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No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee

by G. A. Henty · English · Gutenberg #20091 · 629,555 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee

Author: G. A. Henty

Illustrator: Stanley L. Wood


        
Release date: December 11, 2006 [eBook #20091]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20091

Credits: Produced by Martin Robb


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO SURRENDER! A TALE OF THE RISING IN LA VENDEE ***




Produced by Martin Robb




No Surrender!
A Tale Of The Rising in La Vendee
by G. A. Henty.

Contents

Preface.
Chapter  1: A French Lugger.
Chapter  2: The Beginning Of Troubles.
Chapter  3: The First Successes.
Chapter  4: Cathelineau's Scouts.
Chapter  5: Checking The Enemy.
Chapter  6: The Assault Of Chemille.
Chapter  7: A Short Rest.
Chapter  8: The Capture Of Saumur.
Chapter  9: Bad News.
Chapter 10: Preparations For A Rescue.
Chapter 11: The Attack On Nantes.
Chapter 12: A Series Of Victories.
Chapter 13: Across The Loire.
Chapter 14: Le Mans.
Chapter 15: In Disguise.
Chapter 16: A Friend At Last:
Chapter 17: A Grave Risk.
Chapter 18: Home.

Illustrations

"Follow Me!" he shouted. "Make for the gun!"
At the first volley, the colonel of the dragoons and many of his men fell.
A scattered fire broke out from the defenders.
Leigh gave the word and, leaping up, they threw themselves on the traitor.
He was the bearer of terrible news.
Jean seized one of them by the throat.
Westermann's cavalry charged into the streets of Dol.
For two or three minutes, husband and wife stood together.



Preface.


In the world's history, there is no more striking example of heroic
bravery and firmness than that afforded by the people of the
province of Poitou, and more especially of that portion of it known
as La Vendee, in the defence of their religion and their rights as
free men. At the commencement of the struggle they were almost
unarmed, and the subsequent battles were fought by the aid of
muskets and cannon wrested from the enemy. With the exception of
its forests, La Vendee offered no natural advantages for defence.
It had no mountains, such as those which enabled the Swiss to
maintain their independence; no rivers which would bar the advance
of an enemy; and although the woods and thickets of the Bocage, as
it was called, favoured the action of the irregular troops, these
do not seem to have been utilized as they might have been, the
principal engagements of the war being fought on open ground. For
eighteen months the peasants of La Vendee, in spite of the fact
that they had no idea of submitting either to drill or discipline,
repulsed the efforts of forces commanded by the best generals
France could furnish; and which grew, after every defeat, until at
length armies numbering, in all, over two hundred thousand men were
collected to crush La Vendee.

The losses on both sides were enormous. La Vendee was almost
depopulated; and the Republicans paid dearly, indeed, for their
triumph, no fewer than one hundred thousand men having fallen, on
their side. La Vendee was crushed, but never surrendered. Had the
British government been properly informed, by its agents, of the
desperate nature of the struggle that was going on; they might, by
throwing twenty thousand troops, with supplies of stores and money
into La Vendee, have changed the whole course of events; have
crushed the Republic, given France a monarch, and thus spared
Europe over twenty years of devastating warfare, the expenditure of
enormous sums of money, and the loss of millions of lives.

G. A. Henty



Chapter 1: A French Lugger.


Some half a mile back from the sea, near the point where the low
line of sandy hill is broken by the entrance into Poole Harbour,
stood, in 1791, Netherstock; which, with a small estate around, was
the property of Squire Stansfield. The view was an extensive one,
when the weather was clear. Away to the left lay the pine forests
of Bournemouth and Christ Church and, still farther seaward, the
cliffs of the Isle of Wight, from Totland Bay as far as Saint
Catherine Point. Close at hand to the south was Studland Bay,
bounded by Handfast Point. Looking towards the right was a great
sheet of shallow water, for the most part dry at low tide, known as
Poole and Wareham Harbours, with its numerous creeks and bays.

Netherstock was an old house, with many nooks and corners. The
squire was a justice of the peace but, unless there was some
special business on, he seldom took his place on the bench. He was
a jovial man, who took life easily. He was popular among his
neighbours, especially among the poorer classes; for whom he had
always a pleasant word, as he rode along; and who, in case of
illness, knew that they could always be sure of a supply of soup,
or a gill of brandy at Netherstock.

Among those of his own class it was often a matter of wonder how
James Stansfield made both ends meet. The family had, for two or
three generations, been of a similar temperament to that of the
present holder; men who spent their money freely, and were sure to
be present whenever there was a horse race, or a main of cocks to
be fought, or a prizefight to come off, within a day's ride of
Netherstock. Gradually, farm after farm had been parted with; and
the estate now was smaller, by half, than it had been at the
beginning of the century.

James Stansfield had, however, done nothing further to diminish it.
He had a large family, but they could hardly be said to be an
expensive one, seeing that little was spent upon the fashion of
their clothes; and beyond the fact that the curate in charge of the
little church in the village of Netherstock came over, every
morning for two or three hours, to give the boys and girls the
elements of education, they went very much their own way. Mrs.
Stansfield had died, five years before this. Polly, the eldest
girl, aged twenty, acted as mistress of the house. Next to her, at
intervals of little more than a year, came Ralph and John; two
strongly built young fellows, both fearless riders and good at all
rustic games. What supervision the farm work got was given by them.

Patsey, the second girl, was generally admitted to be the flower of
the Stansfields. She was bright, pretty, and good tempered. She was
in charge of the dairy, and the Netherstock butter was famous
through the country round, and always fetched top prices at the
market. The youngest of the family was Leigh, who was now fourteen.
He was less heavily built than his brothers, but their tutor
declared that he was the quickest and most intelligent of his
pupils; and that, if he had but a chance, he would turn out a fine
young fellow.

The boys were all fond of boating and sailing, which was natural
enough, as the sea washed two sides of the estate. They had two
boats. One of these lay hauled up on the sands, a mile to the east
of the entrance to the harbour. She was a good sea boat and, when
work was slack about the place, which indeed was the normal state
of things, they would often sail to Weymouth to the west, or
eastward to Yarmouth or Lymington, sometimes even to Portsmouth.
The other boat, which was also large, but of very shallow draught
of water, lay inside the entrance to the harbour; and in her they
could go either north or south of Brownsea Island, and shoot or
fish in the many inlets and bays. There were few who knew every
foot of the great sheet of water as they did, and they could tell
the precise time of the tide at which the channels were deep enough
for boats drawing from two to three feet of water.

The most frequent visitor to Netherstock was Lieutenant, or, as he
was called in courtesy, Captain Whittier, the officer in command of
the coast guard station between Poole and Christ Church; his
principal station being opposite Brownsea Island, the narrowest
point of the entrance to the harbour. He was a somewhat fussy
little officer, with a great idea of the importance of his duties,
mingled with a regret that these duties did not afford him full
scope for proving his ability.

"Smuggling has almost ceased to exist, along here," he would say.
"I do not say that, across the harbour, something that way may not
still be done; for the facilities there are very much greater than
they are on this side. Still, my colleague there can have but
little trouble; for I keep a sharp lookout that no boat enters by
the passage south of the island without being searched. Of course,
one hears all sorts of absurd reports about cargoes being run; but
we know better, and I believe they are only set on foot to put our
officers from Swanage Westward, and beyond Christ Church down to
Hurst Castle, off their guard."

"No doubt, captain; no doubt," James Stansfield would agree.
"Still, I fancy that, although times are not what they were, it is
still possible to buy a keg of brandy, occasionally, or a few yards
of silk or lace, that have never paid duty."

"Yes, no doubt occasionally some small craft manages to run a few
kegs or bales; and unfortunately the gentry, instead of aiding his
majesty's representatives, keep the thing alive by purchasing
spirits, and so on, from those who have been concerned in their
landing."

"Well, you know, Captain Whittier, human nature is pretty strong.
If a pedlar comes along here with ribbons and fal-lals, and offers
them to the girls at half the price at which they could buy them
down at Poole, you can hardly expect them to take lofty ground, and
charge the man with having smuggled them."

"I do not think the young ladies are offenders that way," the
officer said, "for I have never yet seen them in foreign gear of
any sort. I should, if you will allow me to say so, be more
inclined, were you not a justice of the peace, to suspect you of
having dealings with these men; for your brandy is generally of the
best."

"I don't set up to be better than my neighbours, captain," the
squire said, with a laugh; "and if the chance comes my way, I will
not say that I should refuse to buy a good article, at the price I
should pay for a bad one in the town."

"Your tobacco is good, too, squire."

"Yes, I am particular about my tobacco, and I must say that I think
government lays too high a duty on it. If I had the making of the
laws, I would put a high duty on bad tobacco, and a low duty on a
good article; that would encourage the importation of good
wholesome stuff.

"I suppose you have heard no rumours of any suspicious looking
craft being heard of, off the coast?"

"No, I think that they carry on their business a good deal farther
to the west now. My post is becoming quite a sinecure. The
Henriette came into Poole this morning, but we never trouble about
her. She is a fair trader, and is well known at every port between
Portsmouth and Plymouth as such. She always comes in at daylight,
and lays her foresail aback till we board her, and send a couple of
men with her into Poole or Wareham. Her cargo is always consigned
to well-known merchants, at all the ports she enters; and consists
of wines, for the most part, though she does occasionally bring in
brandy.

"He is a fine young fellow, the skipper, Jean Martin. I believe his
father is a large wine merchant, at Nantes. I suppose you know him,
squire?"

"Yes, I have met him several times down in the town, and indeed
have bought many a barrel of wine of him. He has been up here more
than once, for I have told him, whenever he has anything
particularly good either in wine or spirits, to let me know. He
talks a little English, and my girls like to have a chat with him,
about what is going on on his side of the water. He offered, the
other day, to give Leigh a trip across to Nantes, if I was willing.

"Things seem to be going on very badly in Paris, by what he says;
but he does not anticipate any troubles in the west of France,
where there seems to be none of that ill feeling, between the
different classes, that there is in other parts."

The departure of Captain Whittier was always followed by a broad
smile on the faces of the elder boys, breaking occasionally into a
hearty laugh, in which the squire joined.

"I call him an insufferable ass," Ralph said, on this particular
evening. "It would be difficult, as father says, to find an officer
who is, as far as we are concerned, so admirably suited for his
position."

"That is so, Ralph. There is scarcely a man, woman, or child in
this part of Dorsetshire who does not know that there are more
goods run, on that piece of water over there, than on the whole
south coast of England. I sincerely trust that nothing will ever
bring about his recall. Personally, I would pay two or three
hundred a year, out of my own pocket, rather than lose him. There
is no such place anywhere for the work; why, there are some
fourteen or fifteen inlets where goods can be landed at high water
and, once past the island, I don't care how sharp the revenue men
may be, the betting is fifty to one against their being at the
right spot at the right time.

"If the passage between our point and the island were but a bit
wider, it would be perfect; but unfortunately it is so narrow that
it is only on the very darkest night one can hope to get through,
unnoticed. However, we can do very well with the southern channel
and, after all, it is safer. We can get any number of boats, and
the Henriette has only to anchor half a mile outside the entrance.
We know when she is coming, and have but to show a light, directly
she makes her signal, and the boats will put out from Radhorn
passage and Hamworth; while messengers start for Bushaw, and
Scopland, and Creach, and a dozen farmhouses, and the carts are
sure to be at the spot where they had been warned to assemble, by
the time the boats come along with the kegs; and everything is
miles away, in hiding, before morning.

"If it is a dark night the Henriette makes off again, and comes
boldly in the next afternoon. If one of the revenue boats, either
from here or Studland, happens to come across her before she gets
up anchor, there she is--the crew are all asleep, with the
exception of a man on watch; she is simply waiting to come in, when
there is light enough to enable her to make her way up the
passage."

James Stansfield was, in fact, the organizer of the smuggling
business carried on at Poole, and the adjacent harbours. There was
not a farmhouse, among the hills to the south of the great sheet of
water, with which he was not in communication. Winter was the
season at which the trade was most busy, for the short summer
nights were altogether unsuited for the work; and when the cold
weather drove the wildfowl in for shelter, there was splendid
shooting, and Ralph and John were able to combine amusement with
business, and to keep the larder well stocked.

The night signals were made from a cleft in the sand hills, half a
mile from the house; the light being so arranged that it could not
be seen from Brownsea Island, though visible to those on the south
side, from Studland right away over the hills to Corfe Castle, even
to Wareham. It was shown but for half a minute, just as the bells
of Poole Church struck nine. At that hour, when the lugger was
expected, there was a lookout at the door of every farmhouse and,
the moment the light was seen, preparations were made for the
landing at the spot of which notice had been given, by one or other
of the boys, on the previous day. Then, from quiet little inlets,
the boats would put off noiselessly, directly there was water to
float them; for it was only at high tides that the shallows were
covered. They would gather in the channel south of Brownsea, where
the boys and often their father would be in their boats in
readiness, until a momentary glimmer of a light, so placed on board
the lugger that it could only be seen from the spot where they were
awaiting it, showed the position of the craft and their readiness
to discharge cargo.

It was exciting work, and profitable; and so well was it managed
that, although it had been carried on for some years, no suspicion
had ever entered the minds of any of the revenue officers.
Sometimes many weeks would elapse between the visits of the lugger,
for she was obliged to make her appearance frequently at other
ports, to maintain her character as a trader; and was, as such,
well known all along the coast.

It was only a year since the Henriette had taken the place of
another lugger, that had previously carried on the work, but had
been wrecked on the French coast. She had been the property of the
same owner, or rather of the same firm; for Jean Martin, who had
been first mate on board the other craft, had invested some of his
own money in the Henriette, and assumed the command. It was
noticed, at Poole, that the Henriette used that port more
frequently than her predecessor had done; and indeed, she not
infrequently came in, in the daytime, with her hold as full as when
she had left Nantes.

It was on one of these occasions that Jean Martin, on coming up to
Netherstock, had a long talk with the squire.

"So you want my daughter Patsey?" the latter said, when his visitor
had told his story. "Well, it has certainly never entered my mind
that any of my girls should marry a Frenchman. I don't say that I
have not heard my boys making a sly joke, more than once, when the
Henriette was seen coming in, and I have seen the colour flying up
into the girl's face; but I only looked at it as boys' nonsense.
Still, I don't say that I am averse to your suit. We may be said to
be partners, in this trade of yours, and we both owe each other a
good deal. During the last eight years you must have run something
like forty cargoes, and never lost a keg or a bale; and I doubt if
as much could be said for any other craft in the trade.

"Still, one can't calculate on always being lucky. I don't think
anyone would turn traitor, when the whole countryside is interested
in the matter; and I wouldn't give much for the life of anyone who
whispered as much as a word to the revenue people. Still, accidents
will take place sometimes. Your father must have done well with the
trade, and so have I.

"At any rate, I will leave it in Patsey's hands. I have enough of
them, and to spare. And of course, you will be able to bring her
over, sometimes, to pay us a visit here.

"I think, too, that your offer of taking Leigh over with you helps
to decide me in your favour. They are all growing up and, if
anything were to put a stop to our business, this place would not
keep them all; and it would be a great thing, for Patsey, to have
her brother as a companion when you are away. The boy would learn
French, and in your father's business would get such a knowledge of
the trade with Nantes as should serve him in good stead. At any
rate, he will learn things that are a good deal more useful to him
than those he gets from the curate.

"Well, you know you will find her in the dairy, as usual. You had
better go and see what she says to it."

It is probable that Jean Martin had already a shrewd idea of what
Patsey's answer would be, and he presently returned to her father,
radiant. Patsey, indeed, had given her heart to the cheery young
sailor; and although it seemed to her a terrible thing, that she
should go to settle in France, she had the less objection to it,
inasmuch as the fear that the smuggling would be sooner or later
discovered, and that ruin might fall upon Netherstock, was ever
present in her mind, and in that of her elder sister.

To her brothers, engaged in the perilous business, it was regarded
as a pleasant excitement, without which their lives would be
intolerably dull. It was not that she or they regarded the matter
in the light of a crime, for almost everyone on that part of the
coast looked upon smuggling as a game, in which the wits of those
concerned in it were pitted against those of the revenue men. It
brought profit to all concerned, and although many of the gentry
found it convenient to express indignation, at the damage done to
the king's revenue by smuggling; there were none of them who
thought it necessary to mention, to the coast guard, when by some
accident a keg of brandy, or a parcel with a few pounds of prime
tobacco, was found in one of the outhouses.

Patsey had suffered more than her sister, being of a more lively
imagination, and being filled with alarm and anxiety whenever she
knew that her father and the boys were away at night. Then, too,
she was very fond of Leigh, and had built many castles in the air
as to his future; and the thought that, not only would he be with
her, but would be in the way of making his road to fortune, was
very pleasant to her. She knew that if he remained at Netherstock
he would grow up like his brothers. His father might, from time to
time, talk of putting him into some business; but she understood
his ways, and was certain that nothing would come of it.

Martin had, before, expressed to her his doubt as to whether her
father would consent to her going away with him; but she had no
fear on the subject. In his quiet, easygoing way he was fond of his
children; and would scarcely put himself out to oppose, vehemently,
anything on which they had set their hearts. He had, too, more than
once said that he wished some of them could be settled elsewhere;
for a time of trouble might come, and it would be well to have
other homes, where some of them could be received.

"Patsey has consented," Jean Martin said, joyously, as he rejoined
the squire.

"Well, that is all right. I think, myself, that it is for the best.
Of course, it must be understood that, in the matter of religion,
she is not to be forced or urged in any sort of way; but is to be
allowed to follow the religion in which she has been brought up."

"I would in no way press her, sir. We have Protestants in France,
just as there are Catholics here; though I must admit that there
are not many of them in La Vendee. Still, the days when people
quarrelled about religion are long since past; and certainly at
Nantes there is a Protestant congregation, though away in the
country they would be difficult to find. However, I promise you,
solemnly, that I will in no way try to influence her mind, nor that
of the boy. He will still, of course, look upon England as his
home, and I should even oppose any attempt being made to induce him
to join our church. You have plenty of Frenchmen in this country,
and no question as to their religion arises. It will be just the
same, with us."

Six weeks later, the Henriette returned. In her came Monsieur
Martin, whose presence as a witness of the ceremony was considered
advisable, if not absolutely necessary. He had, too, various
documents to sign in presence of the French consul, at Southampton,
giving his formal consent. The marriage was solemnized there at a
small Catholic chapel, and it was repeated at the parish church at
Poole, and the next day the party sailed for Nantes.

It was two months before the lugger again came in to Poole. When it
returned, it took with it the squire and Polly, to whom Monsieur
Martin had given a warm invitation to come over to see Patsey, in
her new home.

They found her well and happy. Monsieur Martin's house was in the
suburbs of Nantes. It had a large garden, at the end of which,
facing another street, stood a pretty little house that had been
generally used, either as the abode of aged mothers or unmarried
sisters of the family, or for an eldest son to take his wife to;
but which had now been handed over to Jean and his wife. This was
very pleasant for Patsey, as it united the privacy of a separate
abode with the cheerfulness of the family home. She had her own
servant, whose excellent cooking and, above all, whose scrupulous
cleanliness and tidiness, astonished her after the rough meals and
haphazard arrangements at Netherstock.

Whenever she felt dull during Jean's absences, she could run across
the garden for a talk with his mother and sister; at meals and in
the evening she had Leigh, who spent most of his time at the
cellars or in the counting house of Monsieur Martin; learning for
the first time habits of business, and applying himself eagerly to
acquiring the language.

The squire was put up at Monsieur Martin's, and Polly slept in the
one spare room at her sister's, all the party from the pavilion
going over to the house, to the midday meal and supper. The squire
and Polly were much pleased with their visit. It was evident that
Patsey had become a prime favourite with her husband's family.
Jean's sister Louise was assiduous in teaching her French, and she
had already begun to make some progress. Louise and her mother were
constantly running across to the little pavilion, on some errand or
other; and Patsey spent as much of her time with them as she did in
her own house.

