|. to’ be 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
a pedsant. In this dress he wan- 
dered about the country without a 
compation, in hope of escaping his 
pursuers, and gaining the sea side, 
where be might find an opportunity 
of flying to England. But the search 
made after him. was So strict and 
incessant, that he fell into the hands 
of a patrole that was in quest of 
him. He was tried and sentenced 
shot. His execution tovk 
placeat Nantes onthe twenty-eighth 
of April. His associate, the well 
known Stoflet, who had also been 
made a prisoner, suffered death in 
the same manner, about two months 
before him. 
The fall of these two principal 
chiefs of the insurrection, especially 
the former, gave it a blow from 
which it did not recover. Neither 
the Vendeans, nor the Chouans’ 
who hed joined them, seemed to 
have been overcome by despondency 
on this occasion, and they still con- 
tinued to maintain their ground with 
as much obstinacy as ever: but whe- 
ther none of their remaining leaders 
were of equal ability, or that their 
people did not repose the same con- 
fidence in them, their defeats be- 
came contindal, and such numbers 
were slaughtered, that the generality 
of the insurgents began to lose 
courage, particularly after the losses 
of those who commanded them. 
No less than thirteen of their prin- 
cipal chiefs fell in battle, and ten 
others were taken and condemned 
to be shot. 
' The death of these officers proved 
and irreparable loss : they were men 
of conspicuous resolution, and had 
long conducted the affairs of their 
party with remarkable skill and per- 
severance in the arduous trials they 
had so frequently. experienced.— 
None at this period seemed capable 
* supplying their place ; but what 
[83 
chiefly accelerated the submission of 
the insurgents, was the lenity with 
which the government came to the 
resolution of tréating all those who 
laid down their arms. A proclama- 
tion had already been issued, during 
the heat of hostilities, inviting the 
insurgents to return to obedience, 
under a solemn promise of burying 
their revolt in oblivion, and of 
gtanting them every just concession 
they could require: the directory 
availed itself of the advantages it 
had obtained, t& convince those 
who had been concerned in the ine 
surrection, that the only use the 
government would make of, the 
situation to which they were now 
reduced, would be to deprive them 
of the means of exciting distur- 
bances ; and that, provided they ac- 
quiesced in the injunctions laid upon 
them, they would be placed on the 
same footing with their fellow citis 
zens, and enjoy similar rights. 
So anxious was the directory to 
impréss them with this persuasion, 
that it published a circular address 
to the commanders of the troops 
employed in suppressing the insur- 
rection, strictly enjoining them to 
keep the intentions of the -govern- 
ment in constant view, and not to 
exceed them by needless acts of se- 
verily. 
But the animosity of the republi- 
cans against the insurgents was such 
that they occasionallyexercised great 
rigour over them, to the serious 
concern of the directory, which re- 
prehended, with marked severity, 
those who had been guilty of these 
excesses. It anxiously reiterated its 
orders to abstain from all harshness, 
and to receive all who submitted 
with a generous forgiveness of) the 
past; considering them as deluded 
brethren, whose attachment it was 
the duty of their conquerors to win 
[G 2] through 
