach headquarters until the 12th, and if immediate orders had been given +for the northern march, that march would have begun before the news of +Kaunitz’s reverse had arrived. The only reasonable explanation in this as +in most problems in human history, is the psychological one. You have to +explain the delay of George III.’s son, and Joseph II.’s nephew. To anyone +not obsessed by the superstition of rank, the mere portraits of these +eminent soldiers would be enough to explain it.</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Fortescue, vol. iv., part i., p. 255.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> After so many allusions to his youth, I may as well give the date of +his birth. Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. of +England, was not yet thirty when he suffered at Tourcoing, having been +born in 1765. He had the misfortune to die in 1827.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> The reader not indifferent to comedy will hear with pleasure that, +among various accounts of Kinsky’s communication with the Arch-Duke +Charles at this juncture, one describes that Royalty as inaccessible after +the fatigue of the day. His colleague is represented as asking in vain for +an interview, and receiving from a servant the reply “that his Imperial +Highness must not be disturbed, as he was occupied in having a fit.”</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> At a point somewhat below Wervicq: much where the private ferry now +plies.</p> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tourcoing, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + +***** This file should be named 32260-h.htm or 32260-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/6/32260/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tourcoing + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: May 5, 2010 [EBook #32260] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +TOURCOING + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + TOURCOING + + + BY + HILAIRE BELLOC + + + MCMXII + STEPHEN SWIFT AND CO., LTD. + 16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN + LONDON + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART PAGE + + I. THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE 9 + + II. THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION 17 + + III. THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES 28 + + IV. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE 49 + + V. THE TERRAIN 57 + + VI. THE ACTION 67 + + + + +TOURCOING + + + + +PART I + +THE POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCE + + +The Battle of Tourcoing is one of those actions upon which European +history in general is somewhat confused, and English history, in +particular, ignorant. + +That British troops formed part of those who suffered defeat, and that a +British commander, the Duke of York, was the chief figure in the reverse, +affords no explanation; for the almost exactly parallel case of +Fontenoy--in which another royal duke, also the son of the reigning King +of England, also very young, also an excellent general officer, and also +in command was defeated--is among the most familiar of actions in this +country. In both battles the posture of the British troops earned them as +great and as deserved a fame as they had acquired in victory; in both was +work done by the Guards in particular, which called forth the admiration +of the enemy. Yet Tourcoing remains unknown to the English general reader +of history, while Fontenoy is one of the few stock names of battles which +he can at once recall. + +The reason that British historians neglect this action is not, then, as +foreign and rival historians are too inclined to pretend, due to the fact +that among the forces that suffered disaster were present certain British +contingents. + +Again, as will be seen in the sequel, the overwhelming of the Duke of +York's forces at Tourcoing, by numbers so enormously superior to his own, +was not due to any tactical fault of his, though it is possible that the +faulty plan of the whole action may in some measure be ascribed to him. + +Now Tourcoing is a battle which Englishmen should know, both for its +importance in the military history of Europe, and for the not unworthy +demeanour which the British troops, though defeated, maintained upon its +field. + +The true reason that Tourcoing is so little known in this country is to be +discovered in that other historical fact attaching to the battle, which I +have mentioned. It occupied but a confused and an uncertain place in the +general history of Europe; though perhaps, were its military significance +fully understood, it would stand out in sharper relief. For though the +Battle of Tourcoing was not the beginning of any great military series, +nor the end of one; though no very striking immediate political +consequence followed upon it, yet it was Tourcoing which made Fleurus +possible, and it was Fleurus that opened the victorious advancing march of +the French which, looked at as a whole, proceeded triumphantly +thenceforward for nearly eighteen years and achieved the transformation of +European society. + +What, then, was the political circumstance under which this action was +fought? + +The French Revolution, by the novelty of its doctrines, by the fierceness +and rapidity of its action, and by that military character in it which was +instinctively divined upon the part of its opponents, challenged, shortly +after its inception, the armed interference of those ancient traditional +governments, external to and neighbouring upon French territory, which +felt themselves threatened by the rapid advance of democracy. + +With the steps that led from the first peril of conflict to its actual +outbreak, we are not concerned. That outbreak took place in April 1792, +almost exactly three years after the meeting of the first Revolutionary +Parliament in Versailles. + +The first stages of the war (which was conducted by Austria and Prussia +upon the one side, against the French forces upon the other) were +singularly slow. No general action was engaged in until the month of +September, and even then the struggle between the rival armies took the +form not so much of a pitched battle as of an inconclusive cannonade known +to history as that of VALMY. This inconclusive cannonade took place in the +heart of French territory during the march of the invaders upon Paris. +Disease, and the accident of weather, determined the retreat of the +invaders immediately afterwards. In the autumn of the year, the French +forces largely recruited by enthusiastic volunteer levies, but of low +military value, poured over the country then called the Austrian +Netherlands and now Belgium. But their success was shortlived. A mere +efflux of numbers could not hold against the trained and increasing +resistance of the Imperial soldiers. In the spring of 1793 the retreat +began, and through the summer of that year the military position of +Revolutionary France grew graver and graver. Internal rebellions of the +most serious character broke out over the whole territory of the Republic. +In Normandy, in the great town of Lyons, in Marseilles, and particularly +in the Western districts surrounding the mouth of the Loire, these +rebellions had each in turn their moment of success, while the great naval +station of Toulon opened its port to the enemy, and received the combined +English and Spanish Fleets. + +Coincidently with the enormous task of suppressing this widespread +domestic rebellion, the Revolutionary Government was compelled to meet the +now fully organised advance of its foreign enemies. It was at war no +longer with Austria and Prussia alone, but with England, with Holland, +with Spain as well, and the foreign powers not only thrust back the +incursion which the French had made beyond their frontiers, but proceeded +to attack and to capture, one after the other, that barrier of fortresses +in the north-east which guarded the advance on Paris. + +The succession of misfortune after misfortune befalling the French arms +was checked, and the tide turned by the victory won at Wattignies in +October 1793. After that victory the immediate peril of a successful +invasion, coupled with the capture of Paris, was dissipated. But it was +yet uncertain for many months which way the tide would turn--whether the +conflict would end in a sort of stale-mate by which the French should +indeed be left independent for the moment, but the armed governments of +Europe their enemies also left powerful to attack and in the end to ruin +them; or whether (as was actually the case) the French should ultimately +be able to take the offensive, to re-cross their frontiers, and to dictate +to their foes a triumphant peace. + +As I have said, the great action from which history must date the long +series of French triumphs, bears the name of Fleurus; but before Fleurus +there came that considerable success which made Fleurus possible, to which +history gives the name of TOURCOING (from the town standing in the midst +of the very large and uncertain area over which the struggle was +maintained), and which provides the subject of these pages. + +Fleurus was decided in June 1794. It was not a battle in which British +troops were concerned, and therefore can form no part of this series. +Tourcoing was decided in the preceding May, and though, I repeat, it +cannot be made the fixed and striking starting-point from which to date +the long years of the French advantages, yet it was, as it were, the seed +of those advantages, and it was Tourcoing, in its incomplete and +complicated success, which made possible all that was to follow. + +Tourcoing, then, must be regarded as an unexpected, not wholly conclusive, +but none the less fundamental phase in the development of political forces +which led to the establishment of the modern world. Its immediate result, +though not decisive, was appreciable. To use a metaphor, it was felt in +Paris, and to a less extent in London, Berlin, and in Vienna, that the +door against which the French were desperately pushing, though not fully +open, was thrust ajar. The defeat of a portion of the allied forces in +this general action, the inefficacy of the rest, the heartening which it +put into the French defence, and the moral effect of such trophies gained, +and such a rout inflicted, were of capital import to the whole story of +the war. + +This is the political aspect in which we must regard the Battle of +Tourcoing, but its chief interest by far lies in its purely military +aspect; in the indiscretion which so nearly led the French forces to +annihilation; in the plan which was laid to surround and to destroy those +forces by the convergence of the English, Prussian, and Austrian columns; +in the way in which that plan came to nothing, and resulted only in a +crushing disaster to one advanced portion of the forces so converging. + +Tourcoing is rather a battle for military than for civilian historians, +but those who find recreation in military problems upon their own account, +apart from their political connection, will always discover the accidents +of this engagement, its unexpected developments, and its final issue to be +of surpassing interest. + + + + +PART II + +THE GENERAL MILITARY SITUATION + + +In order to understand what happened at the Battle of Tourcoing, it is +first necessary to have in mind the general situation of the forces which +opposed each other round and about what is now the Franco-Belgian +frontier, in the spring of 1794. + +These forces were, of course, those of the French Republic upon the one +hand, upon the other the coalition with its varied troops furnished by +Austria, by Prussia, by England, and some few by sundry of the small +States which formed part of the general alliance for the destruction of +the new democracy. + +The whole campaign of 1794 stands apart from that of 1793. The intervening +winter was a period during which, if we disregard a number of small +actions in which the French took the offensive, nothing of moment was +done upon either side, and we must begin our study with the preparations, +originating in the month of February, for the active efforts which it was +proposed to attempt when the spring should break. + +In that month of February, Mack, recently promoted to the rank of +Major-General in the Austrian army, met the Duke of York, the young +soldier son of George III., in London, to concert the common plan. It was +upon the 12th of that month that this meeting took place. Mack brought the +news to the British Cabinet that the Emperor of Austria, his master, was +prepared to act as Commander-in-Chief of the allied army in the coming +campaign, proposed a general plan of advancing from the Belgian frontier +upon Paris after the capture of the frontier fortresses, and negotiated +for the largest possible British contingent. + +Coburg, it was arranged, should be the General in practical command (under +the nominal headship of the Emperor). Prussian troops, in excess of the +twenty thousand which Prussia owed as a member of the Empire, were +obtained upon the promise of a large subsidy from England and Holland, and +with the month of April some 120,000 men were holding the line from Treves +to the sea. This passed through and occupied Dinant, Bavai, Valenciennes, +St Amand, Denain, Tournai, Ypres, and Nieuport. To this number must be +added men in the garrisons, perhaps some 40,000 more. Of this long line +the strength lay in the centre. + +The central army, under the general command of Coburg, who had his +headquarters at Valenciennes, was, if we exclude men in garrisons, +somewhat over 65,000 in strength, or more than half the whole strength of +the long line. With Coburg in the central army was the Duke of York with +some 22,000, and the Prince of Orange with a rather smaller contingent of +Dutch. + +Over against this long line with its heavy central "knot" or bulk of men +under Coburg, in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes, the genius of Carnot +had mustered over 200,000 French troops, which, when we have deducted +various items for garrisons and other services, counted as effective more +than 150,000 but less than 160,000 men. This French line extended from the +sea to Maubeuge, passing through Dunquerque, Cassel, Lille, Cambrai, and +Bouchain. + +It was as a fact a little before the opening of April that the French +began the campaign by taking the offensive on a large scale upon the +29th of March. + + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE OPPOSING FRENCH AND ALLIED LINES. +APRIL 1794] + + +Pichegru, who was in command of that frontier army, attacked, with 30,000 +men, the positions of the allies near Le Cateau, well to the right or +south-east of their centre and his, and was beaten back. + +It was upon the 14th of April that the Emperor of Austria joined Coburg at +Valenciennes, held a review of his troops (including the British +contingent, which will be given later in detail), fixed his headquarters +in the French town of Le Cateau, and at once proceeded to the first +operation of the campaign, which was the siege of the stronghold of +Landrecies. The Dutch contingent of the allies drove in the French +outposts and carried the main French position in front of the town within +that week. By the 22nd of April the garrison of Landrecies was contained, +the beleaguering troops had encircled it, and the siege was begun. + +After certain actions (most of them partial, and one of peculiar +brilliance in the history of the British cavalry), actions each of +interest, and some upon a considerable scale, but serving only to confuse +the reader if they were here detailed, Landrecies fell after eight days' +siege, upon the 30th of April. An advance of the Austrian centre, after +this success, was naturally expected by the French. + +That normal development of the campaign did not take place on account of a +curious episode in the strategy of this moment to which I beg the reader +to give a peculiar attention. It is necessary to grasp exactly the nature +of that episode, for it determined all that was to follow. + +While the fate of Landrecies still hung in the balance, and before the +surrender of the town, Pichegru had, in another part of the long line, +scored one of those successes which in any game or struggle are worse than +losing a trick or suffering a defeat. It was one of those successes in +which one gets the better of one's opponent in one chance part of the +general contest, but so triumphs without a set plan, with no calculation +upon what should follow upon the achievement, and therefore with every +prospect of finding oneself in a worse posture after it than before. + +To take an analogy from chess: Pichegru's error, which I will presently +describe, might be compared to the action of a player who, taking a castle +of his opponent's with his queen, thereby leaves his king unguarded and +open to check-mate. + +Wherever men are opposed one to the other in lines, each line having the +mission to advance against the other, it is a fatal move to get what +footballers call "'fore side": to let a portion of your forces advance too +far from the general line held by the whole, and to have the advanced part +of that