Jean's absences seldom exceeded ten days, and he generally spent a
week at home before sailing again. He had driven her over to stay,
for three or four days, at a small estate of his own, some forty
miles to the southeast of Nantes, in the heart of what was called
the Bocage--a wild country, with thick woods, narrow lanes, high
hedges, and scattered villages and farms, much more English in
appearance than the country round Nantes. The estate had come to
him from an aunt. Everything here was very interesting to Patsey;
the costumes of the women and children, the instruments of
husbandry, the air of freedom and independence of the people, and
the absence of all ceremony, interested and pleased her. She did
not understand a single word of the patois spoken to her by the
peasants, and which even Jean had some difficulty in following,
although he had spent a good deal of his time at the little chateau
during the lifetime of his aunt.

"Should you like to live here, when not at sea, Jean?" asked
Patsey.

"Yes, I would rather live here than at Nantes. Next to a life at
sea, I should like one quite in the country. There is plenty to do
here. There is the work on the place to look after, there is
shooting, there is visiting, and visiting here means something
hearty, and not like the formal work in the town. Here no one
troubles his head over politics. They may quarrel as they like, in
Paris, but it does not concern La Vendee.

"Here the peasants love their masters, and the masters do all in
their power for the comfort and happiness of the peasants. It is
not as in many other parts of France, where the peasants hate the
nobles, and the nobles regard the peasants as dirt under their
feet. Here it is more like what I believe it was in England, when
you had your troubles, and the tenants followed their lords to
battle. At any rate, life here would be very preferable to being in
business with my father, in Nantes. I should never have settled
down to that; and as my elder brother seems specially made for that
sort of life, fortunately I was able to go my own way, to take to
the sea in the lugger, and become the carrier of the firm, while
taking my share in the general profits."

"How is it that your brother does not live at home? It would seem
natural that he should have had the pavilion, when he married."

"He likes going his own way," Jean said shortly. "As far as
business matters go, he and my father are as one; but in other
matters they differ widely. Jacques is always talking of reforms
and changes, while my father is quite content with things as they
are. Jacques has his own circle of friends, and would like to go to
Paris as a deputy, and to mix himself up in affairs.

"Though none of us cared for the lady that he chose as his wife,
she had money, and there was nothing to say against her,
personally. None of us ever took to her, and there was a general
feeling of relief when it was known that Jacques had taken a house
in the business quarter.

"He looks after the carrying business. Of course, my lugger does
but a very small proportion of it. We send up large quantities of
brandy to Tours, Orleans, and other towns on the Loire; and have
dealings with Brittany and Normandy, by sea, and with the Gironde.
He looks after that part of the business. My father does the buying
and directs the counting house. Though my art is a very inferior
one, I have no reason to complain of my share of the profits."

The first eighteen months of Patsey's married life passed quietly
and happily. She could now speak French fluently and, having made
several stays at the country chateau, could make herself understood
in the patois. Leigh spoke French as well as English. Fortunately
he had picked up a little before leaving home, partly from his
tutor, partly from endeavouring to talk with French fishermen and
sailors who came into Poole. He frequently made trips in the
Henriette, sometimes to Havre and Rouen, at others to Bordeaux. He
had grown much, and was now a very strong, active lad. He got on
very well with Monsieur Martin; but kept as much apart as he could
from his eldest son, for whom he felt a deep personal dislike, and
who had always disapproved of Jean's marriage to an Englishwoman.

Jacques Martin was the strongest contrast to his brother. He was
methodical and sententious, expressed his opinion on all subjects
with the air of a man whose judgment was infallible, and was an
ardent disciple of Voltaire and Rousseau. It was very seldom that
he entered his father's house, where his opinions on religious
subjects shocked and horrified his mother and sister. He lived with
an entirely different set, and spent most of his time at the clubs
which, in imitation of those of Paris, had sprung up all over the
country.

"What is all the excitement about, Jean?" Leigh asked his
brother-in-law, one evening. "There are always fellows standing on
casks or bales of timber along the wharf, shouting and waving their
arms about and, sometimes, reading letters or printed papers; and
then those who listen to them shout and throw up their caps, and
get into a tremendous state of excitement."

"They are telling the others what is being done at the Assembly."

"And what are they doing there, Jean?"

"They are turning things upside down."

"And is that good?"

"Well, there is no doubt that things are not as well managed as
they might be, and that there is a great deal of distress and
misery. In some parts of France the taxation has been very heavy,
and the extravagance of the court has excited an immense deal of
anger. It is not the fault of the present king, who is a quiet
fellow, and does not care for show or pageants; but it is rather
the fault of the kings who preceded him, especially of Louis the
Fourteenth--who was a great monarch, no doubt, but a very expensive
one to his subjects, and whose wars cost an enormous sum.

"You see it is not, in France, as it is with you. The nobles here
have great power. Their tenants and serfs--for they are still
nothing but serfs--are at the mercy of their lords, who may flog
them and throw them into prison, almost at their pleasure; and will
grind the last sou out of them, that they may cut a good figure at
court.

"In this part of France things are more as they are in England. The
nobles and seigneurs are like your country gentlemen. They live in
their chateaux, they mix with their people and take an interest in
them, they go to their fetes, and the ladies visit the sick, and in
all respects they live as do your country squires; paying a visit
for a few weeks each year to Paris, and spending the rest of their
time on their estates. But it is not from the country that the
members of the Assembly who are the most urgent for reforms and
violent in their speech come, but from the towns. There were two
writers, Voltaire and Rousseau, who have done enormous mischief.
Both of them perceived that the state of things was wrong; but they
went to extremes, made fun of the church, and attacked institutions
of all sorts. Their writings are read by everyone, and have shaken
people's faith in God, and in all things as they are.

"I do not say that much improvement could not be made, but it will
never be made by sudden and great changes, nor by men such as those
who are gradually gaining the upper hand in the Assembly. The
people ought to have a much stronger voice than they have in their
own taxation. They see that, in England, the ministers and
parliament manage everything; and that the king--although his
influence goes for a good deal, and he can change his ministers as
often as he likes--must yet bow to the voice of parliament. I think
that that is reasonable; but when it comes to a parliament composed
largely of mere agitators and spouters, I, for my part, would
rather be ruled by a king."

"But what is it that these people want, Jean?"

"I do not think they know in the least, themselves, beyond the fact
that they want all the power; that they want to destroy the
nobility, overthrow the church, and lay hands on the property of
all who are more wealthy than themselves. Naturally the lowest
classes of the towns, who are altogether ignorant, believe that by
supporting these men, and by pulling down all above them, it would
no longer be necessary to work. They want to divide the estates of
the nobles, take a share of the wealth of the traders, and of the
better class of all sorts; in fact they would turn everything
topsy-turvy, render the poor all powerful, and tread all that is
good and noble under their feet. The consequence is that the king
is virtually a prisoner in the hands of the mob of Paris, the
nobles and better classes are leaving the country, thousands of
these have already been massacred, and no one can say how matters
will end.

"Here in Nantes there is, as you see, a feeling of excitement and
unrest; and though as yet there has been no violence, no one could
venture to predict what may take place, if the moderate men in the
Assembly are outvoted by the extremists, and all power falls into
the hands of the latter. But I still hope that common sense will
prevail, in the long run. I regard the present as a temporary
madness, and trust that France will come to her senses, and that we
shall have the satisfaction of seeing the scoundrels, who are now
the leaders of the mob of Paris, receive the punishment they
deserve.

"However, as far as we are concerned I have no uneasiness for, if
troubles break out at Nantes, we can retire to my chateau, in the
thickest and most wooded part of La Vendee, where there is no fear
that the peasants will ever rise against their masters."



Chapter 2: The Beginning Of Troubles.


"Things are getting more and more serious, Patsey," said Jean one
evening. "I don't know what will come of it. The excitement is
spreading here, and there can be no doubt that there will be very
serious troubles, ere long. The greater portion of the people here
are with the Assembly, and approve of all these decrees against the
priests, and the persecution of the better classes. You know what
has taken place in Paris, and I fear that it will be repeated here.

"We are split up. My father, dear good man, thinks that he has only
to attend to his business, and to express no opinion whatever about
public affairs, and that the storm will pass quietly over his head.
My brother has thrown himself heart and soul--that is to say, as
far as he has a heart to throw--into what he calls the cause of the
people; and which I consider to be the cause of revolution, of
confiscation, of irreligion, and abomination generally.

"I am told that my name has freely been mentioned, in his club, as
that of a dangerous man, with opinions contrary to the public good.
I hear, too, that that brother of mine was there, at the time; and
that he got up and said that in a case like this his voice must be
silent, that true patriots place their country before all things;
and then affected to speak mildly in my favour, but at the same
time doing me as much harm as he could. I believe the fellow is
capable of denouncing his own father.

"From the Bocage I hear that the whole country is in confusion. The
people, of course, side with their priests. The nobles and land
owners are naturally royalists, and are furious that the king
should be held in what is practically subjection; by men of low
degree, and who, although they may have some virtuous men among
them, have also sanguinary scoundrels who gradually gain in power,
and will soon be supreme.

"They, however, can do nothing at present. The peasants know
nothing about the king, to them he is a mere name; but this
persecution of their priests angers them greatly; and if, as is
said, orders have been given to raise an army, and to drag men away
from their homes whether they like to go or not, you may be sure
that, ere long, there will be trouble there.

"Now you see, dear, I am a sort of double character. At sea I am
Captain Jean Martin, a peaceful trader with, as you know, but
little regard for the revenue laws of your country. On the other
hand, in La Vendee I am Monsieur Jean Martin, a landed proprietor,
and on friendly terms with all the nobles and gentry in my
neighbourhood. It is evident that I cannot continue to play this
double part. Already great numbers of arrests have been made here,
and the prisons are half full. I hear that a commissioner from the
Assembly is expected here shortly, to try these suspects, as they
are called; and from what we know already, we may be sure that
there will be little mercy shown.

"They are almost all people of substance; and the people, as they
call themselves, are on principle opposed to men of substance. Now,
if I remain here, I have no doubt that I shall be denounced in a
very short time; and to be denounced is to be thrown into prison,
and to be thrown into prison is equivalent to being murdered. I
have no doubt, Patsey, that you would share my fate. The fact that
you are an Englishwoman was among the accusations brought against
me, in the club; and although, so far as I can see, the majority of
these scoundrels have no religion whatever, they venture to make it
a matter of complaint that you are a Protestant.

"I have seen this coming on for some time, and must now make my
choice; either I must take you and the child over to England, and
leave you there with your father until these troubles are over,
while I must myself go down and look after my tenantry, and bear my
share in whatever comes; or you must go down there with me."

"Certainly I will go down with you, Jean. It is your home, and
whatever dangers may come I will share them with you. It would be
agony to be in England, and to know nothing of what is passing
here, and what danger might be threatening you. We took each other
for better or worse, Jean, and the greater danger you may be in,
the more it will be my duty to be by your side.

"I should be very happy down at the chateau. More happy than I have
been here with you, for some time past; for one cannot but be very
anxious, when one sees one's friends thrown into prison, and knows
that you are opposed to all these things, and that it may be your
turn next. Nothing would persuade me to leave you."

"Very well, wife, so be it. I am sure that there, at least, we
shall be safe. It is only in the towns that these rascals are
dangerous, and in a country like ours there is little fear that the
knaves will venture to interfere, when they see that they are
stirring up a nest of hornets. They have plenty of work to satisfy
even their taste for confiscation and murder, in the large towns.
There is an army gathering, on the frontier, and they will have
their hands full, ere long.

"And now, about Leigh. My brother has always shown a dislike for
him and, as it is certain that he cannot remain here, he must
either return to England or go with us."

"I am sure that he would choose to go with us, Jean. You say
yourself that he talks French like a native now, and although he
has often told me that he would never settle in France--for
naturally he is as horrified as I am with the doings in Paris, and
the other great towns--still I am sure that he would choose to
remain with us, now. You see, he is strong and active, and has made
so many trips with you, that he is almost a sailor. He is within a
few months of sixteen, and of late he has several times said to me
that he would like to go some long voyages, and have some
adventures, before settling down in business, in England, as an
agent of your house."

"I should like to have him with us," Jean said heartily. "In the
first place, he is a lad after my own heart, full of life and go,
and already strong enough to take his own part; in the next place,
although I hope for the best, a man can never say exactly what will
take place. I may be away at times, and should be glad to know that
you had a protector; and if he is willing to go, I shall be more
than willing to have him.

"Then, too, it would be useful to have someone whom one could trust
to carry messages. My idea is that I shall not leave the lugger
here for, if I am denounced, it would certainly be seized. Pierre
Lefaux, my mate, is a shrewd as well as a faithful fellow. I shall
appoint him captain. I shall tell him to leave here, at once, and
employ the lugger in coasting voyages; making Bordeaux his
headquarters, and taking what freights he can get between that town
and Rochelle, Brest, or other ports on this coast. So long as he
does not return here, he might even take wines across to England,
or brandy from Charente. He knows his business well and, as long as
we are at peace with England, trade will still go on.

"The best thing would be for him to be at Bordeaux once every
fortnight, or three weeks, so that we shall know where to find him.
I have a great friend at Bordeaux, and shall get him to have the
lugger registered in his name, and give him a receipt for her
purchase money; so that in case the people here learn that she is
trading at Bordeaux, he will be able to prove that she is his own
property. Then, if the very worst should come, which I cannot bring
myself to believe, there will be a means of escape for us all to
England.

"She will be sailing there in two or three days. I have fifty
thousand francs lying in my father's hands. I shall send that over
by Lefaux, and instruct him to ask your father to go with him to
the bank, at Poole, and pay the money in to my account. Then, if we
should have to leave France, we shall have that to fall back upon,
and the lugger. I should, of course, transfer her to the English
flag, and have no doubt that we should be able to get on very
fairly. So you see, I am preparing for all contingencies, Patsey."

"It seems very dreadful that the country should be in such a state,
Jean."

"It is dreadful, and I am afraid that things have by no means got
to the worst, yet.

"Ah, here comes Leigh! After supper I shall go in and have a talk
with my father. I have very little hope of having much success with
him; but at least, when he sees the steps that I am taking, it
cannot but make him think seriously of his own position, and that
of my mother and sisters."

Leigh was delighted when he heard Jean's proposal. His own position
had been unpleasant, of late. He had long since ceased to go to
Jacques Martin, for the dislike between them was mutual and, do
what he would, he failed to give satisfaction. And of late, even in
Monsieur Martin's cellars and storehouses, he had met with a good
deal of unpleasantness; and would have met with more, had it not
been that he had, on one occasion, knocked down one of the chief
clerks, who had sworn at him for some trifling act of carelessness.
As the clerk knew that the merchant would have been very angry at
the insult he had offered to Leigh, he had not ventured to make a
complaint; but in many ways he had been able to cause numberless
petty annoyances. Many of the others were inclined to follow his
lead, and would have done so more openly, were it not that they
held in respect Leigh's strength, and readiness in the science they
called le boxe.

The talk that there might be troubles in La Vendee heightened his
satisfaction at leaving Nantes, and going down to stay in the
country. The thought of a life spent at Poole, or Weymouth, as a
wine merchant and agent of the house of Martin had, for some time
past, been unpleasant to him. The feeling of general unrest that
prevailed in France had communicated itself to him, and he thought
possibly that something might occur which would change the current
of his life, and lead to one more suited to his natural activity
and energy.

"You had better pack up quietly, tomorrow," Jean said to his wife,
after his return from his father's. "If there were any suspicion
that I was thinking of going away, it might bring matters to a
head. I will get the lugger's boat down to the wharf, and four
sailors shall come up here and take the boxes down, in one of the
hand carts, with a tarpaulin thrown over them. I will arrange for a
cart and a carriage to be waiting for us, on the other side of the
river.

"There is no moving my father. He cannot persuade himself that a
man who takes no part in politics, and goes about his business
quietly, can be in any danger. He has, however, at my mother's
entreaty, agreed for the present to cease buying; and to diminish
his stock as far as possible, and send the money, as fast as he
realizes it, across to England. He says, too, that he will, if
things get worse, send her and my sister to England. I promised him
that your father would find them a house, and see that they were
settled comfortably there, for a time. He would not believe that
Jacques could have been at the club when I was denounced, without
defending me; for although himself greatly opposed to the doings in
Paris, and annoyed at the line Jacques has taken up, he thought
that there was at least this advantage in it--that in case of
troubles coming here, he would have sufficient influence to prevent
our being in any way molested. However, there can be no question
that I have, to some extent, alarmed him; and he agreed not only to
draw, tomorrow, my fifty thousand francs from his caisse, but to
send over with it a hundred thousand francs of his own. Fortunately
he can do this without Jacques knowing anything about it, for
although Jacques and I have both a share in the business, he has
always kept the management of the money matters in his own hands.

"So that is settled, as far as it can be settled. Fortunately the
club does not meet this evening, so there is no fear of a demand
being made, by it, for my arrest tomorrow. I have a friend who
belongs to it--not, I think, because he at all agrees with its
views; but because, like many others, he deems it prudent to appear
to do so. It was from him that I heard what had passed there, and
he promised to give me warning of anything that might be said, or
done, against me. I shall go down to the lugger early, and remain
on board all day, seeing to the stowage of the cargo we are taking
on board, so that no suspicion can arise that I am thinking of
leaving for the country."

The next evening the party started by unfrequented streets for the
quay, the nurse carrying the child, now three months old. The boxes
had gone half an hour before. It was nearly ten o'clock, and the
quays were deserted. Monsieur Martin had himself gone down, in the
afternoon, with the money to the lugger, and handed it over to
Jean, and had a long talk with him and Pierre Lefaux, to whom Jean
had also intrusted letters from himself and Patsey, to the squire.

As soon as the party had taken their seats in the boat, it was
rowed two miles up the river, to a point where there was a ferry
across to a road, leading into the heart of La Vendee. Here a light
waggon and a carriage were waiting. The luggage was transferred to
the former and, after a hearty farewell to Pierre Lefaux, who had
himself come in charge of the boat, they started on their journey;
and arrived at the chateau at nine o'clock in the morning, to the
surprise of the man and woman in charge of it.

"Here we are safe," Jean said, as they alighted from the carriage.
"It would take nothing short of an army to fight its way through
these woods and lanes and, if the Assembly try to interfere with
us, they will find it a much easier thing to pull down the throne
of France, than to subdue La Vendee."

The news that the master had come down, and that he was going for a
time to live among them, spread rapidly; and in the course of the
day some fifteen of the tenants came in to pay their respects, few
of them arriving without some little offering in the way of game,
poultry, butter, or other produce.

"Our larder is full enough for us to stand a siege," Patsey said,
laughing, "and I know that we have a good stock of wine in the
cellar, Jean."

"Yes, and of cider, too. When the tenants are in any difficulty
about paying their rents, I am always willing to take it out in
wine or cider; for my father deals in both, and therefore it is as
good as money. But I have not sent any to Nantes for the past two
or three years and, as you say, the cellars are as full as they can
hold.

"Tomorrow, Leigh, we will ride over and call upon some of our
neighbours to hear the last news, for the Bocage is as far away
from Nantes as if it were on the other side of France, and we hear
only vague rumours of what is going on here."

The ride was a delightful one to Leigh. He had only once visited
the chateau before, and then only for a day or two. The wild
country, with its deep lanes, its thick high hedges, its woods and
copses, was all new to him; for the country round his English home
was, for the most part, bare and open. Some of the peasants carried
guns over their shoulders, and looked as if accustomed to use them.

"Very few of them possess guns," Jean Martin remarked, "and that
they should carry them shows how disturbed a state of mind all
these people are in. They know that their priests may be arrested
and carried off, at any moment; and no doubt the report that an
order has been issued to raise thirty thousand men throughout
France, and that every town and village has to furnish its quota,
has stirred them up even more effectually. I don't suppose that
many of them think that the authorities will really try to drag men
off, against their will; but the possibility is quite enough to
inflame their minds."

