XXIX. 1832. CHAP. Petit Pierre has not resigned his." With mournful resolution, the Vendean chiefs prepared to obey the summons, and assemblages of five or six hundred men took place in several quarters. But, by a strange fatality, the rising was prevented from becoming general, or acquiring any degree of consistency, by a counter-order which had been issued by Marshal Bourmont on the 19th May, which fixed the day for the 4th June. The effect of these opposite and contradictory orders proved fatal to the whole enterprise. The greater part of the chiefs got the order of M. de Bourmont first, and remained quiet; and such as did not get it, finding themselves not supported as they expected, concluded that the attempt had failed, and dismissed their followers. Some conflicts took place between bodies of the peasants and the troops of the line, in which the former displayed all their ancient valour, and in some instances proved victorious. But these detached encounters, however honourable to the Royalists, decided nothing; they were not in sufficient force in any one place to make head against the vastly superior forces of the enemy which were concentrated 1 Baron de against them; and ere long their detached bands melted away, and the insurrection was happily terminated withde La Ven- out any serious effusion of blood. The finishing-stroke was L. Blanc, put to the prospects of the insurrection by the seizure, by iii. 279,281; General Dermoncourt, of a packet of papers in the Chateau Cap. vi. 123, de la Chaslier, containing the whole details of the conspiracy, and the names of the persons engaged in it.1 Charette sur les Evènemens dée, 50, 56; 125. 49. the civil war. But although the insurrection, considered as a public Incidents of movement, was thus at an end, yet various tragic incidents occurred in the course of it which attested at once the heroic spirit of the inhabitants, and the dangers which might have threatened the throne of the Citizen King had it been more wisely conducted, or traversed by a less number of unfortunate accidents. In the Chateau of La Penissière forty-five Vendeans were stationed, and they defended themselves so resolutely that XXIX. 1831. it became necessary to set it on fire in order to overcome CHAP. them. The upper part of the building was soon in flames, and a circle of bayonets surrounded its base: but they still combated, amidst the music of two trumpets, and cries of "Vive Henri Cinq!" and at length, after five of their number had been slain, and when the conflagration had spread into every part of the edifice, they found their way out, and got off unconquered. Unhappily, as in the former war, deeds of heroism on the one side were marked with acts of savage barbarity on the other. A son of the famous Cathelineau was shot dead by the troops of Louis Philippe as he advanced with two companions, saying, "We are disarmed; do not fire." A chateau belonging to M. de Roberie was entered by a body of troops, who put to death the farmer and his wife who occupied it, and barbarously murdered a girl of sixteen in their family. M. Charles de Bascher was surprised by a body of national guards, and severely wounded in his attempt to escape. As they were conducting him a prisoner to Angerfeiulle, he became faint from loss of blood, and could not walk as quick as his guards desired. They shot him in consequence on the road, without even according him the quarter of an hour which he requested iii.282,283. to make his peace with Heaven.1 1 L. Blanc, of the 50. extinction surrection. Amidst these scenes of horror, the melancholy result of her rash and ill-starred enterprise, the Duchess de Berri Adventures escaped, thanks to the courage and vigilance of her at Duchess de tendants, her own intrepidity and presence of mind, and Berri, and the unvarying fidelity of the Royalists to whom her place of the inof retreat was known. Her hair-breadth escapes and romantic adventures recall those of Charles Edward a century before in the mountains of Scotland. Many nights she slept on the ground in the woods; at other times, on the shoulders of her guide, she passed marshes deemed impracticable, with the water up to the middle of those who bore her. On one occasion, when the pursuit was hottest, she found shelter in a ditch covered with bushes, while the soldiers XXIX. 1832. CHAP. in pursuit of her searched in vain, and probed with their bayonets every thicket in the wood with which it was environed. The variety, the fatigue, the dangers of her life, had inexpressible charms for a person of her ardent and romantic disposition. She often said, "Don't speak to me of suffering: I never was so happy at Naples or Paris as I am now." More than once she entered towns occupied by the hostile troops disguised as a peasant girl, with the great wooden shoes on her little feet, and conversed gaily with the gendarmes by whom the gates were guarded. Meanwhile the Government, in mortal anxiety at her continued residence in the country, made the utmost efforts to make head against the danger. The four departments of Maine-et-Loire, La Vendée, Loire-Inferieure, and Deux-Sevres, were declared in a state of siege; troops were poured in from all quarters, and iii. 283, 284; soon fifty thousand regular soldiers occupied a country where they had no other foes to contend with but a fugitive Princess and two or three of her devoted cavaliers.1 1 L. Blanc, Cap. vi. 133, 137. 