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CHAP.
XVIII.

1795.

34.

Noble conduct and death of

Sombreuil

and the Royalist prisoners.

The unfortunate men were soon aware of the fate which awaited them; and their conduct in the last extremity reflected as much honour on the Royalist, as their murder did disgrace on the Republican cause. The ministers of religion penetrated into those asylums of approaching death, and the Christian faith supported the last hours of their numerous inmates. An old priest, covered with rags and filth, one of the few who had escaped the sword of the Republicans, conveyed its consolations to the numerous captives; and they joined with him in the last offices of religion. Their last prayers were for their king, their country, and the pardon of their enemies. To the executioners they gave the garments which were still at their disposal. Such was the impression produced by the touching spectacle, that even the Republican soldiers, who had been brought up without any sort of religious impressions, were moved to tears, and joined, uncovered, in the ceremonies which they then, many of them, for the first time in their lives, had witnessed. When brought before the military commission, Sombreuil disdained to make any appeal in favour of himself; but asserted, in the most solemn terms, that the capitulation had guaranteed the lives of his followers; that but for a solemn promise to that effect, they would have perished with arms in their hands; that their death was the work of executioners, not soldiers; and that their destruction was a crime which neither God nor man would pardon. When led out to execution, he refused to have his eyes bandaged; and when desired to kneel down to receive the fatal discharge, replied, after a moment's reflection, "I will do so; but I bend one knee to my God, and another to my sovereign." 1 Lac. xii. The other victims who were brought forward, insisted in such vehement terms on the capitulation, that the Republican officers were obliged to give them a respite; but 171. Deux the Convention refused to listen to the dictates of humaAmis, xiv. nity, and they were all ordered for execution.1 Seven hundred and eleven perished with a constancy worthy of

356, 359. Beauch. iii.

Jom. vii.

115, 116.

XVIII.

1795.

a happier fate; the remainder were suffered to escape by CHAP. the indulgence of the soldiers who were intrusted with their massacre, and the humanity of the commissioner who succeeded Tallien in the command. These atrocious scenes took place in a meadow near Auray, still held in the highest veneration by the inhabitants, by whom it is termed the field of martyrs.

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The broken remains of the Quiberon expedition were landed in the Isle of Houat, where they were soon after joined by an expedition of two thousand five hundred men from England, which took possession of the Isle Dieu, and where the Count d'Artois assumed the command. The insurgents of la Vendée, under Charette, fifteen thousand strong, marched in three columns to the Sables d'Olonne to join the expedition; but so rapid and decisive were the measures of Hoche, that they were soon assailed by a superior force, and compelled to seek safety by separating in the forest of Aizenay. Several partial insurrections at the same time broke out in Brittany, but, from want of concert among the Royalist chiefs, they came to nothing. Soon after, the British expedition, not having met with the expected co-operation, abandoned Isle Dieu, which was found to be totally unserviceable as a naval station, and returned with the Count d'Artois, who evinced neither spirit nor conduct in this ill-fated service, to Great Britain. Charette, in despair at the departure of the expedition, said to the Count de Grignon, who brought the intelligence, "Tell the prince that you have brought my death-warrant to-day I am at the

* The Republican authors of the valuable "History of the Revolution by Two Friends of Liberty," much to their honour, admit that this violation of the capitulation at Quiberon was indefensible. "Nous n'examinerons point ici," say they," de quel côté se trouve la vérité; nous présumons seulement que les émigrés, s'attendant bien au sort qui leur était réservé d'après les décrets portés contre ceux qui seraient pris les armes à la main, n'ont du se rendre qu'en capitulant qu'ils auraient la vie sauvée; mais que le Général et le représentant qui, sans doute, n'avaient pas été présens à cette capitulation, ne se regardaient pas comme liés, et pensèrent devoir exécuter rigoureusement les décrets, déterminés d'ailleurs par des raisons de politique qui demandaient un exemple. Sans vouloir blâmer ces motifs, ni justifier des hommes qui rentraient dans VOL. III. 2 N

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XVIII.

1795.

CHAP. head of fifteen thousand men; to-morrow I shall not have fifteen hundred. Nothing remains for me but to fly, or seek a glorious death. My choice is made; I shall perish with my arms in my hands." His indignation exhaled in a letter to the Count d'Artois, in which he openly accused him of cowardice. But his position was no longer tenable; he was obliged to fly into the interior. From that moment the affairs of the Royalists rapidly declined in all the western provinces; the efforts of the Chouans and Vendeans were confined to an inconsiderable guerilla warfare; and this was finally extinguished in the succeeding year by the great army and able dispositions of Hoche, whom the Directory invested, at the end of the campaign, with the supreme command. It is painful to reflect how different might have been the issue of the 116, 118. campaign, had Great Britain really put forth its strength 540, and iv. in the contest; and, instead of landing a few thousand 402. Th. vii. men on a coast bristling with bayonets, sent thirty thousand to make head against the Republicans, till the Royalists were so organised as to be able to take the field with regular troops.1

1 Deux

Amis, xiv.