portion thus isolated from the support of its fellows. Such a +formation invites a concentration of your opponents against the isolated +body, and may lead to its destruction. + +It was precisely in this position that Pichegru placed a portion of his +forces by the ill-advised advance he made down the valley of the Lys to +Courtrai. + +Taking advantage of the way in which the main forces of the allies were +tied to the siege of Landrecies, the French commander wisely moved forward +the whole of his forces to the north and west, pushing the enemy back +before him to the line Ypres-Menin, and besieging Menin itself. But most +unwisely he not only permitted to advance, but himself directed and led, a +body of 30,000 men (the command of General Souham) far forward of this +general movement: he actually carried it on as far as the town of +Courtrai. + +The accompanying sketch map shows how much too far advanced this wedge +of men (so large a contingent to imperil by isolation!) was beyond the +general line, and, to repeat the phrase I have just used, a metaphor which +best expresses my meaning, Souham and his division, by Pichegru's direct +orders, had got "'fore side." + + +[Illustration] + + +The only excuse that can be pleaded for Pichegru's folly in this matter, +was the temptation presented by the weak garrison of Courtrai, and the +bait which a facile temporary success always holds out for a man who has +formed no consistent general plan. But that very excuse is the strongest +condemnation of the inexcusable error, and this strategical fault of +Pichegru's was soon paid for by the imperilling of all the great body of +French troops within that rashly projected triangle. + +For the moment Pichegru may have foolishly congratulated himself that he +had done something of military value, as he had certainly done something +striking. Menin fell to the French on the same day that Landrecies did to +the Austrians, and this further success doubtless tempted him to remain +with the head of his wedge at Courtrai, when every consideration of +strategy should have prompted him to retrace his steps and to recall the +over-advanced division back into line. + +This isolated position down the valley of the Lys, this wedge thrust out +in front of Lille, positively asked the allies to attack it. + +The enemy was a fortnight developing his plan, but his delay was equalled +by Pichegru's determination to hold the advanced post he had captured; and +when the allies did finally close in upon that advanced post, nothing but +a series of accidents, which we shall follow in detail when we come to the +story of the action, saved Souham from annihilation. And the destruction +of Souham's division, considering its numbers and its central position, +might have involved the whole French line in a general defeat. + +As I have said, it was at the end of April that this false success of +Pichegru's was achieved, and a whole fortnight was to elapse before the +allies concentrated to take advantage of that error, and to cut off +Souham's division. + +That fortnight was full of minor actions, not a few of them interesting to +the student of military history, and one again remarkable as a feat of +English horse. I deliberately omit all mention of these lest I should +confuse the reader and disturb his conception of the great battle that +was to follow. + +That battle proceeded upon a certain plan thought out in detail, perfectly +simple in character, and united in conception. It failed, as we shall see; +and by its failure turned what should have been the cutting-off and +destruction of Souham's command into a signal French victory. But before +we can understand the causes of its failure, we must grasp the plan itself +in its major lines, and with that object I shall discuss it in my next +section under the title of "The Plan of the Allies." + + + + +PART III + +THE PLAN OF THE ALLIES + + +If the reader will look at the map opposite he will see in what +disposition the armies of the allies were, at the end of April and the +first days of May 1794, to carry into effect the plan which I proceed to +describe. + +There, in its triangle or advanced wedge, with a base stretching across +Lille and an apex at Courtrai, lay the exposed French division, Souham's. + +Clerfayt was to the north of that wedge. The French, in pushing their +wedge up to Courtrai, had thus separated him from the rest of the allies. +Clerfayt lay with his command round about the district of Roulers; he +attempted to return and oust Souham, but he failed, and to the north of +the French wedge, and separated from the rest of the allies by its +intervening thousands, he remained up to, throughout, and after the great +battle that was to follow. + + +[Illustration] + + +Right away down south, nearly sixty miles as the crow flies, lay the bulk +of the Austrian army, Coburg's command, round the town which it had just +captured, Landrecies. The Duke of York's command, detached from this main +army of Coburg, had been ordered north, and was, by May 3rd, at Tournai. +To the east lay the Prussian forces together with a small body of +Hanoverians, about 4000 in number, which last could be brought up on to +the Scheldt River when necessary. + +It will thus be seen that the allies, at the moment when the plan was +about to be formulated, lay on either side of the French wedge, and that +any scheme for cutting off that wedge from the main French line must +consist in causing a great force of the allies to appear rapidly and +unexpectedly between Courtrai and Lille. + +In order to do this, it was necessary to get Clerfayt to march down south +to some point where he could cross the River Lys, while the rest of the +allies were marching north from their southern positions to join hands +with him. + +When this larger mass of the allies coming up from the south and the east +should have joined hands with Clerfayt, all the great French body lying +advanced in the valley of the Lys round Menin and Courtrai would be cut +off. + +Now the success of such a plan obviously depended upon two factors: +synchrony and surprise. That is, its success depended upon the accurate +keeping of a time-table, and upon carrying it out too quickly and +unexpectedly for Souham to fall back in time. + +Clerfayt's force coming down from the north, all the rest of the allies +coming up from the east and the south must march with the common object of +reaching "R," a fixed rendezvous, agreed upon beforehand, and of meeting +there together at some appointed time. If any considerable body lagged +behind the rest, if part of the great force marching up from the south, +for instance, failed to keep in line with the general advance, or if +Clerfayt bungled or delayed, the junction would be imperfect or might even +not take place at all, and the number of men present to cut off the French +when a partial and imperfect junction had been effected, might be too +small to maintain itself astraddle of the French communications, and to +prevent the great French force from breaking its way through back to +Lille. + +So much for synchrony: and as for surprise, it is obvious that for the +success of this plan it was necessary to work both rapidly and secretly. + +Here was Souham with a body of men which recent reinforcement had raised +to some 40,000, lying much too far ahead of the general French line and in +peril of being cut off. Pichegru was foolish to maintain him in that +advanced position, but, though that was an error, it was an error based +upon a certain amount of calculation. Pichegru, and Souham under his +orders, kept to their perilous position round Courtrai, because it did +after all cut the allies in two, and because they knew that they could +deal with Clerfayt's force upon the north (which was only half their own), +while they also knew that the bulk of their enemies were tied down, far +away to the south, by the operations round Landrecies. + +If Souham at Courtrai got news in time of the march northward of that main +southern force, he had only to fall back upon Lille to be saved. + +It was not until the 10th of May that the plan was elaborated whereby it +was hoped to annihilate Souham's command, and this plan seems to have +occurred first to the Duke of York upon the evening of that day, after a +successful minor action between his troops and the French just outside +Tournai. + +The Duke of York had been at Tournai a week, having come up there from +Landrecies after the fall of that fortress, though the mass of the +Austrian forces still remained away in the south. The week had been spent +in "feeling" the south-eastern front of the French advanced "wedge," and +it was by the evening of the 10th that the Duke of York appears to have +decided that the time was ripe for a general movement. + +At any rate, it was upon the morrow, the 11th, that the English Prince +sent word to Clerfayt that he intended to submit to the Emperor, who was +the ultimate authority upon the side of the allies, a plan for the general +and decisive action he desired to bring about. On the next day, the 12th, +a Monday, the Duke of York wrote to Clerfayt that he hoped, "on the day +after the morrow" (that is, upon the Wednesday, the 14th), "to take a +decisive movement against the enemy." And we may presume that the Duke had +communicated to the Emperor the nature of his plan. For on the 13th, the +Tuesday, the Emperor was in possession of it, and his orders, sent out +upon that day, set out the plan in detail.[1] That plan was as follows:-- + +Clerfayt, with his force, which was rather less than 20,000 all told, was +to march south from Thielt, his headquarters for the moment, and advance +upon the little town of Wervicq upon the River Lys. Here there was a +bridge, and Clerfayt was also in possession of pontoons wherewith to pass +the stream. Meanwhile, the southern mass of the allies was to concentrate +upon the Scheldt in the following manner: + +The few thousand Hanoverians, under Bussche, were to take up their +position at Warcoing, just upon and across that river. Two miles further +south, Otto, with a larger Austrian force accompanied by certain English +cavalry (the numbers will follow), was to concentrate at Bailleul. + +The Duke of York's own large force, which had been at Tournai for over a +week, was to go forward a little and concentrate at Templeuve. Five miles +to the south of Templeuve, at Froidmont, a column, somewhat larger than +the Duke of York's, under Kinsky, was to concentrate. + +There were thus to be concentrated upon the south of the French wedge +four separate bodies under orders to advance northward together. + +The first, under Bussche, was only about 4000 strong, the Hanoverians and +Prussians; the second, under Otto, from about 10,000 strong; the third, +under the Duke of York, of much the same strength, or a little less; and +the fourth, under Kinsky, some 11,000. + +These four numbered nearly, or quite, 35,000 men, less than the "nearly +40,000" at which certain French historians have estimated their strength. + +To these four columns (which I will beg the reader to remember by their +numbers of first, second, third, and fourth, as well as by the names of +their commanders, Bussche, Otto, York, and Kinsky) a fifth must be added, +the appreciation of whose movements and failure is the whole explanation +of the coming battle. + +The fifth column was a body of no less than 16,000 men coming from the +main Austrian body far south, and ordered to be at St Amand upon the +Scheldt somewhat before the concentration of the other four columns, and +to advance from St Amand to Pont-a-Marcq. Upon reaching Pont-a-Marcq this +fifth column would be in line with the other four at Warcoing, Bailleul, +Templeuve, and Froidmont, and ready to take its part in the great forward +movement towards the north. + +In order to appreciate the way in which the issue was bound to depend upon +this fifth column, I must now detail the orders given to all six, the five +columns in the valley of the Scheldt, and the sixth body, under Clerfayt, +north of the Lys; for it is these orders which constitute the soul of the +plan. + +Bussche, with his small body of 4000 Hanoverians, the first column, had +the task of "holding" the apex of the French wedge when the attack should +begin. That is, it was his task to do no more with his inferior forces +than send one portion up the road towards Courtrai, so that the advanced +French troops there should be engaged while another part of his small +command should attack the little town of Mouscron, which the French held, +of course, for it was within their wedge of occupation. It was obviously +not hoped that this little body could do more than keep the French +occupied, prevent their falling back towards Lille, and perhaps make them +believe that the main attack was coming from Bussche's men. + +The second column, under Otto, was to advance upon Tourcoing, in those +days a little town, now a great manufacturing city. + +The third column, that under the Duke of York, was to march side by side +with Otto's column, and to make for Mouveaux, a village upon a level with +Tourcoing upon this line of advance, and to be reached by marching through +Roubaix (now also a great manufacturing town, but then a small place). + +None of these advances, Bussche's, Otto's, or York's, was of any +considerable length. The longest march through which any of these three +columns had to fight its way was that of the Duke of York from Templeuve +to Mouveaux, and even this was not eight miles. + +The fourth column, under Kinsky, had a harder task and a longer march. It +was to carry Bouvines, which was in the hands of the French and nearly +seven miles from Froidmont (Kinsky's point of departure), and when it had +done this it was to turn to the north with one part of its force in order +to shelter the march of the Duke of York from attacks by the French troops +near Lille, while another part of its force was to join with the fifth +column and march up with it until both came upon a level with York and +Otto in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux. + +Now it was to this fifth column, the 16,000 men or more under the +Arch-Duke Charles, that the great work of the day was assigned. From +Pont-a-Marcq they must attack a great French body quite equal to their own +in numbers, even when part of Kinsky's force had joined them, which French +force lay in the camp at Sainghin. They must thrust this force back +towards Lille, pour up northward, and arrive in support of Otto and York +by the time these two commanders were respectively at Tourcoing and +Mouveaux. + +In other words, the fifth column, that of the Arch-Duke Charles, was asked +to make an advance of nearly fourteen miles, involving heavy fighting in +its first part, and yet to synchronise with columns who had to advance no +more than five miles or seven. + +Supposing all went well, Clerfayt--crossing the Lys at Wervicq at the same +hour which saw the departure of the five southern columns from Warcoing, +Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and Pont-a-Marcq respectively, was to +advance southward from the river towards Mouveaux and Tourcoing, a +distance of some seven miles, while the others were advancing on the same +points from the south. + +If the time-table were accurately kept and this great combined movement +all fitted in, Clerfayt would join hands with the second, third, fourth, +and fifth columns somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and +Mouveaux, a great force of over 60,000 men would lie between the French +troops at Lille and Souham's 40,000 in the "advanced wedge," and those +40,000 thus isolated were, in a military sense, destroyed. + +Such being the mechanism or map of the scheme, we must next inquire the +exact dates and hours upon which the working of the whole was planned. + +The Duke of York, as we have seen when he was arranging the business and +writing to Clerfayt and the Emperor, had talked of moving upon the 14th, +by which presumably he meant organising the attack on the 14th, and +setting the first columns in motion from their places of rendezvous in the +early hours of that day, Wednesday, before dawn. + +If that was in his mind, it shows him to have been a prompt and energetic +man, and to have had a full appreciation of the place which surprise +occupied in the chances of success. If, indeed, the Emperor got the Duke +of York's message in time on the 12th, if he had at once accepted the +plan, and had with Napoleonic rapidity ordered the bulk of his forces +(which were still right away south and east) to move, he might have had +them by forced marches upon and across the Scheldt, and ready to execute +the plan by the 14th, or at any rate by the morning of the 15th. + +But from what we know of the family to which the Duke of York belonged, it +is exceedingly improbable that this younger son of George III. had, on +this one occasion only, any lightning in his brain; and even if he did +appreciate more or less the importance of rapid action, the Emperor did +not appreciate it. He committed the two contradictory faults of delaying +the movement and of asking too much marching of his men, and it was not +until the morning of the Wednesday, May the 14th, that the bulk of the +Austrian army, which still lay in the Valenciennes and Landrecies +district, broke up for its northward march, to arrive at the rendezvous +beyond the Scheldt, and to carry out the plan.