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 Vale