XII. 1793. 88. movements lish to sup insurgents. Brittany, when the tardy English succours, commanded CHAP. by Lord Moira, who had exerted himself to the utmost to accelerate the preparations, appeared on the coast of Cherbourg, having on board eight English battalions, four Tardy thousand Hanoverians, and two thousand emigrants-in of the Engall ten thousand men. They looked out in vain for the port the expected signals, and after remaining on the coast for Dec. 2. some days, and receiving intelligence of the defeat of the Royalists at Granville, returned to Guernsey, where the expedition was broken up. Had the succour arrived on the coast a fortnight sooner-had even a few English frigates appeared off Granville during the assault, to intimidate the Republicans, and encourage the Royalists -the town would have been taken, the junction of the English troops with the Royalists 178, 181. effected, and the united forces might have reached the 351. capital.' 1 Beauch. ii. Jom. iv. consequen But slowness in preparation, and utter ignorance of the 89. value of time in war, blasted all the English combinations Ruinous at this period, and caused them repeatedly to throw away ces of this the fairest chances of bringing the contest to a successful delay. issue at its very outset. The rulers of England would do well to reflect on this on the next occasion when they are involved in hostilities. Previous foresight and preparation, vigilance and punctuality in execution, are the soul of war, and generally bring early and decisive success to the party which exerts them. Never was there a fairer opportunity of co-operating with effect with the Continental Royalists than on this occasion. The expedition beyond the Loire, unaided as it was by British succour, was doubtless ruinous to the cause of La Vendée; and yet never did any army so situated achieve such triumphs as it did before its fatal termination. Before it fell, that host, without magazines or provisions, at the distance of forty leagues from its home, and surrounded by three hostile armies, marched one hundred and seventy leagues in sixty days, took twelve cities, gained seven VOL. II. 2 U XII. 1793. CHAP. battles, killed twenty thousand of the Republicans, and captured one hundred pieces of cannon-trophies greater than were gained by the vast allied armies in Flanders during the whole campaign. Can there be a doubt, then, that if ten thousand English soldiers had joined them at 1 Beauch. ii. 260. 90. of Charette. Granville, they would have borne down all opposition, and marched in triumph, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants of the west, to Paris ?1 While the great bulk of the Vendean forces was enOperations gaged in this perilous and fatal expedition, Charette, with a few thousand men who adhered to his standard, made himself master of the Isle of Noirmoutier, where the Republicans had left but a slender garrison. He immediately began fortifying it with care, with the design of making it a depôt for his sick, wounded, and stores. From this place of security, he made various expeditions into the adjoining province during the winter of 1793-4, with various success, until the return of the wreck of the Grand Army from its expedition beyond the Loire. Meanwhile the atrocities of his opponents continued. Frequently the Republican general wrote to the mayor of a village, that if the inhabitants would remain they should suffer no violence, and having prevailed on them by this deceitful pledge not to fly, surrounded it with soldiers, and put every living soul to death. General Thurreau was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the West, and he found himself nominally at the head of fifty thousand men, but one-half of whom alone were fit for active service, the remainder being sick, wounded, or exhausted in the hospitals. Thurreau commenced his operations by a descent on the Isle of Noirmoutier, of which he easily made himself master, in the absence of Charette. He there found d'Elbée, covered with wounds, who had been removed to that place of security after the battle of Chollet. When the soldiers entered his room, where he was unable to rise from his bed, they exclaimed, "Here then is d'Elbée at last."-"Yes," he replied, 66 XII. 1793. here is your greatest enemy: if I had been able to CHAP. wield a sword you should never have taken Noirmoutier." He underwent a long interrogatory, which he answered with equal firmness and good faith; and met death with unshaken constancy sitting in his chair, from which his wounds disabled him from rising. His last words were raised to save an innocent man, who was led out for execution by his side. The officer who presided at the execution, named, after d'Elbée and two others who were placed together, "Wieland the traitor, who sold Noirmoutier to the rebels." D'Elbée, instantly summoning up all his strength, exclaimed," No, gentlemen! Wieland is not a traitor! he never aided our party, and you are about to put to death an innocent man!" But scarcely were the generous words uttered, when the order to fire was given, and the whole four fell together. His wife was next day executed with the generous hostess who had given her shelter in her misfortunes; they both evinced in their last moments the same courage which had been displayed by the murdered general. Numbers Laroch of other Royalists were shot at the same time, among Beauch. ii. whom were the two young sons of Maignan de l'Ecorce, 297, 347. who had followed their father to battle with a courage 265. beyond their years.1 1 402, 403. 