76 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Fougere Audubon, then a lad of eight years, was living 

 in the heart of Nantes, and his father was one of its 

 leading revolutionists. An aunt of the future orni- 

 thologist, according to his account, who was one of these 

 wretched victims of revolutionary fury, was dragged 

 through the streets of Nantes before his eyes, but appar- 

 ently she did not actually meet her death at that time. 2 



That Jean Audubon moved his family out of Nantes 

 during the revolutionary crisis is possible, and Coueron 

 would have been available as a place of refuge. Many 

 Nantais are known to have fled to Lorient on the coast 

 of Brittany, where they found in the heroic youth Jul- 

 ien the ardent and fearless patriot who was destined 

 to become the real savior of their stricken city. Young 

 Julien denounced Carrier in his letters to Robespierre, 

 and when one of these was intercepted, defied him in 

 person. When his stirring appeals finally reached the 

 Tribunal at Paris, its misnamed representative was re- 

 called, and left Nantes under cover of night on Febru- 

 ary 14, 1794. During his mad reign of four months, 

 Carrier had gone far towards carrying out his theory 

 of republican government, that should begin, as he 

 openly avowed, by "suppressing" half of the population 

 of France. The records show that nearly nine thou- 

 sand bodies were buried in Nantes in a little over three 

 months, from January 15 to April 24, 1794. The plague 

 of fever no doubt accounted for many of these, but the 

 wide reaches of the Loire never told their full story. 



Though the most grievous affliction of Nantes passed 

 with the recall of Carrier, the city had no lasting peace 

 until the execution of the Vendean leader, Charette, in 

 March, 1796; "Poor Charette," said Audubon, writing 

 in his journal at Liverpool, December 24, 1827, "whom 



2 See Note 4, Vol. I, p. 27. 



