that quarter had so long consumed the | join Stofflet: that intrepid chief, himvitals of the state. self pressed by the forces of the Republic, after escaping a thousand perils, was betrayed by one of his followers at the farm of Pegrimaud, where he was 20. Hoche's plan, which was approved of by the Directory, was to reduce La Vendée, and all the provinces to the south of the Loire, before mak-seized, gagged, and conducted to Angers. ing any attempt upon Brittany, or the He there met death with the same redepartments to the north of that river. solution which had distinguished his All the towns in the insurgent district life. were declared in a state of siege; the Republican army was authorised to maintain itself in the country where hostilities were continued, and to levy the necessary requisitions from the peasantry; and the towns which fell into the possession of the Republicans were to be protected and provided for like captured fortresses. Pardon was proclaimed to all the chiefs who should lay down their arms, while those who continued the contest were ordered to be shot. 22. This great success was necessary to establish the credit of the young general, who, accused equally by both parties-by the Royalists of severity, and by the Republicans of moderationwas so beset with difficulties, and so much disgusted with his situation, that he formally demanded his dismissal from the command. But Carnot, aware of his abilities, instead of accepting his resignation, confirmed him in his appointments; and, as a mark of the esteem of government, sent him two fine horses-a present not only highly aoceptable, but absolutely necessary to the young general. For, though at the head of one hundred thousand men, and master of a quarter of France, he was reduced to such straits, by the fall of the paper in which the whole pay of the army was received, that he was absolutely without horses, or equipage of any kind, and was glad to supply his immediate necessities by taking halfa-dozen bridles and saddles, and a few bottles of rum, from the stores left by the British in Quiberon Bay. 21. During the absence of Hoche at Paris, in the depth of winter, arranging this plan with the Directory, the Royalist chiefs, in particular Charette and Stofflet, gained considerable successes: the project of disarming the insurgent provinces had made little progress; and the former of these chiefs, having broken through the line, had appeared in the rear of the Republicans. But the arrival of the general-in-chief restored vigour and unanimity to their operations. Charette was closely pursued by several columns, under the command of General Travot; while Stofflet, cut off from all communication with the other Royalists, was driven back upon the shores of the ocean. As a last resource, Charette collected all his forces, and attacked his antagonist at the passage of La Vie. The Royalists, seized with a sudden panic, did not combat with their accustomed vigour; their ranks were speedily broken; their artillery, ammunition, and sacred stand-nance. Charette replied, "I am ready ard, all fell into the hands of the enemy; Charette himself with difficulty made his escape, with forty or fifty followers, and, wandering through forests and marshes long after, owed his safety solely to the incorruptible fidelity of the peasants of the Marais. In vain he endeavoured to elude his pursuers and VOL. III. 23. Charette was now the only remaining obstacle to the entire subjugation of the country; for, as long as he lived, it never could be considered as pacified. Anxious to get quit of so formidable an enemy on any terms, the Directory offered him a safe retreat into England with his family and such of his followers as he might select, and a million of francs for his own mainte to die with arms in my hands; but not to fly, and abandon my companions in misfortune. All the vessels of the Republic would not be sufficient to transport my brave soldiers into England. Far from fearing your menaces, I will myself come to seek you in your own camp." The Royalist officers, who per X He ceived that further resistance had be- | hours, with heroic constancy, the abuse come hopeless, urged him to retire to and imprecations of the populace. Britain, and await a more favourable was immediately conducted to the opportunity of renewing the contest at military commission. His examination the head of the princes and nobility of lasted two hours; but his answers were France. "Gentlemen," said he, with a all clear, consistent, and dignifiedsevere air, "I am not here to judge of openly avowing his Royalist principles, the orders which my sovereign has and resolution to maintain them to the given me I know them; they are the last. Upon hearing the sentence of same which I myself have solicited. death, he calmly asked for the succours Preserve towards them the same fidelity of religion, which were granted him, which I shall do; nothing shall shake and slept peaceably the night before me in the discharge of my duty." the sentence was carried into effect. On the following morning he was brought out for execution. The rolling of drums, the assembly of all the troops and national guard, a countless multitude of spectators, announced the great event which was approaching. At length the hero appeared, descended with a firm step the stairs of the prison, and walked to the Place des Agriculteurs, where the execution was to take place. A breathless silence prevailed. Charette advanced to the appointed place, bared his breast, took his yet bloody arm out of the scarf, and, without permitting his eyes to be bandaged, himself gave the command, uttering, with his last breath, the words-" Vive le Roi !" 