deftined to prefent one among the earliest and the most horrid of thefe bloody scenes. It appears that a weak body of patriots being closely pursued by the Auftrians under general Bender, had taken refuge in that place. The town being open, Bender forced his way fword in hand into the place, where the inhabitants univerfally taking part with their countrymen, gene roufly determined to protect or to perifh along with them. In this ftate of things, Tirlemont feemed for fome hours to exhibit a repetition of the affair at Turnhout, with, however, these material differences, that there were no artillery in the former, that the inhabitants were in all other refpe&ts badly provided and armed, and that the patriotic troops were few in number. Yet notwithstanding thefe effential defects, the defence was obftinately maintained; the inhabitants and the patriots keeping up as conftant a fire, from the roofs and windows of the houses, as their provifion of arms and ammunition could poffibly fupply, and defending every houfe, ftreet, and avenue with the utmoft intrepidity. On the other hand, the affailants broke open the houfes, and even the churches are faid to have afforded no fanctuary or protection, from the indifcriminate maffacre of every man, woman, and child that came within their reach.

The refiftance being ftill continued with unabated obftinacy, and the defign of carrying the town being in no degree of completion, the approach of night put an end to this cruel conflict. General Bender, being most unwillingly compelled to fubmit to the difgrace of relinquishing his enterprize, found it neceflary to draw off his troops

in the dufk of the evening. The lofs of lives, in this paltry affair, was faid to amount to thirteen hundred on both fides, including in that number both fexes, with all ages and conditions.

If the following circumftances be true, it would feem as if difaster and misfortune had been destined to follow or to meet the Austrian troops wherever they directed their fteps. It is ftated, that on Bender's retreat from Tirlemont by night, he met general Dalton full in his way, who was marching a ftrong detachment with great difpatch to his affiftance. That under the double mistake of each party miftaking its oppofite for the ene my, they fired upon each other in the dark; and that a furious encounter took place, in which feveral hundreds were killed and wounded on both fides, before the error was detected. Although fuch fatal miftakes have too often happened to admit any doubt of their poflibility, yet the peculiar circumitances of the time tended fo much to the fabrication of falfe and interested reports, that the fact in this inftance may well be confidered as doubtful.

Precision and truth are, indeed, little to be hoped for in the reports of fuch a warfare as the prefent, and under fuch peculiar circumftances of violent prejudices, animofity, and rage, as thofe which at this time prevailed in fpreading defolation through the Low Countries. Great allowances must therefore be made for exaggeration on that fide, which alone published any detail of thefe tranfactions; for the Auftrians were entirely filent under their misfortunes. It is neceffary likewife to receive, with the most guarded

caution,

eaution, the charges of horrible cruelties which are continually made upon the Austrians, as if they had been more particularly inhuman and favage than other nations. For it is to be obferved, and should be conftantly kept in mind while reading thefe atrocious charges, that much the greater part of the Imperial troops which at this time ferved in the Netherlands were compofed of regiments raifed in the country, and that the foldiers were confequently natives. Great cruelties were undoubtedly conmitted; and they are probably, in a certain degree, infeparable from civil wars. It must likewise be acknowledged, however it may be lamented, and however flattering the denial might be to our vanity, that cruelty is a much more general ingredient in the compofition of mankind, and, when it can be exercifed with fafety, difplays itfelf openly with all its horrors in a much greater number of individuals, than can be conceived or imagined by thofe, who have happily paffed their lives under the fmiling aufpices of peaceful feafons.

The affair at Tirlemont happened early in the month of November, and only a few days after the action at Turnhout; but dates and many other effential particulars are very imperfectly given in many of thefe details. They were, however, foon followed by the defeat of general d'Arberg, to whom the Brabanters gave battle in the open field. We are here left without any direct fpecification of the time, or even the place of action; it, however, appears to have been very bloody to the Auftrians; and it is faid, that they would have been en.cly cut off in their diforderly

flight over the Scheldt, if it had not been for the noble ftand made by the regiment of Bender, who bravely formed an impaffable body on the banks of the river to cover their retreat. This corps, which from its manners had probably been drawn from fome of the rough and untamed nations bordering on Turkey, were univerfally abhorred and detefted by the Netherlanders, who, at the fame time that they defcribe them as being the most favage, ferocious, and cruel of mankind, acknowledge that they were by far the braveft of all the Imperial forces. A prince of Anhalt Dessau, faid to be a near relation to the emprefs of Ruffia, fell in this action ; and as he had been lately guilty of fome peculiar acts of cold-blooded cruelty, the Brabanters confidered his death as nothing less than an immediate judgment from Heaven.

