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feeble and ill-supported their exertions would prove, in comparison of what they had been on the first breaking out of the resistance to government. They had at that period introduced order and regularity among their people, and had exertised hostilities according to the rules of discipline. But those, on whom they now prevailed to join them, were no longer guided by the same spirit. The generality in deed did not seem inclined to embark in a cause for which they had so greatly suffered, and so vainly displayed the most surprising courage and efforts. The majority of those, who now followed their fortunes, were individuals long determined never to submit to the republic, and to scize the first opportunity of acting openly against it. They consisted chiefly of the ruined noblesse, clergymen expelled from their livings, and other persons deprived of their employments, either for adhering, or being suspected of adherence to the royal cause. The mass of their followers was made up of deserters, peasants, and others of the lower classes, impelled, by the ill-treatment of the ruling party for their difference of opinion in matters of church and state, to fly from their homes, and betake themselves to the protection of those who were in arms against government, and whose numbers were thus increased and constantly recruited by fresh accessions of the discontented and ill-used.

Those who now presided over them were Charette and Stoflet, who appeared still determined to encounter new hazards, after having escaped so many dangers. The former of these had, in the course of the preceding year, renonc ed

the engagements he had contracted with the republic, and published a manifesto, wherein he publicly charged its agents with having, under false pretences, inveigled him to lay down bis arms, and submit to government. They had, be said, given him to understand, that the rulers of the nation had come to a fixed resolution of restoring royalty, and of replacing the family of Bourbon upon the throne, as soon as such an event could take place with security; but the temper of the French, they insinuated, was to be consulted, and a due concurrence of circumstances waited for, before an attempt of such importance could be made. He enumerated a variety of particulars tending to delude him, and conciuded by accusing government of having violated its faith with his associates; and, as a consummation of its iniquity, of having taken off, by poison, the innocent child of their murdered sovereign. It was, he said, in consequence of these perjuries and enormities, that be had come to a determination to take up arms again, and never to lay them down till the heir to the crown was restored, and the Catholic religion re-established.

Such were the contents of this extraordinary manifesto, which ap peared so strange and unaccount. able to numbers, that they were led to doubt its authenticity.

In the mean time, the forces, dispatched by government to suppress this insurrection, met with various difficulties, from the nature of the warfare they were engaged in. The insurgents, conscious of their inferiority in the field, avoided all regular action; and, dividing themselves into a multitude of small

bodies,

bodies, occupied all the narrow passes and defiles throughout the country, and harassed the republican troops in their marches and motions. The inhabitants in those parts, being generally in the interest of the insurgents, informed them of the most convenient places where to lie in ambuscade, and surprise their enemies. By these means they intercepted the communication between the republican troops, and often seized their convoys of provisions and stores, and reduced them to the extremest want of ammunition and necessaries. Whenever they found an opportunity of attacking them to advantage, they never missed it, and occasionally defeated them with considerable slaughter. When these were too well situated, or too strong in numbers, as well as position, to venture an engagement with them, the others kept within forests or fastnesses that were almost inaccessible, and where, on that account, they succeeded in defending themselves. Their general mode of attack was with musketry, never coming to close fight, and always placing hedges, pales, ditches, and other impediments between themselves and the foe,whom, as numbers of them were excellent marksmen, they contrived by these methods greatly to annoy, in spite of their courage and discipline, and their eagerness to rush upon them through all obstacles, and to fight them under all disadvantages.

The chiefs of the insurgents were so conscious of the impracticabilityof encountering the republican troops in any other manner, that their own people, losing all hope of renewing those brilliant successes they had formerly obtained, gradually abandoned all attempts of that VOL. XXXVIII.

kind, and gave themselves up to a predatory system of hostilities, accompanied with as many sanguinary executions of their enemies, as they thought requisite for the support of their own cause, and the intimi dation of their enemies.

