Page:Kickerbocker Feb 1833 vol 1 no 2.djvu/9

stances of great responsibility, was invested with the charge of an important fortress, for the preservation of which he was bound to take all proper means, it may perhaps be questioned whether he could have acted otherwise, without a sacrifice of reputation and duty. What are the circumstances? Secure of safety in his citadel, he had agreed to abstain from hostilities, provided none were directed against him. But on the 26th October, some citizens of Antwerp, aided by armed volunteers from Brussels, attacked the Dutch post in the great square of the city, composed of about 300 soldiers, killed the commander and many of his men, and scattered or made prisoners of the remainder. The city guard was present, and in no wise interfered to prevent this combat. Emboldened by their success, the volunteers and citizens attacked all the Dutch posts in the city, and made themselves masters of them in the course of the night of the 26th, though not without much bloodshed. The strife was renewed at daylight on the 27th, and successively all the gates of Antwerp held by Dutch troops, were captured, and the scattered remnants of these troops, pursued by the armed citizens, were chased into the citadel: then only did General Chassé retaliate—and at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th, nearly thirty-six hours after detachments from his garrison had been attacked at their posts in the city, was the first order given to fire upon the citizens and their town. That it was executed with vigor, if executed at all, was to be anticipated from the known character of the commander; but the moment a deputation from the town, pledging it to abstain from further hostilities, proceeded to the citadel, that moment the fire was discontinued. The game of war is one that cannot be played in kid gloves, and they, therefore, who enter into it, should count the cost beforehand. If, in the circumstances alluded to, General Chassé had suffered the volunteers and citizens of Antwerp, flushed with their partial success over detached parties, to proceed unchecked or unpunished, it will be conceded we think by all men, that he would have failed in duty to his king, and in that care and regard for his brother soldiers, massacred in the streets by superior numbers, for which in all his previous military career he had been remarkable. We conclude, therefore, that in firing upon the city, General Chassé was fully justified by the circumstances that led to it. Since that period, now more than two years ago, this veteran has quietly held his post—strengthening himself doubtless wherever he could, and pre-