[2] + +It was not until Thursday the 15th of May that the Emperor joined the Duke +of York at Tournai, and very late upon the same day the Arch-Duke Charles +had brought up the main body of the Austrian forces from the south to the +town of St Amand. + +We shall see later what a grievous error it was to demand so violent an +effort from the men of the Arch-Duke Charles' command. From Landrecies +itself to St Amand is 30 miles as the crow flies; and though, of course, +the mass of the troops which the Arch-Duke Charles had been thus commanded +to bring up northward in such haste were most of them well on the right +side of Landrecies when the order to advance reached them, yet the +average march undertaken by his men in little more than twenty-four hours +was a full twenty miles, and some of his units must have covered nearer +thirty. I will not delay further on this point here; its full importance +will appear when we come to talk of the action itself. + +The Arch-Duke Charles being only as far as St Amand on the evening of +Thursday the 15th, and his rendezvous, that of the fifth column in the +great plan, being Pont-a-Marcq, a further good sixteen miles +north-westward, it was evident that the inception of that plan and the +simultaneous advance of all the five columns from their five +starting-points of Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, Froidmont, and +Pont-a-Marcq, could not begin even upon the 16th. It would take the best +part of a day to bring the Arch-Duke Charles up to Pont-a-Marcq; his men +were in imperative need of rest during a full night at St Amand, and it is +probable, though I have no proof of it, that he had not even fully +concentrated there by the evening of the 15th, and that his last units +only joined him during the forenoon of the 16th. + +The whole of that day, therefore, the 16th, was consumed so far as the +first, second, third, and fourth columns were concerned, in merely +gathering and marshalling their forces, and occupying, before nightfall, +the points from which they were to depart simultaneously in the combined +advance of the morrow. They _had_ to wait thus for the dawn of the 17th, +because they had to allow time for the fifth column to come up. + +The time-table imposed upon the great plan by these delays is now +apparent. The moment when all the strings of the net were to be pulled +together round Souham was the space between midnight and dawn of Saturday +the 17th of May. And the hour when all the six bodies of the allies were +to join hands at "R" near Tourcoing was the noon of that day. + +Before day broke upon the 17th, Clerfayt was to find himself at Wervicq +upon the River Lys and across that stream, while of the five southern +columns the Arch-Duke Charles was to be attacking the French troops just +in front of Pont-a-Marcq with the fifth column at the same moment; Kinsky, +with the fourth, was to be well on the way from Froidmont to Bouvines +where he was to attack the French also and cross the bridge; the Duke of +York, with the third, was to be well on the way from Templeuve to Lannoy; +Otto, with the second, was to be equally advanced upon his line, somewhere +by Wattrelos in his march upon Tourcoing; while Bussche, with his small +first column, on the extreme north, was to be getting into contact with +the French posts south of Courtrai, which it was his duty to "hold," +impressing upon Souham the idea that a main attack might develop in that +quarter, and so deluding the French into maintaining their perilously +advanced stations until they were cut off from Lille by the rest of the +allies. + +The morning would be filled by the advance of Clerfayt from Wervicq +southward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing, while the corresponding fighting +advance northward upon Mouveaux and Tourcoing also, of Otto, York, Kinsky, +and the Arch-Duke Charles, should result somewhere about noon in their +joining hands with Clerfayt and forming one great body: a body cutting off +Courtrai from Lille, and the 40,000 under Souham from their fellows in the +main French line. + +With such a time-table properly observed, the plan should have succeeded, +and between the noon and the evening of that Saturday, the great force +which Souham commanded should have been at the mercy of the allies. + + * * * * * + +Such was the plan and such the time-table upon which it was schemed. Its +success depended, of course, as I have said, upon an exact keeping of that +time-table, and also upon the net being drawn round Souham before he had +guessed what was happening. The second of these conditions, we shall see +when we come to speak of "The Preliminaries of the Action," was +successfully accomplished. The first was not; and its failure is the story +of the defeat suffered by the Duke of York in particular, and the +consequent break-down of the whole strategical conception of the allies. + + * * * * * + +But before dealing with this it is necessary to establish a disputed +point. + +I have spoken throughout of the plan as the Duke of York's. Because it +failed, and because the Duke of York was an English prince, historians in +this country have not only rejected this conclusion, but, as a rule, have +not even mentioned it. The plan has been represented as Mack's plan, as a +typical example of Austrian pedantry and folly, the Duke of York as the +victim of foolish foreigners who did not know their business, and it has +even been hinted that the Austrians desired defeat! With the latter +extravagant and even comic suggestion I will deal later in this study; for +the moment I am only concerned with the responsibility of the Duke of +York. + +It must, in the first place, be clearly understood that the failure of the +plan does not reflect upon the judgment of that commander. It failed +because Clerfayt was not up to time, and because too much had been asked +of the fifth column. The Duke came of a family not famous for genius; he +was exceedingly young, and whatever part he may have had in the framing of +this large conception ought surely to stand to his credit. + +It is true that Mack, the Austrian General, drafted details of the plan +immediately before it was carried into execution, and our principal +military historian in this country tells us how "on the 16th, Mack +prepared an elaborate plan which he designed."[3] + +Well, the 16th was the Friday. + +Now we know that on the 11th of May, the Sunday, the Emperor and his +staff had no intention of making a combined attack to cut off Souham from +Lille, for orders were given to Clerfayt on that day to engage Souham +along the valley of the Lys for the purpose of holding the attention of +the French, and in the hope of recovering Menin--the exact opposite of +what would have been ordered if a secret and unexpected attempt to cut off +Souham by crossing further up the river had been intended. It was at the +same moment that the Duke of York was sending word to Clerfayt on his own +account, to the effect that he intended to submit a plan to the Emperor, +and it is worth noting that in the very order which was sent to Clerfayt +by the Emperor he was told to refer to the Duke of York as to his future +movements. + +The archives of the Ministry of War at Vienna have it on record that the +Duke of York made a definite statement of a plan to Clerfayt, which plan +he intended to submit to the Emperor immediately, and a letter dated upon +the Monday, the 12th--four days before there is any talk of Mack's +arranging details,--York writes to Clerfayt telling him that he hopes to +make his decisive movement against the enemy on the Wednesday, the 14th. + +On the 13th, Tuesday, the orders of the Emperor to both Clerfayt and the +Duke of York (which are also on record) set down this plan in detail, +mentioning the point Wervicq at which Clerfayt was expected to cross the +river Lys, and at the same time directing the Duke of York to march +northward with the object of joining Clerfayt, and thus cutting off the +French forces massed round Courtrai from their base. Further, in this same +despatch, the initiative is particularly left to the Duke of York, and it +is once more from him that Clerfayt is to await decisions as to the moment +and details of the operation. + +The same archives record the Duke of York sending Lieut.-Colonel Calvert +to Clerfayt upon the 14th, to tell him that he meant to attack upon the +morrow, the 15th, and they further inform us that it was on the English +Prince's learning how scattered were Clerfayt's units, and how long it +would therefore take him to concentrate, that action was delayed by some +thirty-six hours. + +Evidence of this sort is absolutely conclusive. The plan was not Mack's; +it was York's. + + + + +PART IV + +THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE + + +Tourcoing is an action the preliminaries of which are easy to describe, +and need occupy little of our space, because it was a battle in which the +plan of one side was developed and prosecuted almost to its conclusion +without a corresponding plan upon the other side. + +As a rule, the preliminaries of a battle consist in the dispositions taken +by each side for hours or for days--sometimes for weeks--beforehand, in +order to be in a posture to receive or to attack the other side. These +preliminaries include manoeuvring for position, and sometimes in the +fighting of minor subsidiary actions before the main action takes place. + +Now, in the case of Tourcoing, there was none of this, for the French at +Tourcoing were surprised. + +The surprise was not complete, but it was sufficiently thorough to make +the whole of the fighting during the first day, Saturday (at least, the +whole of the fighting in the centre of the field), a triumph for the +allied advance. + +Let us first appreciate exactly how matters looked to Souham when, on the +15th, the Thursday, the blow was about to fall upon him. + +He had under his orders, with headquarters now at Courtrai, now at Menin +(see sketch map on p. 58), rather less than 40,000. In that dash upon +Courtrai a fortnight before, which had led to the dangerous establishment +of so large an advanced body in front of the main French line, one main +effect of that advance had been to push back, away to the left beyond the +Lys, more than 16,000, but less than 20,000 men under the Austrian +General, Clerfayt. With that army, Clerfayt's body, Souham had remained +continually in touch. Detachments of it were continually returning to the +valley of the Lys to harass his posts, and, in a word, Clerfayt's was the +only force of the enemy which Souham thought he had need to bear in mind. + +The bulk of the Austrian army he knew to be quite four days' march away to +the south, at first occupied in the siege of Landrecies, and later +stationed in the vicinity of that fortress. + +Of course, lying in his exposed position, Souham knew that a general +attack upon him from the south was one of the possibilities of the +situation, but it was not a thing which he thought could come +unexpectedly: at any rate he thought himself prepared, by the use of his +scouts and his spies, to hear of any such advance in ample time. + +In case he should be attacked, the attack might take one of many forms. It +might try to drive him over the Lys, where Clerfayt would be ready to meet +him; or it might be a general attack upon Courtrai as a centre; or it +might be (what had, as we have seen, been actually determined) an attempt +to cut him and all his 40,000 off from the main French line. + +This main French line ran through the town of Lille, and Lille not only +had its garrison, but also at Sainghin, outside the fortifications to the +south-east, a camp, under Bonnaud, of 20,000 men. If the attack from the +south or from the north, or from both, managed to cut Souham off from +Bonnaud's camp, and from the garrison at Lille, he was ruined, and his +40,000 were lost; but he hoped to be kept sufficiently informed of the +enemy's movements to fall back in time, should such an attempt be made, +and to provide for it by effecting a junction with Bonnaud before it was +delivered. + +Pichegru, the Commander of the whole French army of the north, who had +ordered the advance on Courtrai, happened to be absent upon a visit to the +posts away south upon the Sambre River. Souham was therefore temporarily +in full command of all the troops which were to be concerned in the coming +battle. But the position was only a temporary one, and that must account +for the deference he paid to the advice of the four generals subordinate +to him, and for the council which he called at Menin on the critical +Saturday night which decided the issue. He himself quotes his commission +in the following terms:--"Commander-in-Chief of all the troops from the +camp at Sainghin to Courtrai inclusive." + +From the beginning of the week, when a detachment of his troops had but +just recovered from a sharp action with the Duke of York's men towards +Tournai, Souham appreciated that the forces of the enemy were gradually +increasing to the south of him, and that the posts upon the Scheldt were +receiving additional enforcements of men. But neither his judgment nor the +reports that came in to him led him to believe that the mass of the +Austrian army was coming north to attack him. And in this he was right, +for, as we have seen, the Emperor did not make up his mind until Wednesday +the 14th, which was the day when orders were sent to the Arch-Duke Charles +to march northward. + +Souham's attitude of mind up to, say, the Thursday may be fairly described +in some such terms as follows:-- + +"I know that a concentration is going on in the valley of the Scheldt to +the south and east of me; it is pretty big, but not yet exactly dangerous, +though I shouldn't wonder if I were attacked in a few days from that +quarter. What I am much more certain of is that active and mobile force +which I beat off the other day, but which is still intact under the best +General opposed to me, Clerfayt. I hear that it is marching south again, +and my best troops and my offensive must be directed against that. I am +far superior in numbers to Clerfayt, and if I can bring him to an action +and break him, I can then turn to the others at my leisure: for the moment +I have only one front to think of--that on the north." + +But the negligence which he or his informants were guilty of--a negligence +that was to prove so nearly fatal to all those 40,000 French +troops--consisted in the failure to discover what was up upon Friday the +16th. + +During those twenty-four hours the Arch-Duke Charles had brought up his +column to St Amand; the other four columns upon the Scheldt were +concentrated, and upon the north of the Lys, Clerfayt had got orders to +move upon Wervicq, and was, during the middle hours of Friday, actually +upon the march. Yet, during all that day, Friday the 16th, Souham remained +ignorant of the extremity of his peril. + +The orders which he dictated upon the Friday night, and largely repeated +upon the following morning of Saturday the 17th of May, show how little he +expected the general action that was upon him. He arranged, indeed, for a +cordon of troops to be watching, in insufficient numbers, the side towards +the Scheldt, and he sent to Bonnaud and the camp at Sainghin, outside +Lille, orders to keep more or less in touch with that cordon. The +instructions to this cordon of troops along the eastern side of the French +position is no more than one of general vigilance. It is still to +Clerfayt and towards the north alone that he directs an offensive and +vigorous movement. + +In a word, he was a good twenty-four hours behind with his information. He +was wasting troops north of the Lys in looking for Clerfayt at a time when +that General was already on the march to Wervicq, and he was leaving a +scattered line of insufficient bodies to meet what he did not in the least +expect, the rapid advance of Bussche, Otto, and York during that Saturday +upon Mouscron, Tourcoing, and Roubaix. + +Therefore it was that although Bussche's insufficient force was driven out +of Mouscron at last by superior numbers, Otto and York succeeded in +sweeping all the resistance before them, and, in the course of that +Saturday, reached the first Tourcoing, the second Roubaix, and even +Mouveaux. + +The whole problem of warfare consists in a comparison between the +information that each side has of the movements of the other. The whole +art of success in war pivots upon the using of your enemy's ignorance. Had +the allies upon this occasion been more accurate in keeping to their +time-table, and somewhat more rapid in their movements, they would have +caught the French commander still under the illusion that there was no +danger, save from the north, and would have succeeded in cutting off and +destroying the main French force by getting in all together between +Courtrai and Lille. For at that same moment, the early hours before +daybreak of the 17th, the allies had begun their movement. + + + + +PART V + +THE TERRAIN + + +The terrain over which the plan of the allies was to be tested