by G. A. Henty
Chapter 13: Across The Loire.
Marthe was filled with grief, when she heard that it had beendecided that it was better that she should return to her nativevillage; but her mistress pointed out to her that, if all wentwell, she could rejoin them. If things went badly, and theyescaped, they would send for her wherever they might be; but incase disaster compelled them to fly, three persons were as many ascould hope to travel together, without exciting suspicion. Thenurse however begged that, at any rate, she might go with them tothe headquarters of the army.
"Everyone is going," she said; "and they say that, if we are beatenin the next battle, they will cross the Loire and take refuge inBrittany, for the Blues will not leave a soul alive in La Vendee. Ishould have nowhere to go to here, and will keep with the others,whatever happens. If you are with them, madame, I can rejoin you;if not, I hope to be with you, afterward."
It was indeed an exodus, rather than the gathering of an army, thatwas taking place. The atrocities committed by the invaders, thedestruction of every village, the clouds of smoke which ascendedfrom the burning woods, created so terrible a scare among thepeasants that the greater portion of the villages and farms wereentirely deserted, and every road leading to Chollet, which was therendezvous where the fighting men were ordered to gather, wascrowded with fugitives. Francois walked by the horse's head.Patsey, the nurse, and the child, with a trunk containing articlesof absolute necessity, occupied the cart. Jean and Leigh rodeahead.
The company of Cathelineau's scouts no longer existed. More thanhalf of them had fallen in the late battles. Their services were nolonger required as scouts, and the survivors had joined theirfathers and brothers, and formed part of the command of Bonchamp.
On the fourteenth of October the enemy's columns were closing inupon Chollet. Those round Mortagne were marching forward, when theadvanced guard, under General Beaupuy, were suddenly attacked bythe Vendeans, while entangled in the lanes. The head of the columnfought well; but those in the rear, finding themselves alsoattacked, and fearing that the retreat would be cut off, retiredhastily to Mortagne. The column would have been destroyed, had notBeaupuy promptly sent up large reinforcements. After a long andobstinate fight the Vendeans were driven from the woods and, theRepublican artillery opening upon them, they were compelled toretire to Chollet.
Here no halt was made. Kleber had also been fiercely attacked, buthad also, though with much difficulty, repulsed his assailants. Thenext morning the Republicans entered Chollet, which they founddeserted by the enemy.
On the seventeenth, their whole force being now concentrated there,they were about to move forward towards Beaupreau; when theadvanced guard was hotly attacked and, in a short time, the combatbecame general. For a time the Vendeans bore down all opposition,but as the whole of the Republican force came into action, theiradvance was arrested.
The battle began soon after one o'clock. It raged withoutintermission till nightfall. No decisive advantage had been gainedon either side, and the result was still doubtful, when a panictook place among the multitude of noncombatants in the rear of theVendeans. The cry was raised, "To the Loire!"
The panic spread. In vain the leaders and their officers gallopedbackwards and forwards, endeavouring to restore confidence, andshouted to the men that victory was still in their grasp. In thedarkness and din they could only be heard by those immediatelyround them, and even these they failed to reanimate; and the menwho had for seven hours fought, as Kleber himself reported, liketigers, lost heart.
Lescure had fallen in the fighting on the fourteenth. Bonchamp andd'Elbee were both desperately wounded at the battle at Chollet, andwere carried off by their men. La Rochejaquelein, with whom JeanMartin and Leigh were riding, had made almost superhuman efforts tocheck the panic; and they fell back, almost broken hearted, with aband of peasants, who held together to the last. On the previousday Leigh had escorted Patsey to Beaupreau, and it was to this townthat the fugitives made their way, arriving there at midnight.
"Thank God that you are both alive!" Patsey said, bursting intotears as her husband entered the room in which she was established.
"We can hardly believe it ourselves," Jean said. "It has been aterrible day, indeed. Our men fought nobly, and I firmly believethat we should have won the day, had not an unaccountable panic setin. What caused it I know not. We were doing well everywhere, andhad begun to drive them back and, could we have fought on foranother half hour it was likely that, as usual, a panic would haveseized them.
