joined by another band of insurgents, who had associated to protect one of their friends, for whose arrest a military order had been issued. The united force, now amounting to a thousand men, then directed its attack on Chollet, a considerable town, occupied by at least five hundred of the republican army; and again bears down all resistance by the suddenness and impetuosity of its onset. The rioters find here a considerable supply of arms, money, and ammunition;-and thus a country is lost and won, in which, but two days before, nobody thought or spoke of insurrection! If there was something astonishing in the sudden breaking out of this rebellion, its first apparent suppression was not less extraordinary. These events took place just before Lent; and, upon the approach of that holy season, the religious rebels all dispersed to their homes, and betook themselves to their prayers and their rustic occupations, just as if they had never quitted them. A column of the republican army, which advanced from Angers to bear down the insurrection, found no insurrection to quell. They marched from one end of the country to the other, and met everywhere with the most satisfactory appearances of submission and tranquillity. These appearances, however, it will readily be understood, were altogether deceitful; and as soon as Easter Sunday was over, the peasants began again to assemble in arms, and now, for the first time, to apply to the gentry to head them. All this time Madame Lescure and her family remained quietly at Clisson; and, in that profound retreat, were ignorant of the singular events to which we have alluded, for long after they occurred. The first intelligence they obtained was from the indefatigable M. Thomasin, who passed his time partly at their château, and partly in scampering about the country, and haranguing the constituted authorities-always in his national uniform, and with the authority of a Parisian patriot. One day this intrepid person came home, with a strange story of the neighbouring town of Herbiers having been taken either by a party of insurgents, or by an English army suddenly landed on the coast; and, at seven o'clock the next morning, the château was invested by two hundred soldiers, and a party of dragoons rode into the court yard. Their business was to demand all the horses, arms, and ammunition, and also the person of an old cowardly chevalier, some of whose foolish letters had been carried to the municipality. M. de L. received this deputation with his characteristic composure-made the apology of the poor chevalier, and a few jokes at his expense-gave up some bad horses-and sent away the party in great good humour. For a few days they were agitated with contradictory rumours: But at last it appeared that the government had determined on vigorous measures; and it was announced, that all the gentry would be required to arm themselves and their retainers against the insurgents. This brought things to a crisis;-a council was held in the château, when it was speedily determined, that no consideration of prudence or of safety could induce men of honour to desert their dependants, or the party to which, in their hearts, they wished well;—and that, when the alternative came, they would rather fight with the insurgents than against them. Henri de Larochejaquelein-of whom the fair writer gives so engaging a picture, and upon whose acts of heroism she dwells throughout with so visible a delight, that it is quite a disappointment to find that it is not his name she bears when she comes to change her own -had been particularly inquired after and threatened; and upon an order being sent to his peasantry to attend and ballot for the militia, he takes horse in the middle of the night, and sets out to place himself at their head for resistance. The rest of the party remained a few days longer in considerable perplexity.-M. Thomasin having become suspected, on account of his frequent resort to them, had been put in prison; and they were almost entirely without intelligence as to what was going on; when one morning, when they were at breakfast, a party of horse gallops up to the gate, and presents an order for the immediate arrest of the whole company. M. de L. takes this with perfect calmness-a team of oxen is yoked to the old coach; and the prisoners are jolted along, under escort of the National dragoons, to the town of Bressuire. By the time they had reached this place, their mild and steady deportment had made so favourable an impression on their conductors, that they were very near taking them back to their homes;-and the municipal officers, before whom M. de L. was brought, had little else to urge for the arrest, but that it did not seem advisable to leave him at large, when it had been found necessary to secure all the other gentry of the district. They were not sent, however, to the common prison, but lodged in the house of a worthy republican, who had formerly supplied the family with groceries, and now treated them with the greatest kindness and civility. Here they remained for several days, closely shut up in two little rooms; and were not a little startled, when they saw from their windows two or three thousand of the National guard march fiercely out to repulse a party of the insurgents, who were advancing, it was reported, under the command of Henri de Larochejaquelein. Next day, however, these valiant warriors came flying back in great confusion. They had met and been defeated by the insurgents; and the town was filled with terrors-and with the cruelties to which terror always gives birth. Some hundreds of Marseillois arrived at this crisis to reinforce the republican army; and proposed, as a measure of intimidation and security, that they should immediately massacre all the prisoners.