Beauch. iii.

29. Mig. ii.

433, 446.

Jom. vii. 56,

240, 249.

36.

War on

the Rhine. Extreme penury and

The situation of the armies on the northern and eastern frontier remained the same as at the conclusion of the last campaign; but their strength and efficiency had singularly difficulties diminished during the severe winter and spring which followed. Moreau had received the command of the army of the north, encamped in Holland; Jourdan, that of the Sambre and Meuse, stationed on the Rhine near Cologne; Pichegru, that of the army of the Rhine, cantoned from

of the Re

publicans.

leur patrie en rebelles, nous penchons à croire qu'il eût été plus généreux de renier ces émigrés pour des Français, et de les regarder comme des prisonniers de guerre."-Histoire de la Révolution, par Deux Amis de la Liberté, xiv. 116, 117. The English historian need feel no hesitation in condemning this cruel violation of a military capitulation, even when said to have been unauthorised, because he will have occasion to pass a similar judgment on similar violations of military conventions, even when attended with less tragic consequences—in the cases of Schwartzenberg's breach of the Convention of Dresden, infra, chap. LXXXII. § 37; and of Nelson's violation of the Capitulation of Naples, chap. XXVII. § 98, 99.

CHAP.

XVIII.

1795.

Mayence to Strasburg. But all these forces were in a state of extreme penury, from the fall of the paper money in which their pay was received, and totally destitute of the equipments necessary for carrying on a campaign. They had neither caissons, horses, nor magazines; the soldiers were almost naked, and even the generals frequently in want of the necessaries of life, from the failure of the eight francs a-month, in silver, which formed the inconsiderable but necessary supplement to their paper salaries. Those who were stationed in foreign countries contrived, indeed, by contributions upon the vanquished, to supply the deficiency of their nominal pay; and the luxury in which they lived offered a strange and painful contrast to the destitute situation of their brethren on the soil of the Republic. Jourdan had neither a bridge equipage to enable him to cross the Rhine, nor a sufficiency of horses to move his artillery and baggage; Kleber, in front of Mayence, had not a quarter of the artillery or stores necessary for the siege of the place. Discipline had relaxed with the long-continued sufferings of the soldiers; and the inactivity, consequent on such a state of destitution, had considerably diminished their military spirit. Multitudes had taken advantage of the relaxation of authority following the fall of Robespierre, to desert and return to their homes; and the government, so far from being able to bring them back to their colours, was not even able to levy conscripts in the interior, to supply their place. Many resorted to Paris, where the Convention was happy to form them into battalions, for their own protection against the fury of the Jacobins. Soon the intelligence spread that the deserters were undisturbed in the interior; and this extended the contagion to such a degree, that in a short time a fourth of the effective force had returned to their homes. The soldiers thought they had done enough for their country when they had repelled St Cyr, iii. the enemy from its frontiers, and advanced its standards 50. to the Rhine; the generals, doubtful of their authority,

1

Mig. ii. 434. Jom.

402. Th. vii.

vii. 56, 58.

31, 34, 41,

XVIII.

CHAP. did not venture to take severe measures with the refractory; and those who remained, discouraged by the loss of so great a number of their comrades, felt that depression which is the surest forerunner of defeat.

1795.

37.

The Austrians, on the other hand, having made the State of the greatest efforts during the winter to reinforce their armies, and armies, and not having as yet experienced any part of the fall of Lux- exhaustion which extraordinary exertion had brought on

contending

embourg.

the Republican forces, were in a much better state, both in point of numbers, discipline, and equipment. Including the contingents of Suabia and Bavaria, their forces on the Rhine had been raised to a hundred and fifty thousand men; while the French forces on the same frontier, though nominally amounting to three hundred and seventy thousand men, could only muster a hundred and forty-five thousand in the field. And such was the state of destitution of these forces, that the cavalry was almost completely dismounted; and Jourdan could not move a few marches from his supplies, until he got twenty-five thousand horses for the service of his artillery. The Rhine, that majestic stream, so long the boundary of the Roman empire, separated the contending armies from the Alps to the The Imperialists had the advantage arising from the possession of Mayence. That bulwark of the Germanic Empire had been put into the best possible state of defence,

ocean.

* The distribution of the Republican forces at the commencement of the campaign was as follows, in effective troops, deducting the detachments and sick :

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