"However, Patsey, they would have gathered again stronger than ever,and it must have come to the same thing, in the long run. Now put onyour disguise, at once. We will lie down for two hours, and see youoff before daybreak. I do not know whether la Rochejaquelein, whomust now be considered in command, since d'Elbee and Bonchamp areboth desperately wounded, will gather a force to act as a rearguard.If so we must stay with him; but I do not think that even his influencewould suffice to hold any considerable body of peasants together. Allhave convinced themselves that there is safety in Brittany.
"At any rate, the enemy will need a day's rest before they pursue.They must have suffered quite as heavily as we have."
The night, however, was not to pass quietly. At two o'clock twoofficers, who had remained as piquets, rode into the town with newsthat Westermann's division, which had marched through Moulet andhad taken no part in the action, was approaching. The horn soundedthe alarm, and the fugitives started up and renewed their flight.Marthe could not be left behind now, nor did the others desire it;and until they had crossed the Loire there could be no separation,for the whole country would swarm, in forty-eight hours, withparties of the enemy, hunting down and slaying those who had takenrefuge in the woods.
Jean and Leigh had lain down in the cart, to prevent any of thefugitives seizing it. The two women and the child were hurrieddown, and took their places in it. Francois, who had escaped, hadfortunately found them; and took the reins, and the journey wascontinued.
There was no pursuit. It was only a portion of Westermann's forcethat had arrived, and these were so exhausted and worn out, by thelength of their march and by the fact that they had been unable toobtain food by the way, that they threw themselves down when theyreached the town, incapable of marching a mile farther.
At Beaupreau there had been no fewer than five thousand Republicanprisoners, kept under guard. On the arrival of the routed Vendeans,the peasants, as a last act of retaliation, would have slain them;but Bonchamp, who was at the point of death, ordered them to be setfree.
"It is the last order that I shall ever give," he said to thepeasants assembled round his litter. "Surely you will not disobeyme, my children."
The order was obeyed, and the prisoners were at once sent off; andas the Republican column marched out from Chollet, the next day,they encountered on the road their liberated comrades. Thesentiments with which the commissioners of the Convention wereanimated is evidenced by the fact that one of them declared, in aletter to the commander-in-chief of the army, that the release ofthese prisoners by the Vendeans was a regrettable affair; andrecommended that no mention, whatever, should be made of it in thedespatches to Paris, lest this act of mercy by the insurgentsshould arouse public opinion to insist upon a cessation of themeasures that had been taken for the annihilation of the Vendeans.
The fugitives, a vast crowd of over one hundred thousand men,women, and children, reached Saint Florent without coming incontact with the enemy. The Republican generals, indeed, had noidea that the peasants had any intention of quitting their belovedcountry; and imagined that they would disperse to their homesagain, and that there remained only the task of hunting them down.A company had been left on a hill which commanded Saint Florent,but they had no idea of being attacked, and had not even taken theprecaution of removing the boats across the river.
As soon as they arrived, the Vendeans attacked the post with fury,and captured it. Twenty boats were found, and the crossing waseffected with no little difficulty. There were still
two or threethousand, principally women and children, to be taken over, when aparty of Republican dragoons arrived. Numbers of the women andchildren were massacred; but the great bulk, flying precipitately,regained the country beyond the heights of Saint Florent, and tookrefuge in the woods.
The multitude were, for the present, safe. There was no strongforce of the enemy between Nantes and Saumur, and they halted forthe night, dispirited, worn out, and filled with grief. They hadleft their homes and all they cared for behind. They were in astrange country, without aim or purpose, their only hope being thatthe Bretons would rise and join them--a poor hope, since theterrible vengeance that had been taken on La Vendee could not butstrike terror throughout Brittany, also.
Jean Martin and Leigh had seen Patsey and the nurse placed in oneof the first boats that crossed.
"Do not go far from the spot where you land," they said. "We shallstay here, until all is over. If the Blues come up before all havecrossed, we shall swim across with our horses; be under nouneasiness about us."
Taking the horse out of the shafts of the cart, and putting asaddle that they had brought with them on its back, they left thethree animals in charge of Francois; and then aided other officersto keep order among the crowd, and to prevent them from pressinginto the boats, as they returned from the other bank, in suchnumbers as to sink them. All day the work went on quietly andregularly, until so comparatively few remained that hope becamestrong that all would cross, before any of the enemy arrived.