The Auftrians are faid to have loft a thousand men in this action and purfuit; and they are charged with the most inhuman cruelties in every part of the country which they paffed through after the defeat; particularly the inhabitants of Vilfingen, a village not far from Aloft, are faid to have expiated, by a general conflagration and maffacre, thofe patriotic difpofitions, and emotions of joy at the fuccefs of their country men, which they had imprudently been too forward in fhewing. It is even faid that their curé, a very old, helpless, and inoffenfive man, was dragged from the altar, whither he had fled for refuge, and put to death without mercy. It may not perhaps be unworthy of remark, that the ftriking contempt for religion, and for every thing appertaining to it, which at this time fo flagrantly marked the

conduct

conduct of the foldiery, had entirely fprung up in the Auftrian armies under the aufpices of Jofeph II.; for under the government of his predeceffors, and particularly of his mother, whatever their diforders and irregularities in other refpects might have been, they were at leaft Chrif tians in appearance.

The peasants were now embodying, without waiting for particular orders, or even for leaders, in every part of Brabant and Flanders, where the immediate prefence of the Auftrians did not restrain their motions; and large detachments from Namur, Hainault, and other neighbouring provinces, were every day arriving to join in the common caufe. In the mean time the patriots gained poffeffion of Oltend, Bruges, Louvain, and fome other confiderable places, without any conteft. The ancient and turbulent city of Ghent, fallen and depopulated as it now is, was destined to become once more, what it had been fo often in better days, a scene of blood, ruin, and mafiacre.

Early in the morning of the 13th of November 1789, a fmall body of patriotic troops, amounting, it is faid, only to about feven hundred men, marched with unparalleled boldness and audacity to attack the city of Ghent, which contained, including the citadel, a garrifon of between three and four thoufand re gular troops. They directed their courfe to the gate which takes the name of Bruges, and which after fome conflict they forced. During this time the bridges within the walls were all taken up, and every other measure of precaution adopt ed, which could tend to retard or prevent their progrefs when they entered the town. A battle enfued

in the street, immediately upon their entrance, which continued for fomo hours; until the patriots at length drove the Auftrians before them with fuch impetuofity, that one part of them fled for refuge to the citadel, and the remainder retired for fhelter to their barracks, which they, however, prepared refolutely to defend. Thefe buildings must have been of confiderable ftrength, and well ftored with ammunition, for the fiege, if fo it may be called, continued from Friday to the following Monday. On that day they hung out a white flag, and colonel Lunden, who commanded, with a garrifon of five hundred men, were obliged to give up their arms, and to furrender prifoners of war.

We have no information what part the inhabitants took in these conflicts; they are not even once mentioned in the details, with refpect to any part of what we have yet ftated. It seems, however, not to admit of a doubt that they effentially affifted the patriots; for, without reckoning on the general temper and difpofition of the people, it would not otherwife be reconcilcable to reafon, that such a handful of men, who seemed loft in the magnitude of fo great a city, fhould, by a series of fierce and continued attacks, keep it for feveral days in a fate of the utmost uproar, and finally triumph over and reduce a garrifon fo vaftly fuperior in ftrength, number, and all military advantages to themfelves; even fup, pcfing that all the charges of notorious cowardice, with which the af. failants branded the regular troops, had been well founded.

During the time of the attack upon the barracks, intead of any vigorous attempt to relieve the be

fieged,

fieged, the citadel was wholly occupied in throwing bombs and combuftibles of different forts into those parts of the city which were the beft inhabited, and where the buildings were clofeft or moft valuable, with a full view of caufing fuch a general conflagration as fhould entirely deftroy it. Whether they were not furnished with a fufficient flock of combuftibles, or from whatever other caufe it proceeded, this fire produced only a partial, and comparatively very small effect to what was to be expected. About thirty capital houfes, with undoubtedly a greater number of others, were totally deftroyed, many damaged, feveral of the streets rendered impaffable by the ruins, and the inhabitants kept in a state of conftant terror and confufion by the fires which were continually breaking out in different quarters. The cowardly garrifon of the citadel, who dared not venture to the relief of their diftreffed fellows in the barracks, were, however, fufficient ly alert in taking advantage of the diforder and confufion which prevailed in the town. They made frequent fallies into the ftreets, particularly by night, where, befides rapine, rapes, murders, and the most horrid crimes, were faid to have marked their footsteps.

