70] 
In order to sound the disposition 
’ of the people in the more inland 
districts, and to reconnoitre the po- 
sition of the republican forces, the 
count d’Hervilly, who a¢ted so 
generous and heroic a part on the 
tenth of August, 1792*, much re- 
speéted in England, and who had 
a principal command in his expedi- 
tion, put himself at the head of some 
thousands of the Chouans, and en- 
deavoured to penetrate into the 
country; but, on the approach of 
a few hundreds of the republicans, 
they threw down their arms_and 
fled. This obliged him to retire 
within the intrenchments that had 
been thrown up on the peninsula of 
Quiberon. 
The republican commanders, to 
improve thisadvantage, raised three 
redoubts, to guard the passage to 
the main land. The British troops, 
the emigrants that had been raised 
and formed into regiments in Eng- 
Jand, and the Chouans that had 
joined them, amounted altogether 
to tenor twelvethousand men. Five 
thousand of them were selected to 
make an attack on these redoubts, 
They marched against them in the 
night of the fifteenth of July, and 
carried two; but, on their ap- 
proaching the third, a masked bat- 
tery took them in flank with such 
execution, that they were unable 
to proceed, and retreated with all 
possible speed, pursued by the re. 
publicans, who probably would 
have destroyed or taken the whole 
of this body, had net some British 
ships, anchored near the shore, coin. 
pelled them, by a vigorous fire, 
to retreat in theirturn. The dis. 
aster of this day eccasioned vio-~ 
lent wranglings among the’ emi- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
” 
¥ 
1795. 
grant officers, who reciprocally 
charged each other with want of 
conduct.- Those privates who had 
enlisted from the French prisons in 
England, much more from a desire 
of recovering personal liberty, than 
inclination to the service they were 
going upon, took this opportunity 
to communicate their sentiments to 
each other; and great numbers of 
them deserted, and carried to the 
French quarter intelligence of the 
‘situation of the emigrants. 
In consequence of the informa- 
tion he had received, general 
‘Hoche, who was at the head of the 
republican forces, formed a plan 
for the attack of both the fort and 
the camp occupied by the emi. 
grants. He availed himself of a 
dark and tempestuous night, the 
twentieth of July, for the execution 
of his purpose. Having obtained 
the watch-word, the republican 
troops were conducted by the de- 
serters through the concealed ways 
and passes, with which these were 
acquainted, and entered the fort 
undiscovered. Here they found 
the gunners asleep; they immedi- 
ately extinguished their matches, 
and seized their powder, and the 
lanthorn, by the hoisting of which 
a signal was to have been made to 
the squadron in the road. Surprised 
in this manner, the garrison was 
thrown intoaconfusion, from which 
it could not recover. Many, if not 
most, of the emigrant soldiers im, 
mediately laid down their arms, and 
criedout, Live the Republic. Two 
whole regiments ofthem, after dis. 
arming some oftheir officers,andmas- 
sacring, it is said, others, went over 
to the republicans. The count de 
Sombreuil, at the head of a body of 
‘ 
% See vol. ¥xxiv. Hist. Europe, p, 45, 
emigrants, 
‘ 