That hope was destroyed when, suddenly, the enemy's cavalryappeared at the edge of the slope, and came galloping down. Theofficers in vain tried to get the few men that remained to make astand. They were too dispirited to attempt to do so, and the littlethrong broke up and fled, some one way, some another.
Fortunately an empty boat had just returned, and into this theother officers leapt; while Jean, with his two companions, led thehorses into the water. They had already linked the reins. Francoiswas unable to swim but, at Jean's order, he took hold of the tailof the horse in the middle; while Jean and Leigh swam by the headsof the two outside horses, and without difficulty the other sidewas gained. Patsey, who had had her eye fixed upon them all day,was standing at the spot where they landed.
They were near the town of Ancenis, and a portion of the Vendeansentered the place, which was wholly undefended. The inhabitantswere in abject terror, thinking that the town would be sacked; andwere surprised to find that the peasants did no one any harm, andwere ready to pay for anything that they required. So long, indeed,as any money whatever remained, the Vendeans paid scrupulously.When it was all expended, the chiefs did the only thing in theirpower, issuing notes promising to pay; and although these had novalue, save in the good faith of the Vendeans, they were receivedby the Bretons as readily as the assignats of the Republic--which,indeed, like the notes of the Vendeans, were never destined to bepaid.
Had the army plunged into Brittany after the capture of Saumur,there can be no doubt that the peasantry would everywhere haverisen; but coming as fugitives and exiles, they were a warningrather than a source of enthusiasm; and although small numbers ofpeasants joined them, the accession of force was very trifling.
Jean Martin, his wife, and Leigh held an anxious consultation thatevening. They had found a poor lodging, after attending a meetingof the leaders, at which la Rochejaquelein had been unanimouslyelected commander-in-chief; Bonchamp having died, while d'Elbee,wounded to death, had been left at the cottage of a Breton peasant,who promised to conceal him. The young soldier had accepted thefearful responsibility with the greatest reluctance. He, and thosearound him, saw plainly enough that the only hope of escape fromannihilation was the landing of a British force to theirassistance. Unhappily, however, England had not as yet awoke to thetremendous nature of the struggle that was going on. Her army was asmall one; and her fleet, as yet, had not attained the dimensionsthat were, before many years, to render her the unquestionedmistress of the seas.
The feeling that the Revolution was the fruit of centuries ofoppression; and that, terrible as were the excesses committed inthe name of liberty, the cause of the Revolution was still thecause of the peoples of Europe, had created a party sufficientlypowerful to hamper the ministry. Moreover, the government was badlyinformed in every respect by its agents in France, and had no ideaof the extent of the rising in La Vendee, or how nobly the peoplethere had been defending themselves against the whole force ofFrance. It is not too much to say that had England, at this time,landed twenty thousand troops in Brittany or La Vendee, the wholecourse of events in Europe would have been changed. The FrenchRevolution would have been crushed before it became formidable toEurope, and countless millions of money and millions of lives wouldhave been saved.
Throughout France there was a considerable portion of thepopulation who would have rejoiced in the overthrow of theRepublic, for even in the large towns its crimes had provokedreaction. Toulon had opened its gates to the English. Lyons was inarms against the Republic. Normandy's discontent was general, andits peasantry would have joined those of Brittany and La Vendee,had there been but a fair prospect of success.
England, however, did nothing, but stood passive until thepeasantry of La Vendee were all but exterminated; and indeed, addedto their misfortunes by promising aid that never was sent, and thusencouraging them to maintain a resistance that added to theexasperation of their enemies, and to their own misfortunes andsufferings.
"What are we going to do?" Patsey asked, as her husband and Leighreturned from the meeting.
"That is more than anyone can say," Jean replied. "We shall, forthe present, move north. We are like a flight of locusts. We mustmove since we must eat, and no district could furnish subsistencefor eighty thousand people, for more than a day or two.
"There can be no doubt that the impulse to cross the Loire was amad one. On the other side we at least knew the country, and itwould have been far better to have died fighting, there, than tothrow ourselves across the river. It was well nigh a miracle thatwe got across, and it will need nothing short of a miracle to getus back again.
"Of one thing we may be sure: the whole host of our enemies will,by this time, be in movement. We should never have got across, hadthey dreamed that such was our intention. Now that we have done it,you may be sure that they will strain every effort to prevent usfrom returning. Probably, by this time, half their forces aremarching to cross at Nantes. The other half are pressing on toSaumur. In three or four days they will be united again, and willbe between us and the river.
