XII. 1793. CHAP. they left the walls, and began to file off in confusion, without orders, towards Baugé. The chiefs did their utmost to bring them back to the assault, but in vain ; they even went so far as to promise them the pillage of 1 Laroche- the town if they were successful; but such was the virtue jaque. 310 of these simple people, even amidst all their sufferings, 214-216. that they rejected the proposal with horror, and declared that God would abandon them if such a project was again entertained.1 Beauch. ii. Jom. iv. 340. 82. attempt to cross the Loire. Dec. 8. No sooner had the army reached Baugé, than they They in vain perceived the ruinous consequences of the step they had taken. There were no means of passing the Loire in that line but by Saumur or Tours, the bridges of which, defended by numerous garrisons, afforded no prospect of effecting the object. A universal consternation seized the troops; though in sight of their homes, they were utterly unable to cross the river. The sick multiplied with frightful rapidity; the cries of the wounded, who were abandoned on the march, harrowed every heart; the severity of the weather, the dreadful roads, the famine which began to prevail, the weeping crowd who surrounded the soldiers, unnerved the strongest hearts. The chiefs knew not what to do; the men were in despair. In this extremity, the firmness of M. de Larochejaquelein did not desert him, and after carefully weighing every consideration, it was resolved to alter the destination of the army, and move by La Flèche upon Mans. The retreat was protected by a strong rearguard; but no danger was apprehended in front. Great, then, was the consternation of the troops when, on arriving at la Flèche, they found the bridge broken down, and five thousand men occupying the opposite bank of the river, while their rear was vehemently assailed. But the presence of mind of the general saved them from apparent ruin. Ordering the rearguard to keep firm, he took three hundred of his boldest horsemen, and put a grenadier en croupe behind each; with this he crossed Dec. 9. XII. 1793. the stream at a ford a short distance farther up at night- CHAP. fall, and attacked the Republicans in the dark. A panic instantly seized their troops, who dispersed and fled in 1 Laroch all directions, while Larochejaquelein re-established the 313, 317. bridge, and gave a day's repose to his wearied army, 340, 342. after which they continued their march without opposi-223-225. tion to Mans.1 Jom. iv. Beauch. ii. defeated loss at Mans. This town was destined to witness the ruin of the 83. Royalist cause. The troops arrived there in such a state They are of fatigue, depression, and suffering, that it was easy to with great foresee that they would be unable to withstand a vigorous Dec. 10. attack; six months of incessant marches and combats had weakened their resolution, as well as exhausted their strength. They were in the state of the French army on their retreat from Moscow, with this additional circumstance of aggravation, that an exhausted multitude, equal in number to the soldiers, encumbered the army, and melted every heart by the spectacle of their sufferings. The numbers of sick and wounded rendered a halt of a few days absolutely necessary; and this gave time to the Republican generals to concert measures for their destruction. Forces were accumulating on all sides; Marceau, Dec. 12. Westermann, and Kléber, had assembled forty thousand men, with whom they assailed the exhausted Royalist army, which was in no condition to resist an attack. They made, nevertheless, a heroic defence, though only twelve thousand could be collected in a condition fit to face the enemy. Larochejaquelein posted the bravest of his troops in a fir wood, from whence they kept up so heavy a fire as long held in check the left of the Republicans; but, Kléber having driven back the division of Stofflet from its position, the whole army was borne backwards like a torrent into the town. There, however, they resisted in the most obstinate manner. Larochejaquelein pointed his cannon down all the streets leading to the great square, and filled the whole houses in the streets with musketeers; a terrible fire arose on all sides, XII. 1793. 1 Jom. iv. CHAP. and increased the horrors of a nocturnal combat. But after a frightful night of carnage, the Republican columns had gained ground in every quarter; Larochejaquelein 343, 344. had two horses killed under him; and, in spite of his utmost efforts, the mighty crowd was forced out of the 320. Lac. town, and disbanded when they reached the plain on the other side.1 Laroch. 320, 321. Beauch. ii. xi. 167. 84. rout which ensued. The scene of confusion and horror which there ensued Dreadful defies all description. Larochejaquelein in vain assembled fifteen hundred men to check the advance of the victorious columns; he was wounded and overturned in the tumult, his band dispersed, and the Republicans commenced an indiscriminate massacre of the shrieking fugitives. Ten thousand soldiers, and an equal number of women and children, perished under their relentless swords; while almost all the artillery, and an incalculable quantity of baggage, fell into the hands of the victors. Such as survived owed their escape chiefly to the heroism of the Chevalier Duhoux, and Viscount Scépeaux, who, with eight hundred brave men, maintained their ground to the very last, and with their own hands discharged the guns of a battery which covered the rearguard, after all the cannoneers had fallen by their side. The pitiless Republicans massacred the women and children by thousands ; 343, 344. youth, grace, rank, and beauty, were alike disregarded; and the vast crowd which had flocked together to avoid 167, 168. destruction, perished under incessant discharges of grapeshot, or platoons of musketry, before the eyes of the commissioners of the Convention.2 Dec. 16. 