blow them up. During the night the sailors had armed and seized the powder-room; the officers made vain efforts to restrain and reduce them to obedience: the punishment of a few chiefs of the insurrection, acts of rigour, in treaties, all were useless, and the captains despaired of being able to decide their crews to fire a gun. Amidst this disorder (30th August) the English fleet entered the road of the Texel, and eleven ships of the line, six frigates, and four sloops, under the orders of admiral Mitchell, penetrated into the Vlieter with a favourable wind and tide: a part of this squadron was composed of the vessels taken the year before by admiral lord Duncan. In this extremity admiral Story attempted to gain time; and proposed, by two officers, a sort of suspension of arms, during which he might have time to consult his government. Admiral Mitchell, who was on board the Isis frigate, and had just finished his preparations for the attack, answered the proposal of the Dutch admiral by a categorial summons, to hoist immediately the Orange flag. Story gave the signal of clearing for battle, which became at once the signal of a general defection; the crews unloaded the pieces, and threw the balls and cartridges into the sea; the captains assembled, declared that the revolt of their crews was such, that all hopes of subordination were over, and that they could not fight the English. Van Senden alone, commander of La Batave, assured them that his ship was perfectly under orders, and that he would defend himself if the admiral set him the example. Story answered the summons of aduiral Mitchell by protesting his

delity to the republic, inveighing

in indignant terms against the treason and cowardice of his crews, and declaring himself prisoner of war, as well as all his officers. The same evening the Orange flag, which for two days' past floated on the towers and batteries of the Texel and the Helder, was hoisted on all the vessels of the Dutch

fleet. Besides that fleet, composed of eight ships of the line and three frigates, which surrendered to admiral Mitchell, three ships of the line, five frigates, and five EastIndia vessels, were taken in the Nieuve Diep, as well as the artillery and stores which were in the place,

The Batavian republic had nothing left but a few vessels dispersed in the ports of Zealand; and it is not one of the least of the political singularities which characterise the end of the present century, to see the Dutch, without marine, forming a land-army to defend the entrance to Amsterdam by the sea; to see them defending their sand-banks and marshes against the prince of Orange, and the British forces giving battle on swamps, and taking military positions between canals, a kind of warfare the antipodes of that of the mountains, presenting, nevertheless, almost as great ob. stacles, without offering the same advantages. Cavalry and horseartillery, two armies sufficiently numerous for a campaign in the Low Countries, composed of 80,000 men, take their positions on this faithless and almost floating soil, and mingle in horrid fray amidst a labyrinth of dykes and marshes.

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The defection of the fleet, against which the Batavian government ought to have provided, since the mutinous disposition of the crews was not unknown to it, having led general Abercrombie to presume that the Batavian government

would

would be disposed to enter into negotiation with him before the arrival of the French troops, demanded from general Daendels an escort or passport for general Don, who was to offer at the Hague particular communications from the English government. This passport was refused, and general Abercrombie was invited to send his communications in writing. The government sought to efface the impression which this overture might make on the public, and sent a commission, composed of the director Vanhoeft, and of four representatives of both chambers, to general Brune at Alkmaar, to testify to him, and to make known to the army, the firm resolution of the Batavian govern ment to defend itself to the last extremity. The publication of new assurances of promises of speedy succours, made by the French directory, came in aid of those marks of confidence.

The landing of general Abercrombie's army being finished, and the attack by North Holland entirely decided on, Brune directed by Haerlem upon Alkmaar all the forces that were at his disposal. Means were taken also for the defence of Amsterdam on the side of the Zuyder Zee, and the slip of land called Buick-sloot, the proximity of which might have led to apprehensions of a bombardment. The Batavian division under general Dumonceau, of six thousand men, passed through Amsterdam (3d September); all the French troops who were on the side of the Hague, and on the coasts, or towards the mouth of the Meuse, filed off by Egmont upon Alkmaar. In every village the citizens took arms; requisitions for two, three, five hundred men, in different towns, were answered by the

appearance of eight, ten, or twelve hundred; and, in some places, the whole of the inhabitants marched to join the army in North Holland.

While these reinforcements were arriving on every side, the English moved forward, and took post in the Zyp, a low and intersected ground, about eight miles in extent, at the entrance of the peninsula, and defended by a dyke, behind which they entrenched themselves, defending it with a numerous artillery; the advanced posts of their right extended from Petten to Eenigenburg; those of the centre a little behind, and parallel to the great dyke, were at St. Martin's Volkoog, and Schagen; those of their left at Havinghuysen and Zydewind.

In order to concentre his forces, Brune (September 4th) made the French and Batavian divisions change their position by their left, and take post before Alkmaar. He marched the advanced posts to Schoorl and Groot, the nearest possible to the sea and the advanced guard of the right of the English army. Skirmishes between the advanced posts took place towards the centre of the two armies on the side of Oud Carspel and Dirkshoorne.

The English had as yet received no other reinforcements than a part of the duke of York's division, consisting of 4 or 5,000 men, under general Don; the Russian army, under the orders of the generals Hermann and Essen, had not been met at sea by the aviso which had been sent to order them to steer towards the Texel, but met suceessively at the point of rendez-vous at Yarmouth, where they were detained by contrary winds, which did not permit them to turn back; the rest of the English troops,

amongst which was the greatest part of the cavalry, and the duke of York himself on board the Amethyst frigate, were detained from the same cause.