"Were we a smaller body, were we only men, I should say that weought to march another twenty miles north, then sweep round eithereast or west and, while the enemy followed the north bank of theriver to effect a junction, we should march all night without ahalt, pass them, and hurl ourselves either upon Saumur or Nantes,and so return to La Vendee. But with such a host as this, therewould be little hope of success. I fancy that we shall march toLaval, and there halt for a day or two. By that time the wholeforce of the enemy will have come up, and there will be anotherbattle."
"And we, Jean?"
"I see nothing but for us to march with them. We know nothing ofthe movements of the enemy and, were we to try to make our wayacross the country, we might run into their arms. Besides, Leighand I have both agreed that, at present at least, we cannot leaveRochejaquelein."
"We could not, indeed, Patsey," Leigh broke in. "If you had seenhim this evening when, with tears in his eyes, he accepted ourchoice, you would feel as we do. It was all very well for us,before, to talk of making off; but now that the worst has happened,if it were only for his sake, I should stay by him; though I thinkthat Jean, with the responsibility of you and your child, would bejustified in going."
"No," Patsey said firmly, "whatever comes, we will stay together.As Jean said, you cannot desert the cause now. As long as there arebattles to fight we must stay with them, and it is not untilfurther fighting has become impossible that we, like others, mustendeavour to shift for ours
elves."
"Well spoken, Patsey!" her husband said. "That must be our course.So long as the Vendeans hang together, with Rochejaquelein at theirhead, we must remain true to the cause that we have taken up. Whenonce again the army becomes a mass of fugitives we can, withoutloss of honour, and a clear consciousness that we have done ourduty to the end, think of our safety. I grant that, if one couldfind a safe asylum for you and our Louis in the cottage of someBreton peasant--"
"No, no!" she interrupted, "that I would never consent to. We willremain together, Jean, come what may. If all is lost, I will askyou to put a pistol to my head. I would a thousand times rather dieso than fall into the hands of the Blues, and either be slaughteredmercilessly, or thrown into one of their prisons to linger, untilthe guillotine released me."
"I agree with you in that, Patsey. Well, we will regard the matteras settled. As long as the army hangs together, so long will weremain with it; after that we will carry out the plans we talkedover, and make for the coast by the way which seems most open tous."
The next day was spent, by Rochejaquelein and his officers, ingoing about among the peasants. They did not disguise from thesethe extreme peril of the position, but they pointed out that it wasonly by holding together, and by defeating the Blues whenever theyattacked them, that they could hope for safety.
"It was difficult to cross the Loire before," they said; "it willbe tenfold more difficult now. Every boat will have been taken overto the other side, and you may be sure that strong bodies of theenemy will have been posted, all along the banks, to prevent ourreturning. You have fought well before. You must fight even betterin future, for there is no retreat, no home to retire to. Yourlives, and those of the women and children with you, depend uponyour being victorious. You have beaten the Blues almost every timethat you have met them. You would have beaten them last time, hadnot a sort of madness seized you. It was not we who led you acrossthe Loire; you have chosen to come, and we have followed you.
"At any rate, it is better to die fighting, for God and country,than to be slaughtered unresistingly by these murderers. You sawhow they fell upon the helpless ones who were unable to cross withus; how they murdered women and children, although there was noresistance, nothing to excite their anger. If you die, you die asmartyrs to your faith and loyalty, and no man could wish for abetter death.
"All is not lost, yet. Defeat the Blues, and Brittany may yet rise;besides, we are promised aid from England. At any rate, La Vendeehas been true to herself through over six months of terriblestruggle. La Vendee may perish. Let the world see that she has beentrue to herself, to the end."
The fugitive priests with the army seconded the efforts of theofficers and, by nightfall, a feeling of resolution and hopesucceeded the depression caused by the terrible events of thepreceding thirty-six hours; and it was with an air of calmness andcourage that the march was recommenced, on the following morning.
The instant that it became known that the Vendeans had crossed theLoire, a panic seized the Republicans at Nantes; and messengerswere sent to implore the commander-in-chief to march with all hasteto aid them should, as they believed, the Vendeans be marching toassail the town. Kleber with his division started at once, followedmore slowly by the main body of the army.