At the very first house they visited they received, from the owner,
ample confirmation of Jean's views.

"There have been continual fracases between the peasants and the
military," he said, "over the attempts of the latter to arrest the
priests. They can scarcely be called fights, for it has not come to
that; but as soon as the peasants hear that the gendarmes are
coming, they send the priest into the wood, and gather in such
force that the gendarmes are glad enough to ride away, unharmed. Of
course, until we see that the peasants are really in earnest, and
intend to fight to the last, it would be madness for any of us to
take any part in the matter; for we should be risking not only life
but the fortunes of our families, and maybe their lives, too. You
must remember, moreover, that already a great number of the landed
proprietors have either been murdered or imprisoned in Paris, or
are fugitives beyond the frontier."

"If the peasants would fight," Jean Martin said, "it might not be a
bad thing that there are so few whom they could regard as their
natural leaders. If there are only a few leaders they may act
together harmoniously, or each operate in his own district; but
with a number of men of the same rank, or nearly of the same rank,
each would have his own ideas as to what should be done, and there
would be jealousy and discord."

"That is true," the other replied. "Of course, if this were an open
country it would be necessary, to give us a chance of success, that
some sort of discipline should be established; and none could
persuade the peasants to submit to discipline, except their own
lords. But in a country like this, discipline is of comparatively
little importance; and it is well that it is so, for though I
believe that the peasants would fight to the death, rather than
submit to be dragged away by force from their homes, they will
never keep together for any time."

"I am afraid that that will be the case. We must hope that it will
not come to fighting but, if it does, it will take a large force to
conquer La Vendee."

"What has brought you down here, Monsieur Martin?"

"It was not safe for me to stay longer in Nantes. If I think a
thing I say it, and as I don't think well of what is being done in
Paris, I have not been in the habit of saying flattering things
about the men there. In fact I have been denounced and, as there is
still room for a few more in the prisons, I should have had a cell
placed at my disposal, if I had remained there many more hours; so
I thought that I should be safer, down here, till there was some
change in the state of affairs."

"And you brought madame down with you?"

"Assuredly. I had only the choice open to me of sending her across
to England, and of making my home there, or of coming here. If
there had been no prospect of trouble here, I might have joined the
army of our countrymen who are in exile; but as, from all I heard,
La Vendee was ready to take up arms, I determined to come here;
partly because, had I left the country, my estates here would have
been confiscated; partly because I should like to strike a blow,
myself, at these tyrants of Paris, who seem bent on destroying the
whole of the aristocracy of France, of wiping out the middle
classes, and dividing the land and all else among the scum of the
towns."

Three or four months passed quietly. There were occasional
skirmishes between the peasants, and parties of troops in search of
priests who refused to obey the orders of the Assembly. At Nantes,
the work of carrying out mock trials, and executing those of the
better classes who had been swept into the prisons, went on
steadily. From time to time a message came to Jean, from his
father, saying that he had carried out his determination to lessen
his stocks, and that he had sent considerable sums of money across
the Channel. So far he had not been molested, but he saw that the
public madness was increasing, and the passion for blood ever
growing.

Then came the news of the execution of the king, which sent a
thrill of horror through the loyal province. Shortly afterwards it
was known that the decree for the raising of men was to be
enforced; and that commissioners had already arrived at Saumur with
a considerable force, that would be employed, if necessary; but
that the process of drawing the names of those who were to go was
to be carried out by the local authorities, assisted by the
national guards of the towns.

During the winter things had gone on quietly, at the chateau. There
had been but little visiting, for the terrible events passing in
Paris, and in all the large towns, and the uncertainty about the
future, had cast so deep a gloom over the country that none thought
of pleasure, or even of cheerful intercourse with their neighbours.
Many of the gentry, too, had given up all hope; and had made their
way down to the coast, and succeeded in obtaining a passage in
smuggling craft, or even in fishing boats, to England.

Jean Martin and Leigh had spent much of their time in shooting.
Game was abundant and, as so many of the chateaux were shut up,
they had a wide range of country open to them for sport. Once or
twice they succeeded in bringing home a wild boar. Wolves had
multiplied in the forests for, during the last three years, the
regular hunts in which all the gentry took part had been abandoned,
and the animals had grown fearless.

One day, soon after the news of the king's death had been received,
Jean, who had ridden over to Saumur on business, brought back the
news that war had been declared with England.

"It would have made a good deal of difference to me," he said, "if
I had still been on board the lugger; for of course there would be
an end to all legitimate trade. However, no doubt I should have
managed to run a cargo, sometimes; for they will want brandy and
tobacco all the more, when regular trade is at an end; and prices,
you may be sure, will go up. I have no doubt, too, that there will
be a brisk business in carrying emigrants over. Still, of course
the danger would be very much greater. Hitherto we have only had
the revenue cutters and the coast guards to be afraid of, now every
vessel of war would be an enemy."

As during their expeditions they were generally accompanied by half
a dozen peasants, who acted as beaters, Leigh had come to
understand the patois, and to some extent to speak it; and he often
paid visits to the houses of the principal tenants of the estate,
who not only welcomed him as the brother of their mistress, but
soon came to like him for himself, and were amused by his high
spirits, his readiness to be pleased with everything, and his talk
to them of the little known country across the water.

It was evident, from the manner in which the drawing for the
conscription was spoken of, that it would not be carried out
without a strong resistance. Sunday, the tenth of March, had been
fixed for the drawing and, as the day approached, the peasants
became more and more determined that they would not permit
themselves to be dragged away from their homes.

Three days before, a party of the tenants, together with some from
adjoining estates, had come up to the chateau. Jean Martin at once
came out to them.

"We have come, monsieur, to ask if you will lead us. We are
determined that we will not be carried off like sheep."

"There you are right," Jean said; "but although I shall be ready to
do my share of fighting, I do not wish to be a leader. In the first
place, there are many gentlemen of far larger possessions and of
higher rank than myself, who would naturally be your leaders. There
is the Marquis de Lescure at Clisson, and with him are several
other noble gentlemen, among them Henri de la Rochejaquelein--he is
a cavalry officer. His family have emigrated, but he has remained
here on his estates. Then, too, you have many other military
officers who have served. There is Monsieur de Bonchamp, Monsieur
d'Elbee, and Monsieur Dommaigne, all of whom have served in the
army. If the insurrection becomes general, I shall head my own
tenants, and join the force under some chosen commander; but I
shall not appear as a leader. Not only am I altogether ignorant of
military affairs but, were it known in Nantes that I was prominent
in the rising, they would undoubtedly avenge themselves upon my
relations there."

It was known that artillery and gendarmes had been gathered in all
the towns of La Vendee. Two days before that appointed for the
drawing, Jean said to Leigh:

"I shall ride tomorrow to the castle of Clisson. I know Monsieur de
Lescure. He has wide influence, and is known to be a devoted
royalist, and to have several royalist refugees now at his house. I
shall be able to learn, from him, whether his intention is to take
part in the insurrection. It is a long ride, and I shall not return
until tomorrow.

"If you like, you can ride north to Saint Florent. If there should
be any tumult, I charge you not to take any part in it. You had
better leave your horse at some cabaret on this side of the town,
and go in on foot. It is possible that there will be no trouble
there, for they are sure to have made preparations against it; and
it is more likely that there will be disturbances at smaller
places. Still, it will be interesting to mark the attitude of the
peasants.

"You see, if there is to be a war, it is their war. The gentlemen
here would have fought for the king, had there been a shadow of a
prospect of success, and had he given the smallest encouragement to
his friends to rally to his support. They might even have fought
against the disturbance of the clergy. But they would have had no
followers. The peasants cared but little for the king and, though
they did care enough for the priests to aid them to escape, they
did not care enough to give battle for them. They are now going to
fight for their own cause, and for their own liberty. They have to
show us that they are in earnest about it, before we join them. If
they are in earnest, we ought to be successful. We ought to be able
to put a hundred thousand men in arms and, in such a country as
this, we should be able to defy any force that the Convention can
send against us; and to maintain the right of La Vendee to hold
itself aloof from the doings of the rest of France.

"But, as I said, until we know that they are really in earnest, we
cannot afford to throw in our lot with them; so if you go to Saint
Florent, keep well away from the point where the drawing is to take
place. Watch affairs from a distance. I have little doubt that
those who go will go with the determination of defending
themselves, but whether they will do so will depend upon whether
there is one among them energetic enough to take the lead. That is
always the difficulty in such matters. If there is a fight we must,
as I say, simply watch it. It is, at present, no affair of ours. If
it begins, we shall all have our work before us, plenty of it, and
plenty of danger and excitement, but for the present we have to act
as spectators."

It was a ride of fifteen miles to Saint Florent and, although Leigh
had twice during the winter ridden there with Jean, he had some
difficulty in finding his way through the winding roads and
numerous lanes along which he had to pass. During the early part of
the ride he met with but few people on the way. The church bells
were ringing, as usual, and there was nothing to show that any
trouble was impending; but when he arrived within two or three
miles of the town, he overtook little groups of peasants walking in
that direction. Some of them, he saw, carried pitchforks. The rest
had stout cudgels.

Saint Florent stood on the Loire and, in an open space in the
centre of the town, the authorities were gathered. Behind them was
a force of gendarmes, and in the middle of their line stood a
cannon.

Leigh had, as Jean had told him, left his horse outside the town;
and now took up his place, with a number of townspeople, on one
side of the square. As the peasants arrived, they clustered
together at the end of the street, waiting for the hour to strike
at which the drawing was to begin. A few minutes before the clock
struck, some of the gendarmes left the group in the centre of the
square, and advanced to the peasants. They were headed by an
officer who, as he came up, exclaimed:

"What do you mean by coming here with pitchforks? Lay them down, at
once!"

There was a low murmur among the peasants.

"Follow me!" he said to his men and, walking up to one of the men
carrying a pitchfork, he said:

"I arrest you, in the name of the Republic."

In an instant a young man standing next to the one he had seized
sprang forward, and struck the officer to the ground with his
cudgel.

[Illustration: 'Follow Me!' he shouted. 'Make for the gun!']

"Follow me!" he shouted. "Make for the gun!"

With a cheer the peasants rushed forward, overthrowing the
gendarmes as they went. The municipal authorities, after hesitating
for a moment, took to their heels in the most undignified manner.
The gun had not been loaded. The gendarmes round it, seeing that
they were greatly outnumbered, followed their example; and the
peasants, with exultant shouts, seized the cannon and then,
scattering, chased the gendarmes out of the town.

Never was a more speedy and bloodless victory. Headed by their
leader, whose name was Rene Foret, the peasants went to the
municipality, broke open the doors, took possession of the arms
stored there, collected all the papers they could find, and made a
great bonfire with them in the centre of the square. Then without
harming anyone, or doing the slightest mischief, they left the town
and scattered to their homes in the Bocage.

Leigh waited until all was over, returned to the cabaret where he
had left his horse, and rode on. Passing through the little town of
Pin a powerful-looking man, some thirty-five years old, with a
quiet manner, broad forehead, and intelligent face, stepped up to
him.

"Pardon, monsieur," he said; "but you have come from Saint
Florent?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Has aught happened there?"

"Yes, the peasants attacked the gendarmes, who fled, leaving their
cannon behind them. The peasants took what arms there were in the
municipality, and made a bonfire of the papers. They then, without
doing any damage, dispersed to their homes."

"They have done well," the man said. "They have made a beginning.
My name, monsieur, is Cathelineau; my business, so far, has been
that of a hawker. I am well known in this part of the country.
Maybe, sir, you will hear my name again, for henceforth I am an
insurgent. We have borne this tyranny of the butchers in Paris too
long, and the time has come when we must either free ourselves of
it, or die. You belong to another class, but methinks that when you
see that we are in earnest, you will join."

"I doubt not that we shall," Leigh said. "I am but a lad yet; but I
hope that, when the time comes, I shall do my part."

The man lifted his hat and moved off, and Leigh rode forward again.
He was struck with the earnest manner of the man. He had spoken
calmly and without excitement, expressed himself well, and had the
air of a man who, having determined upon a thing, would carry it
through.

"I expect I shall hear of him again," he said to himself. "A man
like that, travelling round the country, no doubt has a deal of
influence. He is just the sort of man the peasants would follow;
indeed, as it seems to me, that anyone might follow."

It was late in the afternoon when he arrived home, and told his
sister what he had witnessed.

"I am not surprised, Leigh," she said. "If I were a man I would
take up arms, too. There must be an end to what is going on.
Thousands have been murdered in Paris, men and women; and at least
as many more in the other great towns. If this goes on, not only
the nobles and gentry, but the middle class of France will all
disappear; and these bloodstained monsters will, I suppose, set to
to kill each other. I feel half French now, Leigh, and it is almost
too awful to think of.

"It seems to me that the only hope is that the peasants, not only
of the Bocage, but of all Poitou, Anjou, and Brittany, may rise, be
joined by those of other parts, and march upon the towns; destroy
them altogether, and kill all who have been concerned in these
doings."

"That would be pretty sweeping, Patsey," Leigh laughed. "But you
know I hate them as much as you do and, though I don't feel a bit
French, I would certainly do all that I could against them, just as
one would kill wild beasts who go about tearing people to pieces.
It is no odds to me whether the men, women, and children they kill
are French, or English. One wants to put a stop to their killing."

"I wish, now, that I had not brought you out with me, Leigh."

"In the first place, Patsey, I deny altogether that you did bring
me out--Jean brought me out; and in the next place, I don't see why
you should be sorry. I would not miss all this excitement, for
anything. Besides, I have learned to talk French well, and
something of the business of a wine merchant. I can't be taken in
by having common spirit, a year or two old, passed off on me as the
finest from Charente; or a common claret for a choice brand. All
that is useful, even if I do not become a wine merchant. At any
rate, it is more useful than stopping at Netherstock, where I
should have learned nothing except a little more Latin and Greek."

"Yes, but you may be killed, Leigh."

"Well, I suppose if I had stayed at home, and got a commission in
the army or a midshipman's berth in the navy, I might have been
killed and, if I had my choice, I would much rather be killed in
fighting against people who murder women and children, who have
committed no crime whatever, than in fighting soldiers or sailors
of another nation, who may be just as honest fellows as we are.''

"I cannot argue with you, Leigh; but if anything happens to you I
shall blame myself, all my life."

"That would be foolish," Leigh said. "It is funny what foolish
ideas women have. You could not have foreseen what was coming, when
you came over here; and you thought that it would be a good thing
for me to accompany you, for a time. You did what you thought was
best, and which I think was best. Well, if it doesn't turn out just
what we expected, you cannot blame yourself for that. Why, if you
were to ask me to come for a walk, and a tree fell on me as we were
going along and killed me, you would hardly blame yourself because
you asked me to come; and this is just the same.

"At any rate, if I do get killed, which I don't mean to be if I can
help it, there is no one else who will take it very much to heart,
except yourself. There are plenty of them at home and, now that I
have been away nearly two years, they must almost have forgotten my
existence."

"I consider you a very foolish boy," Patsey said, gravely. "You
talk a great deal too much nonsense."

"Very well, Patsey; abuse is not argument, and almost every word
that you have said applies equally well to your folly, in leaving a
comfortable home in a quiet country to come to such a dangerous
place as this.

"Now, I hope that supper is ready, for I am as hungry as a hunter."



Chapter 3: The First Successes.


The next morning, at twelve o'clock, Jean Martin reached home.

"The war has begun," he said, as he leaped from his horse. "Henri
de la Rochejaquelein has accepted the leadership of the peasants,
at Clisson. Lescure would have joined also, but Henri pointed out
to him that it would be better not to compromise his family, until
it was certain that the insurrection would become general. The
young count was starting, just as I got to the chateau. He is a
splendid young fellow, full of enthusiasm, and burning to avenge
the misfortunes that have fallen upon his family. A peasant had
arrived the evening before, with a message from his aunt, who lives
farther to the south. He brought news that the chevalier de
Charette--formerly a lieutenant in the navy and a strong Royalist,
who had escaped the massacres at Paris, and was living quietly on
his estate near Machecoul--had been asked several times, by the
peasants in his neighbourhood, to take the command, and had
accepted it; and that the rising was so formidable, there, that it
was certain the authorities in that part of Poitou would not
succeed in enforcing the conscription.

"I have told Lescure that I shall be prepared to join, as soon as
there is a general movement here; but that I should attach myself
to whoever took the direction of affairs in this part, for that in
the first place I knew nothing of war, and in the second place I
have resided here so small a portion of my time that I am scarcely
known, save to my own tenants.

"After our meal, we will ride round and see how they are off for
arms and powder. That is our great weakness. I am afraid, taking
the whole country round, that not one man in twenty possesses a
gun."

This indeed was found to be the case, as far as those on the estate
were concerned. The men themselves, however, seemed to think little
of this.

"We will take them from the Blues," several of them said
confidently. "It does not matter a bit. They will only have time to
fire one volley, in these lanes of ours, and then we shall be among
them; and a pike or pitchfork are just as good, at close quarters,
as a bayonet."

That the whole country was astir was evident, from the fact that
the sound of the church bells rose from the woods, in all
directions. All work was suspended, and the peasants flocked into
the little villages to hear the news that was brought in, from
several directions.

Cathelineau had, in the course of the night, gathered a party of
twenty-seven men who, at daybreak, had started out from Pin,
setting the church bells ringing in the villages through which they
passed; until a hundred men, armed for the most part with
pitchforks and stakes, had gathered round him. Then he boldly
attacked the chateau of Tallais, garrisoned by a hundred and fifty
soldiers, having with them a cannon. This was fired, but the shot
passed over the peasants' heads, and with a shout they dashed
forward, and the soldiers of the republic threw away their arms and
fled. Thus Cathelineau's followers became possessed of firearms,
some horses and, to their great delight, a cannon.

Their leader did not waste a moment, but marched at once against
Chemille, his force increasing at every moment, as the men flocked
in from the villages. There were, at Chemille, two hundred soldiers
with three guns; but some of the fugitives from Tallais had already
arrived there, bringing news of the desperate fury with which the
peasants had attacked them and, at the sight of the throng
approaching, with their captured cannon, the garrison lost heart
altogether and bolted, leaving their three cannon, their
ammunition, and the greater portion of their muskets behind them.

The news spread with incredible rapidity. From each village they
passed through, boys were despatched as messengers, and their
tidings were taken on by fresh relays. By the afternoon all the
country, for thirty miles round, knew that Cathelineau had captured
Tallais and Chemille, and was in possession of a quantity of arms,
and four cannon.

From Saint Florent came the news that, early in the morning, a
party of Republican soldiers had endeavoured to arrest Foret, who
led the rising on the previous day; but that he had obtained word
of their approach and, setting the church bells ringing, had
collected a force and had beaten back those who came in search of
him.

Close by, a detachment of National Guards from Chollett had visited
the chateau of Maulevrier. The proprietor was absent, but they
carried off twelve cannon, which had been kept as family relics.
The gamekeeper, Nicholas Stofflet, who was in charge of the estate,
had served sixteen years in the army. He was a man of great
strength, courage, and sagacity and, furious at the theft of his
master's cannon, had gathered the peasantry round, and was already
at the head of two hundred men.

"Things go on apace, Patsey," Jean Martin said, as they sat by the
fire that evening. "We only know what is happening within some
twenty or thirty miles of us, but if the spirit shown here exists
throughout Poitou and Anjou, there can be no doubt that, in a very
short time, the insurrection will be general. This Cathelineau, by
their description, must be a man of no ordinary ability; and he has
lost no time in showing his energy. For myself, I care not in the
least what is the rank of my leader. Here in La Vendee there is no
broad line between the seigneurs, the tenants, and the peasantry;
at all rustic fetes they mix on equal terms. The seigneurs set the
example, by dancing with the peasant girls; and their wives and
daughters do not disdain to do the same with tenants, or peasantry.
They attend the marriages, and all holiday festivities, are
foremost in giving aid, and in showing kindness in cases of
distress or illness; and I feel sure that, if they found in a man
like Cathelineau a genius for command, they would follow him as
readily as one of their own rank."

