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ap’ ey ; oR 
~ 
fs 3 grr 
614 
dreadful, sudden, ‘and unforeseen; they 
generally advanced in form of a crescent, - 
and their best marksmen coniposed of the 
huntsmen of Leroux, and the poachers of 
the Bocage, who never fired without tak- 
ing aim, were placed in their wings, so 
that embracing~the enemy, and closing 
as they approached, all who dared to op- 
pose them seemed tobe confined within 
a circle of destruction. If conquerors, it 
became impossible for the vanquished to 
escape; if overcome, it was difficult to 
ae #0 : 
follow them; im fine, such was the pecu-- 
i 
pe 
2 
% 
‘Seem’ to have been justly entitled to the 
4 
r 
‘Tiarity of this novel mode of fighting, that 
an oficer who had served during ten elared in their favour, and were pre- 
eampaigns on the frontiers, would have - 
found himself a novice in the interior of 
France, while the soldier, at once dis-— 
gusted and discouraged by this mode of 
warfare, lost his former energy,.became 
dissipated and disgraced by plunder, and 
ee thought of subordination. 
“ But the contest was not confined to 
those strictly termed Vendeans, although 
they 
houses burnt to the ground, and them-) 
selves and children exposed to persecu-_ 
tion, and even to death, that they might 
hear mass, and receive benediction from 
the hands of an orthodox priest. % 
“The Chouans were at first a band of 
desperadoes, composed chiefly of smug- 
glers; and as they appear to have been 
actuated by the hope of booty, rather than 
an attachment to principle, they alone 
appellation of banditli. 
They met 
in the neighbourhood of Laval and La 
Gravelle, and chiefly confined their. pre- 
@atory excursions to the forests of Le 
Pertre aud La Guerche, until they were 
strengthened by an accession from the 
neighouring countries, and organized into 
some degree of form and consistency, by 
the Chevalierde Puisaye, and the Count 
de Boulainvilliers. ‘They then extended 
their operations over a larger district, 
embraced a portion of territory resem- 
bling a parallelogram, ‘of which the cities. 
7 Ge p3 
and towns of Nantes, Angers, Mayenne, © 
and. Rennes, constituted the four an- 
gles;* and althongh they originally ap- 
* Memoires par General Turreau, - 
Retrospect of French Literature—Hisiory. ag 
w 
who had been sticklers for liber 
pounced Chouans by the peasants. 
yy 
> 
ae 
peared in bodies of from thirty to forty . 
men only, they became at length so nu- 
merous a8 to resemble armies.* 
The nobles of Britanny and Lower 
N ormandy countenanced the first efforts 
of the Chouans, hoping that either a ge- 
al Insurrection would ensue, or at 
cae that an armed and formidable as- 
semblage would be produced by their 
means, jn consequence of which a free 
comimupication might be kept up with, 
the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, where 
agreat number of the malcontents had 
taken refuge. The peasantry also de-» 
pared, out. of love to. the priests, to 
bend once more under the.yoke of the 
nobles. But the inhabitants, of all the 
chief towns, and particularly of Nantes 
and Rennes, contained the’ same men 
: a ; 
during the existence of the m 
and these, from the very begimmit 
respecttostrangers. Pew carriage-roads 
are tobe met with; the paths are raised 
considerably above the surface, in order 
to obviate the effects of floods, and the © 
passes, which are difficult in,all seasons, 
become wholly impracticable during wins 
ter. Suchis the country into whichit- 
Was necessary to carry the wer; and. 
,* 
a ~~ 
ot 
v 
ae 
2 
* The Chouans ares osed to have de a 
rived their appellaticn fam se brothers,of oe 
that name; but Desodoards ass rts, in his 
‘* Histoire Philosophique,” that it originated 
in the appellation given to those formerly 
connected with the smugglers, and who, by 
imitating the tones of the screech-owl (de 
chat-buant), warned them of danger. They 
were accordingly termed Chat-buaps,. pro- 
come gee 
oe 4 
ot 
“es * 
