1 XII. 1793. July 17. tinguished himself in the war, collected all the forces of CHAP. the neighbouring districts; and on the 17th the Republicans were attacked, while marching in column on the high-road, in front and flank at the same time, and driven 1 Jom. iii. back in the utmost disorder towards Saumur and Chinon, Beauch. i. with the loss of ten thousand men, and all their artillery, 297. baggage, and ammunition.1 400, 401. 278, 288, 53. Luçon. Soon after, M. de Elbée, with Charette, attacked a corps of fifteen thousand men at Luçon; but although success at Defeat of the first attended the Royalists, they were ultimately defeated Royalists at with the loss of fifteen hundred men and eighteen pieces Aug. 13. of cannon-one of the greatest disasters experienced since the commencement of the war. It was chiefly owing to their having followed, on M. Lescure's advice, a plan of attack which, though admirably adapted for regular troops, was not suited to the desultory and impetuous mode of warfare adopted by the peasantry. The whole artillery of the Royalists would have fallen into the hands of the Republicans, had not Larochejaquelein, at the head of Laroch. i. sixty of the bravest of his followers, by prodigies of valour iv. 290. arrested the pursuit at the bridge of Dissay. 194. Jom. 54. vasion of the defeated. Encouraged by this success, the armies of the Convention, now greatly reinforced by the efforts of the govern- General inment, on all sides invaded the Bocage. Santerre, fatally Bocage on celebrated in the Revolution, advanced at the head of which is powerful bodies of regular soldiers; Chantonnay was occupied, and the country, wherever they penetrated, devastated with fire and sword. Even the farm-houses and the mills were consumed, in obedience to the orders of the Convention, But a severe retribution was awaiting them. The Royalists sounded the tocsin in all the parishes in the heart of the Bocage, and having reassembled the peasants, made a combined and skilful attack on the Republican force, seven thousand strong, in Sept. 5. the neighbourhood of Chantonnay. It proved completely successful, chiefly in consequence of the valour of the division of Bonchamp, which, not having shared in the 1793. CHAP. preceding reverses, had preserved all its wonted enthuXII. siasm. The Republicans were routed, with the loss of all their artillery and baggage; and such was the carnage that scarce eighteen hundred could be reassembled after the battle, and Santerre himself narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. At the same time, Charette maintained an obstinate contest in Lower Vendée. 247, 402. Though frequently defeated, he never suffered himself to Beauch. ii. be discouraged by his reverses, and destroyed several Republican columns that endeavoured to penetrate into his district.1 1 Jom. iii. Laroch. 195. 7. Lac, xii. 129. 55. the garrison But the Convention, which was at last awakened to a Arrival of full sense of the danger of the war, was now collecting of Mayence. forces on all sides to crush the insurgents. The garrison of Mayence, fourteen thousand strong, commanded by Kléber, and which the Allies, with culpable negligence, had not made prisoners of war, and only bound not to combat the Allies for a year, was despatched by post to the scene of action; and great part of the garrisons of Valenciennes and Condé, which had been restored on the same condition, soon followed in the same direction. Not only the national guards, but the levée en masse of the neighbouring departments, were assembled; and before the middle of September, upwards of two hundred thousand men surrounded La Vendée on all sides, and, by a simultaneous advance, threatened to crush its revolt. To oppose this formidable invasion, the Royalists were formed 1.21, and into four divisions-that in the neighbourhood of Nantes under the command of Charette, that on the banks of the 300. La Loire under Bonchamp, M. de Larochejaquelein in Anjou, and M. de Lescure in Eastern Poitou-while d'Elbée retained the supreme command.2 2 Beauch. i. i. 313. Jom. iii. roch. 197, 200. 56. The plan which Bonchamp strenuously recommended, Able design and which bears the mark of great military genius, was champ, to allow the enemy to penetrate, in detached columns, which is not into the Bocage; to overwhelm them successively by a of Bon adopted. junction in that district of the Royalist forces, who occu XII. 1793. pied a central position; and to take advantage of the first CHAP moment of alarm, cross the Loire, rouse the Royalist population of Brittany, and nourish the war from the resources of a hitherto untouched country. "What fortunate accident," said he, "has made us acquainted with the designs of the enemy? In it I see clearly the hand of God for the safety of La Vendée. The Republicans have at length discovered the secret of our victories; they wish to concentrate their forces to overwhelm us by their mass. We may, indeed, repulse the army of Mayence; but will it not return to the charge with accumulated numbers and resistless force? Let us then anticipate the enemy. Brittany calls us; let us march, and extend our destinies. Let us no longer be deceived by the hope that the allied powers will restore the monarchy: that glory is reserved for us alone. Masters of a harbour on the ocean, we shall find the Princes at our head, 1 and we will at length acquire that a Beauch. ii. Laroch. 