On the fourteenth the news came that the bands of Stofflet and
Foret had, with others, joined that of Cathelineau. Jean Martin
hesitated no longer.

"The war has fairly begun," he said. "I shall be off tomorrow
morning. If Cathelineau is defeated, we shall have the Republicans
devastating the whole country, and massacring women and children;
as they did, last August, after a rising for the protection of the
priests. Therefore I shall be fighting, now, in defence of our
lives and home, wife."

"I would not keep you at home, Jean. I think it is the duty of
every man to join in the defence against these wretches. I know
that no mercy will be shown by them, if they conquer us. But you
will not take Leigh with you, surely?"

Leigh uttered an exclamation.

"Leigh must choose for himself," Jean said quietly. "He is not
French, and would have no concern in the matter, beyond that of
humanity, were it not that you are here; but at present our home is
his. Your life and his, also, are involved, if we are beaten. He is
young to fight, but there will doubtless be many others no older,
and probably much less strong than he is. Moreover, if I should be
killed, it is he who must bear you the news, and must arrange with
you your plans, and act as your protector.

"I do not say that I should advise your leaving the chateau
directly, but if the Republicans come this way, it will be no place
for you; and I should say that it would be vastly better that you
should, at once, endeavour to cross to England. There are five
thousand francs in gold in my bureau, which are worth three or four
times their value in assignats; and should, if you can gain the
coast, be amply sufficient to procure a passage for you to England.

"Do not weep, dear. It is necessary to leave you, on an undertaking
of this kind, prepared for whatever may happen. At present the risk
is very small. As we have heard, the fury of the peasants has
struck such consternation into the National Guards, and
newly-raised soldiers, that they will not await their onslaught;
and it will not be until the Convention becomes aware of the really
serious nature of the storm they have raised, that there will be
any hard fighting. Still, even in a petty skirmish men fall; and it
is right that, before I go, we should arrange as to what course you
had best pursue, in case of my death.

"From the first, when we came here we did so with our eyes open. If
we had merely sought safety, we should have gone to England. We
came here partly because it is my home, and therefore my proper
place; and partly because, in case La Vendee rose against these
executioners of Paris, every man of honour and loyalty should aid
in the good cause."

"I know, Jean, and I would not keep you back."

"The struggle has begun and, if the Republicans conquer La Vendee,
we know how awful will be the persecutions, what thousands of
victims will be slaughtered. Our only hope is in victory and, at
any rate, those who die on the battlefield will be happy, in
comparison with those who fall into the hands of the Blues."

"You wish to go, Leigh?"

"Certainly I do," the lad said. "I think that everyone strong
enough to carry arms, in La Vendee, ought to join and do his best.
I can shoot better than most of the peasantry, not one in twenty of
whom has ever had a gun in his hands; and I am sure that I am as
strong as most of them. Besides, if I had been at home I should,
now the war has begun, have tried to get a commission and to fight
the French--I mean the people who govern France at present--and in
fighting them, here, I am only doing what thousands of Englishmen
will be doing elsewhere."

"Very well, Leigh, then you shall go with Jean. I shall certainly
be glad to know you are together, so that if one is wounded or ill,
the other can look after him and bring him here. I shall do the
best I can, while you are away."

"I think that we shall soon be back again, and that we shall be
constantly seeing you," Jean said. "You may be sure that the
peasants will not keep the field. They will gather and fight and,
win or lose, they will then scatter to their homes again, until the
church bells call them out to repel a fresh attack of the enemy.
That is our real weakness. There will never be any discipline,
never any common aim.

"If all the peasants in the west would join in a great effort, and
march on Paris, I believe that the peasantry of the departments
through which they pass would join us. It would only be the
National Guards of the towns, and the new levies, that we should
have to meet; and I believe that we might take Paris, crush the
scum of the faubourgs, and hang every member of the Convention. But
they will never do it. It will be a war of defence, only; and a war
so carried out must, in the long run, be an unsuccessful one.

"However, the result will be that we shall never be very far away
from home, and shall often return for a few days. You must always
keep a change of clothes, and your trinkets and so on, packed up;
so that at an hour's notice you and Marthe can start with the
child, either on receiving a note from me telling you where to join
us, or if you get news that a force from Nantes is marching rapidly
in this direction. Two horses will always remain in the stables, in
readiness to put into the light cart. Henri will be your driver.
Francois you must send off to find us, and tell us the road that
you have taken. However, of course we shall make all these
arrangements later on, when affairs become more serious. I don't
think there is any chance, whatever, of the enemy making their way
into the country for weeks, perhaps for months, to come."

The next morning, Jean Martin and Leigh started early. Each carried
a rifle slung behind him, a brace of pistols in his holsters, and a
sword in his belt. Patsey had recovered from her depression of the
previous evening, and her natural good spirits enabled her to
maintain a cheerful face at parting; especially as her husband's
assurances, that there would be no serious fighting for some time,
had somewhat calmed her fears for their safety.

"The horses are useful to us, for carrying us about, Leigh," Jean
Martin said, as they rode along; "but unless there are enough
mounted men to act as cavalry, we shall have to do any fighting
that has to be done on foot. The peasants would not follow a
mounted officer as they would one who placed himself in front of
them, and fought as they fought.

"I hope that, later on, we may manage to get them to adopt some
sort of discipline; but I have great doubts about it. The peasantry
of La Vendee are an independent race. They are respectful to their
seigneurs, and are always ready to listen to their advice; but it
is respect, and not obedience. I fancy, from what I have read of
your Scottish Highlanders, that the feeling here closely resembles
that among the clans. They regard their seigneurs as their natural
heads, and would probably die for them in the field; but in other
matters each goes his own way, and the chiefs know better than to
strain their power beyond a certain point.

"As you see, they have already their own leaders--Stofflet the
gamekeeper, Foret the woodcutter, and Cathelineau, a small peddling
wool merchant. Doubtless many men of rank and family will join
them, and will naturally, from their superior knowledge, take their
place as officers; but I doubt whether they will displace the men
who have, from the beginning, taken the matter in hand. I am glad
that it should be so. The peasants understand men of their own
class, and will, I believe, follow them better than they would men
above them in rank. They will, at least, have no suspicion of them;
and the strength of the insurrection lies in the fact that it is a
peasant rising, and not an insurrection stirred up by men of
family."

At ten o'clock they arrived at Cathelineau's camp. Just as they
reached the spot, they encountered Monsieur Sapinaud de la Verrie.
He was riding at the head of about a hundred peasants, all of whom
were armed with muskets. They had, early that morning, attacked the
little town of Herbiers. It was defended by two companies of
soldiers, with four or five cannon; and the Republicans of the town
had ranged themselves with the Blues. Nevertheless the peasants,
led by their commander and his nephew, had fearlessly attacked them
and, with a loss of only two or three wounded, defeated the enemy
and captured the place, obtaining a sufficient supply of muskets to
arm themselves.

As Jean Martin was known to Monsieur Sapinaud, they saluted each
other cordially.

"So you are coming willingly, Monsieur Martin. There you have the
advantage of me, for these good fellows made me and my nephew come
with them, as their leaders, and would take no refusal. However,
they but drew us into the matter a few days earlier than we had
intended; for we had already made up our minds to join the
movement."

"I come willingly enough, Monsieur Sapinaud. If I had remained in
Nantes, I should have been guillotined by this time; and I made up
my mind when I left there that I would, on the first opportunity,
do a little fighting before I was put an end to.

"This is my brother-in-law. He has been out here now nearly two
years, and has seen enough of the doings of the murderers at Nantes
to hate them as much as I do."

The streets of the little village, which Cathelineau had made his
headquarters, were thronged with men. Through these the four
mounted gentlemen made their way slowly until, when they came to
the church, they saw three men standing apart from the others.

"That is Cathelineau, the one standing in the middle," Leigh said.

"We have come to place ourselves under your orders," Monsieur
Sapinaud said, as they rode up to him; and he named himself and his
companions.

"I am glad indeed to see you, sirs," Cathelineau said. "You are the
first gentlemen who have joined us here; though I hear that,
farther south, some have already declared themselves. We want you
badly.

"One of you I have seen already," and he smiled at Leigh. "I told
you that you would hear of me, young sir; and you see I have kept
my word.

"These with me are Stofflet who, as you may have heard, recaptured
the cannon the Blues took at Clisson; and Foret, who had the honour
of striking the first blow, at Saint Florent."

"Your names are all widely known in this part," Monsieur Sapinaud
said, courteously. "Well, sirs, we have come to fight under your
orders. I have brought a hundred men with me, and we have already
done something on our own account; for we last night captured
Herbiers, which was defended by two companies, with four cannon. We
have gained a sufficient number of muskets to arm all our party."

"If I do not offer to give up the leadership to you, Monsieur de la
Verrie," Cathelineau said gravely, "it is from no desire on my part
to be a commander; but I am widely known to the peasantry of many
parishes round Pin and, perhaps because I understand them better
than most, they have confidence in me; and would, I think, follow
me rather than a gentleman like yourself, of whom they know but
little."

"They are quite right," Monsieur Sapinaud said. "The peasantry
commenced this war. It is right that they should choose their own
leaders. You and your two companions have already their confidence,
and it is far better that you should be their leaders. I believe
all other gentlemen who join you will be as ready as we are to
follow you, and I am sure that the only rivalry will be as to who
shall most bravely expose himself, when he faces the enemy."

"I thank you, sir," Cathelineau said. "I believe earnestly that, in
many respects, it is best that the peasants should have their own
leaders. We can associate ourselves with their feelings, better
than the gentry could do. We shall have more patience with their
failings.

"You would want to make an army of them. We know that this cannot
be done. They will fight and die as bravely as men could do, but I
know that they will never submit to discipline. After a battle,
they will want to hurry off to their homes. They will obey the
order to fight, but that is the only order one can rely upon their
obeying.

"We are on the point of starting for Chollet. It is a town where
the people are devoted to the cause of the Convention. At the last
drawing for the militia they killed, without any pretext, a number
of young men who had come, unarmed, into the town. Many inhabitants
of adjoining parishes have been seized and thrown in prison,
charged only with being hostile to the Convention, and expressing
horror at the murder of the king.

"The capture will produce an impression throughout the country.
They have three or four hundred dragoons there, and yesterday, we
hear, they called in the National Guard from the villages round,
though scarce believing that we should venture to attack them. Your
reinforcement of a hundred men, all armed with muskets, will be a
very welcome one; for they will hardly suspect that many of us have
firearms. However we had, before your arrival, three hundred who
have so armed themselves, through captures at Saint Florent and
Chemille."

He now ordered the bell to be rung and, as soon as its notes pealed
out, started; followed at once by the crowd in the village, without
any sort of order or regularity. Jean and Leigh continued to ride
with Monsieur de la Verrie and his nephew.

After some hours' marching, at two o'clock in the afternoon they
approached Chollet. On the way they received considerable
reinforcements, from the villages they passed through. As soon as
they approached the town they saw the dragoons pouring out,
followed by three or four hundred National Guards.

The Vendeans now fell into some sort of order. A short council of
war was held. It was arranged that Monsieur de la Verrie with his
hundred musketeers, and Foret with as many more, should advance
against the dragoons; while Cathelineau and Stofflet, with a
hundred musketeers and the main body of peasants with their
pitchforks, should attack the National Guards.

[Illustration: At the first volley, the colonel of the dragoons and
many of his men fell.]

The dragoons had expected that the mere sight of them would be
sufficient to send the peasants flying, and they were amazed that
they should continue to advance. As soon as they were within easy
range, the peasants opened fire. At the first volley the colonel of
the dragoons and many of his men fell. Reloading, the peasants
advanced at a run, poured in a volley at close quarters; and then,
with loud cheers, charged the dragoons.

These, being but newly raised troops, were seized with a panic,
turned, and galloped off at full speed. Astounded at the defeat of
the cavalry, in whom they had confidently trusted, the National
Guard at once lost heart and as, with loud shouts, Cathelineau with
his peasants flung themselves upon them, they, too, broke, and fled
in all directions.

The peasants pursued them for a league, and then returned,
exultant, to Chollet. Here the leading revolutionists were thrown
in prison but, with the exception of the National Guards who
attempted resistance after reaching the town, no lives were taken.
A large quantity of arms, money, and ammunition fell into the hands
of the victors.

Scarcely had the peasants gathered in Chollet, than the news
arrived that the National Guard of Saumur were marching against
them; and Cathelineau requested Monsieur de la Verrie and Foret,
with their following, to go out to meet them. They marched away at
once, and met the enemy at Vihiers.

Unprepared for an attack, the National Guard at once broke and
fled, throwing away their arms and abandoning their cannon. Among
these was one taken from the Chateau de Richelieu. It had been
given by Louis the Thirteenth to the cardinal. On the engraving,
with which it was nearly covered, the peasants thought that they
could make out an image of the Virgin, and so called it by her
name. With these trophies the party returned to Chollet.

The next day being Saturday the little army dispersed, the peasants
making their way to their homes, in order to spend Easter there;
while Cathelineau, with only a small body, remained at Chollet.
From here messengers were sent to Messieurs Bonchamp, d'Elbee, and
Dommaigne--all officers who had served in the army, but had retired
when the revolution broke out. Cathelineau offered to share the
command with them, and entreated them to give their military
knowledge and experience to the cause.

All assented. Thus the force had the advantage, from this time
forward, of being commanded by men who knew the business of war.

Leigh had started for home as soon as the National Guards of Saumur
were defeated; Jean Martin, at Cathelineau's request, remaining
with him in order to join some other gentlemen, who had that day
arrived, in calling upon the three officers, and inviting them to
join Cathelineau in the command.

Leigh's sister ran out, as he rode up to the house. The news of the
capture of Chollet, almost without loss, had already spread and,
although surprised, she felt no alarm at seeing Leigh alone.

"I hear that you have taken Chollet, and defeated the dragoons and
National Guards."

"Yes; and this morning we put to flight the guards of Saumur,
without the loss of a single man. I don't know what it may come to,
presently; but just now it can hardly be called fighting. The sight
of peasants rushing on seems to strike these heroes with a panic,
at once; and they are off helter skelter, throwing away their guns
and ammunition."

"Have you come home only to tell me the news, Leigh?"

"I have come home because, at present, our army has evaporated into
thin air. Tomorrow being Easter Sunday, the peasants have all
scattered to their homes; so that it was of no use my staying at
Chollet. Cathelineau is there, and the other leaders; among them
Monsieur de la Verrie, a nephew of his, Jean, and several other
gentlemen, who have just arrived there. They are going as a sort of
deputation, tomorrow, to Bonchamp, d'Elbee, and another officer
whose name I forget, to ask them to join Cathelineau in the
command. I think that he will still remain as leader, and that they
will act as his councillors, and in command of columns."

"Then your impression of this man is confirmed?"

"More than confirmed. Jean said, this morning, that he was a born
leader of men. While all round him there is excitement and
confusion, he is as calm and serene as if he were alone. He is
evidently a man who has read a good deal, and thought a good deal;
and I can quite understand the influence he has gained over the
peasantry in his neighbourhood, and that it has long been their
custom to refer all disputes to him.

"Stofflet is a different sort of man. He is tall and powerful in
frame, stern and almost morose in manner. He has been sixteen years
a soldier; and was, I hear, distinguished for his bravery."

"And Foret?"

"He is an active young woodman, evidently a determined fellow and,
as he was the first to lead the peasants against the Blues, he is
sure to have a following. They are three very different characters,
but all of them well fitted to act as peasant leaders."

"And will Jean be a leader?"

"Not a leader, Patsey; that is to say, certainly not a general. He
does not want it, himself. But he will no doubt lead the peasants
on the estate, and perhaps those in the neighbourhood. You know
that he would not have the church bell rung, when he started,
because he did not wish the tenants to join until he had seen the
result of the first fight; but when he comes home he will summon
those who like to go with him."

"Yes, I have had to explain that, over and over again. Yesterday
and today almost all the men have been up here, to ask why Jean did
not take them. I told them that that was one reason; and another
was that, had they started on foot when you did, they would not
have arrived in time to take part in the fight at Chollet."

The conversation, begun as Leigh dismounted, had been continued in
the house, the groom having taken the horse round to the stable.

"So the peasants fought well, Leigh?"

"They would have fought well, if the Blues had given them a chance;
but these would not stop till they came up to them. If they had
done so, I am convinced that the peasants would have beaten them.
There was no mistaking the way they rushed forward and, upon my
word, I am not surprised that the enemy gave way; although well
armed, and not far inferior in numbers, they would have had no
chance with them."

"And did you rush forward, Leigh?"

"We were with the party that attacked the cavalry. Jean and I fired
our rifles twice, and after that we only saw the backs of the
cavalry. If they had been well-drilled troops they ought to have
scattered us like sheep; for everything must have gone down before
them, had they charged. There was no sort of order among us. The
men were not formed into companies. There was no attempt to direct
them. Each simply joined the leader he fancied and, when the word
was given, charged forward at the top of his speed. It is all very
well against the National Guards, and these young troops; but as
Jean said, it would be a different affair, altogether, if we were
to meet trained soldiers.

"But the peasants seem to be quick, and I expect they will adopt
tactics better suited to the country, when they come to fighting in
these lanes and woods. You see, so far a very small proportion have
been armed with guns, and their only chance was to rush at once to
close quarters; but we have captured so many muskets, at Chollet
and Vihiers, that in future a considerable proportion of the
peasants will have guns and, when they once learn to use the
hedges, they will be just as good as trained troops."

"Then I suppose Jean is more hopeful about the future than he was?"

"I don't say that, Patsey. He thinks that we shall make a hard
fight of it, but that the end must depend upon whether the people
in Paris, rather than keep fifty thousand men engaged in a
desperate conflict, here, when they are badly wanted on the
frontier, decide to suspend the conscription in La Vendee, and to
leave us to ourselves. There can be no doubt that that would be
their best plan. But as they care nothing for human life, even if
it cost them a hundred thousand men to crush us; they are likely to
raise any number of troops, and send them against us, rather than
allow their authority to be set at defiance.

"Do you know, Patsey, when I used to read about Guy Fawkes wanting
to blow up the Houses of Parliament, I thought that he must be a
villain, indeed, to try to destroy so many lives; but I have
changed my opinion now for, if I had a chance, I would certainly
blow up the place where the Convention meets, and destroy every
soul within its walls; including the spectators, who fill the
galleries and howl for blood."

"Well you see, Leigh, as Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators
failed in their attempt, I am afraid there is very small chance of
your being able to carry out the plan more successfully."

"I am afraid there is not," Leigh said regretfully. "I should never
be able to dig a way into the vaults, and certainly I should not be
able to get enough powder to blow a big building up, if I could.
No; I was only saying that, if Guy Fawkes hated the Parliament as
much as I hate the Convention, there is some excuse to be made for
him.

"Now, Patsey, I am as hungry as a hunter."

"I have a good supper ready for you," she said. "I thought it was
quite possible that you and Jean would both come home, this
evening; for I felt sure that most of the peasants would be coming
back, if possible, for Easter Sunday; and I had no doubt that, if
you did come, you would both be hungry."

"Have you any news from other districts?" he asked, after he had
finished his supper.

"There is a report that Captain Charette has gathered nearly twenty
thousand peasants, in lower Poitou; and that he has already gained
a success over the Blues. There are reports, too, of risings in
Brittany."

"There is no doubt that things are going on well, at present,
Patsey. You see, we are fighting on our own ground, and fifty
thousand men can be called to arms in the course of a few hours, by
the ringing of the church bells. We have no baggage, no waggons, no
train of provisions; we are ready to fight at once.