must next +be grasped if we are to understand the causes which led to its ultimate +failure. + +That terrain is most conveniently described as an oblong standing up +lengthways north and south, and corresponding to the sketch map overleaf. +That oblong has a base of twenty miles from east to west, a length from +north to south of thirty-five. + +These dimensions are sufficient to show upon what a scale the great plan +of the allies for cutting off Souham at Courtrai was designed. + +At its south-eastern corner the reader will perceive the town of St Amand, +the furthest point south from which the combined movements of the allies +began; while somewhat to the left of its top or northern edge, at the +point marked "A," the northern-most body connected with that plan, the +body commanded by Clerfayt, was posted at the origin of the movement. + + +[Illustration] + + +The object of the whole convergence from the Scheldt on one hand, and from +Clerfayt's northern position upon the other, being to cut off the French +forces which lay at and south of Courtrai from Lille, and the main line of +the French army, it is evident that the actual fighting and the chances of +success or disaster would take place within a smaller interior oblong, +which I have also marked upon the sketch map. This smaller or interior +oblong measures about sixteen miles at its base by about twenty-five miles +in length, and includes all the significant points of the action. + +The points marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively are the points at which +the five columns advancing from the Scheldt valley northward were to find +themselves before dawn on the morning of Saturday the 17th of May. We are +already acquainted with them. They are Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve, +Froidmont, and Pont-a-Marcq respectively; while the point marked 6 is +Wervicq, from which Clerfayt was to start simultaneously with the five +southern columns with the object of meeting his fellows round Tourcoing. + +The town of Courtrai will be perceived to lie in the north-eastern angle +of this inner oblong, the town of Lille rather below the middle of its +western side. In all the country round Courtrai, and especially to the +south of it, within the triangle X Y Z, lay the mass of Souham's command +of 40,000 men. There were many posts, of course, scattered outside that +triangle, and connecting Courtrai with Lille; but the links were weak, and +the main force was where I have indicated it to be. + +A large body of French troops being encamped just under the walls of Lille +at B (by which letter I mark Sainghin camp), and that fortress also +possessing a garrison, the plan of cutting both these off from the 40,000 +French that lay in the country near Courtrai involved getting the main +part of the allies up from these points of departure on the south, and +Clerfayt's body down from its point of departure on the north to meet upon +the line drawn between Lille and Courtrai. Upon this line (which also +roughly corresponds to the only main road between the two cities) may be +perceived, lying nearer Lille than the centre of such line, the small town +of Tourcoing and the village of Mouveaux. It was upon these two points +that four of the five southern columns were to converge northward, the +second and third column reaching them first, the fourth and fifth marching +up from the left in aid; and it was also, of course, upon these two points +that Clerfayt was to march southward from the post at Wervicq, that had +been given _him_ as _his_ point of departure before dawn upon that +Saturday morning. If everything went perfectly, the great mass of the +allied army should have found itself, by noon of Saturday the 17th, as I +have said, astraddle of the Lille-Courtrai road, and effectively cutting +off the French troops to the north. + +What was the nature of the wide countryside over which these various +movements were to take place? + +It was part of that great plain of Flanders which stretches from the River +Scheldt almost unbroken to the Straits of Dover and the North Sea. In the +whole of the great oblong represented by my sketch map there is hardly a +point 150 feet above the water level of the main river valleys, while the +great mass of that territory is diversified by no more than very broad and +very shallow rolls of land, the crests of which are sometimes and +exceptionally as much as fifty feet above the troughs, but the greater +part thirty, twenty, or even less. Here and there an isolated hummock +shows upon the landscape, but the general impression of one who walks +across from the valley of the Lys to that of the Scheldt is of a flat, +monotonous land in which one retains no memory of ascent or descent, and +in which the eye but rarely perceives, and that only from specially chosen +points, any wide horizon. + +To-day the greater part of this country suffers from the curse of +industrialism and repeats--of course, with far less degradation--the +terrible aspect of our own manufacturing towns. Roubaix and Tourcoing in +particular are huge straggling agglomerations of cotton-spinners and their +hands. A mass of railways and tramways cut the countryside, and the evil +presence of coal-smoke mars it everywhere: at least within the region of +Lille, Tourcoing, and Roubaix. + +In May 1794, though a considerable industry had begun to grow up in Lille +itself, the wide, open countryside round the town was entirely +agricultural. Much of it was what soldiers call "blind" country: that is, +it was cut up into fields with numerous hedges; there were long farm walls +and a great number of small watercourses fringed with trees. But, on the +other hand, there was very little wood. Moreover, though there were few +places from which one could overlook any considerable view, the +"blindness" of the field, as a whole, has been much exaggerated in the +attempt to excuse or explain the disaster of which it was the theatre. The +southern part of it is open enough, and so is the north-eastern portion, +in which the first column operated. Of the soil no particular mention is +needed; most of the great roads were paved; the weather had created no +difficulty in the going, and the only trouble in this respect lay in the +northern part, where Clerfayt's command was condemned to advance over +patches of loose and difficult sand, which made the road, or rather rare +lanes, very heavy. + +It will at once be perceived that, in view of the operations planned, one +principal obstacle exists in the terrain, the River Lys. Few bridges +crossed this stream, and for the purpose of turning the French position +and coming across the Lys from the north to the neighbourhood of Mouveaux, +there was in those days no bridge save the bridge at Wervicq (at the point +marked 6 on the plan at the beginning of this section); but this +difficulty we have seen to be lessened by the presence in Clerfayt's +command of a section of pontoons. + +At first sight one might perceive no other considerable obstacle save the +Lys to the general movement of the allied army. But when the peculiar +course of the little River Marque is pointed out, and the nature of its +stream described, the reader will perceive that it exercised some little +effect upon the fortunes of the battle, and might have exercised a much +greater one to the advantage of the British troops had not the Duke of +York blundered in a fashion which will be later described. + +In the first place, it should be noted that this little stream (it is no +wider than a canal, will barely allow two barges to pass in its lower +course, and will not float one to the southward of Lille) turns up quite +close to Roubaix, and at the nearest point is not a mile from the +market-place of that town. + +Now the significance of such a conformation to the battlefield of +Tourcoing lay in the fact that it was impossible for any considerable +force to manoeuvre between the third column (which was marching upon +Roubaix) and the Marque River. Had the Marque not existed, Kinsky, with +the fourth column, would have been free to march parallel with York, just +as York marched parallel with Otto, while the Arch-Duke with his fifth +column, instead of having been given a rendezvous right down south at +Pont-a-Marcq (the point marked 5 on my sketch), would have gone up the +main road from St Amand to Lille, and have marched parallel with Kinsky, +just as Kinsky would have marched parallel with York. In other words, the +fourth and the fifth columns, instead of being ordered along the dotted +lines marked upon my sketch (the elbows in which lines correspond to the +crossing places of the Marque), would have proceeded along the +uninterrupted arrow lines which I have put by the side of them. + +The Marque made all the difference. It compelled the fifth column to take +its roundabout road, and the fourth, detained by the delay of the fifth, +was held, as we shall see in what follows, for a whole day at one of the +crossings of the river. + +The little stream has a deep and muddy bottom, and the fields upon its +banks are occasionally marshy. This feature has been exaggerated, as have +the other features I have mentioned, in order to explain or excuse the +defeat, but, at any rate, it prevented the use of crossing places other +than bridges. The Marque has no true fords, and there is no taking an +army across it, narrow as it is, save by the few bridges which then +existed. These bridges I have marked upon the sketch. + +So far as the terrain is concerned, then, what we have to consider is +country, flat, but containing low defensive positions, largely cut up, +especially between the Scheldt and Roubaix, by hedges and walls, though +more open elsewhere, and particularly open towards the north: a serious +obstacle to the advance of one body in the shape of the River Lys; and +another obstacle, irritating rather than formidable in character, but +sufficient both by its course and its marshy soil to complicate the +advance, namely, the little River Marque. + + * * * * * + +As to the weather, it was misty but fine. The nights in bivouac were +passed without too much discomfort, and the only physical condition which +oppressed portions of the allied army consisted in the error of its +commanders, and proceeded from fatigue. + + + + +PART VI + +THE ACTION + + +At about ten o'clock in the morning of Friday the 16th of May, Clerfayt, +in his positions right up north beyond the Lys--positions which lay at and +in front of the town of Thielt, with outposts well to the south and west +of that town,--received the orders of the Emperor. + +These orders were what we know them to be: he was to march southward and +westward and strike the Lys at Wervicq. He was to arrive at that point at +or before nightfall, for in the very first hours of the morrow, Saturday, +and coincidently with the beginning of the advance of the five columns +from their southern posts, he was to cross the Lys and to proceed to join +hands with those columns in the following forenoon, when the heads of them +would have reached the neighbourhood of Tourcoing and Mouveaux. + +Bussche, with the first column, his 4000 Hanoverians, had no task during +that day but to proceed the mile and a half which separated Warcoing from +the little village of St Leger, and, with the head of his column in that +village, prepare to pass the night and be ready to march forward long +before dawn the next day. + +Field-Marshal Otto, with the second column, was similarly and leisurely +occupied marshalling his 10,000 Austrians and his contingent of British +cavalry, so that the head of his column was at Bailleul ready also to +advance with the early, dark, small hours of the ensuing morning. + +The Duke of York, with his third column of similar numbers, or somewhat +less, was performing a precisely similar task, and ordering his men so +that the head of that column should reach Templeuve by evening and be +ready to march at the same moment as the others did, shortly after +midnight. + +All these three, then, were absolutely ready, fresh from fatigue and in +good order, upon that Friday evening at their appointed posts. + +It is here necessary, as we are chiefly concerned with the British forces, +to detail the composition of this third column which the Duke of York +commanded. + +It consisted of twelve battalions and ten squadrons, with a further +reserve of sixteen British squadrons under General Erskine, which cavalry +lay somewhat south of Templeuve, but ready to follow up the advance when +it should begin. It was made of two portions, about equal in numbers, +British and foreign. The foreign half was composed of four squadrons of +Austrian Hussars and seven battalions of infantry, two Hessian and five +Austrian. The British half was composed of a Brigade of Guards counting +four battalions, with portions of the 14th, 37th, and 53rd Foot, while the +British cavalry accompanying it (apart from the squadrons under Erskine) +were six squadrons drawn from the 7th, 15th, and 16th Light Dragoons. It +is to the credit of the young commander[4] that this third column was the +best organised, the most prompt, and, as the event proved, the most +successful during the advance and the most tenacious in the subsequent +defeat. + +The fourth column, under Kinsky, about 11,000 strong, was also ready on +that Friday, the 16th of May, concentrated at its point of departure, +Froidmont, and ready to move at the same moment as all the others, shortly +after midnight. But unlike the other three commanders upon his right, +Kinsky was unfortunately handicapped by the position of the fifth column, +that great body of 18,000 to 20,000 men, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +which lay at St Amand, which was to advance next day parallel with Kinsky +and upon his left, and which it was his duty to keep in touch with, and to +link up with the Duke of York's upon the other side. He was handicapped, I +say, by the situation of the fifth column, under the Arch-Duke Charles, +the heavy strain already imposed upon which, and the accumulating +difficulties it was about to encounter, largely determining the +unfortunate issue of the battle. + +Kinsky got news on that Friday from the Arch-Duke at St Amand that it was +hardly possible for his great body of men to reach the appointed post of +Pont-a-Marcq at the arranged hour of daybreak the next morning. I have +already suggested that this delay cannot only have been due to the very +long march which had been imposed upon the Arch-Duke's command when it had +been hurriedly summoned up from the south to St Amand, forty-eight hours +before. It must also have been due to the fact that not all its units +reached St Amand by the evening of Thursday the 15th. It seemed certain +that there must have been stragglers or bad delays on the morning of the +16th, for it was not until long after nightfall--indeed not until ten +o'clock in the evening--of Friday the 16th that the Arch-Duke was able to +set out from St Amand and take the Pont-a-Marcq road. This unfortunate +body, therefore, the fifth column, which had all the hardest work before +it, which had but one road by which to march (although it was double any +of the others in size), was compelled, after the terrible fatigue of the +preceding days, to push forward sixteen miles through the night in a vain +attempt to reach Pont-a-Marcq, not indeed by daybreak, for that was +obviously impossible, but as soon after as haste and anxiety could +command. Kinsky was tied to Froidmont and unable to move forward until +that fifth column upon his left was at least approaching its goal. For he +had Bonnaud's 20,000 Frenchmen at Sainghin right in front of him, and +further, if he had moved, his left flank would have been exposed, and, +what is more, he would have failed in his purpose, which was to link up +the Arch-Duke on one side with the Duke of York upon the other. + +This first mishap, then, must be carefully noted as one prime lack of +synchrony in the origins of the combined movement, and a first clear cause +of the misfortune that was to attend the whole affair. The delay of the +fifth column was the chief cause of the disaster. + +Meanwhile, another failure to synchronise, and that a most grave one, was +taking place miles away in the north with Clerfayt's command beyond the +Lys. + +It is self-evident that where one isolated and distant body is being asked +to co-operate with comrades who are in touch with the commander-in-chief, +and with each other, the exact observation of orders on the part of that +isolated body is of supreme importance to the success of the combination. +_They_, all lying in much the same region and able to receive and transmit +orders with rapidity, may correct an error before it has developed evil +consequences. But the isolated commander co-operating from a distance, and +receiving orders from headquarters only after a long delay, is under no +such advantage. Thus the tardiness of the fifth column was, as we have +seen, communicated to the fourth, and the third, second, and first, all in +one line, could or should have easily appreciated the general situation +along the Scheldt. But the sixth body, under Clerfayt, which formed the +keystone of the whole plan, and without whose exact co-operation