lliance, and discovered in his own ruffled feelings the pretext for
giving rein to the dictates of self-interest. He gave orders to end the
campaign on the Rhine; and though Grenville sought to patch matters up,
compromise was clearly impossible between Allies who had lost that
mutual confidence which is the only lasting guarantee of treaties.

At the autumnal equinox of 1794 Pitt was confronted by a far more
serious crisis than at the beginning of the war in February 1793. The
Republicans, after throwing back Clerfait beyond the River Roer, towards
Aix-la-Chapelle, compelled the Duke of York to abandon the natural line
of defence of Holland, the River Waal; and in the early days of October
the British retired behind Bergen-op-zoom and other Dutch fortresses.
These were found to be totally unprepared to sustain a siege. The
sluggishness of the Orange party, dominant in Holland since 1787, stood
in marked contrast to the eagerness of the Dutch Patriots to help the
invaders. Consequently in a few weeks the friends of the Stadholder saw
their hopes fade away.

There was but one chance of rescue. The Duke of Brunswick, who so
skilfully led the Prussians to Amsterdam in 1787, might be expected to
impart some courage to the Dutch garrisons and some show of discipline
to the disordered relics of York's and Clerfait's forces now drifting
slowly northwards. His position as a Field-Marshal of the Prussian army
also promised to interest the Court of Berlin in recovering some part,
at least, of the supremacy of the Allies in the Dutch Netherlands. As
the crisis in Holland had served to unite the two great Protestant
Powers, so now it might prevent the dissolution of that salutary
compact. Further, George III, though greatly disliking the substitution
of Cornwallis for the Duke of York, favoured the appointment of the
veteran Brunswick to the supreme command. Family considerations, always
very strong in the King, here concurred with reasons of state. Not only
had Brunswick married the sister of George III; but their daughter, the
Princess Caroline, was now the reluctant choice of the Prince of Wales.
The parents, both at Windsor and at Brunswick welcomed the avowal by the
royal prodigal of the claims of lawful wedlock. The Duchess of Brunswick
fell into raptures at the brilliant prospects thus opened out for her
daughter; and it seemed that both Hymen and Mars, for once working in
unison, conspired to bring from his inglorious retre