XII. 1793. by a train of sharks and marine animals of prey, attracted CHAP. by so prodigious an accumulation of human bodies, they were thrown ashore in vast numbers. Fifteen thousand persons perished there under the hands of the executioner, or of diseases in prison, in one month; the total victims of the Reign of Terror at that place exceeded thirty thousand. 97. horror on the bodies Loire. The spectacles of horror which ensued when the refluence of the tide and the force of the west wind brought Scenes of the corpses in numbers back to Nantes, were of the most recovering appalling description. Crowds of the peasants hastened from the from the adjoining country, in the pious hope of recovering the body of a dear and lost relative from the waves, and giving it a decent sepulture; but though they in some instances were successful, yet it was only with great difficulty, and often after a severe contest with the monsters of the deep. Enormous eels, twenty or thirty feet long, fierce sharks, and other marine animals of prey, followed the blood-stained waves, and contended with vultures and ospreys, which were watching for their prey on the shore, for the mangled corpses with which they were charged. Indescribable were the scenes of tenderness which these piteous remains brought to light. Children were found with their lips affixed to those of their dead mothers, locked in so close an embrace, that even the struggles of drowning and the long-continued action of the waves had been unable to 'Prudhomseparate them. Mothers with their infants yet at the times de la breast were found floating together in the deep. Often a vi. 337, 339. voracious fish had eaten out the entrails of the young in Interruptus aquæ), fluxit prior amnis in æquor; 1 LUCAN, Pharsalia, ii. 204–220. me, Vic Révolution, XII. CHAP. fant without being able to tear it from its mother's embraces; and the dead remains, yet locked in each other's arms, were disputed fiercely by a shark and a vulture, alike striving for the tender spoil. 1793. 98. the peasants moments. The peasants, both men and women, of La Vendée, met Courage of death in general with the most heroic courage; they in their last perished boldly avowing their opinions, and exclaiming, Vive le Roi! Nous allons en Paradis." Innumerable instances of heroism occurred, especially among the female sufferers. Madame de Jourdain was led out to be drowned, with her three daughters; a soldier wished to save the youngest, who was very beautiful; she threw herself into the water to share the fate of her mother, but, falling on a heap of dead, could not sink. “Push me in," she exclaimed: "the water is not deep enough!" and sunk beneath his thrust. Mademoiselle Cuissard, aged sixteen, of still greater beauty, excited the most vehement admiration in a young officer of hussars, who spent three hours at her feet entreating her to allow him to save her; but as he could not undertake to free an aged parent, the 392, 393. partner of her captivity, she refused life, and threw herself into the Loire along with her mother.1 1 Laroch. 99. Agatha Larochejaquelein escaped in the most extraorAdventures dinary manner. She had left an asylum, in a cottage at Laroche Brittany, in consequence of one of the deceitful amnesties jaquelein. which the Republicans published to lure their victims from of Agatha their places of concealment, and was seized and brought before Lamberty, one of the ferocious satellites of Carrier. Her beauty excited his admiration. "Are you afraid, brigand?" said he. "No, general," replied the worthy inheritrix of her name." When you feel fear," said he, "send for Lamberty." When brought to the entrepôt, seeing death approaching, she recollected his words, and sent for the general. He took her out alone at night into a little boat on the Loire, with a concealed trap, which Carrier had given him for his private murders, and wished to sacrifice her to his desires: she resisted, upon which he XII. 1793. threatened to drown her; but she, anticipating him, flew CHAP. to the side to throw herself into the river. The Republican was softened: "You are a brave girl," said he; "I will save you." In effect he left her concealed at the bottom of the boat, among some bushes on the margin of the stream, where she lay for eight days and nights, a witness to the constant nocturnal massacres of her fellowprisoners. At length she was taken from her place of concealment, and secreted with a man of the name of Sullivan, who resolved to save her, from horror at a murder which he had committed on his own brother, whom he had denounced as a Vendean to the Republican authorities. The intelligence, however, of his humanity got wind, and Lamberty was accused some time afterwards of having saved some women from the noyades. To prevent the evidence of this in Agatha's case, she was seized by a friend of Lamberty of the name of Robin, who carried her into a boat, where he was proceeding to poniard her, in order to extinguish any trace of the former having facilitated her escape, when her beauty again subdued the ruthless murderer. She threw herself at his feet, and prevailed on him to save her life. She was again arrested, however, in the place where he had concealed her, and would certainly