Fe, 
Fiales, resembling the Camillas and Pen-»» the carnage. ; ee 
@ thesileas of ancient times, charged the,  “ These supernatural Occurrenee re 
expedition. 
bait ees, ' ~ ” ~ 
616 
| 
aspect of. French Literature—History. . o# 
“fantry, a seldom could be prevailed on. fought almost every day, and often in — 
to use the bayonet. 4 several places at once, they yet found 
On the first signal, the peasantry, relin- time for the cultivation of their fields, 
quishing the hve or the spade, seized and even for the fabrication of arms and 
their guns, repaired to the place of ren- gunpowder. The wonder will not be 
dezvous full of audacity and confidence. decreased, when it is stated that they 
But they were seldom detained above “were at that very moment hemmed in 
two or three days, for, like the feudal ar- ‘on all sides by the western aripy, so sta- 
mies of old, the royalists deemed their tioned_as to form a cirele around the re- 
toils and their duties at an end with the voltéd country, of which the Loire, forti- 
fied in inany pointsyconstituted the dia- 
Possessing all the fanaticism of the meter. Notwithstanding this, the roy= 
first crusaders, the Vendeans went toa_ alists actually had their, commissaries, 3 
battle with the same chearfulness as toa ‘their treasurers, their agents, and their 
feast. Old men, priests, and boys, rush- magazines, while.a select council acted™ 
ed forth promiscuously to the attack; in thename of, and under the letters-pa- 
even «children of tweive and thirteen tent of the Count de Provence, ,who, 
years of age were slain in the first ranks, from his asylum in the castle of Ham, in 
exciting and participating in the fury of Germany, issued his proclamations as re- 
the armed multitude around them, ‘Nor gent of France, and not only sanctioned, 
was this new-born rage for war confined but appeared to direct the proceedings of 
to one sex alone. A multitude of Ama-. the insurgents. » 
zons fought in thearmy of Stofflet witha | The priests at first appeared to act 
masculine intrepidity, and were atlength a conspicuous and disinterested part: 
‘clothed like, and incorporated with, his but these ‘missionaries of insurrection, 
troops. Some of them bore fusilsin the were not content with preaching up their 
‘ranks, others, still more daring, pointed. tenets, and inflaming the: imagination of 
and worked the artillery; one acting’as_ their respective flocks.- Many of, them 
we, 
7 y 
a chief during the heat of battle, rallied advanced boldly at theyhead of the Ven=™ 
her troops thrice, and brought them back dean columns, and died the martyrs: of | 
to the charge. But two ladies, young, their cause. Froin tlie very beginning - 
beautiful, and descended from “illustri- of the contest, miracles were announced 
in La Vendée. Feverish: minds, over- 
re 
have attacked aud routed néar twenty with the dead and dying, and aiterwards 
thousand men, with only one-fourth of to witness the terrible torments a, 
that number. These extraordinary fe- -on the agonized limbs of all who survived 
2 a ie P b Paes | oe > 
‘efemy with undaunted resolution, aud, most prevagay> while the minds of the 
like them too, perished in battle. - ~. insurgents were as yet undebauched from 
“Nor did the chiefs of the royal party their primitive simplicity, and anterior to. 
eutirely trust to that enthusiasm which the period when the horrors of war, like 
seeins to have actuated both sexes, orto the cruelties of the chace, became famt- 
those predatory excursions, which not Tiar, and even delightfulby custom. The 
fnfrequently supplied them with provi- ¢loom of evening, and the dead of night, 
sions and ammunition; for although they. as least likely to produce detections, 
. ee. , were. 
rly 
my" 
% iv 