that plan +must necessarily fail, enjoyed no such advantage, and, if it indulged in +the luxuries of delay or misdirection, could not have its errors corrected +in useful time. A despatch, to reach Clerfayt from headquarters and from +the five columns that were advancing northward from the valley of the +Scheldt, must make a circuit round eastward to the back of Courtrai, and +it was a matter of nearly half a day to convey information from the +Emperor or his neighbouring subordinates in the region of Tournai to this +sixth corps which lay north of the Lys. + +Now it so happened that Clerfayt, though a most able man, and one who had +proved himself a prompt and active general, woefully miscalculated the +time-table of his march and the difficulties before him. + +He got his orders, as I have said, at ten o'clock on the Friday morning. +Whether to give his men a meal, or for whatever other reason, he did not +break up until between one and two. He then began ploughing forward with +his sixteen thousand men and more, in two huge columns, through the sandy +country that forms the plain north of the River Lys. He ought to have +known the difficulty of rapid advance over such a terrain, but he does not +seem to have provided for it with any care, and when night fell, so far +from finding himself in possession of Wervicq and master of the crossing +of the river there, the heads of his columns had only reached the great +highway between Menin and Ypres, nearly three miles short of his goal. +Three miles may sound a short distance to the civilian reader, but if he +will consider the efforts of a great body of men and vehicles, pushing +forward through the late hours of an afternoon by wretched lanes full of +loose sand, and finding the darkness upon them with that distance still to +do, he would perceive the importance of the gap. If he further considers +that it was only the heads of the columns that had reached the high road +by dark, and that two great bodies of men were stretched out two miles and +more behind, and if he will add to all this the fact that fighting would +have to be done before Wervicq, three miles away, could be occupied, let +alone the river crossed, he will discover that Clerfayt had missed his +appointment not by three miles only in space, but by the equivalent of +half a day in time. + +Even so he should have pushed on and have found himself at least in +contact with the French posts before his advance was halted. He did not do +so. He passed the night in bivouac with the heads of his columns no +further south than the great high road. + +So much for Clerfayt. The Republic would have cut off his head. + +While Clerfayt was thus mishandling his distant and all-important +department of the combined scheme, the corresponding advance from the +valley of the Scheldt northward was proceeding in a manner which is best +appreciated by taking the five columns seriatim and in three groups: the +first group consisting of the first column (Bussche), the second group of +the second and third columns (Otto and York), the third group of the +fourth and fifth (Kinsky and the Arch-Duke). + + +I + +THE FIRST COLUMN UNDER BUSSCHE + +This column, as we have seen, consisted of only 4000 men, Hanoverians. Its +function and general plan was to give the French the impression that they +were being attacked by considerable forces at the very extremity of their +advanced wedge, and thus to "hold" them there while the great bulk of the +allies were really encircling them to the south and cutting them off from +Lille. + +When we bear this object in view, we shall see that Bussche with his +little force did not do so badly. His orders were to advance with +two-thirds of his men against Mouscron, a little place about five miles in +front of the village of St Leger where he was concentrated; the remaining +third going up the high road towards Courtrai. This last decision, namely, +to detach a third of his troops, has been severely criticised, especially +by English authorities, but the criticism is hardly just if we consider +what Bussche had been sent out to do. He was, of course, to take Mouscron +if he could and hold it, and if that had been the main object of the +orders given him, it would indeed have been folly to weaken his already +weak body by the detaching of a whole third of it four miles away upon the +high road to the eastward. But the capture of Mouscron was not the main +object set before Bussche. The main object was to "hold" the large French +forces in the Courtrai district and to give them the impression of a main +attack coming in that direction, and with _that_ object in view it was +very wise so to separate his force as to give Souham the idea that the +French northern extremity was being attacked in several places at once. + +With the early morning, then, of Saturday the 17th, Bussche sent rather +less than 1500 men up the high road towards Courtrai, and, with rather +more than 2500, marched boldly up against Mouscron, where, considering the +immensely superior forces that the French could bring against him, it is +not surprising that he was badly hammered. Indeed, but for the fact that +the French were unprepared (as we saw in the section "The Preliminaries of +the Battle"), he could not have done as much as he did, which was, at the +first onslaught, to rush Mouscron and to hold it in the forenoon of that +day. But the French, thoroughly alarmed by the event (which was precisely +what the plan of the allies intended they should be), easily brought up +overwhelming reinforcements, and Bussche's little force was driven out of +the town. It was not only driven out of the town, it was pressed hard down +the road as far as Dottignies within a mile or two of the place from which +it had started; but there it rallied and stood, and for the rest of the +day kept the French engaged without further misfortune. A student of the +whole action, careful to keep its proportions in mind and not to +exaggerate a single instance, will not regard Bussche's gallant attempt +and failure before Mouscron as any part of the general breakdown. On the +contrary, the stand which his little force made against far superior +numbers, and the active cannonade which he kept up upon this extreme edge +of the French front, would have been one of the major conditions +determining the success of the allies if their enormously larger forces in +other parts of the field had all of them kept their time-table and done +what was expected of them. + + +II + +THE SECOND AND THIRD COLUMNS UNDER OTTO AND THE DUKE OF YORK + +On turning to the second group (the second column under Otto and the third +under York), we discover a record of continuous success throughout the +whole of that day, Saturday the 17th of May, which deserved a better fate +than befell them upon the morrow. + +(A) THE SECOND COLUMN UNDER OTTO + +The second column under Otto, consisting of twelve battalions and ten +squadrons, certain of the latter being English horse, and the whole +command numbering some 10,000 men, advanced with the early morning of that +same Saturday the 17th simultaneously with Bussche from Bailleul to Leers. +It drove the French outposts in, carried Leers, and advanced further to +Wattrelos. It carried Wattrelos. + +It continued its successful march another three miles, still pressing in +and thrusting off to its right the French soldiers of Compere's command, +until it came to what was then the little market-town of Tourcoing. It +carried Tourcoing and held it. This uninterrupted series of successes had +brought Otto's troops forward by some eight miles from their +starting-point, and had filled the whole morning, and Otto stood during +the afternoon in possession of this advanced point, right on the line +between Courtrai and Lille, and having fully accomplished the object which +his superiors had set him. + +From the somewhat higher roll of land which his cavalry could reach, and +from which they could observe the valley of the Lys four miles beyond, +they must have strained their eyes to catch some hint of Clerfayt's +troops, upon whose presence across the river on their side they had so +confidently calculated, and which, had Clerfayt kept to his time-table and +crossed the Lys at dawn, would now have been in the close neighbourhood of +Tourcoing and in junction with this successful second column. + +But there was no sign of any such welcome sight. The dull rolling plain, +with its occasional low crests falling towards the river, betrayed the +presence of troops in more than one position to the north and west. But +those troops were not moving: they were holding positions, or, if moving, +were obviously doing so with the object of contesting the passage of the +river. They were French troops, not Austrian, that thus showed distinctly +in rare and insufficient numbers along the southern bank of the Lys, and +indeed, as we know, Clerfayt, during the whole of that afternoon of the +17th, was painfully bringing up his delayed pontoons, and was, until it +was far advanced, upon the wrong side of the river. + +Otto maintained his position, hoped against hope that Clerfayt might yet +force his way through before nightfall, and was still master of Tourcoing +and the surrounding fields when darkness came. + +(B) THE THIRD COLUMN UNDER YORK + +Meanwhile York, with his 10,000 half British and half Austro-Hessian, had +marched with similar success but against greater obstacles parallel with +Otto, and to his left, and had successively taken every point in his +advance until he also had reached the goal which had been set before him. + +Details of that fine piece of work deserve full mention. + +Delayed somewhat by a mist in the dark hours before dawn, York's command +had marched north-westward up the road from Templeuve, where now runs the +little tramway reaching the Belgian frontier. + +The French troops in front of him, as much as those who had met Otto a +mile or two off to the right, and Bussche still further off at Mouscron, +were taken aback by the suddenness and the strength of the unexpected +blow. They stood at Lannoy. York cannonaded that position, sent certain of +the British Light Dragoons round to the left to turn it, and attacked it +in front with the Brigade of Guards. The enemy did not stand, and the +British forces poured through Lannoy and held it just as Otto in those +same hours was pouring into and holding Leers and Wattrelos. Beyond +Lannoy, a matter of two miles or so, and still on that same road, was the +small town, now swollen to a great industrial city, called Roubaix. The +Duke of York left a couple of battalions of his allied troops (Hessians) +to hold Lannoy, and with the rest of the column pursued his march. + +Roubaix offered far more serious resistance than Lannoy had done. The +element of surprise was, of course, no longer present. The French forces +were concentrating. The peril they were in of being cut off was by this +time thoroughly seized at their headquarters, and the roll of land +immediately before Roubaix was entrenched and held by a sufficient force +well gunned. A strong resistance was offered to the British advance, but +once more the Brigade of Guards broke down that resistance and the place +was taken with the bayonet. + +York's next objective, and the goal to which his advance had been ordered, +was Mouveaux. Mouveaux is a village standing upon a somewhat higher roll +of land rather more than two miles from the centre of Roubaix, in +continuation of the direction which York's advance had hitherto pursued. +From Mouveaux the eye could overlook the plain reaching to the Lys and to +Wervicq, some seven odd miles away, a plain broken by one or two slight +hummocks of which the least inconspicuous holds the village of Linselles. +Mouveaux was the point to which Clerfayt was expected to advance from his +side. It was on a level with Tourcoing, and lay, as Tourcoing did, +precisely upon the line between Courtrai and Lille. To reach Mouveaux, +therefore, and not to be content with the capture of Roubaix, was +consistent with and necessary to the general plan of the allies. Moreover, +as Otto with the second column had taken Tourcoing, it was necessary that +the third column should proceed to Mouveaux, unless Otto's left or +southern flank was to remain exposed and in peril. One may say, in +general, that until Mouveaux was occupied the chance of joining hands with +Clerfayt (supposing that General to have kept to his time-table and to be +across the Lys and marching up to meet the columns from the Scheldt) was +in peril. Therefore, until one has learnt what was happening to the fourth +and the fifth columns, it is difficult to understand why the Duke of York, +after the difficult capture of Roubaix, desired to make that point the +utmost limit of his advance and for the moment to proceed no further. +Without anticipating the story of the fourth and fifth columns, it is +enough to say that the Duke of York's desire not to advance beyond Roubaix +was sufficiently excused by the aspect of the country to the west and +south upon his left. + +Roubaix overlooks from a slight elevation the valley of the Marque. Lest +the word "valley" be misleading, let me hasten to add that that stream +here flows at the bottom of a very slight and very broad depression. But, +at any rate, from Roubaix one overlooks that depression for some miles; +one sees five miles distant the fortifications of Lille, and the +intervening country is open enough to betray the presence of troops. +Indeed, once Roubaix was captured, the English commander could see across +those fields, a couple of hours' march away, the tents of the great French +camp at Sainghin under the walls of the fortress. + +Now, along that river valley and across those fields there should have +been apparent in those mid hours of the day, when the Guards had stormed +Roubaix, the great host of the fourth and fifth columns coming up in +support of the second and third. + +If the time-table had been observed, the Arch-Duke and Kinsky, over 25,000 +men, should have been across the Marque before dawn, should have pushed +back the French forces outside Lille, and should, long before noon, have +been covering those fields between Roubaix and Lille with their advancing +squadrons and battalions. There was no sign of them. If, or when, the +French body near Lille were free to advance and attack the Duke of York's +left flank, there was no one between to prevent their doing so. That great +body of the third and fourth columns, more than half of all the men who +were advancing from the Scheldt to meet Clerfayt, had failed to come up to +time. That was why the Duke of York desired to push no further than +Roubaix, and even to leave only an advance guard to hold that place while +he withdrew the bulk of his command to Lannoy. + +But his decision was overruled. The Emperor and his staff, who, following +up the march of this third column, were now at Templeuve, thought it +imperative that Mouveaux should be held. Only thus, in their judgment, +could the junction with Clerfayt (who, though late, must surely be now +near at hand) be accomplished. And certainly, unless Mouveaux were held, +Otto could not hold his advanced position at Tourcoing. The order was +therefore sent to York to take Mouveaux. In the disastrous issue that +order has naturally come in for sharp blame; but it must be remembered +that much of the plan was already successfully accomplished, that Clerfayt +was thought to be across the Lys, and that if the French around Courtrai, +and hitherward from Courtrai to Tourcoing, were to be cut off, it was +imperative to effect the junction with Clerfayt without delay. Had +Clerfayt been, as he should have been at that hour in the afternoon of +Saturday the 17th, between the Lys and the line Mouveaux-Tourcoing, the +order given by the Austrian staff to the Duke of York would not only have +been approved by the military opinion of posterity, but any other order +would have been thought a proof of indecision and bad judgment. + +Upon receiving this order to take Mouveaux, York obeyed. The afternoon was +now far advanced, very heavy work had been done, a forward march of nearly +six miles had been undertaken, accompanied by continual +fighting--latterly, outside Roubaix, of a heavy sort. But if Mouveaux was +to be held before nightfall, an immediate attack must be made, and York +ordered his men forward. + +Mouveaux stands upon one of those very slight crests which barely +diversify the flat country in which Roubaix and Tourcoing stand. The +summit of that crest is but little more than fifty feet higher than the +bottom of the low, broad depression between it and the centre of Roubaix, +of which swollen town it is to-day a western suburb. Slight as is the +elevation, it does, as I have said, command a view towards the Lys and +Wervicq; and the evenness and length of the very gentle slope upon the +Roubaix side make it an excellent defensive position. + +I have pointed out how the columns of attack as they advanced could not +fail to find an increasing resistance. Roubaix had held out more strongly +than Lannoy, Mouveaux was to hold out more strongly than Roubaix. The +position was palisaded and entrenched. Redoubts had even been hastily +thrown up by the French at either