Such had been their plan of act ing since the second insurrection, which had broken out in the com mencement of the foregoing summer, and had continued with va rious success till the approach of winter. The disappointment that had befallen the expedition to the coast of France from England, and the loss of so many emigrants, that had either fallen in battle, or been taken prisoners and put to death, had so effectually terrified their adherents, that, from that day, they had manifested little inclination to venture into new dangers, without better grounds of hope, than promises of assistance wherein they had been so much deceived, and exhortations to loyalty, that only led them to ruin.

Disheartened by the severe and atrocious vengeance executed upon their country, and the dreadful slaughter and chastisement of its inhabitants, the Vendeans had not, as before, crowded to the royal standards erected among them. The amnesty published after the former pacification, and the lenient treatment they had experienced in consequence of their submission to the republic, had produced the effects that had been expected. The remaining majority of that unfortunate people had returned to their country, and resumed their former occupations, with the intent of never leaving them again for the rash enterprises to which they had been prompted, by the vain prospect of [G]

being

being able to overturn the republic, and restore the monarchy.

But those, who had led them forth to this desperate attempt, did not despair to excite them to a second undertaking of the same nature. They held out every motive that had formerly been prevalent; attachment to their religion, love of their kings, hatred to the present innovations. Multitudes were induced accordingly to list again under their banners but the greater part remained quiet in their habitations, and the flower of the insurgents was not, as antecedently, composed of the Vendeans, but of the mixed and numerous mass of the inhabitants of the several provinces of Britanny, Poitou, Maine, Anjou, and others lying on the banks of the Loire.

Those who chiefly figured among them, were that body of men known by the appellation of Chouans, and whose origin and primitive transactions and character have already been noticed. From these, the whole insurrection now borrowed that denomination; and, as many of their actions had been marked with bloodthirstiness, as well as rapacity, those who were united with them, incurred the like imputation; whence they became equally dreaded and abhorred, and acquired the general name of plunderers and murderers among the adherents to the repub. lican party, of which their detestation was no less notorious, as well as their zeal and readiness to doom its partisans to extermination.

This reciprocal disposition was of course productive of inany atrocious deeds. The republican soldiery shewed them little mercy, considering them in hardly any other light than that of highway robbers. It became at last a war of reciprocal

destruction, not only of men, but of whatever they possessed. Slaughter and conflagration went band in hand, and the country round presented a picture of death and desolation. No man nor family were safe in their houses: the republican soldiers broke into them, and massacred all they found. The opposite parties waylayed each other on the roads, and gave no quarter. Their whole attention was employed in framing and perpetrating those horrors, and executing every scheme of public and private vengeance.

The pretext, for the commission of all those enormities, was the same on both sides: the royalistscharged the republicans with having violated the late treaty, and these retorted the accusation. The truth was, that neither party much approved of it, and had acceded to it, rather as a suspension of hostilities, than as an absolute pacification, intending to abide by the conditions agreed to, no longer than they found it convenient. Hence no confidence was established on either side, and they both watched each others motions with equal suspicion of their malevolence.

After a long fluctuation of fortune between the contending parties, the principal commander of the royalists, the famous Charette, encountered a strong body of the republicans near Roche Suryan, on the twenty-eighth of December, 1795, and was totally defeated. His men were so completely routed, that he was unable to rally them. They filed from the field in various directions, and were so closely pursued, that they dispersed on every side, and he was never able again to embody them. He was compelled, for his own safety, to disguise himself like

a pea

a peasant. In this dress he wandered about the country without a companion, in hope of escaping his pursuers, and gaining the sea side, where he might find an opportunity of flying to England. But the search made after him was so strict and Incessant, that he fell into the hands of a patrole that was in quest of him. He was tried and sentenced to be shot. His execution tock place at Nantes on the twenty-eighth of April. His associate, the well known Stoflet, who had also been made a prisoner, suffered death in the same manner, about two months before him.