24. This indomitable chief, however, could not long withstand the immense bodies which were now directed against him. His band was gradually reduced from seven hundred to fifty, and at last, ten followers. With this handful of heroes he long kept at bay the Republican forces; but at length, pursued on every side, and tracked out like a wild beast by bloodhounds, he was seized, after a furious combat, and brought, bleeding and mutilated, but unsubdued, to the Republican headquarters. General Travot, with the consideration due to illustrious misfortune, treated him with respect and kindness, but could not avert his fate. He was conducted to Angers, where he was far from experiencing from others the generous treatment of this brave Republican general. Maltreated by the brutal soldiery, dragged along, yet dripping with blood" from his wounds, before the populace of the town, weakened by loss of blood, he had need of all his strength of mind to sustain his courage; but, even in this extremity, his firmness never deserted him. On the 27th March he was removed from the prison of Angers to that of Nantes. He entered the latter town, preceded by a numerous escort, closely guarded by gendarmes and generals glittering in gold and plumes; himself on foot, with his clothes torn and bloody, pale and attenuated; yet an object of more interest than all the splendid throng by whom he was surrounded. Such was his exhaustion from loss of blood, that the undaunted chief fainted on leaving the Quarter of Commerce; but no sooner was his strength revived by a glass of water, than he marched on, enduring for two 25. Thus perished Charette, the last and most indomitable of the Vendean chiefs. His character cannot be better given than in the words of Napoleon: Charette," said he, "was a great character; the true hero of that interesting period of our Revolution, which, if it presents great misfortunes, has at least not injured our glory. He left on me the impression of real grandeur of mind; the traces of no common energy and audacity, the sparks of genius, are apparent in his actions." Though the early massacres which stained the Royalist cause at Machecoul were perpetrated without his orders, yet he had not the romantic generosity, or humane turn of mind, which formed the glorious characteristics of Lescure, Larochejaquelein, and Bonchamp. His mind, cast in a rougher mould, was marked by deeper colours; and, in the later stages of the contest, he executed, without scruple, all the severities which the terrible war in which he was engaged called forth on both sides. If his jeal ousy of others was sometimes injurious to the Royal cause, his unconquerable firmness prolonged it after every other chance of success was gone; his single arm supported the struggle when the bravest of his followers were sinking in despair; and he has left behind him the glorious reputation of being alike invincible in resolution, inexhaustible in resources, and unsubdued in disaster. Las Cases has recounted an anecdote of him when in command of a small vessel early in life. Though regarded as a person of mere ordinary capacity, he on one occasion gave proof of the native energy of his mind. While still a youth, he sailed from Brest in his cutter, which, having lost its mast, was exposed to the most imminent danger; the sailors, on their knees, were praying to the Virgin, and totally incapable of making any exertion, till Charette, by killing one, succeeded in bringing the others to a sense of their duty, and thereby saved the vessel. "There!" said Napoleon, "the true character always appears in great circumstances; that was a spark which spoke the future hero of La Vendée. We must not always judge of a character from present appearances: there are slumberers whose rousing is terrible. Kleber was one of them; his wakening was that of the lion." weapons, but not till then. The consequence was, that the poor people, threatened with famine, if these their only resources were withheld, were compelled universally to surrender their arms. The army, advancing slowly, completed in this way the disarming of the inhabitants as they proceeded, and left nothing in their rear from which danger was to be apprehended. At length they reached the ocean; and though the most resolute of the insurgent bands fought with the courage of despair when they found themselves driven back to the sea-coast, yet the great work was by degrees accomplished, the country universally disarmed, and the soldiers put into cantonments in the conquered district. The people, weary of a contest from which no hope could now be entertained, at length everywhere surrendered their arms, and resumed their pacific occupations; the Republicans, cantoned in the villages, lived on terms of friendship with their former enemies; mutual exasperation subsided, the clergy communicated openly with a leader who had for the first time treated them with sincerity and kindness; and before the end of the summer, Hoche, instead of requir ing new troops, was able to send great reinforcements to the Directory, for the support of the armies on the Rhine and in Italy. 