-The native leaders all expressed the greatest horror at this proposal-but it was nevertheless carried into effect! The author saw hundreds of those unfortunate creatures marched out of the town, under a guard of their butchers. They were then drawn up in a neighbouring field, and were cut down with the sabre some setting off for the army of Anjou, and others meditating a return to their own homes. His appearance, however, and the heartiness of his adherence to their cause, at once revived the sinking flame of their enthusiasm, and spread it through all the adjoining region. Before next evening, he found himself at the head of near ten thousand devoted followers most of them quietly kneeling and exclaiming, Vive le Roi! It was natural for Madame de L. and her party to think that their turn was to come next: and the alarms of their compassionate jailor did not help to allay their apprehensions. Their fate hung indeed upon the slightest accident. One day they received a letter from an emigrant, congratulating them on the progress of the counter--without arms or discipline indeed, but with revolution, and exhorting them not to remit their efforts in the cause. The very day after, their letters were all opened at the municipality, and sent to them unsealed! The patriots, however, it turned out, were too much occupied with apprehensions of their own, to attend to any thing else. The National guards of the place were not much accustomed to war, and trembled at the retaliation which the excesses of their Marseillois auxiliaries might so well justify. A sort of panic took possession even of their best corps; nor could the general prevail on his cavalry to reconnoitre beyond the walls of the town. A few horsemen, indeed, once ventured half a mile farther; but speedily came galloping back in alarm, with a report that a great troop of the enemy were at their heels. It turned out to be only a single country-man at work in his field, with a team of six oxen! There was no waiting an assault with such forces; and, in the beginning of May 1793, it was resolved to evacuate the place, and fall back on Thouars. The aristocratic captives were fortunately forgotten in the hurry of this inglorious movement; and though they listened through their closed shutters, with no great tranquillity, to the parting clamours and imprecations of the Marseillois, they soon received assurance of their deliverance, in the supplications of their keeper, and many others of the municipality, to be allowed to retire with them to Clisson, and to seek shelter there from the vengeance of the advancing royalists. M. de Lescure, with his usual good nature, granted all these requests; and they soon set off, with a grateful escort, for their deserted château. turn my hearts in the trim-and ready to follow wherever he would venture to lead. There were only about two hundred firelocks in the whole array, and these were shabby fowlingpieces, without bayonets: The rest were equipped with scythes, or blades of knives stuck upon poles with spits, or with good heavy cudgels of knotty wood. In presenting himself to this romantic army, their youthful leader made the following truly eloquent and characteristic speech-"My good friends, if my father were here to lead you, we should all proceed with greater confidence. For my part, I know I am but a child--but I hope I have courage enough not to be quite unworthy of supplying his place to you-Follow me when I advance against the enemy-kill me when back upon them—and revenge me, if they bring me down!" That very day he led them into action. A strong post of the republicans were stationed at Aubiers :-Henri, with a dozen or two of his best marksmen, glided silently behind the hedge which surrounded the field in which they were, and immediately began to fire-some of the unarmed peasants handing forward loaded muskets to them in quick succession. He himself fired near two hundred shots that day; and a gamekeeper, who stood beside him, almost as many. The soldiers, though at first astonished at this assault from an invisible enemy, soon collected themselves, and made a movement to gain a small height that was near. chose this moment to make a general assault; and calling out to his men, that they were running, burst through the hedge