This page needs to be proofread.
to account for the general paralysis of the Austrian commanders; but possibly the true reason was that Thugut was sick of the war in Belgium, and wished the English to sicken of it also. Why he should have chosen the slaughter of several hundred British and Austrians as the best means of forwarding his purpose, and how he persuaded Austrian officers to second him therein, are matters which only an Austrian can determine. For us it must suffice that the decisive battle of the campaign was lost by the deliberate design of the Imperial Generals. Before long they were to learn that those who court defeat for dishonest ends may, when they least desire it, find defeat thrust upon them.[1]
- ↑ There are few actions which I have found so difficult to describe as this of the 18th of May. I have drawn my account from Witzleben, iii. 201-230; Ditfurth, ii. 130-157; Jomini; Narrative of an Officer, ii. 47-51; Cannon's Records of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars and Sixteenth Lancers; Calvert's Journal; and Craig's letters to Nepean of 19th May 1794 (Record Office).
