CHAP. 1795. 22. Gradual estrange ties from each other. same manner, which formed a striking contrast to the dress of the commissioners of the Convention, distinguished chiefly by the red cap of liberty. But after the first tumults of public joy had subsided, it became evident that the treaty was a truce rather than ment of the a final pacification, and that the seeds of inextinguishable pacified par- discord subsisted between the opposite parties. The Royalists and the Republicans each associated exclusively with their own party. The officers of Charette appeared at the theatre with the white cockade; though he himself, who had so often rivalled Coligny in war, surpassed him in prudence and caution during peace. Carefully avoiding every menacing or hostile expression, he was yet reserved and circumspect in his demeanour; and it was evident to all that, though anxious to avoid an immediate rupture, he had no confidence in the continuance of the accommodation. The members of the Committee of Public Salvation were impressed with the same conviction. The answer they made to their friends, when pressed on the subject of the treaty, was-"We have little reliance on the submission of Charette; but we are always gaining time, and preparing the means of crushing him on the first symptom of a revolt." In truth, the Republican pride had too good reason to be mortified at this treaty. Conquerors of all their other enemies, they were yet seemingly humbled by their own subjects; and the peasants of la Vendée had extorted terms which the kings of Europe had in vain contended for. It is painful to think that the renewal of hostilities in this district, and its tragic termination, was owing to the delusive hopes held out by, and the ill-judged assistance of, Great Britain.1 1 Beauch. iii. 241, 248. Lac. xii. 304. 23. to Quibe ron. Induced by the flattering accounts of the emigrants, Expedition the British government had long been making great preparations for a descent on the western coast of France, by a corps of those expatriated nobles whose fortunes had been rendered all but desperate by the Revolution. Its success appeared to them so certain, that all the terrors XVIII. 1795. of the laws against them could not prevent a large force CHAP. from being recruited among the emigrants in Britain and Germany, and the prisoners of war in the British prisons. The government judged, perhaps wisely, that, as the expected movement was to be wholly national, it would be inexpedient to give the command of the expedition to a British commander, or support it by any considerable body of British troops. The forces embarked consisted of six thousand emigrants in the pay of Great Britain, with a regiment of artillerymen from Toulon, and they carried with them eighty pieces of cannon, with all their equipages and arms, and clothing for eighty thousand men. They were divided into two corps; the first commanded by Puisaye, whose representations had caused the adoption of the plan; and the second by the Count de Sombreuil. A third division of British troops was destined to support the two first, when they had made good their landing on the French coast. The command of the whole was given to the Count d'Artois, and great hopes were entertained of its success, not so much from the numerical amount of the forces on board, as the illustrious names which the nobles bore, and the expected co-operation of 1 Jom. vii. the Chouans and Vendeans, who had engaged, on the Th. vii. 454. first appearance of a prince of the blood, to place eighty 419, 421. thousand men at his disposal.1 135, 143. Beauch. iii. 24. sea-fight at Belle-Isle. The naval affairs of the French, on the western coast, had been so unfortunate as to promise every facility to Running the invading force. In winter the Brest fleet, in obedience to the positive orders of government, put to sea; but its raw and inexperienced crews were totally unable to face the tempests, which kept even the hardy veterans of Great Britain in their harbours. The squadron was dispersed by a storm, five ships of the line were lost, and the remainder so much damaged, that twelve line-of-battle ships were alone able in June to put to sea. This fleet, accompanied by thirteen frigates, surprised the advanced- 7th June. guard of the Channel fleet, under the command of Admiral 1795. 1 James, ii. 124, 127. Jom. vii. Beauch. iii. CHAP. Cornwallis, near Belle-Isle, on the 7th June; but such XVIII. was the skill and intrepidity of the British admiral, that he succeeded in maintaining a running fight the whole day, and at length extricated his little squadron, without 13th June. any loss, from the fearful odds by which it was assailed. Six days afterwards, Lord Bridport, with fourteen ships of the line and eight frigates, hove in sight, and, after two days' manoeuvring, succeeded in compelling the enemy to engage. The British admiral bore down in two columns on the hostile fleet, who, instead of awaiting the contest, immediately fell into confusion, and strained every nerve to escape. In the running fight three ships of the line were captured by the British, and, if the wind had permitted all their squadron to take part in the action, there can be no doubt that the whole French fleet would have been 147. Ann, taken or destroyed. As it was, they were so discomfited, Reg. p. 138. Th. vii. 457. that they crowded all sail till they reached the harbour of 431, 432. l'Orient, and made no