The fall of these two principal chiefs of the insurrection, especially the former, gave it a blow from which it did not recover. Neither the Vendeans, nor the Chouans who had joined them, seemed to have been overcome by despondency on this occasion, and they still continued to maintain their ground with as much obstinacy as ever: but whether none of their remaining leaders were of equal ability, or that their people did not repose the same confidence in them, their defeats became continual, and such numbers were slaughtered, that the generality of the insurgents began to lose courage, particularly after the losses of those who commanded them. No less than thirteen of their principal chiefs fell in battle, and ten others were taken and condemned to be shot.

The death of these officers proved and irreparable loss: they were men of conspicuous resolution, and had long conducted the affairs of their party with remarkable skill and perseverance in the arduous trials they had so frequently experienced. None at this period seemed capable *f supplying their place; but what

chiefly accelerated the submission of the insurgents, was the lenitý with which the government came to the resolution of treating all those who laid down their arms. A proclamation had already been issued, during the heat of hostilities, inviting the insurgents to return to obedience, under a solemn promise of burying their revolt in oblivion, and of granting them every just concession they could require the directory availed itself of the advantages it had obtained, to convince those who had been concerned in the insurrection, that the only use the government would make of the situation to which they were now reduced, would be to deprive them of the means of exciting disturbances; and that, provided they acquiesced in the injunctions laid upon them, they would be placed on the same footing with their fellow citizens, and enjoy similar rights.

So anxious was the directory to impress them with this persuasion, that it published a circular address to the commanders of the troops employed in suppressing the insurrection, strictly enjoining them to keep the intentions of the government in constant view, and not to exceed them by needless acts of severity.

But the animosity of the republicans against the insurgents was such that they occasionallyexercised great rigour over them, to the serious concern of the directory, which reprehended, with marked severity, those who had been guilty of these excesses. It anxiously reiterated its orders to abstain from all harshness, and to receive all who submitted with a generous forgiveness of the past; considering them as delúded brethren, whose attachment it was the duty of their conquerors to win [G 2]

through

through mildness and conciliation, which were the only effectual means of restoring them to the bosom of their country, and converting them into good citizens.

In pursuance of these maxims, every district that surrendered its arms, and punctually conformed to the conditions prescribed, was immediately placed under the completest protection of the laws, and no infraction of these suffered to their detriment.

The measures thus taken, by the directory, availed them more than military coercion would have done. The dread of punishment had kept several bodies of the insurgents together but the moment they found that a pardon would be granted to them, on acceding to the terms of the proclamation that had so long been circulated, and to which government was yet willing to adhere, they repaired in crowds to the head quarters of the republican generals, declaring their readiness to accept of the conditions proffered to them. These submissions gradually took place in the course of March and April. By the close of this month, the insurrection was so far quelled, that no apprehensions were entertained from the few straggling parties that remained, and which were looked upon as people determined to lead a predatory life, rather than in arms for the cause they had embraced, and of which no hopes any longer existed,

After subduing this dangerous insurrection by force of arms, the next 'measure was to pacify the minds of those who had so obstinately persisted in it, and yielded at length only from the impracticability of any farther resistance. To this end, in addition to the punctual observance

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of the promises made to the insurgents, to induce them to lay down their arms, a number of públications, suited to the capacity of those for whom they were designed, were distributed in the districts where the insurrection had taken place: and those individuals on whose fidelity and attachment to republican principles the government could depend, were encouraged to take all possible pains to inculcate the propriety of uniting with the majority of their countrymen, and of unfeignedly abjuring those sentiments that had cost them so many lives, and plunged their families into so much misery.

The necessity of acting conformably to this advice, became so apparent, that even the royalist generals thought themselves bound no longer to obstruct the submission of the insurgents, convinced that it was the only means left them to escape destruction. A proclamation to this purpose was issued and signed by viscount Scepeaux, the principal in command in the western department. After Jamenting the fruitless efforts to restore monarchy and the Catholic religion, it acknowledged that to persist in this attempt would only be conducting the insurgents to the slaughter. It exhorted them, therefore, to desist, and yield to superior force, in order to secure their lives, and be permitted to dwell in safety at their

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