"On the other hand, the Blues have been taken completely by
surprise. They have no large force nearer than the frontier, or at
any rate nearer than Paris; and it will be weeks before they can
gather an army such as even they must see will be required for the
conquest of La Vendee. Up to that time it can be only a war of
skirmishes, unless our leaders can persuade the peasants to march
against Paris; and that, I fear, they will never be able to do.

"When the enemy are really ready, the fighting will be desperate.
'Tis true that the Vendeans have a good cause--they fight for their
religion and their freedom, while the enemy will fight only because
they are ordered to do so. There is another thing--every victory we
win will give us more arms, ammunition, and cannon; while a defeat
will mean simply that the peasants will scatter to their homes, and
be ready to answer the next call for their services. On the other
hand, if the Blues are defeated they will lose so heavily, both in
arms and stores; and will suffer such loss of life, from their
ignorance of our roads and lanes, that it will be a long time
before they will again be able to advance against us."

The next morning, after the service at the church was over, the
peasants came down in numbers to the chateau, to hear from Leigh a
full account of the fighting at Chollet and Vihiers, a report of
the latter event having arrived that morning. There were
exclamations of lively pleasure at the recital, mingled with regret
that they had not borne their share in the fighting.

"You will have plenty of opportunities," Leigh said. "Monsieur
Martin has told me that, when he next leaves home, all who are
willing to do so can go with him. But it may be some little time
before anything of importance takes place; and as, at present, what
fighting there is is a considerable distance away, he thinks it
best that you should reserve yourselves for some great occasion;
unless, indeed, the Blues endeavour to penetrate the Bocage, when,
I have no doubt, you will know how to deal with them, when they are
entangled in your lanes and woods."

"We will go, every man of us!" one of the peasants shouted, and the
cry was re-echoed, with enthusiasm, by the whole of the men.

It was nearly an hour before Leigh and his sister were able to
withdraw from the crowd, and make their way homeward.

"It is difficult to believe that men so ready and eager to fight
can be beaten," she said. "Did you notice, too, that their wives
all looked on approvingly? I believe that, even if any of the men
wished to stay away, they would be hounded to the front by the
women. I think that, with them, it would be regarded as a war for
their religion; while with the men it is the conscription that has
chiefly driven them to take up arms."



Chapter 4: Cathelineau's Scouts.


For some days nothing happened. The insurrection spread like
wildfire, in Poitou and Anjou; and everywhere the peasants were
successful, the authorities, soldiers, and gendarmes for the most
part flying without waiting for an attack.

The news that all La Vendee was in insurrection astonished and
infuriated the Convention, which at once took steps to suppress it.
On the second of April a military commission was appointed, with
power to execute all peasants taken with arms in their hands, and
all who should be denounced as suspicious persons. General Berruyer
was sent down to take the command. The large army that had been
raised, principally from the mob of Paris for the defence of that
city, marched down; and Berruyer, at the head of this force,
entered the Bocage on the tenth of April.

The time had passed quietly at the chateau. The peasants had
dispersed at once and, except that the principal leaders and a
small body of men remained together, watching the course of events,
all was as quiet as if profound peace reigned.

Jean Martin had returned home. Two days after arriving, he had
called all the tenants on the estate together, and had endeavoured
to rouse them to the necessity of acquiring a certain amount of
discipline. He had brought with him a waggon load of muskets and
ammunition, which had been discovered at Chollet after the main
bulk of the peasants had departed; and Cathelineau had allowed him
to carry them off, in order that the peasantry in the neighbourhood
of the chateau should be provided with a proportion of guns, when
the day of action arrived. The peasants gladly received the
firearms, but could not be persuaded to endeavour to fight in any
sort of order.

"They did not do it at Chollet, or elsewhere," they exclaimed, "and
yet they beat the Blues easily. What good did discipline do to the
enemy? None. Why, then, should we bother ourselves about it? When
the enemy comes, we will rush upon them when they are tangled in
our thickets."

Leigh was somewhat more successful. The fact that he had fought at
Chollet, and was their seigneur's brother-in-law, had established a
position for him in the eyes of peasants of his own age; and as he
went from house to house, talking with them, he succeeded in
getting some twenty boys to agree to follow him. He had been
nominated an officer by the three generals, who had picked out,
without reference to rank or age, those who they thought would,
either from position, energy, or determination, fill the posts
well. Thus one company was commanded by a noble, the next by a
peasant; and each would, on the day of battle, fight equally well.

Leigh's arguments were such as were suited to the lads he
addressed.

"You see, if you go with the bands of men, you will be lost in the
crowd. The men will rush forward in front, you will all be in the
rear. You want to serve your country. Well, you can serve it much
better by watching the movements of the enemy, and carrying word of
it to the commander. Then, sometimes, we can have a little
enterprise of our own--cut off a post of the enemy, or manage to
decoy them into lanes where we know their guns will stick fast.

"It is not size and strength that are most necessary in war; but
quickness, alertness, and watchfulness. You know that, already, the
leaders have found that nothing can persuade the men to keep guard,
or to carry out outpost duty. If we do this, even if we do nothing
else, we shall be serving the cause much better than if we were to
join in a general rush upon the enemy."

"But we shall have no muskets with us," one of the boys objected.

"Nor would you want them. You would have to move about quickly, and
guns would be terribly inconvenient, if you had to push your way
through a hedge or a close thicket. And besides, if you had guns
they would not be of much use to you, for none of you are
accustomed to their use, and it needs a great deal of training to
learn to shoot straight.

"I am quite sure that if I were to march with twenty of you to
Cathelineau's headquarters, and were to say to him, 'We have come
here, sir, to act as scouts for you, to bring you in news of the
movements of the enemy, and to do anything in our power to prevent
you from being surprised,' he would be more pleased than if I had
brought him a hundred men armed with muskets."

When twenty had expressed their willingness to go, Leigh asked
Jean, who had warmly entered into the plan, to speak to the fathers
of the lads and get them to consent to their going with him. He
accordingly called them together for that purpose.

"But do you mean that they will be away altogether, master?"

"Yes, while this goes on."

"But we shall lose their labour in the fields?"

"There will not be much labour in the fields, till this is over;
and by having scouts watching the enemy you will get early news of
their coming, and have time to drive off your beasts before they
arrive."

"But how will they live?"

"When they are in this neighbourhood, one or two can come back and
fetch bread. If they are too far off for that, my brother will buy
bread for them. In cases where they cannot well be spared, I will
remit a portion of your dues, as long as they are away; but this
will not be for long, for I can see that, ere many weeks are past,
the Blues will be swarming round in such numbers that there will be
little time for work on your land, and you will all have to make
great sacrifices.

"You must remember that the less there is in your barns, the more
difficult it will be for an enemy to invade you; for if they can
find nothing here, they will have to bring everything with them,
and every waggon will add to their difficulties. My brother tells
me that one of the things he means to do is to break up the roads,
when he finds out by which line the Blues are advancing; and for
that purpose I shall serve out, from my store, either a pick or an
axe to each of the band."

At last all difficulties were got over, and twenty lads were
enrolled. Another three weeks passed. The peasants of Poitou and
Anjou thought but little of the storm that was gathering round
them.

General Berruyer had arrived from Paris, with his army. A portion
of the army from Brest moved down to Nantes; and were in concert,
with the army of La Rochelle, to sweep that part of La Vendee
bordering on the coast. General Canclaus was at Nantes, with two
thousand troops. General Dayat was sent to Niort, with six thousand
men; and was to defend the line between Sables and Saint Gilles.
Bressuire was occupied by General Quetineau, with three thousand
men. Leigonyer, with from four to five thousand men, occupied
Vihiers; while Saint Lambert was held by Ladouce, with two thousand
five hundred. The right bank of the Loire, between Nantes and
Angers, was held by fifteen hundred men of the National Guard.

Thus that part of upper Poitou where the rising had been most
successful was surrounded by a cordon of troops; which the
Convention hoped, and believed, would easily stamp out the
insurrection, and take a terrible vengeance for what had passed.

When the storm would burst, none knew; but Jean one day said to
Leigh that it was certain that it must come soon; and that, if he
was still resolved to carry out his plan, it was time that he set
out.

"I am quite ready to carry out my plans, Jean, as you know; but
dangers seem to threaten from so many quarters that I don't like
going away from home. While my company are scattered near Chollet,
for instance, the Blues may be burning down your chateau."

"I don't think there is much danger of that, Leigh. It is quite
certain that, as soon as these divisions begin to move, they will
have their hands full. We may hope that in some cases they will be
defeated. In others they may drive off the peasants, and march to
the town that they intend to occupy, but they will only hold the
ground they stand upon. They will not be able to send out detached
parties to attack chateaux or destroy villages.

"For the present, I have no fear whatever of their coming here. We
are well away from any of the roads that they are likely to march
by. I don't say that any of the roads are good, but they will
assuredly keep on the principal lines, and not venture to entangle
themselves in our country lanes. There are no villages of any size
within miles of us, and this is one of the most thickly wooded parts
of the Bocage--which, as you know, means the thicket--therefore I
shall, when the time comes, leave your sister without uneasiness.
We may be quite sure that if, contrary to my anticipation, any
column should try to make its way through this neighbourhood, it
would be hotly opposed, and she will have ample time to take to the
woods, where she and the child will find shelter in any of the
foresters' cottages.

"She is going to have peasant dresses made for her and Marthe. She
will of course drive, as we intended; and the two men will take the
horse and vehicle to some place in the woods, at a considerable
distance from here, and keep it there until we join her and carry
out our original plan of making for the coast. Directly you are
gone, I shall make it my business to find out the most out of the
way spot among the woods; and ride over and make an arrangement,
with some woodman with a wife and family living there, to receive
her, if necessary; and I will let you know the spot fixed on, and
give you directions how to find it."

In order to add to Leigh's influence and authority, Martin
persuaded the village cure--who was a man of much intelligence, and
perceived that real good might be done by this party of lads--to
have a farewell service in the church. Accordingly, on the morning
on which they were to start, all attended the church, which was
filled by their friends; and here he addressed the boys, telling
them that the service in which they were about to engage was one
that would be of great importance to their country, and that it
would demand all their energy and strength. He then asked them to
take an oath to carry out all orders they might receive from their
leader, the seigneur's brother; who would himself share in their
work, and the many hardships they might have to undergo.

"Here," he said, "is a gentleman who is by birth a foreigner, but
who has come to love the land that his sister adopted as her own;
and to hate its enemies--these godless murderers of women and
children, these executioners of their king, these enemies of the
church--so much that he is ready to leave his home, and all his
comforts, and to risk his life in its cause. Remember that you have
voluntarily joined him, and accepted him as your leader. The work
once begun, there must be no drawing back. There is not a man in La
Vendee who is not prepared to give his life, if need be, to the
cause; and you, in your way, can do as much or more."

He then administered an oath to each lad and, as had been arranged,
Leigh also took an oath to care for them in every respect, and to
share their risks and dangers. Then the cure pronounced his
blessing upon them, and the service ended.

Very greatly impressed with what had taken place, the little band
marched out from the church, surrounded by their friends. Jean
Martin then presented hatchets or light picks to each, and a waist
belt in which the tools should be carried. As a rule, the peasants
carried leathern belts over the shoulders, in which a sword,
hatchet, or other weapon was slung; but Jean thought the waist belt
would be much more convenient for getting rapidly through hedges or
thickets, and it had also the advantage that a long knife,
constituting in itself a formidable weapon, could also be carried
in it.

Patsey presented them each with a hat, of which a supply had been
obtained from Saint Florent. These were of the kind ordinarily worn
by the peasants, in shape like the modern broad-brimmed wide-awake,
but made of much stiffer material. She had bought these to give a
certain uniformity to the band, of whom some already wore hats of
this kind, others long knitted stocking caps, while others again
were bare headed.

She added a piece of green ribbon round each hat. Leigh objected to
this, on the ground that they might sometimes have to enter towns,
and that any badge of this sort would be speedily noticed; but as
she said, they would only have to take them off, when engaged in
such service.

A quarter of an hour after leaving the church they marched away,
amid the acclamations of their friends; each boy feeling a
sensation of pride in the work that he had undertaken, and in the
ceremony of which he had been the centre.

"Now, lads," Leigh said, as soon as they were fairly away from the
village, "instead of walking along as a loose body, you had better
form four abreast, and endeavour to keep step. It is no more
difficult to walk that way than in a clump; and indeed, by keeping
step it makes the walking easy, and it has the advantage that you
can act much more quickly. If we heard an enemy approaching, and I
gave the order, 'Ten go to the right and ten go to the left!' you
would not know which were to go.

"Now each four of you will form a section, and the order into which
you fall now, you will always observe. Then if I say, 'First two
sections to the right, the other three sections to the left!' every
one of you knows what to do, instead of having to wait until I
mention all your names.

"This is nearly all the drill you will have to learn. You can
choose your places now, but afterwards you will have to keep to
them, so those of you who are brothers and special friends will,
naturally, fall in next to each other."

In a minute or two the arrangements were made, and the party
proceeded four abreast, with Leigh marching at their head. For the
first hour or so, he had some difficulty in getting them to keep
step; but they presently fell into it, time being kept by breaking
into one of the canticles of the church.

After a long day's march, they arrived at the village which
Cathelineau now occupied as his headquarters; as it had been
necessary, in view of the threatening circle of the various columns
of the enemy, to remove the headquarters from Chollet to a central
point, from which he could advance, at once, against whichever of
these columns might first move forward into the heart of the
country. The lads all straightened themselves up as they marched
through the streets, the unwonted spectacle of twenty peasant lads,
marching in order, exciting considerable surprise. Cathelineau was
standing at the door of the house he occupied, conversing with
Messieurs Bonchamp and d'Elbee.

"Ah, Monsieur Stansfield," he said, "is it you?" as Leigh halted
his party, and raised his hat. "You are the most military-looking
party I have yet seen. They are young, but none the worse for
that."

"There is nothing military about them, except that they march four
abreast," he said, with a smile, "but for the work we have come to
do, drill will not be necessary. I have raised this band on Jean
Martin's estate, sir, and with your permission I propose to call
them 'Cathelineau's scouts.' It seemed, to my brother and myself,
that you sorely need scouts to inform you of the movements of the
enemy, the roads by which they are approaching, their force and
order. I have therefore raised this little body of lads of my own
age. They will remain with me permanently, as long as the occasion
needs. They will go on any special mission with which you may
charge them; and will, at other times, watch all the roads by which
an enemy would be likely to advance."

"If they will do that, Monsieur Stansfield, they will be valuable,
indeed; that is just what I cannot get the peasants to do. When it
comes to fighting, they will obey orders; but at all other times
they regard themselves as their own masters, and neither entreaties
nor the offer of pay suffices to persuade them to undertake such
work as you are proposing to carry out. Consequently, it is only by
chance that we obtain any news of the enemy's movements. I wish we
had fifty such parties."

"They would be valuable, indeed," Monsieur d'Elbee said. "The
obstinacy of the peasantry is maddening.

"How do you propose to feed your men?"

"When we are within reach of their homes, two will go back to fetch
bread for the whole; when we are too far away, I shall buy it in
one of the villages."

"When you are within reach of my headquarters, wherever that may
be, you have only to send in; and they shall have the loaves served
out to them, the same as the band who remain here. We are not short
of money, thanks to the captures we have made.

"I see that none of your band have firearms."

"No, sir. Jean Martin would have let me have some of the muskets he
brought from here, but it seemed to me that they would be an
encumbrance. We may have to trust to our swiftness of foot to
escape and, at any rate, we shall want to carry messages to you as
quickly as possible. The weight of a gun and ammunition would make
a good deal of difference; and would, moreover, be in our way in
getting through the woods and hedges."

"But for all that, you ought to have some defence," Cathelineau
said; "and if you came upon a patrol of cavalry, though only three
or four in number, you would be in a bad case with only those
knives to defend yourselves.

"Do you know whether there are any pistols in the storehouse,
Monsieur Bonchamp?"

"Yes, there are some that were picked up from the cavalrymen we
killed. They have not been given out yet."

"Then I think we had better serve out a pistol, with a score of
cartridges, to each of these lads.

"If you let them fire three or four rounds at the trunk of a tree,
or some mark of that sort, Monsieur Stansfield, they will get to
know something about the use of the weapons."

"Thank you, sir. That would be excellent, and would certainly
enable us to face a small party of the enemy, if we happen to
encounter them."

"Please form the boys up two deep," Cathelineau said. "I will say a
word or two to them."

The manoeuvre was not executed in military style, but the boys were
presently arranged in order.

"I congratulate you, lads," Cathelineau went on, "in having devoted
yourselves to your country, and that in a direction that will be
most useful. I trust that you will strictly obey the orders of your
commander; and will remember that you will be of far more use, in
carrying them out, than in merely helping to swell the number in a
pitched battle. I have every confidence in Monsieur Stansfield. He
has set a noble example to the youths of this country, in thus
undertaking arduous and fatiguing work, which is not without its
dangers.

"I was glad to see that you marched in here, in order. I hope that
you will go a little further, and learn to form line quickly, and
to gather at his call. These things may seem to you to make very
little difference, but in fact will make a great deal. You saw that
you were at least a couple of minutes forming in line just now.
Supposing the enemy's cavalry had been charging down upon you, that
two minutes lost would have made all the difference between your
receiving them in order, or being in helpless confusion when they
came up.

"I have no doubt that one of my generals here has, among his
followers, someone who served in the army, and who will teach you
within the course of an hour, if you pay attention to his
instructions, how to form into line, and back again into fours."

"I will give them an hour myself," Monsieur Bonchamp said. "I have
nothing particular to do, and should be glad to instruct young
fellows who are so willing, and well disposed.

"Are you too tired to drill now? You have had a long march."

A general negative was the reply.

"Well, then, march to the open space, just outside the town, and we
will begin at once."

Feeling very proud of the honour of being drilled by a general, the
boys fell into their formation, and followed Monsieur Bonchamp and
Leigh. They were at a loss, at first, to comprehend the
instructions given them; but by the end of an hour, they had fairly
mastered the very simple movement.

"That will do," Monsieur Bonchamp said. "Of course you are not
perfect, yet; but with a quarter of an hour's drill by your
commander, every day, at the end of a week you will be able to do
it quickly and neatly; and you will certainly find it a great
advantage, if you come upon the enemy."

A large empty room was allotted to them and, as they sat down on
the floor and munched the bread that they had brought with them,
they felt quite enthusiastic over their work. It was a high honour,
indeed, to have been praised by Monsieur Cathelineau, and been
taught by one of his generals. They even felt the advantage that
the drill had given them, contrasting the quickness with which they
had finally formed into line, with their trouble in arranging
themselves before Monsieur Cathelineau. The fact, too, that they
were next morning to be furnished with pistols was a great
gratification to them and, over and over again, they said to each
other:

"What will the people at home say, when they hear that Monsieur
Cathelineau has praised us, that Monsieur Bonchamp himself has
drilled us, and that we are to be provided with pistols?"

In the morning, the pistols and ammunition were served out. Leigh
had, during the previous evening, seen Cathelineau and asked for
orders.

"I cannot say exactly the line the Blues are likely to take. I
should say that you had better make Chemille your headquarters.
Berruyer, who is their new commander, has arrived at Saint Lambert.
There is a strong force at Thouars, being a portion of the army
from Saint Lambert. The enemy are also in force at Vihiers, and at
Parthenay.

"It is from the forces at Thouars and Vihiers that danger is most
likely to come. Doubtless other columns will come from the north,
but we shall hear of their having crossed the Loire in time to
oppose them; and with so small a band as yours, you will be amply
employed in watching Thouars. There are many roads, all more or
less bad, by which they may march; as soon as you ascertain that
they are moving, and by which route, you will send a messenger to
me.

"Any others of your band that you may have with you, send off to
all the villages round. Give them warning, set the bells ringing,
promise that aid will soon arrive, and urge them to harass the
enemy, to fell trees across the road, and to impede their advance
in every possible way.

