HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



IQT 



abuse, and reminded by others of 

 the outrages they had committed 

 on the native rights of man, by 

 taking up arms agajnsl liberty ; and 

 how necessary it >yas that their 

 guilt should be expiated by mak- 

 ing public examples of them. Af- 

 ter shooting as many of them as it 

 was thourlft proper, a selection 

 was made of tt:ose that remained, 

 in order to be sent to the neigh- 

 bouring towns, where they felt 

 the axe of the guillotine, by way of 

 impressing public terror. 



Duriag tliese horrors, it is pecu- 

 liarly deserving of notice, that the 

 most striking instances of disinte- 

 restedness, honour, and fidelity were 

 found among the rustic classes *. 

 The religious and moral virtues 

 seemed, as it were, to have taken 

 shelter there. Whoever was per- 

 secuted for his politics or religious 

 opinions, fled to the peasants ; and 

 was sure of being carefully con- 

 cealed, and of meeting with every 

 comfort they could afibrd. Gentle- 

 men, noblemen, and clergymen, 

 were hidden in this manner in the 

 obscurest parts of the country, and 

 securely evaded, through their cha- 

 ritable care and dexterous manage- 

 ment, t!ie barbarous intentions of 

 the ruling powers. Here too the 

 adherents to the ancient religion 

 of the land enjoj'cd the celebration 

 of its rights without molestation or 

 fear. Numbers al?o of the royalists, 

 dispersed after their defeats, had 

 met here with the only shelter they 

 (:ould find from the pursuits and 

 research of their implac.ililo ene- 

 mies. In justicv to those wlio es- 

 >entially cfwuributed by their pious 



exertions to keep alive this spirit 

 of humanity and compsssion for the 

 afflipted, truth nqnires that the 

 most honourable mcmion should 

 be made of the French clergy. In 

 deliance of the conventional edicts, 

 and in contempt of the hourly dan- 

 ger to which thpy were exposed by 

 their disobedience, they zealously 

 and intrepidly visited every recess 

 throughout the country, wherever 

 they thought their ministry would 

 bcaccepiableanduseful. They made 

 use of their influence to the most 

 beneficent purposes. Innumerable 

 were the deeds of kindness and ge- 

 nerosity due to their interference. 

 The number of lives they helped lo 

 save, and of stifFerers they were 

 instrumental in relieving, wilJ do 

 them everlasting credit, even witii 

 every disapprover of their politics 

 and religious tenets, that is not 

 dead to every feeling of humanity, 

 and that has the sense to know and 

 the courage to avow that the prac- 

 tice of this is a duty paramount toail 

 the obligations laid upon them by 

 the mere hand of powei. 



The Vendeans, it clearly ap- 

 pears, performed all that human 

 contrivance, heighteneit by extreme 

 necessity, could imagine, — and all 

 that human courage could dare to 

 attempt : but they laboured under 

 disadvantages whidi men- con- 

 trivance and courage were finable 

 tu surmount. 



The revolution, from its first be- 

 ginning, was an obj-ect of iliscou- 

 tcnt and dishke to the greater part 

 of botii the nobles and the clergy. 

 The first of these orders had, for 

 the most part, when the insurrcciicri 



-Kxtrema per illos 



Juttitia cx.ccdcn$ torrid vcsii^ia fcciu 



V;rg. ficorg. Lib. "'J. 



hroke 