end of it, but the weight of the +attacking column told. It was again the Guards who were given the task of +carrying the trenches at the bayonet, and after a sharp struggle they were +successful. The French, as they retired, set fire to the village (which +stands upon the very summit of that roll of land), and were charged in +their retirement by Abercromby with the English Dragoons. They left three +hundred upon the field, and three field-pieces as well. Despite the great +superiority of numbers which York's columns still commanded over the enemy +immediately before him, it was a brilliant feat, especially when one +considers that it came at the very end of a day that was hot for the +season, that had begun before one o'clock in the morning, and that had +involved the carrying of three positions, each more stoutly defended than +the last, within an advance of over seven miles. + +Mouveaux thus carried, the head of York's column was on a line with the +head of Otto's, which held Tourcoing just two miles away. The heads of +either column now occupied the main road between Lille and Courtrai (which +passes through Mouveaux and Tourcoing), and the heads of either column +also held the slight crests from which the belated advance of Clerfayt +from the Lys could be watched and awaited. + +But though there was evidence of heavy fighting down in the river valley +five miles to the north and west, and though it seemed probable from the +sound of the firing that Clerfayt with the sixth body had crossed the Lys +at Wervicq and was now on the right side of it, upon the southern bank, +there was no sign of his advancing columns in those empty fields towards +Linselles and the river over which the setting sun glared. + +Neither, as his troops prepared to bivouac for the night upon the slopes +of Mouveaux, could York, looking southward, find any indication of the +fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the Arch-Duke which should have +come up to this same position at Mouveaux by noon seven hours before. The +flat and marshy fields upon either bank of the Marque were anxiously +scanned in vain as the twilight deepened. Down there, far off, the cannon +had been heard all that afternoon round the French camp at Sainghin, but +nothing had come through. + +It was therefore under a sense of isolation and of confusion, with the +knowledge that their left flank was open, that Clerfayt in front of them +was not yet in reach, that the second and third columns, which had so +thoroughly accomplished their task, established their posts under the +early summer night to await the chances of the morning. + + +III + +THE FOURTH AND FIFTH COLUMNS UNDER KINSKY AND THE ARCH-DUKE CHARLES + +Now what had happened to the fourth and fifth columns under Kinsky and the +Arch-Duke? I must describe their fortunes, show why they had failed to +come up, and thus complete the picture of the general advance from the +Scheldt, before I turn to conclude the explanation of the disaster by +detailing the further adventures of Clerfayt after he had crossed the Lys. + +(A) THE FOURTH COLUMN UNDER KINSKY + +Kinsky with his 11,000 men had been delayed, as we have seen, at Froidmont +by the message which the Arch-Duke had sent him from St Amand, to the +effect that the fifth column could not hope to be at Pont-a-Marcq before +dawn upon the 17th. + +At the moment, therefore, when in the small hours of Saturday the 17th +Otto and the Duke of York started out simultaneously from Bailleul and +Templeuve, Kinsky was still pinned to Froidmont. But he knew that the +Arch-Duke had started with his great column some time after dark in the +Friday night from St Amand, and when he estimated that they had proceeded +far enough along the road to Pont-a-Marcq to be up level with him upon his +left, Kinsky set his men in march and made for the Bridge of Bouvines, +which was the crossing of the Marque immediately in front of him. + +The Bridge of Bouvines lay right in front of the great French camp. It was +strongly held, and the hither side of the river, as Kinsky approached it, +was found to be entrenched. His men drove the French from those +entrenchments, they retired over the bridge, and as they retired they +broke it down. Upon the far side of the river in front of their camp the +French further established a battery of heavy guns upon that slight slope +which is now crowned by the Fort of Sainghin, and Kinsky could not force +the passage until the fifth column, or at any rate the head of it, should +begin to appear upon his left. + +It will be seen upon the frontispiece map that when the Arch-Duke's men +reached Pont-a-Marcq and crossed the river there, they would take the +French camp and the main French forces there in reserve, weaken the power +of the French resistance at the Bridge of Bouvines, afford Kinsky the +opportunity of crossing at that point, and that, immediately after that +crossing, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke, having joined hands, would be in +sufficient strength to push back the French from Sainghin and to march up +north together towards Mouveaux. The appearance of their combined force at +Mouveaux by noon would fulfil the time-table, and at mid-day of Saturday, +if the time-table were thus fulfilled, the whole combined force of the +second, third, fourth, and fifth columns would have been astraddle of the +Lille-Courtrai Road, would have cut off Souham's corps from Lille, and +could await Clerfayt if he had not yet arrived. When, therefore, the +Arch-Duke and the fifth column should have crossed the Marque at +Pont-a-Marcq, the fortunes of the fourth column would have blended with +it, and the story of the two would have been one. We may therefore leave +Kinsky still waiting anxiously in front of the broken bridge at Bouvines +for news of the Arch-Duke, and conclude the picture of the whole advance +from the Scheldt by describing what had happened and was happening to that +Commander and his great force of 17,000 to 18,000 men. + +(B) THE FIFTH COLUMN UNDER THE ARCH-DUKE CHARLES + +When the Arch-Duke Charles had let Kinsky know upon the day before, the +Friday, that he could not be at the appointed post of Pont-a-Marcq by the +next daybreak, he had implied that somewhere in the early morning of that +Saturday, at least, he would be there. Exactly how early neither he nor +Kinsky could tell. His troops had sixteen full miles to march; they had +but one road by which to advance, and they were fatigued with the enormous +exertion of that hurried march northward to St Amand, which has already +been set down. + +Such were the delays at St Amand in preparing that advance, that the night +was far gone before the fifth column took the road to Pont-a-Marcq, and +the effort that was to be demanded of it was more than should have been +justly demanded of any troops. Indeed, the idea that a body of this great +size, tied to one road, could suffer the severe effort of the rush from +the south to St Amand, followed by a night-march, that march to be +followed by heavy fighting during the ensuing morning and a further +advance of eight or nine miles during the forenoon, was one of the weakest +points in the plan of the allies. No such weakness would have been +apparent if the main body of the Austrians under the Arch-Duke had been +called up on the 12th instead of the 14th, and had been given two more +days in which to cover the great distance. But, as it was, the delay of +the Emperor and his staff in calling up that main body had gravely +weakened its effective power. + +The league-long column thrust up the road through the darkness hour upon +hour, with its confusion of vehicles and that difficulty in marshalling +all units which is the necessary handicap of an advance in the darkness. +Long before their task was so much as half accomplished, it was apparent +not only that Pont-a-Marcq would not be reached at dawn, but that the mass +of the infantry would not be at that river-crossing until the morning was +far spent. + +When day broke, though cavalry had been set forward at greater speed, the +heads of the infantry column were but under the Hill of Beuvry. It was +long after six before the force had passed through Orchies, and though +Kinsky learnt, in the neighbourhood of eight o'clock, that the cavalry of +the fifth column were up on a level with him and had reached the river, +the main force of the fifth column was not available for crossing +Pont-a-Marcq until noon, and past noon. + +Kinsky, thus tied to the broken Bridge of Bouvines until Pont-a-Marcq +should be forced, saw mid-day come and pass, and still his force and that +of the Arch-Duke upon his left were upon the wrong side of the stream. + +Yet another hour went by. His fourth column and the fifth should already +have been nine miles up north, by Mouveaux, and they were not yet even +across the Marque! + +It was not until two o'clock that the passage of the river at Pont-a-Marcq +was forced by the Arch-Duke Charles, and that, as the consequence of that +passage of the stream, the French were taken in reverse in their camp at +Sainghin and were compelled to fall back northward, leaving the passage at +Bouvines free. Kinsky repaired the bridge, and was free to bring his +11,000 over, and the two extreme columns, the fourth and the fifth, would +then have joined forces in the mid-afternoon of the Saturday, having +accomplished their object of forcing the Marque and uniting for the common +advance northward in support of Otto and the Duke of York. + +Now, had the Arch-Duke Charles' men been machines, this section of the +general plan would yet have failed by half a day to keep its time-table: +and by more than half a day: by all the useful part of a working day. By +the scheme of time upon which the plan was based, the fifth column should +have been across the Marque at dawn; by six, or at latest by seven o'clock +the French should have been compelled to fall back from Sainghin, and the +combined fourth and fifth columns should have been upon their northward +march for Mouveaux. It was not seven o'clock, it was _between three and +four_ o'clock by the time the Arch-Duke was well across the Marque and the +French retired; but still, if the men of this fifth column had been +machines, Kinsky was now free to effect his junction across the Bridge of +Bouvines, and the combined force would have reached the neighbourhood of +Mouveaux and Tourcoing by nightfall, or shortly after dark. + +But the men of the fifth column were not machines, and at that hour of the +mid-afternoon of Saturday they had come to the limits of physical +endurance. It was impossible to ask further efforts of them, or, if those +efforts were demanded, to hope for success. In the Arch-Duke's column by +far the greater part of the 17,000 or 18,000 men had been awake and +working for thirty-six hours. All had been on foot for at least +twenty-four; they had been actually marching for seventeen, and had been +fighting hard at the end of the effort and after sixteen miles of road. +There could be no question of further movement that day: they bivouacked +just north of the river, near where the French had been before their +retirement, and Kinsky, seeing no combined movement could be made that +day, kept his men also bivouacked near the Bridge of Bouvines.[5] + +Thus it was that when night fell upon that Saturday the left wing of the +advance from the Scheldt had failed. And that is why those watching from +the head of the successful third column at Mouveaux and Roubaix, under the +sunset of that evening, saw no reinforcement coming up the valley of the +Marque, caught no sign of their thirty thousand comrades advancing from +the south, and despaired of the morrow. + + +SUMMARY OF SITUATION ON THE SOUTH BY THE EVENING OF SATURDAY, MAY 17th. + +If we take stock of the whole situation, so far as the advance of the five +columns from the Scheldt was concerned, when darkness fell upon that +Saturday we can appreciate the peril in which the second and third column +under Otto and York lay. + +The position which the plan had assigned to the four columns, second, +third, fourth, and fifth, by noon of that Saturday (let alone by +nightfall), is that marked upon the map by the middle four of the six +oblongs in dotted lines marked B. Of these, the two positions on the +_right_ were filled, for the second and third columns had amply +accomplished their mission. But the two on the _left_, so far from being +filled, were missed by miles of space and hours of time. At mid-day, or a +little after, when Kinsky and the Arch-Duke should have been occupying the +second and third dotted oblong respectively, neither of them was as yet +even across the Marque. Both were far away back at E, E: and these +hopeless positions, E, E, right away behind the line of positions across +the Courtrai-Lille road which the plan expected them to occupy by +Saturday noon, Kinsky and the Arch-Duke pacifically maintained up to and +including the night between Saturday and Sunday! + + +[Illustration: THE ELEMENTS OF TOURCOING] + + +It is evident, therefore, that instead of all four columns of nearly +_sixty_ thousand men barring the road between Souham and Lille and +effecting the isolation of the French "wedge" round Courtrai, a bare, +unsupported _twenty_ thousand found themselves that night alone: holding +Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lannoy, Mouveaux, and thrust forward isolated in the +midst of overwhelmingly superior and rapidly gathering numbers. + +In such an isolation nothing could save Otto and York but the abandonment +during the night of their advanced positions and a retreat upon the points +near the Scheldt from which they had started twenty hours before. + +The French forces round Lille were upon one side of them to the south and +west, in number perhaps 20,000. On the other side of them, towards +Courtrai, was the mass of Souham's force which they had hoped to cut off, +nearly 40,000 strong. Between these two great bodies of men, the 20,000 of +Otto and York were in peril of destruction if the French awoke to the +position before the retirement of the second and third columns was decided +on. + +It is here worthy of remark that the only real cause of peril was the +absence of Kinsky and the Arch-Duke. + +Certain historians have committed the strange error of blaming Bussche for +what followed. Bussche, it will be remembered, had been driven out of +Mouscron early in the day, and was holding on stubbornly enough, keeping +up an engagement principally by cannonade with the French upon the line of +Dottignies. It is obvious that from such a position he could be of no use +to the isolated Otto and York five miles away. But on the other hand, he +was not expected to be of any use. What could his 4000 have done to shield +the 20,000 of Otto and York from those 40,000 French under Souham's +command? His business was to keep as many of the French as possible +occupied away on the far north-east of the field, and that object he was +fulfilling. + +Finally, it may be asked why, in a posture so patently perilous, Otto and +York clung to their advanced positions throughout the night? The answer is +simple enough. If, even during the night, the fourth and fifth columns +should appear, the battle was half won. If Clerfayt, of whom they had no +news, but whom they rightly judged to be by this time across the Lys, were +to arrive before the French began to close in, the battle would be not +half won, but all won. Between 55,000 and 60,000 men would then be lying +united across the line which joined the 40,000 of the enemy to the north +with the 20,000 to the south. If such a junction were effected even at the +eleventh hour, so long as it took place before the 20,000 French outside +Lille and the 40,000 to the north moved upon them, the allies would have +won a decisive action, and the surrender of all Souham's command would +have been the matter of a few hours. For a force cut in two is a force +destroyed. + +But the night passed without Clerfayt's appearing, and before closing the +story of that Saturday I must briefly tell why, though he had crossed the +Lys in the afternoon, he failed to advance southward through the +intervening five or six miles to Mouveaux. + + +CLERFAYT'S COLUMN. + +Clerfayt had, in that extraordinary slow march of his, advanced by the +Friday night, as I have said, no further than the great high road between +Menin and Ypres. I further pointed out that though only three miles +separated that point from Wervicq, yet those three miles meant, under the +military circumstances of the moment, a loss of time equivalent to at +least half a day. + +We therefore left Clerfayt at Saturday's dawn, as we left the Arch-Duke at +the same time, far short of the starting-point which had been assigned to +him. + +Whereas the Arch-Duke, miles away over there to the south, had at least +pushed on to the best of his ability through the night towards +Pont-a-Marcq, Clerfayt did _not_ push on by night to Wervicq as he should +have done. He bivouacked with the heads of his columns no further than the +Ypres road. + +Nor did he even break up and proceed over the remaining three miles during +the very earliest hours. For one reason or another (the point has never +been cleared up) the morning was