Another column advanced to Saint Florent and, obtaining boats,crossed the river and entered Angers; to the immense relief of theRepublicans there, who had been in a state of abject terror at thepresence, so near them, of the Vendeans. Kleber marched with greatrapidity, passed through Nantes without stopping, and establishedhimself at the camp of Saint Georges.
The news of what was termed the glorious victory atChollet--although in point of fact the Republicans fell back, afterthe battle, to that town--caused the greatest enthusiasm in Paris,and the Convention and the Republican authorities issuedproclamations, which were unanimous in exhorting the army to pursueand exterminate the Vendeans.
By the twenty-third, the whole of the French army was in readinessto march in pursuit. Kleber was still in the camp of Saint Georges,Chalbos was at Nantes with a corps d'armee, Beaupuy was at Angers.
The Vendeans had marched through Cande and Chateau-Gontier, and hadwithout difficulty driven out the Republican force stationed atLaval. L'Echelle, the commander-in-chief, was profoundly ignorant,supine, and cowardly; and owed his position solely to the fact thathe belonged to the lower class, and was not, like Biron and theother commanders-in-chief, of good family. Remaining always at adistance from the scene of operations, he confused the generals ofdivisions by contradictory orders, which vied with each other intheir folly.
On the twenty-fourth, Kleber marched to Ancenis, and on the followingday he, Beaupuy, and Westermann arrived at Chateau-Gontier. Canuel'sdivision from Saint Florent had not yet come up. The troops werealready tired, but Westermann who, as Kleber in his report said, wasalways anxious to gain glory and bring himself into prominence,insisted on pushing forward at once; and prevailed over the moreprudent counsel of the others, as he was the senior officer.
When they approached Laval, Westermann sent a troop of cavalryforward to reconnoitre. He was not long before he came upon someVendean outposts. These he charged, and drove in towards the town.
No sooner did they arrive there than the bells of the churchespealed out. It was now midnight but, before the army could forminto order, the Vendeans poured out upon them, guided by the shoutsof the Republican officers, who were endeavouring to get theirtroops into order. The combat was desperate and sanguinary. Thepeasants, fighting with the fury of despair, threw themselvesrecklessly upon the Republican troops; whose cannon were not yet ina position to come into action, and whose infantry, in thedarkness, fired at random. Fighting in the dark, discipline availedbut little. Kleber's veterans, however, preserved their coolness,and for a time the issue was doubtful.
Had Westermann's cavalry done their duty, victory might still haveinclined towards them; but instead of charging when ordered, theyturned tail and, riding through a portion of their infantry, spreaddisorder among them. Westermann, seeing that it was hopeless toendeavour to retrieve the confusion, ordered a retreat; and thearmy fell back to Chateau-Gontier, where they arrived in the courseof the day. Here they found the commander-in-chief who,disregarding the exhausting march the troops had alreadyaccomplished, and their loss of spirit after their defeat, orderedthem to return to Vihiers, halfway to Laval.
It was nightfall when they reached this place, but Westermannpushed the advanced guard some two leagues farther. Kleber, seeingthe extreme danger of the position, refused to advance beyondVihiers; and sent orders to Danican, who commanded the advancedguard, to fall back to a strong position in advance of Vihiers.
Danican had taken command only on the previous day, and thesoldiers, believing that this order was but an act of arbitraryauthority on his part, refused to move; and the bridge over theriver Ouette, in front of Vihiers, remained unguarded save by asquadron of cavalry. Kleber had just returned from visiting thepost, when he received a despatch from l'Echelle, bidding him givethe order they had decided upon between them to the other twodivisions. As no such arrangement had been made, Kleber was inignorance of what was meant; but he sent a messenger to Beaupuy,who was at Chateau-Gontier, and to Bloss, who commanded a column ofgrenadiers, to join him as soon as possible.
Bloss arrived early the next morning at the camp. Beaupuy movedforward but, as his whole force had not yet come up, he did notarrive at the camp at the same time.
At eleven that night l'Echelle and the four generals now in thecamp held a council. Westermann was extremely discontented, atfinding that the heights were not occupied; but as Kleber remarked,the troops were utterly dissatisfied at the way in which they hadbeen handled, and at the unnecessary and enormous fatigues that hadbeen imposed upon them, and it was impossible to demand furtherexertions. Savary, one of the generals at the council, was wellacquainted with Laval, and gave the advice that a portion of thearmy should follow the river for some distance, and then takepossession of
the hills commanding the town.
