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 favor 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 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 recognized 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 agitation 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 en

trusted, 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 honor that the box was empty when they opened it, the whole council declared themselves satisfied, and acquitted the young men by acclamation.

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 government 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 undertakings of the same nature. He headed a considerable party of Bretons, in endeavoring to support the unfortunate descent at Quiberon; and, disdaining to submit even after the failure of that ill-concerted 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 necessary 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 fot 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 insurgents. succeeded in repulsing this desolating invasion at almost all the points of attack. Among the slain in one of these engagements, the republicans found the body of a young woman, which Madame de L. informs us gave occasion to a number of idle reports; many giving out that it was she herself, or a sister of M. de L. (who had no sister), or a new Joan of Arc, who had kept up the spirit of the peasantry by her enthusiastic predictions. The truth was that it was the body of an innocent peasant girl, who had always lived a remarkably quiet and pious life, till recently before this action, when she had been seized with an irresistible desire to take a part in the conflict. She had discovered herself some time before to Madame de L., and begged from her a shift of a peculiar fabric. The night before the battle she also revealed her secret to M. de L.-asked him to give her a pair of shoes-and promised to behave herself in such a manner in the morrow's fight that he should never think of parting with her. Accordingly she kept

near his person through the whole of the battle, and conducted herself with the most heroic bravery. Two or three times, in the very heat of the fight, she said to him, "No, mon general, you shall not get before me. I shall always be closer up to the enemy even than you." Early in the day she was hurt pretty seri- ́ ously in the hand, but held it up laughing to her general, and said, "It is nothing at all." In the end of the battle she was surrounded in a charge, and fell fighting like a desperado. There were about ten other women who took up arms, Madame de L. says, in this cause; two sisters under fifteen, and a tall beauty, who wore the dress of an officer. The priests attended the soldiers in the field, and rallied and exhorted them; but took no part in the combat, nor ever excited them to any acts of inhumanity. There were many boys of the most tender age among the combatants; some scarcely more than nine or ten years of age.

M. Peron gained a decided victory over the most numerous army of the republic; but their ranks being recruited by the whole garrison of Mentz, which had been liberated on parole, presented again a most formidable front to the insurgents. A great battle was fought in the middle of September, at Chollet, where the government army was completely broken, and would have been finally routed, but for the skill and firmness of the celebrated Kleber who commanded it, and successfully maintained a position which covered its retreat. In the middle of the battle one of the peasants took a flageolet from his pocket, and, in derision, began to play ça ira, as he advanced against the enemy. A cannon ball struck off his horse's head, and brought him to the ground; but he drew his leg from the dead animal, and marched forward on foot, without discontinuing his music. One other picture of detail will give an idea of the extraordinary sort of warfare in which the country was then engaged. Westermann was beat out of Châtillon, and pursued to some distance; but, finding that the insurgent forces were withdrawn, he bethought himself of recovering the place by a coup-de-main. He mounted a hundred grenadiers behind a hundred picked hussars, and sent them at midnight into the city. The peasants, as usual, had no outposts, and were scattered about the streets, overcome with fatigue and brandy. However, they made a short and bloody resistance. One active