2 Jom. iv. Laroch. 320-322. Lac. xi. Beauch. ii. 230-238. 85. less state. Heroic con duct of Such of the Royalists as had escaped the carnage, Their hope- reassembled at Laval two days afterwards, and it was resolved to move to Ancenis, with the design of again Henri de attempting the passage of the Loire. A single boat alone was found in that town; but four large vessels, laden with hay, were on the opposite side, which was guarded by patrols of the enemy. Henri de Larochejaquelein, finding that no one had courage to attempt Laroche jaquelein. XII. 1793. their seizure, himself leaped into the boat, while another, CHAP. which had been brought in a cart, bore M. de Langerie and eighteen soldiers. The river, swollen with winter rains, was flowing in an impetuous torrent, and all eyes were fixed with agonising anxiety on the frail barks on which the safety of the whole depended. At length they reached the opposite shore, and the peasants began with ardour to work at unloading the vessels of their cargoes, when a detachment of Republicans appeared on the coast, where they had landed, and attacked and dispersed the soldiers of Larochejaquelein, who was compelled to seek refuge in a neighbouring forest. At the same time a gun-boat of the enemy appeared in the river, and, by a few discharges, sunk all the rafts, which, with eager haste, the peasants had been forming to transport themselves 1 Laroch. over, while the advanced guard of Westermann assailed 332, 333. the rear. Thus, at the very moment when his skill was 345, 346. most required, the army found itself deprived of its 243-245. leader.1 Jom. iv. Beauch. ii. at Savenay. Despair now seized upon the troops, who fled in con- 86. fusion, without either provisions or leaders, to Nort, and Final rout thence, through a heavy fall of snow, to Savenay. The Dec. 22. army melted away on all sides; the sick and wounded were abandoned, the most intrepid straggled in detached parties to the banks of the Loire, and above "one thousand were ferried over in the night, and formed the Dec. 23. nucleus from whence those intrepid bands of Chouans were formed, who so long desolated the Morbihan; while some, with less resolution, surrendered themselves to the Republicans, in hopes of that amnesty which they held out as a treacherous snare to their prostrated enemies. Hardly ten thousand, of whom only six thousand were armed, could be assembled at Savenay, where, nevertheless, they made a gallant defence. Their leaders, M. de Marigny, Fleuriot, the Prince de Talmont, and other indomitable chiefs, urged the men to combat with the courage of despair; all the wounded who could sit on XII. 1793. CHAP. horseback were led out to the fight, and even young women and boys seized the muskets of their fathers and brothers and joined the array. Long, and with heroic resolution, they held the immense columns of the Republicans in check; and when at length they were obliged to retire, they fell back in good order, with the women in front, and the few pieces of artillery they had left facing about in the rear till the last cartridge and cannonshot in the army was expended. Even after they could no longer discharge their pieces, the rearguard continued to fight with unshaken bravery with their swords and bayonets, till they all fell under the fire of the Republicans. "I examined their bodies," said the Republican general in his despatch to Merlin de Thionville, "and recognised the stern expression, the invincible resolution of Chollet and Laval. The men who could conquer such enemies, have nothing to fear from other nations. That war, so often 168, 169. styled in ridicule a contest with brigands and peasants, 250-259. has been the severest trial of the Republic. I now feel that we shall have child's play with our other enemies.' 1 Laroch. 345-349. Jom. iv. 348, 349. Lac. xi. Beauch. ii. 391 This defeat was a mortal stroke to the Vendean cause; of eighty thousand souls who had crossed the Loire six weeks before, scarcely three thousand got back in detached bodies to La Vendée. Concealed by the courageous hospitality of the peasants, numbers were saved from the savage cruelty of their pursuers, among whom were Mesdames de Larochejaquelein and Bonchamp, who escaped unparalleled dangers, and lived to fascinate the world by the splendid story of their husbands' virtues and their own misfortunes. Others, less fortunate, fell into the hands of the Republicans, who hunted them down night and day during the dreadful winter of 1794, and led to prison and the scaffold the noblest blood in France.2 In war everything depends upon rapidity of execution, and an accurate attention to time; the moment of success, once allowed to escape, seldom returns. Hardly had the Royalist standard disappeared from the shores of |