fairly well advanced when he set +forth--possibly because his units had got out of touch and straggling in +the sandy country, or blocked by vehicles stuck fast. Whatever the cause +may have been, he did not exchange shots with the French outposts at +Wervicq until well after noon upon that Saturday the 17th of May. + +When at last he had forced his way into the town (the great bulk of which +lies north of the river), he found the bridge so well defended that he +could not cross it, or, at any rate, that the carrying of it--the chances +of its being broken after the French should have retired and the business +of bringing his great force across, with the narrow streets of the town to +negotiate and the one narrow bridge, even if intact to use--would put him +upon the further bank at a hopelessly late hour. Therefore did he call for +his pontoons in order to solve the difficulty by bridging the river +somewhat lower down. The Lys is here but a narrow stream, and it would be +easy, with the pontoons at his disposal, to pass his troops over rapidly +upon a broader front, making, if necessary, two wide bridges. I say "with +the pontoons at his disposal." But by the time Clerfayt had taken this +decision and had sent for the pontoons, he found that they were not there! + +His section of pontoons had not kept abreast with the rest of the army, +and their delay had not been notified to him. It was not until quite late +in the day that they arrived; it was not until evening that the laying of +the pontoons began,[6] nor till midnight that he was passing the first of +his troops over. + +He did not get nor attempt to get the mass of his sixteen or seventeen +thousand across in the darkness. He bivouacked the remainder upon the +wrong side of the river and waited for the morrow. + + * * * * * + +So that Saturday ended, with Otto and York isolated at the central +meeting-place round Tourcoing-Mouveaux, which they alone had reached; with +the Arch-Duke Charles and Kinsky bivouacked miles away to the south on +either side of the Bridge of Bouvines; and with Clerfayt still, as to the +bulk of his force, on the wrong side of the Lys. + +It was no wonder that the next day, Sunday, was to see the beginning of +disaster. + + +SUNDAY, MAY THE 18TH, 1794. + +I have said that, considering the isolated position in which York and Otto +found themselves, with no more than perhaps 18,000 in the six positions of +Leers, Wattrelos, and Tourcoing, Lannoy, Roubaix, and Mouveaux, the French +had only to wake up to the situation, and Otto and York would be +overwhelmed. + +The French did wake up. How thoroughly taken by surprise they had been by +the prompt and exact advance of Otto and York the day before, the reader +has already been told. Throughout Saturday they remained in some confusion +as to the intention of the enemy; and indeed it was not easy to grasp a +movement which was at once of such great size, and whose very miscarriage +rendered it the more baffling of comprehension. But by the evening of the +day, Souham, calling a council of his generals at Menin, came to a +decision as rapid as it was wise. Reynier, Moreau, and Macdonald, the +generals of divisions that were under his orders, all took part in the +brief discussion and the united resolve to which it led. "It was," in the +words of a contemporary, "one of those rare occasions in which the +decision of several men in council has proved as effective as the decision +of a single will." + +Of the troops which were, it will be remembered, dispersed to the north of +the Lys, only one brigade was left upon the wrong side of the river to +keep an eye on Clerfayt; all the rest were recalled across the stream and +sent forward to take up positions north of Otto's and Kinsky's columns. +Meanwhile the bulk of the French troops lying between Courtrai and +Tourcoing were disposed in such fashion as to attack from the north and +east, south and westward. Some 40,000 men all told were ready to close in +with the first light from both sides upon the two isolated bodies of the +allies. To complete their discomfiture, word was sent to Bonnaud and +Osten, the generals of divisions who commanded the 20,000 about Lille, +ordering them to march north and east, and to attack simultaneously with +their comrades upon that third exposed side where York would receive the +shock. In other words, the 18,000 or so distributed on the six points +under Otto and York occupied an oblong the two long sides of which and the +top were about to be attacked by close upon 60,000 men. The hour from +which this general combined advance inwards upon the doomed commands of +the allies was to begin was given identically to all the French generals. +They were to break up at three in the morning. With such an early start, +the sun would not have been long risen before the pressure upon Otto and +York would begin. + +When the sun rose, the head of Otto's column upon the little height of +Tourcoing saw to the north, to the north-east, and to the east, distant +moving bodies, which were the columns of the French attack advancing from +those quarters. As they came nearer, their numbers could be distinguished. +A brigade was approaching them from the north and the Lys valley, +descending the slopes of the hillock called Mont Halhuin. It was +Macdonald's. Another was on the march from Mouscron and the east. It was +Compere's. The General who was commanding for Otto in Tourcoing itself was +Montfrault. He perceived the extremity of the danger and sent over to York +for reinforcement. York spared him two Austrian battalions, but with +reluctance, for he knew that the attack must soon develop upon his side +also. In spite of the peril, in the vain hope that Clerfayt might yet +appear, Mouveaux and Tourcoing were still held, and upon the latter +position, between five and six o'clock in the morning, fell the first +shots of the French advance. The resistance at Tourcoing could not last +long against such odds, and Montfrault, after a gallant attempt to hold +the town, yielded to a violent artillery attack and prepared to retreat. +Slowly gathering his command into a great square, he began to move +south-eastward along the road to Wattrelos. It was half-past eight when +that beginning of defeat was acknowledged. + +Meanwhile York, on his side, had begun to feel the pressure. Mouveaux was +attacked from the north somewhat before seven o'clock in the morning, and, +simultaneously with that attack, a portion of Bonnaud's troops which had +come up from the neighbourhood of Lille, was driving in York's outposts to +the west of Roubaix. + +How, it may be asked, did the French, in order thus to advance from Lille, +negotiate the passage of that little River Marque, which obstacle had +proved so formidable a feature in the miscarriage of the great allied plan +the day before? The answer is, unfortunately, easily forthcoming. York had +left the bridges over the Marque unguarded. Why, we do not know. Whether +from sheer inadvertence, or because he hoped that Kinsky had detached men +for the purpose, for one reason or another he had left those passages +free, and, by the bridge of Hempempont against Lannoy, by that of Breuck +against Roubaix, Bonnaud's and Osten's men poured over. + +As at Tourcoing, so at Mouveaux, a desperate attempt was made to hold the +position. Indeed it was clung to far too late, but the straits to which +Mouveaux was reduced at least afforded an opportunity for something of +which the British service should not be unmindful. Immediately between +Roubaix and the River Marque, Fox, with the English battalions of the +line, was desperately trying to hold the flank and to withstand the +pressure of the French, who were coming across the river more than twice +his superiors in number. He was supported by a couple of Austrian +battalions, and the two services dispute as to which half of this +defending force was first broken. But the dispute is idle. No troops could +have stood the pressure, and at any rate the defence broke down--with this +result: that the British troops holding Mouveaux, Abercrombie's Dragoons, +and the Brigade of Guards, were cut off from their comrades in Roubaix. +Meanwhile, Tourcoing having been carried and the Austrians driven out from +thence, the eastern and western forces of the French had come into touch +in the depression between Mouveaux and Roubaix, and it seemed as though +the surrender or destruction of that force was imminent. Abercrombie saved +it. A narrow gap appeared between certain forces of the French, eastward +of the position at Mouveaux, and leaving a way open round to Roubaix. He +took advantage of it and won through: the Guards keeping a perfect order, +the rear defended by the mobility and daring of the Dragoons. The village +of Roubaix, in those days, consisted in the main of one long straight +street, though what is now the great town had already then so far +increased in size as to have suburbs upon the north and south. The +skirmishers of the French were in these suburbs. (Fox's flank command had +long ago retired, keeping its order, however, and making across country as +best it could for Lannoy.) It was about half-past nine when Abercrombie's +force, which had been saved by so astonishing a mixture of chance, skill, +coolness, and daring, filed into the long street of Roubaix. The Guards +and the guns went through the passage in perfect formation in spite of the +shots dropping from the suburbs, which were already beginning to harass +the cavalry behind them. Immediately to their rear was the Austrian horse, +while, last of all, defending the retreat, the English Dragoons were just +entering the village. In the centre of this long street a market-place +opened out. The Austrian cavalry, arrived at it, took advantage of the +room afforded them; they doubled and quadrupled their files until they +formed a fairly compact body, almost filling the square. It was precisely +at this moment that the French advance upon the eastern side of the +village brought a gun to bear down the long straight street and road, +which led from the market square to Wattrelos. The moment it opened fire, +the Austrians, after a vain attempt to find cover, pressed into the side +streets down the market-place, fell into confusion. There is no question +here of praise or blame: a great body of horsemen, huddled in a narrow +space, suddenly pounded by artillery, necessarily became in a moment a +mass of hopeless confusion. The body galloped in panic out of the village, +swerved round the sharp corner into the narrower road (where the French +had closed in so nearly that there was some bayonet work), and then came +full tilt against the British guns, which lay blocking the way because the +drivers had dismounted or cut the traces and fled. In the midst of this +intolerable confusion a second gun was brought to bear by the French, and +the whole mob of ridden and riderless horses, some dragging limbers, some +pack-horses charged, many more the dispersed and maddened fragments of the +cavalry, broke into the Guards, who had still kept their formation and +were leading what had been but a few moments before an orderly retreat. + +It is at this point, I think, that the merit of this famous brigade and +its right to regard the disaster not with humiliation but with pride, is +best established. For that upon which soldiers chiefly look is the power +of a regiment to reform. The Guards, thus broken up under conditions which +made formation for the moment impossible, and would have excused the +destruction of any other force, cleared themselves of the welter, +recovered their formation, held the road, permitted the British cavalry to +collect itself and once more form a rearguard, and the retreat upon Lannoy +was resumed by this fragment of York's command in good order: in good +order, although it was subjected to heavy and increasing fire upon either +side. + +It was a great feat of arms. + +As for the Duke of York, he was not present with his men. He had ridden +off with a small escort of cavalry to see whether it might not be possible +to obtain some reinforcement from Otto, but the French were everywhere in +those fields. He found himself with a squadron, with a handful, and at +last alone, until, a conspicuous figure with the Star of the Garter still +pinned to his coat, he was chivied hither and thither across country, +followed and flanked by the sniping shots of the French skirmishers in +thicket and hedge; after that brief but exceedingly troubled ride, +Providence discovered him a brook and a bridge still held by some of +Otto's Hessians. He crossed it, and was in safety. + +His retreating men--those of them that remained, and notably the remnant +of the Dragoons and the Guards--were still in order as they approached +Lannoy. They believed, or hoped, that that village was still in possession +of the Hessians whom York had left there. But the French attack had been +ubiquitous that morning. It had struck simultaneously upon all the flanks. +At Roubaix as at Mouveaux, at Lannoy as at Roubaix, and the Guards and the +Dragoons within musket shot of Lannoy discovered it, in the most +convincing fashion, to be in the hands of the enemy. After that check +order and formation were lost, and the remaining fragment of the Austrian +and British who had marched out from Templeuve the day before 10,000 +strong, hurried, dispersed over the open field, crossed what is now the +Belgian border, and made their way back to camp. + +Thus was destroyed the third column, which, of all portions of the allied +army, had fought hardest, had most faithfully executed its orders, had +longest preserved discipline during a terrible retreat and against +overwhelming numbers: it was to that discipline that the Guards in +particular owed the saving from the wreck of so considerable a portion of +their body. Of their whole brigade just under 200 were lost, killed, +wounded or taken prisoners. The total loss of the British was not quite +five times this--just under 1000,--but of their guns, twenty-eight in +number, nineteen were left in the hands of the enemy. + +There is no need to recount in detail the fate of Otto's column. As it had +advanced parallel in direction and success to the Duke of York's, it +suffered a similar and parallel misfortune. As the English had found +Lannoy occupied upon their line of retreat, so Otto's column had found +Wattrelos. As the English column had broken at Lannoy, so the Austrian at +Leers. And the second column came drifting back dispersed to camp, +precisely as the third had done. When the fragments were mustered and the +defeat acknowledged, it was about three o'clock in the afternoon. + +For the rest of the allied army there is no tale to tell, save with regard +to Clerfayt's command; the fourth and the fifth columns, miles away behind +the scene of the disaster, did not come into action. Long before they +could have broken up after the breakdown through exhaustion of the day +before, the French were over the Marque and between them and York. When a +move was made at noon, it was not to relieve the second and third columns, +for that was impossible, though, perhaps, if they had marched earlier, the +pressure they would have brought to bear upon Bonnaud's men might have +done something to lessen the disaster. It is doubtful, for the Marque +stood in between and the French did not leave it unguarded. + +Bussche, true to his conduct of the day before, held his positions all day +and maintained his cannonade with the enemy. It is true that there was no +severe pressure upon him, but still he held his own even when the rout +upon his left might have tempted him to withdraw his little force. + +As for Clerfayt, he had not all his men across the Lys until that very +hour of seven in the morning when York at Mouveaux was beginning to suffer +the intolerable pressure of the French, and Otto's men at Tourcoing were +in a similar plight. + +By the time he had got all his men over, he found Vandamme holding +positions, hastily prepared but sufficiently well chosen, and blocking his +way to the south. With a defensive thus organised, though only half as +strong as the attack, Vandamme was capable of a prolonged resistance; and +while it was in progress, reinforcements, summoned from the northern parts +of the French line beyond Lille, had had time to appear towards the west. +He must have heard from eight o'clock till noon the fire of his retreating +comrades falling back in their disastrous retreat, and, rightly judging +that he would have after mid-day the whole French army to face, he +withdrew to the river, and had the luck to cross it the next day without +loss: a thing that the French now free from the enemy to the south should +never have permitted. + +So ended the Battle of Tourcoing, an action which, for the interest of its +scheme, for the weight of its results, and, above all, for the fine +display of courage and endurance which British troops showed under +conditions that should normally have meant annihilation, deserves a much +wider fame in this country than it has obtained. + + +PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. + + + + +BOOKS _that compel_ + +_Supplementary Spring List, 1912_ + + + _For him was levere have at his beddes heed + Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed ... + Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye._ + + CHAUCER. + +_Telegrams "Lumenifer, London"_ + +_Telephone 6223 City_ + + + _STEPHEN SWIFT & CO. 