Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/428

411 were disarmed, the fortifications strengthened by palisades, and every means of defence resorted to.

But in October the patriots of Breda surprised the forts of Lillo and Liefenskoeck, on the Scheldt. Dalton dispatched general Schröder with a strong force, who retook the forts; but on Schröder's venturing to enter Turnhout, after the insurgents, a body of three thousand of them, under Vander Mersch, armed with pitchforks, bludgeons, and staves, attacked and drove him out.



General Bender, who had been dispatched against the insurgents at Tirlemont, was driven out in the same manner. General Arberg was compelled to retreat behind the Scheldt, and the people were victorious in Louvaine, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and most towns of the district. Both Joseph and his governor and commander in the Netherlands now fell into the utmost alarm. The news which Marie Antoinette sent from Paris to her imperial brother, only rendered this consternation the greater. Joseph, with that sudden revulsion which he had manifested on other occasions, after equally astonishing rashness, now issued a conciliatory proclamation, offering to redress all grievances on the condition, of their laying down their arms. But the Netherlanders were not likely after former experience to trust any such promises of Joseph. On the 20th of November the states of Flanders assumed the title of the High and Mighty States; they declared the emperor to have forfeited the crown by tyranny and injustice; they proclaimed their entire independence, and ordered a levy of twenty thousand men.

Trautmansdorff now hastened to conciliate in earnest. He issued two-and-twenty separate proclamations, made all kinds of fair promises, restored the arms of the citizens, and liberated the imprisoned patriots. But it was too late. The insurgents, under Vander Mersch, were fast advancing towards Brussels, and Dalton marched out to meet them; but he was confounded by the appearance of their numbers, and entered into an armistice of ten days. But this did not stop the progress of insurrection in Brussels. There the people rose, and resolved to open the gates to their compatriots without. The women and children tore up the palisades, and leveled the entrenchments. The population assumed the national cockade, and the streets resounded with the cries of "Long live the patriots!" "Long live Vauder Noot!" Dalton retreated into Brussels, but found no security there. The soldiers began to desert. The people attacked those who stood to their colours, and Dalton was glad to secure his retreat by a capitulation. In a few days, the insurgents from Breda entered, Trautmansdorff having withdrawn at their approach, and the new federal union of the Netherlands was completely established. The state of Luxemburg was the only one yet remaining to Joseph, and thither Dalton retired with his forces, five thousand in number.