199. 26, 27. Jom. iv. It was the army of Charette which first found itself 57. Republicans assailed by the immense forces of the Republicans. The Defeat of the Vendeans were there attacked by the redoubtable garrison at Torfou. of Mayence, which crossed the Loire and invaded the country on the 10th September. The Royalists were at first defeated in several encounters, and driven back by this invasion. Bonchamp was defeated near the rock of Erigné, while Lescure experienced a check at Thouars, and the whole of Lower Poitou was wasted with fire and sword, notwithstanding the utmost exertions of Charette. The successive retreat of these columns, however, brought the Royalist bodies near each other, and a simultaneous effort was made by all their forces. D'Elbée, and Bonchamp, who had now recovered from his wound, having XII. 1793. Sept. 19. CHAP. united thirty thousand men, and the army having received the benediction of the curate of St Laud, and heard high mass at midnight, they attacked the Republicans at daybreak on the 19th September. The Royalists were forty thousand strong; the Republicans somewhat less numerous-but they embraced the garrison of Mayence, the best soldiers in France. All the chiefs felt that this invasion must at all hazards be repelled, and that the moment had arrived when they must conquer or die. Charette, certain of the co-operation of the other generals, had arranged his forces in order of battle, blocking up the road to Torfou. His defeated and discouraged troops, however, could not long withstand the shock of the veterans of Kléber; they were broken, and falling into confusion, when M. de Lescure, seeing affairs wellnigh desperate, exclaimed, "Are there not four hundred men brave enough to die with me?" The peasants of the parish of Echaubroignies, seventeen hundred strong, answered him with shouts; and this feeble division withstood the shock of the Republican forces for two hours, till the division of Bonchamp arrived. This reinforcement speedily changed the face of affairs: the peasants, dispersed in single file behind the hedges which enveloped the Republicans, kept up a murderous fire on every side; the cannon were carried by assault, and the whole army was thrown into confusion. Nothing but the heroic devotion of Colonel Chouardin and his regiment, who maintained the bridge of Boussay, and suffered themselves to be in great part destroyed before they abandoned it, preserved the invading army from total destruction.1 1 Jom. iv. 302, 303. Laroch. 213, 214. Beauch. ii. 34-41. 58. And of Beysser at Sept. 20. Still the Royalists had not a moment to lose; it was indispensable to attack immediately the corps of General Montaigu. Beysser, which was on the point of effecting a junction with the forces of Kléber. On the day after their victory at Torfou, they surprised him at Montaigu, and routed the Republicans entirely, with the loss of all their artillery, baggage, and ammunition. This was followed by XII. 1793. the surprise and total defeat of General Mukinski at St CHAP. Fulgent by Charette and Lescure; while, on the very same day, Bonchamp and d'Elbée assailed the retreating columns of General Kléber, encumbered with twelve hundred chariots, and after throwing them into confusion, captured a large portion of their baggage. But this Sept. 22. success, though considerable, was nothing to what would 215, 217. have been obtained, had the whole Royalist forces been 303, 304. united, as they should have been, against the formidable 42-44. bands of Mayence.1 suc 1 Laroch. Jom. iv. Beauch. ii. 59. General Coron, and Republican invasion. Sept. 15. In other quarters, the Vendeans were equally successful. General Rossignol, with fifteen thousand men, Defeat of indeed, defeated an ill-concerted attack of the Royalist Rossignol at chiefs, Talmont and d'Autichamp; but having, after this general de success, advanced with Santerre to Coron, he was there feat of the attacked by Piron and Larochejaquelein, who had ceeded in rousing all the population in the neighbouring parishes; and with such skill were the Royalist operations conducted that the Republican army was pierced through the centre, and entirely dispersed, twenty-four pieces of cannon and all their ammunition being taken. Immediately after this success, a detachment of the Royalist Sept. 18. forces was despatched against General Duhoux, who had crossed the bridge of Cé, and was driving the Vendean detachments before him; but no sooner had he arrived at the heights of St Lambert, than he was assailed by the bulk of the Royalist forces, while Bernier, a farmer's servant in the parish of St Lambert, swam across the river, and attacked his troops in rear with the armed peasants in his vicinity. all the artillery of the column, nine thousand strong, totally destroyed. Such was the terror produced by these defeats, that the levée en masse, assembled between Tours and Poitiers, dispersed without striking a blow, and the regular forces of the Republicans on all sides quitted the Vendean territory. Thus, by a series of brilliant military combina The rout was soon complete ; invaders was taken, and their |