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Discontent with the modern stereotyped system of cram +education is increasing daily, and this book should prove a valuable +contribution to the literature on this vitally important subject. + + +BELLES LETTRES + +=EPISODES OF VATHEK.= By WILLIAM BECKFORD. Translated by Sir Frank T. +Marzials, with an Introduction by Lewis Melville. Medium 8vo, cloth. 21s. +net. These Episodes or Eastern Tales, related in the Halls of Eblis, were +discovered recently by Mr. Lewis Melville in the archives of Hamilton +Palace. They were conceived by Beckford as three episodes complete within +themselves, which he proposed to interpolate, in the manner of the +"Arabian Nights," into his famous Oriental story of "Vathek." The original +in French is given after the English translation, and the reader will find +this volume extremely interesting both as treasure trove and literature. + +=SONNETS AND BALLATE OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI.= Translated by EZRA POUND. Crown +8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. We have had many translations of the Divina +Commedia, a few of the Vita Nuova. Rosetti has translated a miscellany of +"Early Italian Poets," but in these "Sonnets and Ballate" of Guido +Cavalcanti we have a new thing, the endeavour to present a 13th century +Tuscan poet, other than Dante, as an individual. More than one Italian +critic of authority has considered Cavalcanti second to Dante alone in +their literature. Dante places him first among his forerunners. + + +=LEAVES OF PROSE=, interleaved with verse. By ANNIE MATHESON, with which +are included two papers by May Sinclair. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. This volume +is composed of a selection of those short studies for which Miss Matheson +is so justly famous. Literature, Sociology, Art, Nature, all receive her +attention in turn, and on each she stamps the impression of her own +personality. The prose is soft and rhythmic, infused with the atmosphere +of the country-side, while the lyrics scattered throughout the volume +reflect a temperament that has remained equable under the most severe +trials. No book more aptly expresses the spirit of Christianity and good +fellowship as understood in England. + +=OFF BEATEN TRACKS IN BRITTANY.= By EMIL DAVIES. Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. +net. In this book the author, who has already won for himself a position +in a surprisingly large variety of fields, goes off the beaten track in +more than one direction. It is a book of travel, philosophy and humour, +describing the adventures, impressions and reflections of two "advanced" +individuals who chose their route across Brittany by ruling a straight +line across the map from Brest to St. Malo--and then went another way! + +=IMAGINARY SPEECHES AND OTHER PARODIES IN PROSE AND VERSE.= By JACK +COLLINGS SQUIRE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. This is probably the most +comprehensive volume of Parodies ever issued. The author is as much at his +ease in hitting off the style of Mr. Burns or Mr. Balfour, as he is in +imitating the methods and effects of the new Celtic or Imperialist poets; +whilst he is as happy in his series illustrating "The Sort of Prose +Articles that modern Prose-writers write" as he is in his model newspaper +with its various amusing features. + +=SHADOWS OUT OF THE CROWD.= By RICHARD CURLE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. This +book consists of twelve stories of a curious and psychological kind. Some +deal with the West Indian and South American tropics, some with London, +some with Scotland, and one with South Africa. The author's sense of +atmosphere is impressive, and there is about all his stories the +fatalistic spirit of the Russians. They have been written over a period of +several years, and show signs of a close study of method and a deep +insight into certain descriptions of fevered imagination. All are the work +of a writer of power, and of an artist of a rare and rather un-English +type. + +=LONDON WINDOWS.= By ETHEL TALBOT. Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. 6d. net. In this +little volume Miss Talbot, who is a well known and gifted singer in the +younger choir of England's poets, pictures London in many moods. She has +won themes from the city's life without that capitulation to the merely +actual which is the pitfall of so many artists. London is seen grieving, +sordid, grey, as well as magical and alluring. All who love the London of +to-day must perforce respond to the appeal which lies in these moving and +poignant verses. + +=BOHEMIA IN LONDON.= By ARTHUR RANSOME. Crown 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. 2s. +net. + +=SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY.= By LEWIS MELVILLE. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. As +a literary study the book incites interest, and commands attention as a +further revelation of a brilliant and many-sided literary genius. There +are admirably written chapters on "Thackeray as a Reader and Critic," +"Thackeray as an Artist," "Thackeray's Country," "Thackeray's Ballads," +"Thackeray and his Illustrators," "Prototypes of Thackeray's Characters," +etc. The volume is fully illustrated. + +=ENGLISH LITERATURE.= 1880-1905. Pater, Wilde, and after. By J. M. +KENNEDY. Demy 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net. Mr. J. M. Kennedy has written the +first history of the dynamic movement in English literature between 1880 +and 1905. The work begins with a sketch of romanticism and classicism, and +continues with chapters on Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, who, in their +different ways, exercised so great an influence on various poets and +essayists of the time, all of whom are dealt with. + +=ONLY A DOG'S LIFE.= By BARON VON TAUBE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This +fascinating work was originally published in German, and is now issued in +the author's own English rendering. It has been most favourably received +in Germany. A Siberian hound, whose sire was a wolf, tells his own story. +The book, in fact, is a very clever satire on human nature, a satire which +gains much charm and piquancy from its coming from the mouth of a +masterful self-respecting hound. + +=SOME OLD ENGLISH WORTHIES.= Thomas of Reading, George a Green, Roger +Bacon, Friar Rush. Edited with notes and introduction by DOROTHY SENIOR. +Medium 8vo, cloth. 10s. 6d. net. + +=BY DIVERS PATHS.= By ELEANOR TYRRELL, ANNIE MATHESON, MAUDE P. KING, MAY +SINCLAIR, Professor C. H. HERFORD, Dr. GREVILLE MACDONALD, and C. C. +COTTERILL. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 3s. 6d. net. A volume of +natural studies and descriptive and meditative essays interspersed with +verse. + +=IN DEFENCE OF AMERICA.= By BARON VON TAUBE. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. +This very remarkable book gives the American point of view in reply to +criticisms of "Uncle Sam" frequently made by representatives of "John +Bull." The author, a Russo-German, who has spent many active years in the +United States, draws up about thirty "popular indictments against the +citizens of Uncle Sam's realm," and discusses them at length in a very +original and dispassionate way, exhibiting a large amount of German +critical acumen together with much American shrewdness. Both "Uncle Sam" +and "John Bull" will find in the book general appreciations of their +several characteristics and not a few valuable suggestions. + + +FICTION + +Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. each + +=LADY ERMYNTRUDE AND THE PLUMBER.= By PERCY FENDALL. This is a tale +fantastical and satirical, of the year 1920, its quaint humours arising +out of the fact that a Radical-Socialist Government has passed an Act of +Parliament requiring every man and woman to earn a living and to live on +their earnings. There are many admirable strokes of wit dispersed +throughout, not the least of these being the schedule of charges which the +king is permitted to make, for he also, under the Work Act, is compelled +to earn a living. + +=AN EXCELLENT MYSTERY.= By Countess RUSSELL. The scene opens in Ireland +with a fascinating child, Will-o'-the-Wisp, and a doting father. A poor +mother and a selfish elder sister drive her to a marriage which has no +sound foundation. The husband turns out eccentric, unsympathetic, and even +cowardly. Will-o'-the-Wisp has to face at a tender age and with no +experience the most serious and difficult problems of sex, motherhood and +marriage. Then with the help of friends, her own good sense and +determination, and the sensible divorce law of Scotland, she escapes her +troubles. This forms the conclusion of an artless but thrilling narrative. + +=A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG= (Une Nuit au Luxembourg). By REMY DE GOURMONT. +Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. With preface and appendix by Arthur Ransome. M. +Remy de Gourmont is, perhaps, the greatest of contemporary French writers. +His books are translated into all languages but ours. "Une Nuit au +Luxembourg" is the first of his works to appear in English, and will be +followed by others. It will certainly arouse considerable discussion. It +moves the reader with something more than a purely aesthetic emotion. + +=HUSBAND AND LOVER.= By WALTER RIDDALL. In this book is given a discerning +study of a temperament. The author has taken an average artistic man and +laid bare his feelings and impulses, his desires and innermost thoughts +under the supreme influence of sex. Frankness is the key-note of the work; +its truth will be recognised by everyone who faces the facts of his own +nature and neither blushes nor apologises for them. + +=THE CONSIDINE LUCK.= By H. A. HINKSON. The Considine Luck is primarily a +story of the Union of Hearts, an English girl's love affair with an +Irishman, and the conflict of character between the self-made man who is +the charming heroine's father and the Irish environment in which he finds +himself. The writer can rollick with the best, and the Considine Luck is +not without its rollicking element. But it is in the main a delicate and +serious love story, with its setting in the green Irish country, among the +poetical, unpractical people among whom Mr. Hinkson is so thoroughly at +home. + +=A SUPER-MAN IN BEING.= By LITCHFIELD WOODS. Both in its subject-matter +and craftsmanship this is an arresting piece of work. It is not, in the +usual sense, a story of love and marriage. Rather, it is the biographical +presentment of Professor Snaggs, who has lost his eyesight, but who is yet +known to the outside world as a distinguished historian. The revelation of +the Professor's home life is accomplished with a literary skill of the +highest kind, showing him to be a combination of super-man and +super-devil, not so much in the domain of action as in the domain of +intellect. An extraordinary situation occurs--a problem in psychology +intensely interesting to the reader, not so much on its emotional as on +its intellectual side, and is solved by this super-man in the domain of +intellect. + +=GREAT POSSESSIONS.= By Mrs. CAMPBELL. A story of modern Americans in +America and England, this novel deals with the suffering bequeathed by the +malice of a dead man to the woman he once loved. In imposing upon her son +the temptations of leisure and great wealth he is a means of making him a +prey to inherited weakness, and the train of events thus set in motion +leads to an unexpected outcome. The author is equally familiar with life +in either country, and the book is an earnest attempt to represent the +enervating influences of a certain type of existence prevailing among the +monied classes in New York to-day. + +=THE DARKSOME MAIDS OF BAGLEERE.= By WILLIAM KERSEY. A delightful novel of +Somerset farming-life. Although a tragedy of the countryside, it is at the +same time alive with racy country humour. The character drawing is clear +and strong, and the theme is handled with the restraint of great tragedy. +This book is of real literary value--in fact, it recalls to our minds the +earlier works of Thomas Hardy. + + +PLAYS + +=THE KING.= A Daring Tragedy. By STEPHEN PHILLIPS, Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. +6d. net. Don Carlos, heir to the throne of Spain, learns that Christina, +a young lady of the Court, with whom he is secretly in love, is really his +sister. The gloom of the tragedy is deepened by the discovery that +Christina is about to be a mother. Brother and sister, who are at the same +time husband and wife, die by the same dagger. The king, who has already +abdicated in favour of his son, whom he desired to marry the Princess of +Spain, resolves to put an end to his life also, but is persuaded by his +minister that the task of living as king will be a greater punishment for +all the misery he has created. The story is developed with skill, +reticence, simplicity, in solemn harmonies and with tragic beauty. + +=SHAKESPEARE'S END AND TWO OTHER IRISH PLAYS.= By CONAL O'RIORDAN (Norreys +Connell). Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net. Mr. O'Riordan, who is better known by +his nom-de-guerre of "Norreys Connell," which has served him for twenty +years, has brought together in this volume the three plays in which he has +given expression to his view of the relation between England and Ireland. +In a prefatory letter to Mr. Joseph Conrad he presents a synthesis of the +trilogy, and explains why this, of his several books, is the first which +he wishes to associate with his proper name. + + +UNCLASSIFIED + +=OH, MY UNCLE!= By W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE, author of "The Talking Master," +"D'Orsay," etc. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. Wit, fun, frolic, fairy tale, +nonsense verses, satire, comedy, farce, criticism; a touch of each, an +_olla podrida_ which cannot be classified. It certainly is not history, +yet cannot fairly be put under the heading fiction; it is not realism, yet +fairy-taleism does not fully describe it; it deals with well-known folk, +yet it is not a "romance with a key"; it is not a love story, yet there is +love in it; in short, again, it cannot be classified. It is a book for +those who love laughter, yet it is not merely frivolous. It deals with the +lights of life, with just a touch now and again of delicate shadow. One +thing may safely be said--Miss Blue-Eyes and Uncle Daddy will make many +friends. + + +STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] These dates are important in another aspect of the matter--the +authorship of the plan. I will, therefore, return to them in more detail +at the close of this section. + +[2] I pay no attention to the ridiculous suggestion that the delay was due +to the contemporary peril in Poland, and to Thugut's anxiety to have +Austrian troops in the east rather than on the western frontier. People +who write modern history thus seem to forget that the electric telegraph +did not exist in the eighteenth century. The more reasonable pretension +that the Austrians hesitated between marching north to effect the plan +against Souham, and marching east to relieve the pressure upon Kaunitz, +who was hard pressed upon the Sambre, deserves consideration. But +Kaunitz's despatch, telling how he had been forced to fall back, did not +reach headquarters until the 12th, and if immediate orders had been given +for the northern march, that march would have begun before the news of +Kaunitz's reverse had arrived. The only reasonable explanation in this as +in most problems in human history, is the psychological one. You have to +explain the delay of George III.'s son, and Joseph II.'s nephew. To anyone +not obsessed by the superstition of rank, the mere portraits of these +eminent soldiers would be enough to explain it. + +[3] Fortescue, vol. iv., part i., p. 255. + +[4] After so many allusions to his youth, I may as well give the date of +his birth. Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. of +England, was not yet thirty when he suffered at Tourcoing, having been +born in 1765. He had the misfortune to die in 1827. + +[5] The reader not indifferent to comedy will hear with pleasure that, +among various accounts of Kinsky's communication with the Arch-Duke +Charles at this juncture, one describes that Royalty as inaccessible after +the fatigue of the day. His colleague is represented as asking in vain for +an interview, and receiving from a servant the reply "that his Imperial +Highness must not be disturbed, as he was occupied in having a fit." + +[6] At a point somewhat below Wervicq: much where the private ferry now +plies. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tourcoing, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOURCOING *** + +***** This file should be named 32260.txt or 32260.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/6/32260/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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