hended; and once or twice he found in the morning, that one, more distrustful than the rest, had glided into the room, and laid himself down across the feet of his commander.

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 the discharge; but he only turned round to 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.

The republicans had retaken, in the course of these encounters, the first piece of cannon which had fallen into the hands of the insur, gents, 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 he was just come in time to repulse the brigands, who were advancing to retake their Marie Jeanne. "Are they?" says 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 royalist army, which was to march in, in the evening, 100,000 strong. The good people began their preparations accordingly, and hewed down their tree of liberty-when 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 4000 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 ex

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pedient 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 awhile to look after their cattle, and tell their exploits to their wives and children. In about a week, however, a considerable 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 intrenchments 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 12,000 prisoners were made, who were all shaved and let go. The insurgents did not lose 400 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 inquired 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 Charette, 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 persons-one 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 among themselves. The expedition to Nantes 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 mounted 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 Châtillon; 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 Coucise, who was still so much an alien to the Vendean manners, that they found her putting on rouge, and talking of the agi, tation of her nerves.

The attack on Westermann's position at Châtillon was completely successful: but the victory was stained by the vindictive massacres 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 intrusted, having foolishly broken open the strong box, which was believed to be full of money, there was a talk of bringing them to trial for the supposed embezzlement. M. de L., however, having declared that one of them had given him his word of honour that the box was empty when they opened it, the whole council declared themselves satisfied, and acquitted the young men by acclamation.

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In the course of the summer of 1793 various sanguinary actions were fought with various success; but the most remarkable event was the arrival of a M. Tinteniac, with despatches from the English government, about the middle of July. This intrepid messenger had come alone through all Brittany and Anjou, carrying his despatches in his pistols as wadding, and incessantly in danger from the republican armies and magistrates. The despatches, Madame de L. informs us, showed an incredible ignorance on the part of the English govern. ment of the actual posture of affairs. They were answered, however, with gratitude and clearness. A debarkation was strongly recommended near Sables or Paimbeuf, but by no means at L'Orient, Rochefort, or

Rochelle; and it was particularly entreated that the troops should consist chiefly of emigrant Frenchmen, and that a Prince of the House of Bourbon should, if possible, place himself at their head. Madame de L., who wrote a small and very neat hand, was employed to write out these despatches, which were placed in the pistols of M. Tinteniac, who immediately proceeded on his adventurous mission. He reached England, it seems, and was frequently employed thereafter in under takings of the same nature. He headed a considerable party of Bretons, in endeavouring to support the unfortunate descent at Quiberon; and, disdaining to submit even after the failure of that illconcerted expedition, fell bravely with arms in his hands. After his departure, the insurgents were repulsed at Luçon, and obtained some advantages at Chataigneraie. But, finding the republican armies daily increasing in numbers, skill, and discipline, they found it neces sary to act chiefly on the defensive; and, for this purpose, divided the country into several districts, in each of which they stationed that part of the army which had been recruited within it, and the general who was most beloved and confided in by the inhabitants. In this way, M. Lescure came to be stationed in the heart of his own estates, and was not a little touched to find almost all his peasants, who had bled and suffered by his side for so long a time without pay, come to make offer of the rents that were due for the possessions to which they were but just returned. He told them it was not for his rents that he had taken up arms; and that, while they were exposed to the calamities of war, they were well entitled to be freed of that burden. Various lads of thirteen, and several hale grandsires of seventy, came at this period, and insisted upon being allowed to share the dangers and glories of their kinsmen.

From this time, downwards, the picture of the war is shaded with deeper horrors; and the operations of the insurgents acquire a character of greater desperation. The Convention issued the barbarous decree, that the whole country, which still continued its resistance, should be desolated; that the whole inhabitants should be exterminated, without distinction of age or sex; the habitations consumed with fire, and the trees cut down with the axe. Six armies, amounting in all to near two hundred thousand men, were charged with the execution of these atrocious orders; and began, in September 1793, to obey them with a detestable fidelity. A multitude of sanguinary conflicts ensued ; and the in

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