When Beaupuy arrived, his division moved forward at once, as anadvanced guard; but as the army was moving a messenger arrived froml'Echelle, issuing orders in absolute contradiction of the planthat he had agreed to, when the council of war broke up. The orderswere obeyed, but the generals again met, and sent off a messengerto l'Echelle to remonstrate against the attack in one mass, and amarch by a single road, on a position that could be attacked byseveral routes; and to recommend that at least a diversion shouldbe made, by a false attack. Westermann himself carried thisremonstrance, but the commander-in-chief paid no attention to him.
Advancing, it was found that the Vendeans had taken up a positionon the neglected heights. The cannon opened on both sides, andBeaupuy was soon hotly engaged. Kleber advanced his division tosustain him. L'Echelle, coming up, arrested the further advance ofthe division of Chalbos. Savary rode back in haste, to implorel'Echelle to order Chalbos to move to the right and attack the leftflank of the enemy; but by this time the unfortunate wretch hadcompletely lost his head and, instead of giving Chalbos orders toadvance, ordered him to retreat, and himself fled in all haste.
Two columns, that were posted a few miles in the rear, received noorders whatever, and remained all day waiting for them. Kleber,seeing the division of Chalbos retiring in great disorder, feltthat success was now impossible; and placed two battalions not yetengaged at the bridge, to cover the retreat. But the panic wasspreading, his orders were disobeyed, and the veterans of Mayence,as well as the divisions of Beaupuy, broke their ranks and fled.
In vain the officers endeavoured to stay the flight. The panic wascomplete. Their guns were left behind, and the Vendeans, pressinghotly on their rear, overtook and killed great numbers. Bloss withhis grenadiers, advancing from Chateau-Gontier, tried in vain toarrest the flight of the fugitives; and he himself and his commandwere swept away by the mob, and carried beyond the town.
A few hundreds of the soldiers alone were rallied, and prepared todefend the bridge of Chateau-Gontier; but la Rochejaquelein hadsent a portion of his force to make a circuit and seize the town,so that the defenders of the bridge were exposed to a heavy firefrom houses in their rear.
Kleber, with a handful of men, held the bridge; and was joined byBloss, who had been already wounded while passing through the town.He advanced to cross; Kleber and Savary in vain tried to stop him.
"No," he said, "I will not survive the shame of such a day," and,rushing forward with a small party, fell under the fire of theadvancing Vendeans.
The pursuit was hotly maintained. Keeping on heights whichcommanded the road, the Vendeans maintained an incessant fire ofcannon and musketry. It was already night, and this alone saved theRepublican army from total destruction. Beaupuy received a terriblewound in the battle, and a great number of officers were killed, inendeavouring to stop the panic.
At last the pursuit ceased and, for a few hours, the wearyfugitives slept. Then they continued their retreat, and took up astrong position near the town of Angers, which was crowded withfugitives.
L'Echelle came out to review the troops who, by the orders of theirgenerals, had already formed in order of battle; but was receivedwith such yells of hatred and contempt that he was forced toretire. The representatives of the convention offered Kleber thecommand of the army, but he refused, saying that Chalbos was ofsuperior rank, and that it was he who should take the command. Theyagreed to this, and sent to l'Echelle, telling him to demand leaveof absence, on account of his health.
A council of war was then held. The representatives of theConvention were favourable to a fresh advance of the army, butKleber protested that, at present, there was no army. He said thatthe soldiers were utterly discouraged, that some battalions had buttwenty or thirty men with the colours, that all were wet to theskin, utterly exhausted, many without shoes, and all dispirited.Therefore he insisted that it was absolutely necessary that thearmy should be completely reorganized, before undertaking a freshforward movement.
Their loss had indeed been extremely heavy, Kleber's division alonehaving lost over a thousand men. Beaupuy had suffered even moreheavily; while the divisions of Chalbos, and the grenadiers ofBloss had also lost large numbers. The total loss, includingdeserters, amounted to over four thousand.
The whole of the cannon of the two first divisions had fallen intothe hands of the enemy, the artillerymen having cut the traces. Alarge number of ammunition waggons, and a quantity of carts ladenwith provisions, had also been captured.