have been guillotined, had not 1 Laroch. the fall of Robespierre suspended the executions, and 394-396. ultimately restored her to liberty.1 100. dame de The fate of Madame de Bonchamp was not less remarkable. After the rout at Mans, she lived, like all And Mathe other wives of the officers and generals, on the Bonchamp. charity of the peasants in Brittany, whose courage and devotion no misfortunes could diminish. They at once told their names and connections; the faithful people received them with tears of joy, and not only concealed them in their dwellings, but stinted themselves in their meals to furnish them with provisions. For several days, when the pursuit was hottest, she was concealed, with her infant child, in the thick foliage of an oak-tree, at the 1793. CHAP. foot of which the Republican soldiers were frequently XII. passing a cough or a cry from the infant would have betrayed them both, but the little creature, though suffering under a painful malady, never uttered a groan; and both mother and child frequently slept in peace for hours, when the bayonets of their pursuers were visible through the openings of the leaves. At night, when the enemy were asleep, the young children of the cottagers brought them provisions; and occasionally some old soldiers of her husband's army hazarded their lives to render them assistance. She was at length arrested, and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal at Nantes; the recollection of the five thousand captives, whose lives the dying hero had saved, could not save his widow from a unanimous condemnation. The atrocious cruelty of this proceeding, however, excited so much commiseration among the numerous survivors who had been saved by his clemency, that the vehemence of their remonstrances obtained a respite from the judges; during which the peasants who had protected her little girl sent her to the prison, and the mother had the delight of hearing her child pray every night and morning at her bedside, for her health and deliverance. At length, after a long captivity, she obtained her liberation. Her daughter was intrusted with presenting the petition to the court; and even the judges of the Revolutionary Tribunal could not withstand the touching appeal made to them by the little child in behalf of its captive parent. 1* 1 Bonch. 72, 87. 101. "The poor people," says Larochejaquelein, "in Nantes, Cruelty of were exceedingly kind, and did their utmost to save the shopkeepers Victims of the Revolution; all the rich merchants also were humane-for though they had at first supported the the small in the towns. A singular incident attended the presenting of this petition. The little girl, who was only six years old, went up to the judges, and presented the paper, saying, “Citizens, I am come to ask the pardon of mamma." Casting their eyes on the paper, they beheld the name of Bonchamp, and one of them, addressing her, said he would give her the pardon if she would sing one of her best songs, as he knew she had a voice which charmed all the inmates of the XII. 1793. Revolution, yet they were soon shocked by its crimes, CHAP. and, in consequence, were persecuted as well as the Royalists; one hundred and nine of them were sent up to Paris for trial, and only saved by the fall of Robespierre. The ferocious class who lent their aid to the massacres and the noyades was composed of the little shopkeepers and more opulent of the artisans, many of whom came from other towns besides Nantes." Words of vast political importance, as designating the class in which revolutionary 1 Laroch. fervour is ever most violent, and by which its principal 391, 392. atrocities are committed.1 nevolence of But if humanity has cause to blush for the atrocious 102. cruelty of the tradesmen in the towns of Brittany, it may Heroic bedwell with unalloyed delight on the generous hospitality the country of the peasants in the country. The experience they had peasants. acquired in concealing the priests, and the young men required for the conscription, rendered them exceedingly expert at eluding the search of their enemies. Numbers were shot for giving an asylum to the Vendeans; but nothing could check their courageous humanity. Men, women, and children alike displayed unbounded goodness, and inexhaustible resources. A poor girl, deaf and dumb, had been made to comprehend the dangers of the Royalists, and incessantly warned them by signs when their enemies were approaching. Neither menaces of death, nor offers of gold, could shake the fidelity of the youngest children. The dogs even had contracted an aversion to the Republicans, who always used them harshly; they barked invariably at their approach, and were thus the means of saving great numbers. On the prison. Upon this she sang with a loud voice the words she had heard from sixty thousand men on the field of battle, "Vive, vive le Roi ! A bas la République !" Had she been a little older, these words would have condemned both herself and her mother; but the simplicity with which they were uttered disarmed their wrath they smiled, and after some observations on the detestable education which these fanatical Royalists gave to their children, dismissed her with 1 Bonch. 87. the pardon she desired.1 |