General Abercrombie, entrenched behind the Zyp, had only from 16 to 17,000 men; his business was to avoid a general engagement, and wait the junction of the allied forces. Brune, on the contrary, had already collected in his position at Alkmaar from 24 to 25,000 men. General Vandamme arrived from Brussels, and the general-inspector Kellerman gave him notice of fresh succours from the garrisons of the Low Countries. The moment was favourable, and he made the attack at the point of day; he led on himself the column of the left, composed of French troops; the two others, composed of Dutch troops, were commanded, the centre by general Duntonceau, the right by general Daendels

The French column advanced by Grost and Kampf upon Petten, carried these entrenched posts, and reached the heights of Houndsbosduynen. The English, behind the head of the Zyp dyke, where they had constructed redoubts, were also protected by the fire of two frigates and two brigs, which had tun clo e to shore. The French having turned the dyke, found themselves entirely open, and taken in flank by this terrible tire. Thirty grenadiers having attempted to swim across the canal in order to scale those last entrenchments, were drowned: genetal David was mortally wounded. Obliged to decline their attack, the French, after considerable loss, maintained themselves in the post of Petten, and evacuated it in the afternoon, and fell back to their first position. The centre was still less successful.

1799.

General Dumonceau marched at first by Schoreldam, attacked and carried the entrenched post of Krabbendam, but he could not force the entrenchments of the Zyp; some battalions gave way altogether, and he was obliged to fall back. The right wing, which had marched forwards with great ardour, was thrown into the greatest disorder by the cries of "Save who can, we are entirely surrounded!" which came from the end of the column, and which led the greater part of general Daendel's infantry to take flight.

After this general and fruitless attack, which cost much blood, the French and Batavian army resumed its former position; the left a little below Petten, and the advanced posts of the centre at Schoreldam. New reinforcements joined the Batavian army; general Brune ordered the authors of the tout to be tried by a court-martial, and the conduct of other officers to be examined. The same day that this action took place, (September 10th) the duke of York left Yarmouth with 80 sail of transports: during these operations the young prince of Orange had made a diversion or false attack on two points of the frontier of Over-Yssel, distant from each other, but equally important, if he could have gained possession of either. He summoned the little fortress of Coevorden, which borders the country of Bantheim, and pushed forward, on the side of Arnheim. at the confluence of the Yssel and the Rhine, a body of his partisans, who penetrated as far as WesterWoort, on the left bank of the Yssel, at a league from Arnheim. These attempts were fruitless; the stad holder's proclamations did not excite the least movement in the

country. The national guards of Arnheim and Oldenrad marched with cannon, attacked and dispersed the little army of the prince, who, having received news of the taking of the Dutch fleet, embarked at Embden with his officers, to go and join the army of the duke of York. The Dutch fleet in a few days after sailed for England. The sailors of both nations, it seems, were equally discontented; the Dutch, because they did not understand that they had surrendered to the English, but only to the stadtholder, and to remain in Holland under the Orange flag; the English, from a sentiment of national pride, disdaining such sort of conquests. Their respective princes, since the Duch sailors had become stadtholderian, wished to see them in harmony: but the union of the two colours did not prevent them from remaining enemies, and subject to foreign rule and discipline; the Dutch were left to ruminate on the consequences of their fruitless defection.

The excellent position which general Abercrombie had taken, and the happy experiment which he had made of the force of his entrenchments behind the dykes of the Zyp, permitted him to extend himself by his left, or at least to pass strong detachments to procure the resources of which he stood most in need. The English fleet of boats which had entered the ZuyderZee took possession of Medenblick; and this first maritime attack having given inquietude to Amsterdam, the preparations for the defence of the road were hastened with all possible energy: vessels were sunk in the mouth of the channel, called the Pampus; the batteries of Dimmadam and Durkerdam were mounted at the entrance of the port; an officer of the French ma

rine was charged with the maritime manoeuvres, and the French general D'Hinnisdel took the command of the place, and of all the department of the Amstel.

General Brune, who was expecting a considerable reinforcement from the Low Countries, and who was pressing the Batavian government to augment their levies of national guards, limited himself to keeping general Abercrombie within his close position, where, however, he could not prevent him from waiting the arrival, and receiving the Russians and the second division of the English troops. The advanced posts of the French and Batavians were within musquet-shot of the entrenchments, and were themselves fortified by small dykes ; both positions became more re. spectable every day. A very smart action took place (15th September) between the advanced posts towards the centre of the lines at Warmanhuysen, of which the English had taken possession, and from which they were dislodged by general Dumonceau, at the head of a detachment of grenadiers and infantry, at the moment the duke of York reached the Texel, and landed his troops, which, joined to those at the Zyp, made about 22,000 men. Two days after the first division of Russian troops, about 13,000 men, under the orders of general Hermann, arrived from Yarmouth. Scarcely had these troops landed, than the duke of York marched forward, and made them take possession of the post of Petten on the right of the line.

The allied army, collected on this point, amounted to about 35,000 men. The same motives which had led Brune to attack general Abercrombie before the ar rival of the Russians, decided, with

out