26. The death of Charette terminated the war in the west of France, and gave 27. Meanwhile the cabinet of Vienna, more joy to the Republicans than the encouraged by the brilliant achievemost brilliant victory over the Aus- ments of Clairfait at the conclusion of trians. The vast army of Hoche, spread the last campaign, and aware, from the over the whole country from the Loire incorporation of Flanders with the to the British Channel, gradually pressed French Republic, that no accommodaupon the insurgent provinces, and drove tion was to be hoped for, was making the peasantry back towards the shores the utmost efforts to prosecute the war of the ocean. The policy pursued by with vigour. A new levy of twenty-five the Republican general on this occasion thousand men took place in the Hewas a model of wisdom, worthy the im-reditary States; the regiments were uniitation of every government, or com-versally raised to their full complement; mander charged with a similar arduous duty. He took the utmost pains to conciliate the parish priests, who had so powerful an influence over the minds of the people; and as his columns advanced, seized the cattle and grain of the peasantry, leaving at their dwellings a notice that they would be restored to them when they gave up their and every effort was made to turn to advantage the military spirit and numer ous population of the newly acquired province of Gallicia. Clairfait, the conqueror of the lines of Mayence, made a triumphal entry into Vienna with unprecedented splendour. But his fame awakened the usual jealousy of courts; necessity had not yet rendered him in 29. The plan of the Aulic Council was, in the north to force the passage of the Moselle, carry the war into Flanders, and rescue that flourishing province from the grasp of the Republicans. For this purpose they had brought the greater mass of their forces to the Lower Rhine. On the Upper, they pro dispensable to the public safety; and the Aulic Council repaid his achievements by the appointment of the Archduke Charles to the command of the armies on the Rhine-a step which, however ill deserved by his gallant predecessor, was soon justified by the great military abilities of the young prince. 28. The forces of the contending par-posed to lay siege to Landau, and, havties on the Rhine were nearly equal; but the Imperialists had a great superiority in the number and quality of their cavalry. On the Upper Rhine, Moreau commanded seventy thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry; while Wurmser, who was opposed to him, had sixty-two thousand foot and twenty-two thousand horse; but before this campaign was far advanced, thirty thousand men were detached from this army to reinforce the broken troops of Beaulieu in Italy. On the Lower Rhine, the Archduke was at the head of seventy-one thousand infantry and twenty-one thousand cavalry; while the army of the Sambre and Meuse, under Jourdan, numbered sixty-eight thousand of the former arm, and eleven thousand of the latter. The disproportion between the numerical strength on the opposite sides, therefore, was not considerable; but the superiority of the Germans in the number and quality of their horse gave them a great advantage in an open country, both in profiting by success and arresting disaster. This advantage, however, was more than compensated to the French by their possession of the fortresses on the Rhine, the true base of offensive operations in Germany. They held the fortresses of Luxemburg, Thionville, Metz, and Saarelouis which rendered the centre of their position almost unassailable; their right was covered by Huningen, New Brisach, and the fortresses of Alsace, and their left by Maestricht, Juliers, and the iron barrier of the Netherlands; while the Austrians had no fortified point whatever to support either of their wings. This want, in a war of invasion, is of incalculable importance; and the event soon proved that the fortresses of the Rhine are not less valuable as a base for offensive, than as a barrier to support defensive operations. ing driven the Republicans over the mountains on the west of the valley of the Rhine, blockade Strassburg. But for some reason, which has never been divulged, they remained in a state of inactivity until the end of May; while Beaulieu, with fifty thousand men, was striving in vain to resist the torrent of Napoleon's conquests in Lombardy. The consequences of this delay proved fatal to the whole campaign. Hardly was the armistice denounced in the end of May, when an order arrived to Wurmser to detach twenty-five thousand of his best troops by the Tyrolese Alps into Italy-a deduction which, by necessarily reducing the Imperialists on the Upper Rhine to the defensive, rendered it hardly possible for the Archduke to push forward the other army towards the Moselle. There still remained, however, one hundred and fifty thousand Imperialists on the frontiers of Germany, including above forty thousand superb cavalry-a force which, if earlier brought into action, and placed under one leader, might have changed the fate of the war. The French inferiority in horse was compensated by a superiority of twenty thousand footsoldiers. The Austrians had the immense advantage of possessing two fortified places, Mayence and Mannheim, on the Rhine, which gave them the means of debouching with equal facility on either side of that stream; while the Republicans only held a tête-de-pont at Düsseldorf, so far removed to the north as to be of little service in commencing operations. The events of this struggle demonstrate, in the most striking manner, the great importance of early success in war, and by what a necessary chain of consequences