"I will give you half a dozen papers, for the use of yourself and
your messengers, saying that you are acting under my orders, and
are charged with raising the country, directly the enemy advance.
But above all, it is important that I should get the earliest
possible information as to the route by which they are moving; as
it will take us thirty-six hours before we can gather in anything
like our full strength.

"It will be useful that you should spread false news as to our
whereabouts. Your boys can say, in one village, that we are
marching towards Tours; in another, that we are massed in the
neighbourhood of Saint Florent; in a third that they hear that the
order is, that all able-bodied men are to go west to oppose the
force coming from Nantes, which has already taken Clisson, and
carried Monsieur de Lescure and his family, prisoners, to
Bressuire."

"We shall have to tell the villagers, sir, that we wish this news
to be given to the Blues, if they should come there or, if
questioned, they would tell them something else. I am sure that
even the women would suffer themselves to be killed, rather than
give any news that they thought would be useful to the enemy."

"You are right. Yes, you must tell them that this is what we want
the Blues to believe, and that it is my wish that these are the
answers to be given to any of them who may enter the village."

"The only thing, sir, is that they may find the villages empty, as
they come along. The women and children will, no doubt, take to the
woods. The men will, perhaps, offer some resistance; but when they
find how strong the Blues are, will probably hurry to join you."

"There will probably be a few old people remaining in each village.
However, we must trust much to chance. The great thing is for you
to let me know, as soon as their main body is in motion. Whichever
way they come, we must meet and attack them. It is in the woods and
lanes that we must defend ourselves."

"I will endeavour to carry out your orders, sir; and shall start
tomorrow morning, as soon as we get our pistols."

As soon as the little band was well away from the town, the pistols
were loaded; and each of the lads, in turn, fired three shots at
the trunk of a tree, at a distance of ten yards, under Leigh's
directions. The shooting was quite as good as he had expected, and
the boys themselves were well satisfied.

Then, the pistols being reloaded and placed in their belts, they
resumed their march. They halted at a tiny hamlet, consisting of
half a dozen houses, four miles from Thouars. The inhabitants were
greatly surprised at their appearance, and an old man, who was the
head of the little community, came out and asked Leigh who they
were.

"We are Cathelineau's scouts," he replied. "We have orders to watch
the movements of the enemy. We wish to be of no trouble. If there
is an empty shed, we should be glad of it; still more so if there
is a truss or two of straw."

"These you can have," the old man said. "If Cathelineau's orders
had been that we were to turn out of our houses for you, we should
have done so, willingly."

"A shed will do excellently for us. We shall be here but little.
Half our number will always be away. If you can supply us with
bread, I will pay you for it. If you cannot do so, I shall have to
send two of my party away, every day, to fetch bread from
Cathelineau's camp."

"I will see what can be done. It will not be for long?"

"No, it may possibly be only two or three days, and it may be a
week."

"Then I think that we can manage. If we have not flour enough here
to spare, I can take my horse and fetch half a sackful from some
other village."

"Thank you very much. However, I think that we shall only
occasionally want bread; for I shall be sending messengers, every
day, to Monsieur Cathelineau, and these can always bring bread back
with them."

The old man led them to a building which had served as a stable,
but which was then untenanted.

"I will get some straw taken in presently, lads.

"As for you, sir, I shall be glad if you will be my guest."

"I thank you," Leigh said, "but I prefer to be with my followers.
They come by my persuasion, and I wish to share their lot, in all
things; besides, my being with them will keep up their spirits."

There was half an hour's drill, and then Leigh led the party to the
shed, to which four or five bundles of straw had, by this time,
been brought.

"Now," he said, "before we do anything else, we must choose two
sub-officers. At times we may divide into two parties, and
therefore it is necessary that one should be responsible, to me,
for what is done in my absence.

"I will leave it to you to choose them. Remember it is not size and
strength that are of most importance, it is quickness and
intelligence. You know your comrades better than I do, and I shall
be quite content to abide by your choice. I will go outside for a
quarter of an hour, while you talk it over. I don't want to
influence you, at all."

In ten minutes, two of the lads came out.

"We have chosen Andre Favras and Pierre Landrin."

"I think that you have done very wisely," Leigh said. "Those are
the two whom I, myself, should have selected."

He had, indeed, noticed them as the two most intelligent of the
party. They had been his first recruits, and it was in no small
degree owing to their influence that the others had joined him. He
returned to the shed.

"I approve of your choice, lads," he said. "No doubt Andre and
Pierre will make very good sub-officers. When I am not present, you
must obey their orders as readily as you do mine; and I shall be
able to trust them to carry out my directions, implicitly.

"Now you will divide in two parties: the first two sections, and
two of the third section will form one party, and will be under
Andre's command, when acting in two parties; the other two of the
third section, and the fourth and fifth, will form the second
division, under Pierre. You will take it in turns to be on duty. We
shall not need to watch by night, for there is no chance of the
enemy venturing to enter our lanes, and thickets, after dark. The
party not out on scouting duty will remain here, and will furnish
messengers to carry news to Cathelineau, to fetch bread, or to
perform other duties."

The next morning Leigh set out with the whole band, except two. He
had gathered, from the people of the village, the position of the
various roads and lanes by which troops, going westward from
Thouars, would be likely to travel. When within two miles of the
town, he placed two boys on each of these roads. They were not to
show themselves, but were to lie behind the hedges and, if they saw
any body of troops coming along, were at once to bring news to him,
his own point being on the principal road.

Andre and Pierre were to leave their arms and belts behind them, to
make a long detour, and to enter the town from the other side. They
were to saunter about the place, listen to what was being said, and
gather as much news as possible. Each was provided with two francs
and, if questioned, they were to say that they had come in, from
some village near, to buy an axe.

"I should have gone in myself, Andre; but although I can get on
fairly enough in your patois, I cannot speak it well enough to pass
as a native. However, you are not likely to be questioned. In a
town crowded with troops, two lads can move about without
attracting the smallest attention from the military. It would be
only the civilian authorities that you would have to fear; but
these will be so much occupied, in attending to the wants of the
soldiers, that they will not have any time on their hands for
asking questions.

"Be sure, before you enter the town, that you find out the name of
some village, three or four miles on the other side; so as to have
an answer ready, if you are asked where you come from.

"It is probable that you will find troops quartered in all the
villages beyond the town, which could hardly accommodate so large a
number as are there. Remember, you must try to look absolutely
unconcerned as you go through them, and as you walk about the
streets of the town. The great object is to find out how many men
there are in and around Thouars, whether they are looking for more
troops to join them from Saumur, and when they are expecting to
move forward."

As soon as they had left he repeated, to the six lads who remained
with him, the orders that he had given to those posted on the other
roads.

"You are to remain in hiding," he said, "whatever the force may be.
It is likely enough that patrols of four or five men may come
along, to see that the roads are clear, and that there are no signs
of any bodies being gathered to oppose their advance. It is quite
true that we might shoot down and overpower any such patrols, but
we must not attempt to do so. If one of them escaped, he would
carry the news to Thouars that the roads were beset. This would put
them on their guard--doubtless they imagine that, with such a force
as they have gathered, they will march through La Vendee without
opposition--and they would adopt such precautions at to render it
far more difficult, than it otherwise would be, to check their
advance when it begins in earnest. We are here only to watch. We
shall have opportunities for fighting, later on.

"This is a good spot for watching, for we have a thick wood behind
us; and plenty of undergrowth along its edge, by the road, where we
can hide so closely that there will not be the slightest chance of
our being discovered, if we do but keep absolutely quiet."

Three or four times during the day, indeed, cavalry parties passed
along the road. They did not appear to have any fear of an attack,
but laughed and jested at the work they had come to do, scoffed at
the idea of the peasants venturing to oppose such forces as had
gathered against them, and discussed the chances of booty. One
party, of four men and an old sergeant, pulled up and dismounted,
close to the spot where the lads where hidden.

"It is all very well, comrades," their leader said, "but for my
part, I would rather be on the frontier fighting the Austrians.
That is work for soldiers. Here we are to fight Frenchmen, like
ourselves; poor chaps who have done no harm, except that they stick
to their clergy, and object to be dragged away from their homes. I
am no politician, and I don't care a snap for the doings of the
Assembly in Paris--I am a soldier, and have learned to obey orders,
whatever they are--but I don't like this job we have in hand;
which, mind you, is bound to be a good deal harder than most of you
expect. It is true that they say there are twenty thousand troops
round the province--but what sort of troops? There are not five
thousand soldiers among them. The others are either National
Guards, or newly-raised levies, or those blackguards from the slums
of Paris. Of the National Guards I should say half would desert, if
they only had the chance, and the new levies can't be counted on."



Chapter 5: Checking The Enemy.


"You see," Leigh said, when the patrol had ridden on, "the real
soldiers do not like the work they are called upon to do, and they
have no belief in the National Guards, or in the new levies. It
will make all the difference, in their own fighting, when they know
that they cannot rely upon some of the troops working with them. I
have no doubt that what they say of the National Guards is true.
They have had to come out because they are summoned, but they can
have no interest in the war against us and, doubtless, many of them
hate the government in Paris just as much as we do, and would give
a great deal to be back again with their homes and families. It is
just as hard for them to be obliged to fight us, as it is for us to
be obliged to fight them."

It was late in the afternoon before Andre and Pierre returned. By
the time they did so, the various cavalry patrols had all gone back
to Thouars. From time to time, boys had come in from the other
roads. One or two patrols, only, had gone out by each of the lanes
on which they were posted. It was evident that the main road was
considered of the most importance, and it was probable that the
greater portion of the enemy's force would move by it.

"Well, what is your news?" Leigh asked, as his two lieutenants came
down from the wood behind. "I hope all has gone well with you."

"Yes, captain," Andre replied; "we have had no difficulty. The
troops in the villages on the other side of the town did not even
glance at us, as we went through; supposing, no doubt, that we
belonged to the place. Thouars was crowded with soldiers, and we
heard that two thousand more are to arrive from Saumur, this
evening. We heard one of the officers say that orders were expected
for a forward movement, tomorrow; and that all the other columns
were to move at the same time, and three of them were to meet at
Chemille."

"That is enough for the present, Andre. You have both done very
well, to pick up so much news as that. We will be off, at once."

Messengers were at once sent off, to order in the other parties
and, as soon as these joined, they returned to the village, where
they passed the night. On arriving there, Leigh wrote a report of
the news that he had gathered; and sent off one of the band, who
had remained all day in the village, to Cathelineau, and the other
to Monsieur d'Elbee at Chollet.

The next day's watch passed like the first. Two or three officers,
however, trotted along the main road with a squadron of cavalry,
and rode to within a few miles of Chemille, and then returned to
Thouars.

The next morning Leigh and his band were out before daybreak and,
making their way to within a short distance of Thouars, heard drums
beating and trumpets sounding. There was no doubt that the force
there was getting into motion. The band at once dispersed, carrying
the news not only to every village along the road, warning the
women and children to take to the woods, and the men to prepare for
the passage of the enemy, but to all the villages within two or
three miles of the road, ordering the church bells to be sounded to
call the peasants to arms; while two lads started to carry the news
to Cathelineau and d'Elbee. When once the bells of the churches
near the road were set ringing, they were speedily echoed by those
of the villages beyond; until the entire district knew that the
enemy were advancing.

On the way from Chemille, Leigh had kept a sharp lookout for points
where an enemy might be checked; and had fixed upon one, about
halfway between the two towns. A stream some four feet in depth
passed under a bridge, where the road dipped into a hollow; beyond
this the ground rose steeply, and was covered with a thick wood, of
very considerable extent. As soon as he reached this point, he set
his band to work to destroy the bridge. As groups of peasants came
flocking along, and saw what was intended, they at once joined in
the work.

As soon at it was done, Leigh led them to the spot where the forest
began, some thirty yards up the hill, and set them to fell trees.
This was work to which all were accustomed and, as many of them
carried axes, the trees nearest to the road were felled to fall
across it; while on each side facing the stream, they were cut so
as to fall down the slope, and so form an abattis.

Before the work was finished, to a distance of two or three hundred
yards on each side of the road, several hundred peasants had come
up. Of these, about a third were armed with muskets. Seeing the
advantage of the position; and that, in case it was forced, the
forest offered them a means of retreat, all prepared for a
desperate resistance. The men with firearms were placed in the
front rank. Those with pitchforks, and other rural weapons, were to
keep at work till the last moment, cutting underwood, and filling
the interstices between the boughs of the fallen trees, so as to
make it extremely difficult to force. They were ordered to
withdraw, when the fight began, to a distance of two or three
hundred yards; and then to lie down, in any inequalities of the
ground, so as to be safe from cannon shot Only when the defenders
of the abattis were forced back, were they to prepare to charge.

A young fellow with a cow horn took his place by Leigh's side. When
he blew his horn, the front rank were to run back, and the reserve
to come forward to meet them; and then they were to rush down again
upon their assailants who had passed the abattis, and to hurl them
into the stream.

The peasants all recognized the advantages of these arrangements.
Those who had come first had found Leigh in command and, by the
readiness with which he was obeyed by his own followers, saw at
once that he was in authority. As others came up, he showed them
Cathelineau's circular. These recognized its order, and informed
the later arrivals that the young officer, who was giving orders,
was specially empowered by Cathelineau to take command; and Leigh
was as promptly obeyed as if he had been their favourite leader,
himself. They saw, too, that he knew exactly what he wanted done,
and gave every order with firmness and decision; and their
confidence in him became profound.

It was three hours after he arrived at the river when a party of
horse came down the opposite slope. Leigh had ordered that not a
shot was to be fired, until he gave the signal. He waited until the
enemy came to the severed bridge, when they halted suddenly; and as
they did so he gave the word and, from the long line of greenery,
fifty muskets flashed out. More than half the troop of horse fell;
and the rest, turning tail, galloped up the hill again, while a
shout of derision rose from the peasants.

[Illustration: A scattered fire broke out from the defenders.]

Half an hour passed, then the head of the column was seen
descending the road. It opened out as it came, forming into a thick
line of skirmishers, some two hundred yards wide. Moving along,
Leigh spread the musketeers to a similar length of front. At first,
the enemy were half hidden by the wood at the other side of the
slope; but as they issued from this, some twenty yards from the
stream, a scattered fire broke out from the defenders.

The Blues replied with a general discharge at their invisible foes,
but these were crouching behind the stumps or trunks of the felled
trees, and the fire was ineffectual. Leigh's own band were lying in
a little hollow, twenty yards behind the abattis; their pistols
would have been useless, until the enemy won their way up to the
trees, and until then they were to remain as a first reserve.

Exposed as they were to the steady fire of the peasants, the
assailants suffered heavily and, at the edge of the stream, paused
irresolutely. It was some fifteen yards wide, but they were
ignorant of the depth, and hesitated to enter it; urged, however,
by the shouts of their officers, who set the example by at once
entering the stream, and by seeing that the water did not rise
above their shoulders, the men followed. But as they gained the
opposite bank, they fell fast. At so short a distance, every shot
of the peasants told; and it was some time before a sufficient
number had crossed to make an assault against the wall of foliage
in their front.

Fresh troops were constantly arriving from behind and, encouraged
by this, they at last rushed forward. As they did so, Leigh called
up his own band; and these, crawling forward through the tangle as
far as they could, opened fire on the enemy, as they strove to push
their way through the obstacle.

For a quarter of an hour the fight went on. Then the assailants,
having with great loss succeeded in passing over or pulling aside
the brushwood, began to pour through. The moment they did so,
Leigh's horn sounded; and at once the defenders rushed up the hill,
pursued by the Blues, with exulting shouts. But few shots were
fired, for the assailants had emptied their muskets before striving
to pass through the obstacle.

Leigh and his men had run but a hundred yards into the wood when
they met the main body of the peasants, rushing down at full speed.
Turning at once, his party joined them, and fell upon the advancing
enemy. Taken wholly by surprise, when they believed that victory
was won, the two or three hundred men who had passed the abattis
were swept before the crowd of peasants like chaff. The latter,
pressing close upon their heels, followed them through the gaps
that had been made.

The panic of the fugitives spread at once to those who had crossed
the river, and were clustered round the openings, jostling in their
eagerness to get through and join, as they believed, in the
slaughter of those who had caused them such heavy loss; and all
fled together. The peasants were at their heels, making deadly use
of their pitchforks, axes, and knives, and drove the survivors
headlong into the river. The horn again sounded and, in accordance
with the strict orders that they had received, they ran back again
to their shelter; a few dropping from the scattered fire that the
troops on the other side of the stream opened against them, as soon
as the fugitives had cleared away from their front.

Scarcely had the peasants gained the shelter when six pieces of
cannon, that had been placed on the opposite slope while the fight
was going on, opened against them.

Leigh at once ordered the main body back to their former position,
scattering his hundred men with guns along the whole line of
abattis, whence they again opened fire on the troops on the
opposite side of the river. These replied with volleys of musketry;
but the defenders, stationed as they were five or six yards apart,
and sheltering behind the trees, suffered but little either from
the artillery or musketry fire; while men dropped fast in the ranks
of the Blues.

The cannon were principally directed against the trees blocking the
road. Gradually these were torn to pieces and, after an hour's
firing, were so far destroyed that a passage through them was
comparatively easy. Then the enemy again began to cross the stream.

As soon as they commenced to do so, Leigh called up the men with
muskets from each flank, and sent word to the main body to descend
the hill again, as the cannonade would cease as soon as the attack
began. Three times the assault was made and repulsed, the peasants
fighting with a fury that the Blues, already disheartened with
their heavy losses, could not withstand. As they fell back for the
third time, Leigh thought that enough had been done, and ordered
the peasants at once to make through the woods, and to proceed
by-lanes and byways to join Cathelineau; who, he doubted not, would
by this time have gathered a considerable force at Chemille.

By the time that the Blues were ready to advance again, this time
in overwhelming force, the peasants were well away. The wounded, as
fast as they fell, had been carried off to distant villages; and
when the enemy advanced they found, to their surprise, that their
foes had disappeared, and that only some thirty dead bodies
remained on the scene of battle.

Their own loss had exceeded three hundred, a large proportion of
whom were regular soldiers; and the National Guards, and the new
levies, were profoundly depressed at the result of the action.

"If," they said to themselves, "what must have been but a
comparatively small number of peasants have caused this loss, what
will it be when we meet Cathelineau's main body?"

There was no thought of pursuit. A regiment was thrown out in
skirmishing order, and advanced through the wood, the rest
following in column along the road. General Berruyer had joined
General Menou the evening before, with the force from Saumur and,
as they moved forward, the two generals rode together.

"This is a much more serious business than I had expected,"
Berruyer said. "I certainly imagined that, with such forces as we
have gathered round La Vendee, the campaign would be little more
than a military promenade. I see, however, that I was entirely
mistaken. These men have, today, shown themselves capable of taking
advantage of the wild character of their country; and as to their
courage, there can be no question, whatever. If this is a fair
sample of the resistance that we have to expect, throughout the
whole country, we shall need at least fifty thousand men to subdue
them."

"Fully that," Menou said, shortly. "There is no doubt that we blame
the National Guards, who were so easily routed by the peasants on
the tenth of March, more severely than they deserve. I rode forward
to encourage the men, at their last attack. I never saw soldiers
fight with such fury as did these peasants. They threw themselves
on the troops like tigers, in many cases wresting their arms from
them and braining them with their own muskets. Even our best
soldiers seemed cowed, by the fierceness with which they were
attacked; and as for the men of the new levies, they were worse
than useless, and their efforts to force their way to the rear
blocked the way of the reinforcements; who were trying, though I
must own not very vigorously, to get to the front.

"The peasants were well led, too, and acting on an excellent plan
of defence. They must have been sheltered altogether from our fire,
for among the dead I did not see one who had been killed by a
cannonball. The country must possess hundreds of points, equally
well adapted for defence; and if these are as well and obstinately
held as this has been, it will take even more than fifty thousand
men to suppress the insurrection."

