r Office despatch of 16th April specified as the chief aim of the war
the re-conquest of the Low Countries by Austria, "with such extended and
safe frontier as may secure the tranquillity and independence of
Holland." But Pitt and his colleagues, far from concentrating on
Flanders, continued to toy with expeditions to Brittany, Provence,
Corsica, and the West Indies.

At first they pressed Coburg to consent to the deviation of the British
force towards Dunkirk; and only on his urgent protest was that
ex-centric move given up until Valenciennes should have fallen. The
Austrian contention was undoubtedly right, as the British Government
grudgingly admitted. The Duke of York's force therefore moved along with
that of Coburg towards that fortress and showed great gallantry in
compelling the French to evacuate the supporting camp of Famars (23rd
May). Early in June the siege of Valenciennes began in earnest. A
British officer described the defence of the French as "obstinate but
not spirited." They made no sorties, and Custine's army of 40,000 men,
which should have sought to raise the siege, did not attack, probably
owing to the unsteadiness and apathy of his troops.[226] This lack of
energy cost him his life; for on 10th July he was ordered back to Paris
and soon went to the guillotine.

At that time the Jacobins were in a state of mind in which fury and
despair struggled for the mastery. The outlook was as gloomy as before
Valmy in September 1792. Bad news poured in from all sides. The
Girondins, after the collapse of their power on 2nd June, appealed to
the Departments, and two thirds of France seemed about to support them
against the tyranny of the capital. Had not the Jacobins developed an
organizing power immeasurably superior to that of the moderates, the
royalists, and the Allies, the rule of that desperate minority must
speedily have been swept away. On 12th July the Parisian Government
declared itself at war with the moderates, who now had the upper hand at
Lyons and in neighbouring districts. On that same day Conde (a small
fortress north of Valenciennes) opened its gates. On 22nd July Mainz
surrendered to the King of Prussia; and six days later the Austrian and
British standards were hoisted on the ramparts of Valenciennes.

This event raised to its climax the fury of the Jacobins; and on 9th
August the Convention passed with acclamation a decree declaring Pitt to
be an enemy of the human race. This singular m