DER-MERSH, a brave soldier, of the people. Civil war broke
out amidst a struggle for independence. VAN-DER-MERSH, made
prisoner by the aristocratic party, was immured in a gloomy dungeon
until Leopold, the successor of Joseph II., profited by these domestic
feuds, again to subjugate Belgium. Weary of liberty, after having tasted
it, she submitted without resistance. Van-der-noot took refuge in
Holland. Van-der-mersh, freed by the Austrians, was generously pardoned,
and again became an obscure citizen.

All attempts at independence were repressed by strong Austrian
garrisons, and could not fail to be awakened at the approach of the
French armies. La Fayette appeared to comprehend and approve of this
plan. It was agreed that the Marechal de Rochambeau should be appointed
commander-in-chief of the army that threatened Belgium, that La Fayette
should have under his orders a considerable _corps_ that would invade
the country, and then La Fayette would command alone in the Netherlands.
Rochambeau, old and worn out by inactivity, would thus only receive the
honour due to his rank. La Fayette would in reality direct the whole of
the campaign and of the armed propaganda of the revolution. "This _role_
suits him," said the old marechal. "I do not understand this war of
cities." To cause La Fayette to march on Namur, which was but ill
defended, capture it, march from thence on Brussels and Liege, the two
capitals of the Pays Bas, and the focus of Belgian independence--send
General Biron forward at the head of ten thousand men on Mons, to oppose
the Austrian General Beaulieu, whose force was only two or three
thousand men--detach from the garrison at Lille another corps of three
thousand men, who would occupy Tournay, and who, after having left a
garrison in this town, would swell the corps of Biron--send twelve
hundred men from Dunkirk to surprise Furnes, and then advance by
converging into the heart of the Belgian provinces with these forty
thousand men under the command of La Fayette--attack, on every side, in
ten days an enemy ill prepared to resist--to rouse the populations to
revolt, and then increase the attacking army to eighty thousand troops,
and join to it the Belgian battalions raised in the name of freedom, to
combat the emperor's army as it arrived from Germany:--such was
Dumouriez's bold idea of the campaign. Nothing was wanting to ensure its
success but a man capable of executing it. Dumouriez disposed of the
troops