at their head, and threw them instantly into flight and irretrievable confusion; got possession of their guns and stores, and pursued them to within The dangers he had already incurred by a few miles of the walls of Bressuire. Such, his inaction-the successes of his less prudent almost universally, was the tactic of those friends, and the apparent weakness and ir- formidable insurgents. Their whole art of resolution of their opponents, now decided M. war consisted in creeping round the hedges de Lescure to dissemble no longer with those which separated them from their enemies, who seemed entitled to his protection; and and firing there till they began to waver or he resolved instantly to cast in his lot with move-and then rushing forward with shouts the insurgents, and support the efforts of his and impetuosity, but without any regard to adventurous cousin. He accordingly sent order; possessing themselves first of the artilround without the delay of an instant, to inti- lery, and rushing into the heart of their opmate his purpose to all the parishes where he ponents with prodigious fierceness and activity. had influence; and busied himself and his In these assaults they seldom lost so much as household in preparing horses and arms, one man for every five that fell of the reguwhile his wife and her women were engaged lars. They were scarcely ever discovered in manufacturing white cockades. In the soon enough to suffer from the musketrymidst of these preparations, Henri de Laroche- and seldom gave the artillery an opportunity jaquelein arrived, flushed with victory and of firing more than once. When they saw hope, and announced his seizure of Bressuire, the flash of the pieces, they instantly threw and all the story of his brief and busy campaign. themselves flat on the ground till the shot Upon his first arrival in the revolted district flew over, then started up, and rushed on the of his own domains, he found the peasants gunners before they could reload. If they rather disheartened for want of a leader-were finally repulsed, they retreated and dis Henri persed with the same magical rapidity, dart- | danger, and ignorant of the very name of fear, ing through the hedges, and scattering among his great faults as a leader were rashness in the defiles in a way that eluded all pursuit, attack, and undue exposure of his person. and exposed those who attempted it to mur- He knew little, and cared less, for the scienderous ambuscades at every turning. tific details of war; and could not always As soon as it was known that M. de Les- maintain the gravity that was required in the cure had declared for the white cockade, councils of the leaders. Sometimes after forty parishes assumed that badge of hos- bluntly giving his opinion, he would quietly tility; and he and his cousin found themselves lay himself to sleep till the end of the delibeat the head of near twenty thousand men! rations; and, when reproached with this The day after, they brought eighty horsemen neglect of his higher duties, would answer, to the château. These gallant knights, how- "What business had they to make me a Genever, were not very gorgeously caparisoned. eral?-I would much rather have been a Their steeds were of all sizes and colours- private light-horseman, and taken the sport many of them with packs instead of saddles, as it came." With all this light-heartedness, and loops of rope for stirrups-pistols and however, he was full not only of kindness to sabres of all shapes tied on with cords his soldiers, but of compassion for his prisonwhite or black cockades in their hats-anders. tricoloured ones-with bits of epaulettes taken from the vanquished republicans, dangling in ridicule at the tails of their horses! Such as they were, however, they filled the château with tumult and exultation, and frightened the hearts out of some unhappy republicans who came to look after their wives who had taken refuge in that asylum. They did them no other harm, however, than compelling them to spit on their tricoloured cockades, and to call Vive le Roi!-which the poor people, being "des gens honnêtes et paisibles," very readily performed. In the afternoon, Madame de L., with a troop of her triumphant attendants, paid a visit to her late prison at Bressuire. The place was now occupied by near twenty thousand insurgents-all as remarkable, she assures us, for their simple piety, and the innocence and purity of their morals, as for the valour and enthusiasm which had banded them together. Even in a town so obnoxious as this had become, from the massacre of the prisoners, there were no executions, and no pillage. Some of the men were expressing a great desire for some tobacco; and upon being asked whether there was none in the place, answered, quite simply, that there was plenty, but they had no money to buy it! He would sometimes offer, indeed, to fight them fairly hand to hand, before accepting their surrender; but never refused to give quarter, nor ever treated them with insult or severity. M. de Lescure was in many