attempt during the remainder of the season to dispute with the British the empire of the seas.1 This brilliant engagement having removed all obstacles Landing of in the way of the expedition, two divisions of the emigrants set sail, and on the 27th appeared in Quiberon Bay. They immediately landed, to the amount in all of about ten thousand men, and made themselves masters of Fort Penthièvre, which defends the entrance of the peninsula of the same name. Encouraged by this success, they next disembarked all the immense stores and the train of artillery, which were intended to equip the whole Royalist forces of the west of France. But dissensions immediately afterwards broke out between Puisaye and d'Hervilly, neither of whom was clearly invested with the supreme direction, the former having the command of the emigrants, the latter of the British forces. At the same time, a small force detached into the interior having experienced a check, the troops were withdrawn into the peninsula and forts. The Chouans, indeed, flocked in great numbers to the spot, and ten thousand of these 25. the emigrants in Quiberon Bay. XVIII. 1795. brave irregulars were armed and clothed from the British CHAP. fleet; but it was soon discovered that their desultory mode of fighting was altogether unsuited for co-operation with regular forces; and, on the first occasion on which they encountered the Republicans, they dispersed, leaving the emigrants exposed to the whole shock of the enemy. 1 Jom. vii. This check was decisive of the fate of the expedition; the 153, 154; troops were all crowded into the peninsula, lines hastily 453, 455, constructed to defend its entrance, and it was determined to vii. 460. Ann. Reg. remain on the defensive-a ruinous policy for an invading p. 71. force, and which can hardly fail of insuring its destruction.1 Beauch. iii. 470. Th. agitation in France. Meanwhile, an inconceivable degree of agitation pre- 26. vailed in the Morbihan, and all along the western coast Prodigious of France. The appearance of a few vessels in the Bay the west of of Quiberon, before the fleet arrived, filled the peasantry with the most tumultuous joy; without the aid of couriers or telegraphs, the intelligence spread in a few hours through the whole province; and five hundred thousand individuals, men, women, and children, spent the night round their cottages, too anxious to sleep, and expecting by every breeze further information. One of their chiefs, d'Allegré, embarked on board a fishing-vessel, and reached Lord Cornwallis's vessel, from whom he received a liberal supply of powder, which was openly disembarked on the coast. Instantly the whole population was at work; every hand was turned towards the manufacture of the implements of war. The lead was stript from the roofs of the houses and churches, and rapidly converted into balls; the women and children made cartridges; universal joy prevailed; the moment of deliverance appeared to be at hand. The intelligence of the disembarkation of the Royalist forces excited the utmost sensation through all France, and demonstrated what might have been the result, if a powerful army, capable of arresting the Republicans in the field, had been 2 Beauch. iii. thrown into the western provinces, while its numerous 432, 434. bands were organised in an effective manner.2 CHAP. 1795. 27. Vigorous measures of Hoche. The invaders are July 7. Hoche immediately took the most vigorous measures to face the danger. His forces were so disposed as to overawe Brittany, and stifle the symptoms of insurrection which manifested themselves in that extensive district; while he himself, having collected seven thousand men, proceeded to the attack of the peninsula of Quiberon. blockaded. On the 7th July, he advanced in close columns to the lines, and, after a smart action, drove the Royalists back in confusion to the intrenched camp which they had formed near Fort Penthièvre. This disaster led to an open rupture between the emigrants and Chouan chiefs. Mutually exasperated, they accused each other of the bad success of the operations, and many thousands of the latter disbanded, and sought to escape from the peninsula. While vigour and resolution thus characterised all the operations of the Republicans, disunion and misunderstanding paralysed the immense force which, under able and united management, might have been placed at the disposal of the Royalists. The Royalist Committee at Paris, either ignorant of, or determined to counteract the designs of Puisaye on the coast, sent instructions to Charette and the Vendeans in Lower Poitou, to attempt no movement till the fleet appeared on his own shores. He, in consequence, renewed his treaty with the Convention at the very time when the expedition was appearing off Quiberon Bay; and refused to accept the arms, ammunition, and money, which Lord Cornwallis tendered to him, to enable him to act with effect. At the very time when every thing depended upon unity of action, and a vigorous demonstration of strength in the outset, the Royalists of Poitou, Anjou, 466, 47, Upper Brittany, and Maine, were kept in a state of Beauch. iii. inactivity by the Royalist Committee; while the emigrants and the peasants of the Morbihan, not a tenth part of the real force of the insurgents, sustained the whole weight of the Republican attack.1 1 Th. vii. 459, 462, 545, 546, 547. Jom. vii. 154. The misery of the troops, cooped up in the camp, soon |