an inconsiderable advantage at first often determines the fate of a campaign. A single victory gained by the Austrians on the the 30th May, crossed the Rhine at Düsseldorf, and, with twenty-five thousand men, began to press the Austrians on the Sieg, where the Archduke had only twenty thousand-the great bulk of his army, sixty thousand strong, being on the left bank, in front of Mayence. Saare or the Moselle would have com- | formity with this design, KLEBER,* on pelled the French armies to break up, in order to garrison the frontier towns; and the Directory, to defend its own territories, would have been obliged to arrest the career of Napoleon in the Italian plains; while, by taking the initiative, and carrying the war into Germany, they were enabled to leave their fortresses defenceless, and swell, by the garrisons of these, the invading force, which soon proved so perilous to the Austrian monarchy. 30. The plan of the Republicans was to move forward the army of the Sambre and Meuse by Düsseldorf, to the right bank of the Rhine, in order to threaten the communication of the Archduke with Germany, induce him to recross it, and facilitate the passage of the upper part of the stream by Moreau. In con 31. The Republicans succeeded in defeating the advanced posts of the Imperialists, crossed the Sieg, turned the position of Ukerath, and drove them back to Altenkirchen. There the Austrians stood firm, and a severe action took place. General NEY, with a body of light troops, turned their left, and threatened their communications; while Kleber, having advanced through the hills of Weyersbusch, assailed their front; and SOULT† menaced their reserve at Kropach. The result of these After * Jean Baptiste Kleber was born at Strass-sideration, and elevated him to the rank of burg in 1754. His father was a domestic in adjutant-major, in which capacity he acted the service of Cardinal Rohan, who became for some time under General Custine. When so notorious in connection with the affair of that officer was brought to trial, he had the the diamond necklace; and he was at first courage to do what in those days required destined for the profession of an architect, stronger nerves than to face a battery of canfor which he evinced a considerable turn. non-to give evidence in his favour. The One day at Paris, when pursuing his studies, known vehemence of his Republican prinhe saw two foreigners insulted by some ciples preserved him from the destruction young men in a coffee-house; he took their which otherwise would have awaited him for part, and extricated them from the attack: that courageous act; and he was soon after in return, they offered to take him with them sent as general of brigade to La Vendée, where to Munich, to which city they belonged, and his talents and intrepidity were experienced place him in the Military Academy there. with fatal effect by the Royalist forces. His The offer was too tempting to be resisted; able conduct mainly contributed to the victhe study of architecture was exchanged for tories of Chollet, Mans, and Savenay, which the career of arms; and such was the pro- proved so fatal to the Vendean cause. gress made by the young student in his mili-having made a triumphant entry into Nantes, tary studies, that General Kaunitz, son of the and in effect finished the war, he was removed celebrated minister of the same name, invited from his command, in consequence of the unhim to Vienna, and soon after gave him a disguised manner in which he expressed his commission as sub-lieutenant in his regi- abhorrence of the sanguinary cruelties with ment. He remained in the Austrian service which the Committee of Public Salvation defrom 1776 to 1785, and made his first essay in solated the country after the contest was over. arms against the Turks; but, disgusted at His unrestrained freedom of speech long prelength with a service in which promotion was vented Kleber's promotion, as it does in every awarded only to birth, he resigned his com- age that of really great men. Every governmission, returned to France, resumed his ment, monarchical, aristocratic, or republiprofession of an architect, and obtained the can, seeks for pliant talent, not lofty intelsituation of inspector of public edifices at Bé- lect. The disasters of the Republic, however, fort, which he held for six years. at length rendered his employment indisThe Revolution, however, called him to pensable, and he received a command as genvery different destinies. In a revolt at Béfort, eral of division, in which capacity he bore in 1791, he espoused the cause of the popu- a part in the battle of Fleurus, and in all the lace, whom he headed, and defeated the regi- subsequent operations of the army of the ment of Royal-Louis, which strove to sup- Sambre and Meuse in 1795, down to the crosspress the tumult. This incident determined ing of the Rhine by Jourdan in spring 1796. his future career: retreat was impossible; he-Biog. Univ. xxii. 460, 462 (KLEBER). had now no chance of safety but in advancing with the Revolution. In 1792 he entered as a private into a regiment of volunteers of the Upper Rhine, in which his lofty stature, martial air, fearless demeanour, and previous acquaintance with war, soon gained him con † Jean de Dieu Soult, afterwards Marshal of France and Duke of Dalmatia, was born at St Amans, in the department of Tarn, on the 29th March 1769, just a month before his great rival Wellington, and in the same year with Lannes, Ney, and so many others of the |