"The Convention is going to work the wrong way," Berruyer said.
"The commissioners have orders to hang every peasant found in arms,
and every suspect; that is to say, virtually every one in La
Vendee. It would have been infinitely better for them to have
issued a general amnesty; to acknowledge that they themselves have
made a mistake; that the cures of Poitou and Brittany should be
excepted from the general law, and allowed to continue their work
in their respective parishes without interruption; and that for a
year, at least, this part of France should be exempt from
conscription. Why, if this campaign goes on, a far larger force
will be employed here than the number of troops which the district
was called upon to contribute, to say nothing of the enormous
expense and loss of men.

"It is a hideous business altogether, to my mind. I would give all
I possess to be recalled, and sent to fight on the frontier."

Two hours after the fight, Leigh with his band, of whom none had
been killed, although several had received wounds more or less
serious, arrived at Chemille. They had been preceded by many of the
peasants, who had already carried the news of the fight, and that
the column from Thouars had been delayed for three hours, and had
suffered very heavy losses.

"It was all owing, Monsieur Cathelineau," the head of one of the
peasant bands said, "to the officer you sent to command us. He was
splendid. It was to him that everything was due. He was cutting
down the bridge when we came up, and it was by his orders that we
felled the trees, and blocked the road, and made a sort of hedge
that took them so long to get through. We should have been greatly
damaged by the fire of their guns and muskets; but he kept us all
lying down, out of reach, till we were wanted, while the men with
the guns defended the line of fallen trees. When we were wanted, he
called us up by blowing a cow horn, and then we drove the Blues
back into the stream, and returned to our shelter until we were
wanted again.

"We did not lose more than thirty men, altogether; while more than
ten times that number of the Blues have fallen. We thought at first
that you had chosen rather a strange leader for us; but as always
you were right, for if you had been there, yourself, things could
not have gone better."

"But I sent no one as your commander," Cathelineau said in
surprise.

"He had a paper that he read out, saying that he was acting on your
orders. As I cannot read, I cannot say that it was written down as
he read it; but if you did not send him, God must have done so."

"It is strange, Bonchamp," Cathelineau said to that officer, "for I
certainly did not send anyone. I never thought of defending the
passage of that stream. However, whoever it is who has commanded
has done us great service, for that three hours which have been
gained will make all the difference. They cannot arrive, now, until
after dark, and will not attack before morning; and by that time,
our force will have doubled."

"Here comes our officer, monsieur!" the peasant exclaimed; as
Leigh, with his party, came down the street, loudly cheered by the
peasants who had fought under him.

"Why, it is Jean Martin's young brother-in-law!" Monsieur Bonchamp
exclaimed and, raising his voice, he called to Jean, who was
talking to a group of other officers near.

Jean ran up.

"Monsieur Martin, it is your young Englishman who has held Berruyer
in check, for three hours; see how the peasants are cheering him!"

Cathelineau advanced to meet Leigh, who halted his band and saluted
the general. The latter stepped forward, and returned the salute by
lifting his hat.

"Monsieur Stansfield," he said, "I salute you, as the saviour of
our position here. Had Berruyer arrived this afternoon, we must
have retired; for we are not yet in sufficient force to withstand
his attack. Tomorrow we shall, I hope, be strong enough to beat
him. I have been wondering who this officer could be who, with but
three or four hundred men, held the principal force of our foes,
led by their commander-in-chief, in check for three hours; and, as
I hear, killed three hundred of his best troops, with a loss of but
thirty of ours. I ought to have thought of you, when they said that
you read them an order, saying that you were acting in my name."

"It was great presumption on my part, general," Leigh said, "and I
know that I had no right to use it for such a purpose; but I felt
how important it was that you should have time to prepare for
defence, and I thought it my duty, as there was no one else to take
the matter in hand, to do so myself."

"You have done magnificently, sir, and the thanks of all La Vendee
are due to you.

"I see that several of your lads are wounded," for five of them
wore bandages, and a sixth was carried on a rough litter, by four
of his companions. "Lads," he said, "I salute you. You have done
well, indeed, and there is not a boy of your age in La Vendee but
will envy you, when he hears how you, under your brave young
commander, have today played the chief part in checking the advance
of an army of five thousand men. I shall publish an order, today,
saying that my scouts have rendered an inestimable service to their
country."

"Well, Leigh," Jean Martin said, after the little band had fallen
out, and one of the surgeons had taken charge of the wounded, "you
have indeed distinguished yourself. I certainly did not think, when
I persuaded your sister to let you go, that you were going to match
yourself against the French general, and to command a force which
should inflict a heavy check upon him. Cathelineau has asked me to
bring you round to his quarters, presently, so that you can give
him the full details of the affair; saying that a plan that had
succeeded so well might be tried again, with equal effect. I cannot
stay with you now, for I am going, with Bonchamp, to see to the
work of loopholing and fortifying the church."

"I am going to look after my boys, Jean. They have had nothing to
eat this morning, except a mouthful or two of bread each, and they
have been up since two hours before daylight. Do you feel sure that
the Blues will not attack tonight?"

"Yes, I think so. After the lesson you have given Berruyer of the
fighting qualities of the peasants, it is pretty certain that he
will not venture to attack us after a hard day's march, and a fight
that must have sorely discouraged his men."

That evening, news came in from several quarters. Leigonyer had
marched from Vihiers by three roads, directing his course towards
Coron. Two of the columns had been attacked by the peasants and,
being largely composed of new levies, had at once lost heart and
retreated; the central column, in which were the regular troops,
being obliged in consequence also to fall back. Another column had
crossed the Loire and taken Saint Florent, without any very heavy
fighting; and Quetineau had advanced from Bressuire to Aubiers,
without meeting with resistance.

The news was, on the whole, satisfactory. It had been feared that
the force at Vihiers would march north, and join that of Berruyer;
and that they would make a joint attack upon the town. The disaster
that had befallen them rendered this no longer possible. There was
disappointment that Saint Florent had been recaptured, but none
that Quetineau had advanced without opposition to Aubiers; for the
whole of the peasantry from that locality were with Cathelineau.

In point of fact, Berruyer had not ordered the force at Vihiers to
march to join him. On the contrary, he had intended, after
capturing Chemille, which he expected to do without serious
trouble, to march south and effect a junction with Leigonyer at
Coron. He halted four miles from Chemille, harangued the new
levies, reproaching those who had shown cowardice during the day's
fighting, and exhorting them to behave with courage on the
following day. No inconsiderable portion of them belonged to the
force that had marched down from Paris, and these heroes of the
slums, who had been foremost in the massacres in the prisons, and
in their demand for the blood of all hostile to them, behaved
throughout with abject cowardice, whenever they met a foe with arms
in their hands.

After having had an interview with Cathelineau, and relating to him
full particulars of the fight, Leigh, having nothing to do,
strolled about the town. Presently he came upon a group of three or
four peasants, who had been drinking more than was good for them.
One of them, whose bearing and appearance showed that he had served
in the army, was talking noisily to the others.

"You will see that I, Jacques Bruno, artilleryman, will be a great
man yet," he said. "I shall soon be rich. I have had enough poverty
since I left the army, but I shall have plenty of gold yet. You
will see what you will see."

"How can you be rich?" one of the others said, with an air of
drunken wisdom. "You are lazy, Jacques Bruno. We all know you. You
are too fond of the wine cup It is seldom that you do a day's
work."

"Never mind how I shall get rich. I tell you that it will be so,
and the word of Jacques Bruno is not to be doubted;" and he turned
away, saying, "I shall go for a few hours' sleep, now, to be in
readiness for tomorrow."

"Who is that man?" Leigh asked sharply, going up to the others.

The scarf that he wore showed him to be an officer, and the
peasants removed their hats.

"It is Jacques Bruno, monsieur. He is in charge of our guns. He is
an old artilleryman. Cathelineau has appointed him to the post, as
it needs an artilleryman to load and point the guns."

Leigh moved away. This fellow was half drunk, but not too drunk to
know what he was saying. What did he mean by declaring that he
would soon be rich? The peasants had said that he was lazy, and
fond of the wine cup He could hardly be likely to acquire wealth by
honest labour.

Perhaps he might be intending an act of treachery. Putting aside
other considerations, he, as an old soldier, would scarcely care to
mow down his former comrades, and his sympathies must be rather
with the army than with the peasants. He had no personal interest
in this revolt against conscription, nor was it likely that the
cause of the cures concerned him greatly. He might, however,
meditate some act of treachery, by which he would benefit his
former comrades and gain a rich reward.

At any rate, it would be worth while watching. He returned to the
room where his band were quartered.

"Andre," he said, "I want you and two others to keep watch with me
until midnight, then Pierre and two of his party will relieve you.
At that hour you will send one of your party, to guide Pierre to
the place where I shall be. You will bring your pistols and knives
with you, and if I come down and tell you to move forward, you will
do so as noiselessly as possible."

"Shall we come at once, captain?" Andre asked.

"No, you had better lie down, with the two who are to come with
you, and sleep till nine o'clock. I will come at that hour. We will
say one o'clock instead of twelve for the watch to be changed; that
will make a more even division for the night."

Going out again, Leigh inquired where the cannon had been placed.
They were on an eminence outside the town, and commanded the road
by which Berruyer's column would advance. Strolling up there, he
saw Bruno lying asleep between two of the guns, of which there were
five.

"It seems all right," he said to himself, "and as he cannot walk
off with them, I don't see what his plan can be--that is, if he has
a plan. However, there is no harm in keeping watch. The guns are
against the skyline and, lying down fifty yards away, we shall be
able to see if he does anything with them. Of course he might spike
them, but I don't suppose that he would risk that, for the spikes
might be noticed the first thing in the morning. I don't think that
it would do for him to try that. It seemed a stupid thing even to
doubt him but, half drunk as he was, he certainly was in earnest in
what he said, and does believe that he is going to be a rich man;
and I don't see how that can possibly come about, except by some
act of treachery. At any rate, we will keep an eye upon the fellow
tonight, and if we are not posted in any particular spot tomorrow,
I will be up here with my band when the firing begins, and keep my
eye on him."

He spent three or four hours with Jean Martin, and then went back
to his quarters. Andre and two of the lads were in readiness. They
moved out quietly, for the street was thick with sleeping peasants.
There were no sentries to be seen.

"If the enemy did but know," he muttered to himself, "they might
take the place without firing a shot."

Presently, however, he came upon an officer.

"Where are you going?" he asked sharply.

"I am Leigh Stansfield, and am going, with three of my party, to
keep watch near the guns."

"That is good," the officer said. "I am on duty here, and Jean
Martin has just ridden out. He is going a couple of miles along the
road, and will give the alarm if he hears any movement of the
enemy. When he gets within half a mile he is to fire off his
pistols, and I shall have time to get the men up, long before their
infantry can arrive. We have tried, in vain, to get some of the
peasants to do outpost duty. They all say that they will be ready
to fight, when the enemy comes; but they want a good sleep first,
and even Cathelineau could not move them. It is heartbreaking to
have to do with such men."

"I do not think that it is laziness. It is that they have a fixed
objection to doing what they consider any kind of soldier work.
Their idea of war is to wait till the enemy comes, and then to make
a rush upon them; and when they have done that, they think their
duty is ended. Some day, when the Blues have a sharp commander, and
have gained a little discipline, we shall suffer some terrible
disaster from the obstinacy of the peasantry."

With a word of adieu Leigh turned off the road, and made his way
halfway up the eminence. Here the guns could be plainly made out.
Leaving Andre and his two followers, he went quietly up the slope,
to assure himself that the artilleryman was still there. Had he
missed him, he was determined to go at once to Cathelineau, and
state his suspicions, and his belief that Bruno had gone off to
inform Berruyer that, if he advanced, he would find the place
wholly unguarded, and would have it at his mercy. He found,
however, that the artilleryman was still asleep, and returned to
Andre.

"Now," he said, "there is no occasion for us all to watch. I, with
one of the others, will keep a lookout for the next two hours and,
at the end of that time, will rouse you and the others."

Leigh's watch had passed off quietly. There was no movement among
the guns and, from the position in which Bruno was lying, his
figure would have been seen at once, had he risen to his feet.

"If the man up there stands up, you are to awaken me at once,
Andre," he said.

Overcome by the excitement and the heat of the day, Leigh dropped
off to sleep almost immediately. An hour later, he was roused by
being shaken by Andre.

"The man has got up, sir."

The artilleryman, after stretching himself two or three times, took
up something from the ground beside him, and then went some
distance down the side of the hill, but still in sight of the
watchers.

"He has got something on his shoulder, sir. I think it is a shovel,
and he has either a cloak or a sack on his arm."

"He is evidently up to something," Leigh replied, "but what it can
be, I cannot imagine."

Presently the man stopped, and began to work.

"He is digging," Andre said, in surprise.

"It looks like it certainly, but what he can be digging for I have
no idea."

Presently the man was seen to raise a heavy weight on to his
shoulders.

"It was a sack he had with him," Andre said, "and he has filled it
with earth and stones."

Leigh did not reply. The mystery seemed to thicken, and he was
unable to form any supposition, whatever, that would account for
the man's proceedings. The latter carried his burden up to the
cannon, then he laid it down, and took up some long tool and thrust
it into the mouth of one of the cannon.

A light suddenly burst upon Leigh.

"The scoundrel is going to draw the charges," he said, "and fill up
the cannon with the earth that he has brought up."

Andre would have leapt to his feet, as he uttered an exclamation of
rage.

"Keep quiet!" Leigh said, authoritatively. "We have no evidence
against him, yet. We must watch him a bit longer, before we
interrupt him."

After two or three movements, the man was seen to draw something
from the gun. This he laid on the ground, and then inserted the
tool again.

"That is the powder," Leigh whispered, as something else was
withdrawn from the gun; "there, you see, he is taking handfuls of
earth from the sack, and shoving it into the mouth."

This was continued for some time, and then a rammer was inserted,
and pushed home several times. Then he moved to the next cannon.

"Now follow very quietly, Andre. Busy as he is, we may get quite
close up to him, before he notices us. Mind, you are not to use
your knife. We can master him easily enough, and must then take him
down to Cathelineau, for his fate to be decided on."

[Illustration: Leigh gave the word and, leaping up, they threw
themselves on the traitor.]

Noiselessly they crept up the hill. When within five or six paces
of the gun at which Bruno was at work, Leigh gave the word and,
leaping up, they threw themselves on the traitor; who was taken so
completely by surprise that they were able to throw him, at once,
to the ground. Snatching up a rope that had been used for drawing
the guns, Leigh bound his arms securely to his side; and then,
putting a pistol to his head, ordered him to rise to his feet.

"Shoot me, if you like,"' the man growled. "I will not move."

"I will not shoot you," Leigh replied. "You must be tried and
condemned.

"Now, Andre, we must carry him."

The four boys had no difficulty in carrying the man down. As they
passed the officer on sentry, he said:

"Whom have you there, Monsieur Stansfield?"

"It is Bruno, the artilleryman. We have caught him drawing the
charges from the guns, and filling them with earth. We must take
him to the general."

"The villain!" the officer exclaimed. "Who would have thought of a
Vendean turning traitor?"

Cathelineau was still up, talking with some of his officers as to
the preparations for the battle. There was no sentry at his door.
Leigh entered and, tapping at the door of the room in which he saw
a light, went in. Cathelineau looked up in surprise, as the door
opened.

"I thought you were asleep hours ago, monsieur," he said.

"It is well that I have not been, sir."

And he related the conversation that he had overheard, and his own
suspicions that the man Bruno meditated treachery; the steps they
had taken to watch him, and the discovery they had made.
Exclamations of indignation and fury broke from the officers.

"Gentlemen," Cathelineau said, "we will at once proceed to try this
traitor. He shall be judged by men of his own class.

"Monsieur Pourcet, do you go out and awaken the first twelve
peasants you come to."

In a minute or two the officer returned with the peasants, who
looked surprised at having been thus roused from their sleep.

"My friends, do you take your places along that side of the room.
You are a jury, and are to decide upon the guilt or innocence of a
man who is accused of being a traitor."

The word roused them at once, and all repeated indignantly the word
"traitor!"

"Monsieur Stansfield," he said to Leigh, "will you order your men
to bring in the prisoner?"

The man was brought in and placed at the head of the table,
opposite to Cathelineau.

"Now, Monsieur Stansfield, will you tell the jury the story that
you have just told me?"

Leigh repeated his tale, interrupted occasionally by exclamations
of fury from the peasants. Andre and the other lads stepped
forward, one after the other, and confirmed Leigh's statement.

"Before you return a verdict, my friends," Cathelineau said
quietly, "it is but right that we should go up to the battery, and
examine the cannon ourselves; not, of course, that we doubt the
statement of Monsieur Stansfield and the other witnesses, but
because it is well that each of you should be able to see for
himself, and report to others that you have been eyewitnesses of
the traitor's plot."

Accordingly the whole party ascended to the battery. There lay the
spade and the sack of earth. The tool with which the work had been
done was still in the mouth of the second cannon and, on pulling it
out, the powder cartridge came with it. Then Leigh led them to the
next gun, and a man who had a bayonet thrust it in, and soon
brought some earth and stones to the mouth of the gun.

"We have now had the evidence of Monsieur Stansfield, and those
with him, tested by ourselves examining the guns. What do you say,
my friends--has this man been proved a traitor, or not?"

"He has!" the peasants exclaimed, in chorus.

"And what is your sentence?"

"Death!" was the unanimous reply.

"I approve of that sentence. March him down to the side of the
river, and shoot him."

Three minutes later, four musket shots rang out.

"Thus die all traitors!" Cathelineau said.

Bruno, however, was the sole Vendean who, during the course of the
war, turned traitor to his comrades and his country.



Chapter 6: The Assault Of Chemille.


Few words were spoken, as the group of officers returned to the
town. When they reached Cathelineau's quarters Leigh would have
gone on, but the general said, "Come in, if you please, Monsieur
Stansfield," and he followed the party in.

"This has been a trial, gentlemen, a heavy trial," the general
said. "When I entered upon this work, I knew that that there were
many things that I should have to endure. I knew the trouble of
forming soldiers from men who, like ours, prize their freedom and
independence above all other things; that we might have to suffer
defeat; that we must meet with hardships, and probably death; and
that, in the long run, all our efforts might be futile.

"But I had not reckoned on having to deal with treachery. I had
never dreamed that one of my first acts would have been to try and
to sentence a Vendean to death, for an act of the grossest
treachery. However, let us put that aside; it was, perhaps, in the
nature of things. In every community there must be a few scoundrels
and, if this turns out to be a solitary instance, we may
congratulate ourselves, especially as we have escaped without
injury.

"That we have done so, gentlemen, is due solely to Monsieur
Stansfield; who thus twice, in the course of a single day, has
performed an inestimable service to the cause. There are few indeed
who, on hearing the braggadocio of a drunken man, would have given
the matter a moment's thought; still less have undertaken a night
of watchfulness, after a day of the heaviest work, merely to test
the truth of a slightly-founded suspicion that might have occurred
to them. It is not too much to say that, had not this act of
treachery been discovered, our defeat tomorrow would have been
well-nigh certain. You know how much our people think of their
guns; and if, when the fight began, the cannon had been silent,
instead of pouring their contents into the ranks of the enemy, they
would have lost heart at once, and would have been beaten almost
before the fight began.

"We have no honours to bestow on you, Monsieur Stansfield, but in
the name of La Vendee I thank you, with all my heart. I shall add,
to my order respecting your fight of yesterday, a statement of what
has taken place tonight; and I shall beg that all officers read it
aloud to the parties that follow them."

"I agree most cordially with the general's words," Monsieur
Bonchamp said. "Your defence yesterday would have been a credit to
any military man, and this discovery has saved us from ruin
tomorrow, or rather today. I will venture to say that not one man
in five hundred would have taken the trouble to go out of his way
to ascertain whether the words of a drunken man rested on any
foundation."

