Page:Kickerbocker Feb 1833 vol 1 no 2.djvu/5

against his native land, was early and bitterly repented. He, whose youthful patriotism had been kindled to a loftier glow, by the introduction into his country of a Prussian army, to avenge and defend the cause of the Stadtholder, could not, in maturer years, and when the first impulse and ebulition of the high excitement of the times had passed, but feel that he had greatly erred. His career since that period has, however, been wholly with Dutch troops and worthy of the brightest days of that valiant people, who in their early history were styled by Tacitus, "the friends rather than the allies of the Romans," and whose warlike qualities were so remarkable, as to draw from the same historian this description of the nation—"unvexed by tribute, free from all taxes, they (the Batavians) are, as it were, set apart for the demands of battle, and like arms reserved alone for war." In the campaign of 1796, he was attached to the army under the command of the Dutch General, Daendels. In 1799, the English having made a descent upon the coast of Holland, General Chassé displayed great military talent at the head of the Dutch corps, who fought several hours against a larger body of English troops. This campaign having terminated, he quitted the country for Germany. He was at the siege of Wurtzburg, took a battery from the Austrians, and four hundred prisoners, on the 27th of December, 1800. In the years 1805 and 1806, he served with distinction in the war against Prussia, under the command of the Dutch General Dumoreau. But, above all, it was in the Spanish war that General Chassé was most distinguished.

Having been created a major-general and appointed to the command of a Dutch division, he led them wherever there was danger and glory. Always in advance himself, always decisive, and distinguished especially for the frequency and the success of the charges he led, he obtained from his own corps and in the army, the significant appellation of the weapon he so freely resorted to; and as Murat, from the number and brilliancy of his cavalry charges, was called the Saberer, and Junot, from the impetuosity of his attacks, was distinguished as the Grenadier, General Chassé came to be known and dreaded as the Bayonet-chief. For six years of this murderous Spanish war, he was always in the hottest of its battles, and in all, the simple and glorious praises of his soldiers, the witnesses of his exploits and the companions of his dangers, accompanied him. At Talavera, Durango, Missa d'Abord, and parti-