respects of an opposite character. His courage, though of the most heroic temper, was invariably united with perfect coolness and deliberation. He had a great theoretical knowledge of war, having diligently studied all that was written on the subject; and was the only man in the party who knew any thing of fortification. His temper was unalterably sweet and placid; and his never-failing humanity, in the tremendous scenes he had to pass through, had something in it of an angelical character. Though constantly engaged at the head of his troops, and often leading them on to the assault, he never could persuade himself to take the life of a fellow-creature with his own hand, or to show the smallest severity to his captives. One day a soldier, who he thought had surrendered, fired at him, almost at the muzzle of his piece. He put aside the musket with his sword, and said, with perfect composure, "Take that prisoner to the rear." His attendants, enraged at the perfidy of the assault, cut him down behind his back. He turned round at the noise, and flew into the most violent passion in which he had ever been seen. This was the only time in his life in which he was known to utter an oath. There was no spirit of vengeance in short in his nature; and he frequently saved more lives after a battle, than had been lost in the course of it. In giving a short view of the whole insurgent force, which she estimates at about eighty thousand men, Madame de L. here introduces a short account of its principal leaders, whose characters are drawn with a delicate, though probably too favourable hand. M. d'Elbée, M. de Bonchamp, and M. de Marigny, were almost the only ones who had The discipline of the army, thus commandformerly exercised the profession of arms, and ed, has been already spoken of. It was never were therefore invested with the formal com- even divided into regiments or companies.mand. Stofflet, a native of Alsace, had form- When the chiefs had agreed on a plan of erly served in a Swiss regiment, but had long operations, they announced to their followers; been a gamekeeper in Poitou. Of Cathelineau-M. Lescure goes to take such a bridge,we have spoken already. Henri de Laroche- who will follow him? M. Marigny keeps the jaquelein, and M. de Lescure, were undoubt-passes in such a valley-who will go with edly the most popular and important members him?--and so on. They were never told to of the association, and are painted with the greatest liveliness and discrimination. The former, tall, fair, and graceful-with a shy, affectionate, and indolent manner in private life, had, in the field, all the gaiety, animation, and love of adventure, that he used to display in the chase. Utterly indifferent to march to the right or the left, but to that tree or to that steeple. They were generally very ill supplied with ammunition, and were often obliged to attack a post of artillery with cudgels. On one occasion, while rushing on for this purpose, they suddenly discovered a huge crucifix in a recess of the woods on their flank, and immediately every man of them stopped | the morning, that one more distrustful than short, and knelt quietly down, under the fire the rest had glided into the room, and laid of the enemy. They then got up, ran right himself down across the feet of his comforward, and took the cannon. They had mander. tolerable medical assistance; and found admirable nurses for the wounded, in the nunneries and other religious establishments that existed in all the considerable towns. From Thouars they proceeded to Fontenay, where they had a still more formidable resistance to encounter. M. de Lescure was again exposed alone to the fire of six pieces of cannon charged with grape; and had his hat pierced, a spur shot off, and a boot torn by his men, who were hanging back, and said, "You see these fellows can take no aim ;come on!" They did come on, and soon carried all before them. Their first enterprise, after the capture of Bressuire, was against Thouars. To get at this place, a considerable river was to be cross-the discharge;-but he only turned round to ed.-M. de Lescure headed a party that was to force the passage of a bridge; but when he came within the heavy fire of its defenders, all his peasants fell back, and left him for some minutes alone:-His clothes were torn by the bullets, but not a shot took effect on his person::-He returned to the charge again with Henri de Larochejaquelein :-Their followers, all but two, again left them at the moment of charging: But the enemy, scared at their audacity, had already taken flight; the bridge was carried by those four men; and the town was given up after a short struggle, though not before Henri had climbed alone to the top of the wall by the help of a friend's shoulders, and thrown several stones at the flying inhabitants within. The republican general Quetineau, who had defended himself with great valour, obtained honourable terms in this capitulation, and was treated with the greatest kindness by the insurgent chiefs. He had commanded at Bressuire when it was finally abandoned, and told M. Lescure, when he was brought before him, that he saw the closed window-shutters of his family well enough as he marched out; and that it was not out of forgetfulness that he had left them unmolested. M. Lescure expressed his gratitule for his generosity, and pressed him to remain with them.