There was, then, a short conversation as to the approaching fight.
The number of men who had arrived was much smaller than had been
anticipated, owing to the fact that the simultaneous invasion, at
so many points, had the effect of retaining the peasants of the
various localities for the defence of their own homes. Leigh
learned that a mounted messenger had been despatched, shortly
before he brought the prisoner down, to beg Monsieur d'Elbee to
bring the force he commanded, at Chollet, with all speed to aid in
the defence of Chemille; for if that town fell, he would be exposed
to the attack of the united forces of Generals Berruyer and
Leigonyer.

"Now, gentlemen, I think we had better get a few hours' sleep,"
Cathelineau said. "They will not be here very early, probably not
until noon; for they may wait for a time before starting, in hopes
of being joined either by Leigonyer or one of the other columns,
and it is not likely that any news of the sharp reverse that
Leigonyer has met with has reached them."

It was now two o'clock in the morning, and Leigh slept heavily,
till roused at eight.

"You should have called me before, Andre," he said reproachfully,
when he learnt how late it was.

"I thought it was better that you should have a good sleep,
captain. Of course, if there had been any message to say that you
were wanted, I should have woke you; but as no one came, and there
is still no news of the enemy, I thought that it was better to let
you sleep till now."

Pierre had started with his party, at five, to scout on the road by
which the enemy was advancing. Leigh first hurried down to the
river and had a bath, and then felt ready for any work that he
might have to do. He then went to the house where Jean was lodged.
The latter, who had not returned from his outpost work till day
broke, was just getting up.

"Well, Leigh," he said, "I called in at Cathelineau's quarters to
report. I found him already up. He told me the work that you had
been doing, and praised you up to the skies. It seems to me that
you are getting all the credit of the campaign. Really I feel quite
proud of you, and we shall be having you starting as a rival leader
to Cathelineau."

Leigh laughed.

"One does not often have two such opportunities in the course of a
day, and I don't suppose I am likely to have such luck again, if
the war goes on for a year. Where are you going to be today?"

"I am going to act as aide-de-camp to Bonchamp."

"And what shall we do, do you think?"

"Well, I should say you had best keep out of it altogether, Leigh.
You and your band did much more than your share of fighting
yesterday, and your pistols will be of no use in a fight such as
this will be. Seriously, unless Cathelineau assigns you some post,
I should keep out of it. Your little corps is specially formed to
act as scouts and, as we are so extremely badly off in that
respect, it will be far better for you to keep to your proper
duties, than to risk your lives."

"How do you think the fight is likely to go, Jean?"

"It depends, in the first place, upon how the Blues fight; if they
do well, they ought to beat us. In the next place, it depends on
whether d'Elbee comes up in time. If he does, I think that we shall
hold the place, but it will be stiff fighting."

It was not until noon that Berruyer's force was seen approaching.
As soon as it was in sight the Vendeans poured out, and took up
their station by the hill on which the guns were placed. In spite
of what Jean had said, Leigh would have placed his band with the
rest; had not Cathelineau sent for him, half an hour before, and
given him orders which were almost identical with the advice of
Jean.

"I wish you and your band to keep out of this battle, Monsieur
Stansfield. Your force is so small that it can make no possible
difference in the fortunes of the day and, whether we win or lose,
your lads may be wanted as messengers, after it is over. They have
done extremely well, at present, and need no further credit than
they have gained. I beg, therefore, that you will take post with
them somewhat in rear of the village, away on the right. I shall
then know where to find you, if I have any messages to send; and
moreover, I want you at once to send off one of your most active
lads with this note to d'Elbee, urging him to come on at full
speed, for the fight is likely to go hard with us, unless he comes
in time to our assistance; and telling him I wish him to know that,
even if I have to fall back, the church will be held till the last;
and that as soon as he arrives I shall, if possible, again take the
offensive, and beg that he will attack the enemy in flank or in
rear, as he sees an opportunity. Upon the belfry of the church,
half a mile on our right, you will be able to see how the battle
goes; and can send off news to d'Elbee, from time to time."

"Very well, sir. I will despatch your letter at once, and then
march out to the church, which I noticed yesterday."

"Here is a telescope," Cathelineau said. "We are well provided with
them, as we took all that we could find, at Chollet and Vihiers. I
think that, with its aid, you will be able to have a good view of
what is going on."

In twenty minutes, Leigh had taken up his post in the belfry of the
village church that Cathelineau had indicated. Andre and Pierre,
whose party had returned an hour before, were with him. The rest of
the band were in the story below them, from which a view was also
obtainable. The three most severely wounded had started for their
homes, early that morning. The others were fit for duty.

The fight began by a discharge of the guns of the assailants. Leigh
could see that the defenders' guns had been somewhat withdrawn from
their position on the top of the rising ground, where they would
have been too much exposed to the enemy's fire; and their muzzles
now only showed over the brow. During the course of the morning an
earthwork had been thrown up, to afford protection to the men
serving them. They did not return the fire until the enemy were
within a distance of a quarter of a mile, then they commenced, with
deadly effect.

The Blues halted, and Leigh could make out that a considerable
number of men in the rear at once turned and ran. In order to
encourage them they had been informed, just before they marched, of
the plot that had been arranged to silence the guns; and this
unexpected discharge caused the greatest consternation among the
young levies. A body of cavalry were at once sent off in pursuit,
and drove the fugitives back to their ranks, the troopers using the
flats of their swords unstintingly.

Then the advance was resumed, covered by the fire of the guns and
by volleys of musketry. These were answered but feebly by the
firearms in the peasants' hands, and the Blues pressed on until,
just before they reached the foot of the slope, the peasants
charged them with fury.

The regular troops and a regiment of gendarmes had been placed in
front. These stood firm, poured heavy volleys into the peasants as
they approached, and then received them with levelled bayonets.

In vain the Vendeans strove to break through the hedge of steel.
Cathelineau and his officers on one side, and the French generals
on the other, encouraged their men, and for a quarter of an hour a
desperate conflict reigned. Then the peasants fell back, and the
Blues resumed their advance.

Three times Cathelineau induced his followers to renew the attack,
but each time it was unsuccessful. The Blues mounted the hill, the
cannon were captured, and the Vendeans fell back into the town.
Here the ends of the streets had been barricaded and, in spite of
the artillery and the captured guns now turned against their former
owners, the assailants tried in vain to force their way into the
town.

From every window that commanded the approaches, the men with
muskets kept up an incessant fire. The mass of the peasants lay in
shelter behind the barricades, or in the houses, until the enemy's
infantry approached to within striking distance; and then, leaping
up from these barricades, and fighting with an absolute disregard
of their lives, they again and again repulsed the attacks of the
enemy.

Berruyer, seeing that in spite of his heavy losses he made no way,
called his troops from the assault and, forming them into two
columns, moved to the right and left, and attacked the town on both
sides. Here no barricades had been erected and, in spite of the
efforts of the peasants, an entrance was forced into the town.
Every street, lane, and house was defended with desperate energy;
but discipline gradually triumphed, and the Blues won their way
into the square in the centre of the town, where the principal
church stood. As they entered the open space, they were assailed
with a rain of bullets from the roof, tower, and windows.

As soon as the flanking movement began, Monsieur Bonchamp, seeing
that the town was now certain to be taken, had hurried, with the
greater portion of the men armed with muskets, to the church; which
had already been prepared by him, on the previous day, for the
defence. A great number of paving stones had been got up from the
roadway and piled inside the church and, as soon as he arrived
there with his men, the doors were closed, and blocked behind with
a deep wall of stones.

Berruyer saw that the position was a formidable one and, ignorant
of the number of the defenders, sent back for his guns, and
contented himself for the time by clearing the rest of the town of
its defenders. These, however, as they issued out, were rallied by
Cathelineau and his officers. They assured the peasants that the
day was not yet lost, that the church would hold out for hours, and
that d'Elbee would soon arrive, with his force from Chollet, to
their assistance.

Leigh, anxiously watching the progress of the fight, had sent
messenger after messenger along the road by which d'Elbee would
come. His heart sank, as he heard the guns open in the centre of
the town, and knew that they were directed against the church.
Still, there was no abatement of the fire of the defenders. An
incessant fire of musketry was maintained, not only from the church
itself, but from every window in the houses around it.

At last, he heard that d'Elbee's force was but a quarter of a mile
away and, running down from his lookout, he started to meet it. It
was coming at a run, the men panting and breathless, but holding on
desperately, half maddened with the sound of battle.

"All is not lost yet, then?" d'Elbee said, as he came up.

"No, sir. The church holds out, and I could see that the peasants
who have been driven out of the town have rallied, but a few
hundred yards away, and are evidently only waiting for your arrival
to renew the attack. I think, sir, that if you will run up to the
belfry of the church with this glass, you will be able to
understand the exact situation."

The officer ran up the tower, and returned in two or three minutes.
Then he led his men down towards the southeastern corner of the
town.

Leigh, on hearing that d'Elbee was close at hand, sent off two
messengers to Cathelineau to inform him of the fact; and he now
sent off another, stating the direction in which the reinforcement
was marching.

"I am going to attack at that corner, instead of in the rear,"
Monsieur d'Elbee said to him; for now that the duty assigned to him
had been performed, Leigh thought that he would be justified in
joining in the attack, with what remained of his band. "If I were
to get directly in their rear they would, on finding their retreat
cut off, fight so fiercely that I might be overpowered. Even the
most cowardly troops will fight, under those circumstances.
Therefore, while threatening their line of retreat, I still leave
it open to them. It is a maxim in war, you know, always to leave a
bridge open for a flying foe."

In a few minutes they reached the town. None had observed their
approach, the troops being assembled round the church. These were
at once thrown into confusion, when they found themselves attacked
with fury by a large force, of whose existence they had no previous
thought.

The Vendeans fought with desperate valour. The new levies for the
most part lost heart at once and, in spite of the efforts of
Berruyer and his officers, began to make for the line of retreat.
The movement was accelerated by an outburst of shouts from the
other side of the town, where Cathelineau's force poured in,
burning to avenge their former losses; and as they fell upon the
enemy, Bonchamp led out the defenders of the church, by a side
door, and joined in the fray.

Berruyer saw that all was lost. By great efforts he kept together
the gendarmes and regular troops, to cover the retreat; and fell
back, fighting fiercely. Bonchamp and his musketeers pressed hotly
upon them. The peasants made charge after charge and, as soon as
the force issued from the town, many of the peasantry set off at
full speed in pursuit of the fugitives, great numbers of whom were
overtaken and killed. Berruyer continued his retreat all night, and
entered Saint Lambert before morning; having lost the whole of his
cannon, and three thousand men, in this disastrous fight.

The joy of the Vendeans was unbounded. The stones were speedily
removed from the shattered doors of the church, mass was
celebrated, and the peasants returned thanks for their great
victory.

The gains were, indeed, considerable. Three thousand muskets had
fallen into their hands. They had recaptured the guns that they had
lost, and taken twelve others. Their own losses had been
heavy--eighteen hundred men had been killed, and a great number
wounded. But of this, at the time, they thought but little; those
who had died had died for their country and their God, as all of
them were ready to do, and how could men do more?

On the Republican side, General Duhaus had been very dangerously
wounded, and most of Berruyer's principal officers killed.

A council of war was held the next morning, at Chemille. For the
moment, the victory had secured their safety; but while the
peasants believed and hoped that the war was over, their leaders
saw that the position was scarcely improved. They had, indeed,
captured guns and muskets; but these were useless without
ammunition, and their stock of powder and ball was quite exhausted.
Already the peasantry were leaving in large numbers for their
homes. Berruyer might return reinforced at any time, and effect a
junction with Leigonyer; while the column that had captured Saint
Florent would doubtless advance. It was therefore decided that
Chemille must be abandoned, and that the officers should retire to
Tiffauges until, at any rate, the peasants were ready to leave
their homes again.

By evening that day the greater portion of the army had melted away
and, on the following morning, the leaders also left the town they
had so bravely defended. On the following day, indeed, Berruyer,
having learned the position of Leigonyer, returned to Chemille and,
two days later, was in communication with Leigonyer's force. The
latter had occupied Chollet, which had been left devoid of
defenders since the day they marched away.

On the other hand Quetineau had, on the thirteenth, been attacked
at Aubiers, and had been forced to evacuate the place, leaving
three guns behind him, retiring to Bressuire. The capture of
Aubiers was the work of Henri de la Rochejaquelein. He had ridden
to join Cathelineau, and met him and the other leaders retiring
from Chemille. They were gloomy and depressed. They had won a
battle, but they were without an army, without ammunition. Almost
all the towns were in the possession of the Blues. It seemed to
them that the struggle could not be much longer maintained.

The young count was too energetic and too enthusiastic to be
seriously moved, and rode back to the residence of an aunt, at
Saint Aubin. There he learned that Aubiers had been taken by the
enemy. The peasantry around were in a state of extreme excitement.
They had hoisted the white flag on their churches, and were ready
to fight, but they had no leader.

Hearing that Rochejaquelein was at his aunt's house, they came to
him, and begged him to take the command, promising him that in
twenty-four hours ten thousand men should be ready to follow him.
He agreed to the request. The church bells were set ringing and,
before morning, almost that number were assembled. Of these, only
two hundred had guns.

With this force he attacked Aubiers. The resistance of the enemy was
feeble, and they were chased almost to Bressuire.  Rochejaquelein
was very anxious to capture this town, as his friends, the Lescures,
had been brought from Clisson and imprisoned there; but he saw that
it was of primary importance to carry assistance to Cathelineau, and
he accordingly marched to Tiffauges.  The church bells again rang
out their summons; and Cathelineau, in twenty-four hours, found
himself at the head of an army of twenty thousand men.

"I told you at Clisson that I should soon meet you again, Monsieur
Martin," La Rochejaquelein said when, as he rode into Tiffauges at
the head of his newly raised force, he met Jean in the street, "and
here I am, you see. I am only sorry that I am too late to take part
in the brave fight at Chemille."

"Right glad are we to see you, count," Jean replied. "This is my
wife's brother, of whom I was speaking to you at Clisson.
Cathelineau will tell you that he has been distinguishing himself
rarely."

Henri held out his hand to Leigh, and said warmly, "I am glad to
know you. It would be a shame, indeed, were any Vendeans to remain
at home, when a young Englishman is fighting for their country. I
hope that we shall be great friends."

"I shall be glad, indeed, to be so," Leigh replied with equal
warmth, for he was greatly struck with the appearance of the young
soldier.

Henri de la Rochejaquelein was but twenty-one years old, tall, and
remarkably handsome. He had fair hair, and a noble bearing. His
father had been a colonel in the army, and he himself was a cavalry
officer in the king's guard. He was the beau ideal of a dashing
hussar, and his appearance was far more English than French. He was
immensely popular, his manner frank and pleasant, and he was
greatly beloved by the peasantry on his family estates.

At this moment Cathelineau with his two generals came up, and Leigh
retired from the circle. The arrival of the young count, with his
strong reinforcement, at once altered the position. The leaders who
had, since they fell back from Chemille, been depressed and almost
hopeless, beamed with satisfaction as they talked with Henri, whose
enthusiasm was infectious.

La Rochejaquelein accompanied them to his quarters. Hitherto he had
only heard rumours of the fighting at Chemille, and Cathelineau now
gave him a full account of the affair. Jean Martin had, at his
invitation, accompanied him; and when Cathelineau had finished,
Henri turned to him and said:

"Indeed you did not exaggerate, Monsieur Martin, when you said that
your brother-in-law had already distinguished himself. In fact,
there can be no doubt that the splendid defence he made at that
little river, where he held Berruyer's whole force in check for
upwards of three hours--and so forced him to halt for the night on
the way, instead of pushing forward and attacking Chemille at
once--saved the town, for it gave time to Monsieur d'Elbee to come
up. Scarcely less important was his detection of the treachery of
the man in charge of the artillery. I cannot but regret that so
gallant a young fellow is not my countryman, for I should have felt
proud of one so daring, and so thoughtful.

"When you do not want him for scouting work, Monsieur Cathelineau,
I shall get you to lend him to me. I should be really glad to have
him by my side. His face pleased me much. There was something so
frank and honest about it and, after what he has done, I am sure
that I shall always respect his opinion."

There was another consultation as to what should be their first
operation, and it was resolved that Leigonyer should be attacked at
once, before he could make a complete junction with Berruyer. The
next morning, at daybreak, the whole force moved off. They were
only just in time, for Berruyer had already ordered General
Gauvillier, who commanded the force that had captured Saint
Florent, to advance to Beaupreau. Berruyer was to march to Vezins,
and he himself to Jallais, and to join Leigonyer at May.

On the previous evening Henri had, after the termination of the
council, requested Jean Martin to take him to the house where Leigh
and his little party were quartered.

"I have been hearing of your doings," he said, "and feel quite
jealous that you, who are, I hear, four years younger than myself,
should have done so much; while I, with all my family influence and
connection, should as yet have done nothing but chase the enemy out
of Aubiers. How is it that you, who have had no training as a
soldier, should have conceived the idea of arresting the march of
Berruyer's army, with a force of only two or three hundred
peasants?"

"It was a mere matter of common sense," Leigh said, with a smile.
"I knew that it was of the utmost importance that Chemille should
not be attacked, until Cathelineau received reinforcements. At
first, I had no thought of doing more than breaking down the
bridge, and of perhaps checking the advanced cavalry; but when I
found that the peasants who came along were quite willing to aid,
it seemed to me that by cutting down the trees, so as to block the
road and make a shelter for us, we might be able to cause the enemy
considerable delay. I hardly hoped to succeed in holding out so
long, or in inflicting such loss upon him as we were able to do. It
did not require any military knowledge whatever, and I should not
have attempted it had I not seen that, thanks to the forest, we
should be able to retreat when we could no longer hold the
barricade of felled trees."

"Well, you could not have done better if you had been a general. I
have Cathelineau's permission to ask you to ride with me, when you
are not engaged in scouting."

"I should be delighted to do so, but at present I have no horse.
However, I can send one of my lads back to the chateau, to fetch
the one that I generally ride."

"I have brought a spare animal with me," the young count said. "I
brought it in case the other should be shot, and I shall be glad if
you will ride it tomorrow, and until yours arrives; but I would not
send for one until after tomorrow, for likely enough we may make
some captures before nightfall.

"We are to march at three in the morning, and to attack Leigonyer.
The great thing that we need is powder. Cathelineau says that there
is scarcely a charge left among his men. Mine are not much better
off. We should have had none with which to attack Aubiers; but I
sent off during the night to a quarry, a few miles from my aunt's,
and succeeded in getting forty pounds of blasting powder. It would
not have been of much use for the muskets, but the fact of its
being powder was sufficient to encourage the peasants; and the
Blues made such a feeble resistance that its quality made no
difference to us. It enabled those who had muskets to make a noise
with them, and was just as effectual in raising their spirits in
attacking the Blues as if it had been the finest quality. We got a
few hundred cartridges when we took the place, but that will not go
very far, and I hope that, tomorrow, we shall be able to obtain a
supply from the enemy."

Before the hour for starting, the force had swelled considerably.
The news that Monsieur de la Rochejaquelein had retaken Aubiers,
and had come with twelve thousand men to assist Cathelineau, spread
like wildfire. The peasants from all the country round flocked in
and, when they started in the morning, the united force had swollen
to over twenty thousand men.

As soon as the young count left him, Leigh sent all his band, under
his lieutenants, with orders to proceed towards Vezins; to
ascertain the progress Leigonyer had made, and the position of his
forces, and to send back news to him. Just as the army was starting
one of the boys returned, and said that a party of twelve cavalry,
and a detachment of infantry, had just entered the chateau of
Crilloire. Leigh at once informed Cathelineau, who sent off a
hundred and fifty men to capture the place. They were ordered to
travel at the top of their speed, and Jean Martin was in command of
them.

The expedition was crowned with success. The infantry, who had been
stationed outside the chateau, fled at once. Their commandant
Villemet, Leigonyer's best officer, charged the Vendeans wi

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