258, 293, Jom. v. 91. Henri de Henri de Larochejaquelein did not long survive his brave comrade. After his separation from the army Death of at the rout of Mans, he took refuge in the forest of LarocheVésins, near the Loire, from whence he made frequent jaquelein. incursions upon the Republican posts, with such success that his little party daily increased, and proved a source of unceasing disquietude to their generals. In one of his incursions he made prisoner an adjutant-general, bearing an order to proclaim an amnesty to the peasants, and massacre them after they submitted a discovery which contributed in a powerful manner to perpetuate the war, by taking away all hope from the vanquished. He fell 1794. at length, the victim of his humanity: approaching two March 4, XII. 1793. CHAP. Republican grenadiers upon whom his party was preparing to fall, he ran forward, exclaiming, "Surrender; I give you quarter." Hardly were the words uttered when the treacherous wretches shot him dead on the spot. He 374, 375. was aged only twenty-one years. When his soldiers had Laroch. 406. buried him where he fell, they exclaimed-" Now the Convention may indeed say that La Vendée no longer exists! "1 1 Beauch. ii. Lac. xi. 178. 92. And the Prince de licans. The Prince de Talmont about the same time fell a victim to Republican revenge. He was made prisoner near Laval, and after being led about in triumph from cruelties of city to city, for a considerable time, was executed in the the Repub- court of his own chateau. When brought When brought before his judges, he said, "Descended from the La Trémouilles, the son of the Lord of Laval, I was in duty bound to serve the King; and I will show in my last moments that I was worthy to defend the throne. Sixty-eight combats with the Republicans have rendered me familiar with death."-" You are an aristocrat, and I am a patriot," said the judge. "Work out your trade," replied he; "I have performed my duty." His faithful servant was offered his life, but he refused to survive his master, and followed him to the scaffold. The execution of these gallant chiefs put an end to the first period of the Vendean war. It might then have been terminated, had the Republicans made a humane use of their victory, and sheathed the sword of conquest after it had destroyed its enemies in the field. But the darkest period of the tragedy was approaching, and in the rear of their armies came those fiends in human form, who exceeded even the atrocities of Marat and Robespierre, and have left a darker stain on French history than the massacre of St Bartholomew, or the tyranny of Nero on that of Rome. Their atrocities took all hope from the vanquished; and in 262, 263. despair and revenge there sprang up a new set of CHOUAN bands, who, under Charette, Stofflet, and Tinteniac, long maintained the Royalist cause in the western provinces, 2 Beauch. ii. Larochejaq. 398. XII. 93. and the columns. and proved more hurtful to the Republicans than all the CHAP. armies of Germany. Thurreau was the first who commenced against the 1793. Vendeans a systematic war of extermination. He formed Thurreau twelve corps, aptly denominated infernal columns, whose infernal instructions were to traverse the country in all quarters, isolate it from all communication with the rest of the world, carry off or destroy all the grain and cattle, murder all the inhabitants, and burn down all the houses. These orders were too faithfully executed: the infernal columns penetrated the country in every direction; men and women were burned alive; infants tossed from bayonet to bayonet. Their path might be traced by the conflagration of villages, their progress known by the corpses of the inhabitants. A contemporary Republican writer has left this character of their exploits :-"It seemed as if the Vendeans were no longer regarded as men; the pregnant woman, the child in the cradle, even the beasts of the field, the very stones, the houses, the soil itself, appeared to the Republicans enemies worthy of a total extermination."1* But from this atrocious war- ii. 369. fare arose new difficulties to the invaders. From the 199. consequences of their ravages, provisions failed equally to * "Il entre dans mes projets, et ce sont les ordres de la Convention Nationale, d'enlever toutes les subsistances, les denrées, les fourrages-tout, en un mot, de ce maudit pays: de livrer aux flammes tous les bâtimens, d'en exterminer tous les habitans; car ils voudraient encore affamer les patriotes, après les avoir fait périr par milliers. Je vais à l'instant t'en faire passer l'ordre. Oppose-toi de toutes tes forces à ce que La Vendée prenne ou garde un seul grenier, livre-les aux commissaires du département à Nantes. Je te donne l'ordre le plus précis, le plus impératif : tu m'en garantis dès ce moment l'exécution: en un mot-ne laissez rien dans ce pays de proscription; que les subsistances, denrées, fourrages-tout, absolument tout, se transporte à Nantes."-CARRIER au GENERAL HAXO, 23 Frimaire; No. 12, Bulletin du Tribunal Révolutionnaire-Procès de CARRIER. Nor was the execution of these orders unworthy of their conception. They are thus described by an eyewitness on the trial of Carrier:-" J'ai vu brûler vifs des hommes, des femmes, des vieillards infirmes, dans leurs maisons; j'ai vu 150 soldats violer des femmes, des filles de 14 à 15 ans, les massacrer ensuite, et jeter de bayonnettes en bayonnettes de tendres enfans qui étaient à coté de leurs mères étendues sur le carreau; c'étaient les héros de 500 livres qui se livraient à ces atrocités, et on n'osait encore rien dire."-Déposition de THOMAS -Procès de CARRIER. No. 12, Nouvelle Série. 1 Beauch. Toul. v. |