-"You do not agree in our opinions, I know;-and I do not ask you to take any share in our proceedings. You shall be a prisoner at large among us: But if you go back to the republicans, they will say you gave up the place out of treachery, and you will be rewarded by the executioner for the gallant defence you have made."-The captive answered in terms equally firm and spirited."I must do my duty at all hazards.I should be dishonoured, if I remained voluntarily among enemies; and I am ready to answer for all I have hitherto done."-It will surprise some violent royalists among ourselves, we believe, to find that this frankness and fidelity to his party secured for him the friendship and esteem of all the Vendean leaders. The peasants, indeed, felt a little more like the liberal persons just alluded to. They were not a little scandalized to find a republican treated with respect and courtesy: -and. above all, were in horror when they saw him admitted into the private society of their chiefs, and discovered that M. de Bonchamp actually trusted himself in the same chamber with him at night! For the first two or three nights, indeed, several of them kept watch at the outside of the door, to defend him against the assassination they apprehended; and once or twice he found in The republicans had retaken, in the course of these encounters, the first piece of cannon which had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, and to which the peasants had fondly given the name of Marie Jeanne. After their success at Fontenay, a party was formed to recover it. One man, in his impatience, got so far ahead of his comrades, that he was in the heart of the enemy before he was aware. Fortunately, he had the horse and accoutrements of a dragoon he had killed the day before, and was taken by the party for one of their own company. They welcomed him accordingly; and told him that he was just come in time to repulse the brigands, who were advancing to retake their Marie Jeanne. "Are they?" said he ;-"follow me, and we shall soon give a good account of them :"and then, heading the troop, he rode on till he came within reach of his own party, when he suddenly cut down the two men on each side of him, and welcomed his friends to the victory. At another time, four young officers, in the wantonness of their valour, rode alone to a large village in the heart of the country occupied by the republicans, ordered all the inhabitants to throw down their tricoloured cockades, and to prepare quarters for the roy alist army, which was to march in, in the evening, one hundred thousand strong. The good people began their preparations accordingly, and hewed down their tree of libertywhen the young men laughed in their faces, and galloped unmolested away from upwards of a thousand enemies!-The whole book is full of such feats and adventures. Their recent successes had encumbered them with near four thousand prisoners, of whom, as they had no strong places or regular garrisons, they were much at a loss how to dispose.To dismiss such a mob of privates, on their parole not to serve any more against them, they knew would be of no avail; and after much deliberation, they fell upon the ingenious expedient of shaving their heads, at the same time that their parole was exacted; so that if they again took the field against them within any moderate time, they might be easily recognised, and dealt with accordingly. Madame Lescure's father had the merit of this happy invention. The day after the capture of Fontenay, the greater part of the army thought it was time to go home for a while to look after their cattle, and tell their exploits to their wives and children. In about a week, however, a con- | among themselves. The expedition to Nantes siderable number of them came back again, and proceeded to attack Saumur. Here M. de Lescure received his first wound in the arm; and Henri, throwing his hat over the entrenchments of the place, called to his men, "Let us see now, who will bring it back to me!"