The patriots obliged colonel Lunden to write an order to the commandant of the citadel for the immediate furrender of that fortrefs, which the commandant very properly refufed to obey; fo that the affailants found the worft and mcft difficult part of their work was ftill to be done, especially as it does not feem that they poffeffed any artillery. But the cowardice of the commander, augmented by a trong

fenfe of the punishment due to his cruelty and crimes, operating, probably, with a defire of preferving. the pillage he had obtained, ferved to fupply all thefe defects. For in the dead of the night he evacuated the citadel, and marched off with his whole garrifon, bag and baggage; having at his departure rendered himfelf, if poffible, more infamous than before, by the cruel pillage and mafface of which he was guilty in all the houfes and ftreets which lay within reach of the fortrefs,

Such were the circumftances under which Ghent and its citadel, poffeffed by a powerful and numerous garrison of regular forces, were moft unaccountably reduced by a handful of raw infurgents, who could fcarcely be fupposed to know the ufe of the arms which they carried. The inhabitants, as foon as they were freed from the prefence and terror of the enemy, ook immediate measures for the re-establishment of order, and for its further prefervation. One of their earliest determinations was the taking a body of three thousand men into immediate pay, who were to be provided and armed for the protection and defence of the city. The taking of this place was a matter of the greatest confequence to the patriots; the more particularly as it removed the refraint which difabled the states of Flanders from affembling there, which they eagerly wifhed to do, for the purposes of legalizing their public proceed. ings, as thole of Brabant had done, for giving a form to their intended new conftitution, and to conclude a league and federal union with the other provinces.

The rapid and brilliant fucceffes

of the patriots were fo aftonishing to general Dalton, that he feemed in a great measure to be confound. ed and over - powered by them. Perhaps the painful tafk of recount ing fo many fhameful defeats to the emperor, and of endeavouring to account for or excufe the failure of the troops in every intance, which implied fo much cenfure on his own conduct, judgment, and defigns, was not the least of the vexations which he then endured. Thus involved, funk in hope, and diftreffed, he shut himself up in Bruffels, where for fome time the gates were kept clofe fhut, and ftrongly guarded by day as well as by night; but perceiving at length that this novel measure was underflood as an open confeffion of his weaknefs and apprehenfion, and was become a fubject of ftanding jet and ridicule among the people, he thought it convenient to admit the gates to be again opened by day. But even in thefe antoward circumstances, he still perfevered to the laft in the fume haughtiness and ungraciousness of manner, and purfued the fame harsh and arbitrary conduct, which had already rendered him fo univerfally odious. Among the numerous inftances of this kind, was the fending above forty of the principal in habitants of Bruffels, merely upon fufpicion, prifoners to the citadel of Antwerp, which was then juftly confidered as the Baftille of the Netherlands.

The prefent alarming fate of affairs induced the emperor, notwithftanding his haughtiness and natural obilinacy, and notwithstanding the total want of faith in his promites or engagements, which he could not but know was univerfally prevalent, to commit himself, as a

laft effort, to paper, and to publifh, what in fome degree might be confidered as a penitentionary declaration, addreffed to the inhabitants of the Low Countries. In this piece, which was dated at Vienna, on the 20th of November 1789, along with expreffing great forrow for the prefent troubles, and fome furprize at the violent meafures which were purfued, he exhorts the mal-contents to lay down their arms, and to truft to his clemency and paternal affection, for the redrefs of any real grievances which they fuftained. He places in a strong light the deftruction which must enfue to their country, and the inevitable ruin to its inhabitants, if by their obftinacy they fhould compel him to relinquifh the great line of conquest which he was now purfuing, and to pour in for their fuppreffion those numerous and conquering armies, which were now fo fuccefsfully employed against a foreign enemy. He endeavours partly to juftify, and partly to apologize for and explain, feveral of the mott obnoxious parts of his paft conduct. He expreffes much furprize that they should abufe the holy name of religion, by reprefenting that as the motive of their conduct; and ftates, that the establishment of a general feminary at Louvain was to add to the glory of the clergy and of religion. He has, however, he fays, already re-established the epifcopal feminaries; and he promises that the new feminaries at Louvain fhall from that moment ceafe. He likewife fufpends the teaching of theology at Louvain, and the operation of the ecclefiaftical laws at Bruffels, until the prefent diforders are quel. led, and the neceffary arrangements made. He concludes by an order,

that