HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



103 



*-OTds could express their rage and 

 fury, and the outrageous violence 

 witJi which they broke in upon 

 tlicir foes.' 



But, notwithstanding their ani- 

 mosity against the republicans, they 

 were not backward in giving them 

 ■quarter, and setting them at liber- 

 ty, until these liad basely broken 

 the terms on which it had been 

 granted ; which were, to serve no 

 more against the royal cause. At 

 the reduction of Saumur, 15,00O 

 prisoners, who had been dismissed 

 by the royalists on that condition, 

 were a few days after found in arms 

 against tliem. They were recog- 

 nized by the precaution that had 

 been taken to cut od their hair 

 before they were set at liberty, by 

 -way of setting a mark vipon them. 

 Wlien the royalists, overpowered 

 iby the republican troops, were 

 obliged to cross the Loire, they 

 were encumbered by about 12;(K)0 

 prisoners, on whom a retaliation 

 was proposed by those royalists of 

 whom the relations bad been in- 

 humanly massacred : but they vs'ere 

 saved through the generous inter- 

 cession cf Bonchamp, one of the 

 three commanders in chief of the 

 royalists, who lay at that time ex- 

 piring of a mortal wound. But his 

 generosity was repaid with the 

 meanest ingratitude: — they were 

 no sooner dismissed, ilian they were 

 perceived acting in conjunction 

 with the enemy. In consequence 

 of this treacherous conduct, the 

 royalists came to the determination 

 to adopt the severest reprisals, and 

 to make' no more prisoners. Tlie 

 patience and fortitude; cli-.j,layt'd by 

 the Vendeans, during llie whole 

 course of this terrible waifarc, ne- 

 ver was exceeded in hi«,t(jry. As 

 their country, thro-iirli continual 



devastations, bacame at length un- 

 able to furnish them with subsist- 

 ence, they had no other resources 

 than th * fortunate casualties of the 

 day ; and were literally reduced 

 to live from hand to mouth. When 

 th,'y had crossed the Loire, and 

 made an irruptiou into Brittany, 

 they encountered every hardship 

 that human nature can endure: 

 they lay on the bare ground in the 

 open air, and fed upon a small pit- 

 tance of corn boiled in water, 'i'he 

 extremes of want, and the imprac- 

 ticability of procuring a sufficiency 

 of food for their numbf:rs, obliged 

 them at last to separate ; and this 

 separation broke at once thrir 

 strength, and was the immediate 

 cause of their overthrow. 



Previously to the extreme scar- 

 city which compelled them to dis- 

 perse, theyconductedtheir marches 

 with an art and dexterity that asto- 

 nished the enemy, and confounded 

 all his endeavours to waylay and 

 surprise them : — they marched in 

 tiiree columns, at about two milts 

 distance from each other. Upon 

 any hostile appearance between 

 these columns, a signal was given, 

 and they all three closed in upon 

 the enemy. Two remarkable de- 

 feats of the republicans were dye 

 to this plan: the one at Fougeres, 

 the other at Dinant ; both towns 

 in I'rittany. I'hey had penefraled 

 between two of these columns, and 

 imagined tiiey wcrebroken asunder 

 and un.able to reunite; but the 

 Vendeans quickly undeceived tiieni 

 by ntiacking them on both sides. 

 'J'lius placed iKHween two fires, 

 tluy were almost all cut to pieces. 

 Aficr the reunion of tlie remaining 

 bodies of tiie royalists under Cha- 

 rctte, >Sto|k-t and La Roche, and 

 tlie second insurrection in La \'en- 

 // 1 dec. 