-and rushed at their head across the glacis. A vast multitude of the republicans fell in this battle; and near twelve thousand prisoners were made,-who were all shaved and let go. The insurgents did not lose four hundred in all. In the castle they found Quetineau, the gallant but unsuccessful defender of Thouars, who, according to M. de Lescure's prediction, had been arrested and ordered for trial in consequence of that disaster. He was again pressed to remain with them as a prisoner on parole; but continued firm in his resolution to do his duty, and leave the rest to fortune. He was sent, accordingly, to Paris a short time after-where he was tried, condemned, and executed! The insurrection had now attained a magnitude which seemed to make it necessary to have some one formally appointed to the chief command; and with a view of at once flattering and animating the peasants, in whose spontaneous zeal it had originated, all voices were united in favour of Cathelineau, the humble and venerable leader under whom its first successes had been obtained. It is very remarkable, indeed, that in a party thus associated avowedly in opposition to democratical innovations, the distinctions of rank were utterly disregarded and forgotten. Not only was an humble peasant raised to the dignity of commander-in-chief, but Madame de L. assures us, that she herself never knew or enquired whether one half of the officers were of noble or plebeian descent; and mentions one, the son of a village shoemaker, who was long at the head of all that was gallant and distinguished in the body. We are afraid that this is a trait of their royalism, which it is no longer thought prudent to bring forward in the courts of royalty. Those brilliant successes speedily suggested enterprises of still greater ambition and extent. A communication was now opened with M. de Charrette, who had long headed the kindred insurrection in Anjou; and a joint attack on the city of Nantes was projected and executed by the two armies. That of Poitou was now tolerably provided with arms and ammunition, and decently clothed, though without any attention to uniformity. The dress of the officers was abundantly fierce and fantastic. With pantaloons and jackets of gray cloth, they wore a variety of great red handkerchiefs all about their personsone tied round their head, and two or three about their waist, and across their shoulders, for holding their pistols and ammunition. Henri de Larochejaquelein introduced this fashion; and it speedily became universal among his companions, giving them not a little the air of brigands, or banditti, the name early bestowed on them by the republicans, and at last generally adopted and recognised was disastrous. The soldiers did not like to go so far from home; and the army, as it advanced, melted away by daily desertions. There was also some want of concert in the movements of the different corps ;--and, after a sanguinary conflict, the attack was abandoned, and the forces dispersed all over the country. The good Cathelineau was mortally wounded in this affair, at which neither M. de Lescure nor Henri were present; the latter being in garrison at Saumur, and the other disabled by his wound. The news of this wound came rather suddenly upon his wife, who, though she had always before been in agonies of fear on horseback, instantly mount ed a ragged colt, and galloped off to rejoin him. She never afterwards had the least alarm about riding. The army having spontaneously disbanded after the check at Nantes, it was found impossible to maintain the places it had occupied. General Westermann arrived from Paris, at the head of a large force; and, after retaking Saumur and Parthenay, began the relentless and exterminating system of burning and laying waste the districts from which he had succeeded in dislodging the insurgents. One of the first examples he made was at M. de Lescure's château of Clisson. It was burnt to the ground, with all its offices, stores, and peasants' houses, as well as all the pictures and furniture of its master. Having long foreseen the probability of such a consummation, he had at one time given orders to remove some of the valuable articles it contained; but apprehensive that such a proceeding might discourage or disgust his followers, he afterwards abandoned the design, and submitted to the loss of all his family moveables. The event, Madame de L. assures us, produced no degree either of irritation or discouragement. The chiefs, however, now exerted all their influence to collect their scattered forces before Chatillon; and Madame de L. accompanied her husband in all the rapid and adventurous marches he made for that purpose, through this agitated and distracted country. In one of these fatiguing movements with some broken corps of the army, they stopped to repose for the night in the château of Madame de Concise, who was still so much an alien to the Vendean manners, that they found her putting on rouge, and talking of the agitation of her nerves! The attack on Westermann's position at Chatillon was completely successful; but the victory was stained by the vindictive massa cres which followed it. The burnings and butcheries of the republican forces were bloodily avenged-in spite of the efforts of M. de Lescure, who repeatedly exposed his own life to save those of the vanquished. In the midst of the battle, one of his attendants seeing a rifleman about to fire at him, stepped bravely before him, and received the shot in his eye. The carriage of Westermann was taken; and some young officers, to whom it was entrusted, having foolishly broken open the strong box, which was believed to be full of money, there was a talk of bringing them |