51. cess takes refuge in Nantes. External events of no light weight soon, however, ocThe Prin- curred, which convinced the heroic Princess that her attempt, for the present at least, had permanently failed of all chance of success. The Moniteur announced the interview of the King of the French with the King of the Belgians at Compiègne, and the approaching marriage of Leopold with the Princess Louise, daughter of Louis Philippe. Convinced now that the legitimate sovereigns had abandoned her cause, she saw the necessity of considering her own safety, and after much deliberation, finding that the roads and coasts were alike rigorously guarded, she resolved to remain in France, and selected the city of Nantes as her asylum-a place generally hostile to her cause, where her person was unknown, and where the searches of the iii. 283,284; Government authorities would not probably be so rigorous 137; Ann. as in more suspected quarters.2 Thither, accordingly, she directed her steps, and she succeeded in entering the town, disguised as a peasant girl, accompanied by Mdlle. 2 L. Blanc, Cap. vi. 134, Hist. xiv. 221. XXIX. 1832. Eulalie de Korsabice. She found an asylum in it in the CHAP. house of some faithful Royalists, who redeemed the character of human nature, by having the courage, at the hazard of their life, to afford a shelter to their sovereign in misfortune. 52. is at length Nov. 6. So faithfully was the secret kept, that the Princess remained for some months in this place of concealment in When she safety. By degrees, however, vague rumours reached the discovered. Government that the Duchess was either in Nantes, or frequently visited there, accompanied by intelligence that her situation was such that they might, by her capture, and sparing her life, determinate her influence more completely than by destroying it. Orders were accordingly sent to redouble the vigilance of the authorities in Nantes. During this period of anxious suspense she still maintained a correspondence with her adherents, and from her place of concealment issued her orders as still Regent of France. She even addressed a letter to the Queen of the French in behalf of the brave Vendeans who were to be brought to trial for having taken up arms in her defence, full of generous and noble sentiments. The Government acted with equal wisdom and humanity in the prosecution of the accused. Twenty-two were placed at the bar, but the prosecutions were so managed that the greater part "Quelles que soient les conséquences qui peuvent résulter pour moi de la position dans laquelle je me suis mise en remplissant mes devoirs de mère, je ne vous parlerai jamais de mon interêt, Madame. Mais des braves se sont compromis pour la cause de mon fils; je ne saurais me refuser à tenter pour les sauver ce qui peut se faire honorablement. "Je prie donc ma tante, son bon cœur et sa religion me sont connus, d'employer tout son crédit pour intéresser en leur faveur. Le porteur de cette lettre donnera des détails sur leur situation; il dira que les Juges qu'on leur donne sont des hommes contre lesquels ils se sont battus. 64 Malgré la différence actuelle de nos situations, un volcan est aussi sous vos pas, Madame; vous le savez. J'ai connu vos terreurs bien naturelles à une époque où j'étais en sûreté et je n'y ai pas été insensible. Dieu seul connaît ce qu'il nous destine et peut être un jour me saurez vous gré d'avoir pris confiance dans votre bonté et de vous avoir fourni l'occasion d'en faire usage envers mes amis malheureux. Croyez à ma reconnaissance. Je vous souhaite le bonheur, Madame. Car j'ai trop bonne opinion de vous pour croire qu'il soit possible que vous soyez heureuse dans votre situation. MARIE CAROLINE."-LOUIS BLANC, iii. 379. XXIX. 1832. CHAP. escaped, and such as were convicted were sentenced to imprisonment only. M. Berryer was brought to trial; but such was the public admiration for his talents and exalted character, that he was acquitted, in a manner, 1 L. Blanc, by acclamation, almost immediately after the proceedings iii. 577,579; commenced. The Government had no need of severity: 137; Ann. they were about to strike a blow at the chief of the conspiracy, which they felt assured would paralyse it in the whole of its ramifications.1 Cap. vi. 135, Hist. xiv. 221. 53. of Deutz Princess. At this time there was in France a renegade Jew Treachery named Deutz, who had unfortunately acquired the confitowards the dence of the Pope, and of the Duchess de Berri. This wretch had for some time been soliciting the employment of a traitor from M. Montalivet: it is one of the misfortunes of statesmanship that it brings men into contact with such characters. At length he obtained the treacherous employment he desired. He had long been in the confidence of the royal family, had travelled in the suite of the Mademoiselles Bourmont from London to Italy, and had been charged, at the Pope's recommendation, with important despatches from the Princess to the Queen of Spain and Dom Miguel. He was even then, however, in correspondence with the opposite party, and had been sent on a secret errand to Nantes by M. Thiers. Deutz accordingly undertook, for a large reward, to discover the Princess's place of concealment at Nantes, and in this attempt he proved too successful. Arrived there, he succeeded in persuading some influential Royalists that he had important despatches for the Duchess, which must be delivered into her own hands, and that it was necessary, therefore, that he should have a personal interview with her royal highness. This was accordingly granted: la Duchess the Princess received him in the kindest manner, in a de Berri, 87, house where she usually saw visitors, conversed with him 585, 586. familiarly, and said to one of her attendants, "This is a good Breton, faithful and devoted without bounds." 2 2 Mem. de 93; L. Blanc, iii. As he was not made acquainted at this interview with |