serted streets, where only a few women | Sagesse, an order of sisters whose vows were met crying and wringing their were to attend the sick. Persecuted hands. Lescure and his wife set off at and driven from their homes elseonce on foot to return to the château, a where, they had taken refuge in this few miles distant. Lescure was in town in great numbers, and here communication with the insurgents, they devoted themselves to sick and and announced to his family the succeeding day that he was about to take his part in the civil war. "By dawn to-morrow," he said, "I shall be master of Bressuire. Forty parishes revolt this night by my orders." His young wife was enthusiastic for the good cause, and saw him depart with a brave heart. wounded, friends and foes. The missionaries of the St. Esprit fulfilled similar duties, following the army as surgeons. Amongst the severely wounded was Lescure himself, who, finding it was necessary that he should retire to the château of Boulage, where his family were established, and endeavor to get Events justified Lescure's assertions; cured, temporarily resigned his comBressuire fell to the possession of the mand. Before setting out, he assemRoyalists; the tricolor badge was only bled the officers and thus addressed seen on the tails of the horses, whose them: "Gentlemen, the insurrection riders bore the white cockade in their has now become so important, and our hats. Madame de Lescure describes successes so promising, that we ought the equipment of their men as incon- to appoint a general-in-chief. I give gruous in the extreme. The manhood my vote for Cathélineau." of the country turned out as best they The choice was universally ap could, with horses of all kinds, some plauded, except by the good peasant with packsaddles, ropes for stirrups, himself, who was astonished at the and wooden shoes for boots, and many honor done him. Lescure was right; had guns and sabres. About twenty he was the man for the post. He had thousand Royalists gathered at Bres-immense influence over the people, the suire; those who had no firearms, result of high character, and the power carried scythes or sickles fixed on handles, or massive clubs of knotted wood. One of the leaders of this rudely equipped army was M. d'Elbrée, a bigoted Catholic, who always rushed to the onslaught with the cry, "My friends, Providence will give us the victory." The peasants gave him the Madame de Lescure, who moved name of "General Providence." Ca- from place to place that she might be thélineau, whose moral influence was near her husband, had left her child as great as were his natural talents for with her nurse at a farmhouse near war, though he had passed his life Clisson. As yet unaware of Lescure's hitherto as a pedlar, was adored by his serious wound, she had resolved to go followers, and called "The saint of over and see her child, with the object Anjou." Lescure, not less beloved, of arranging to have her brought to was known as "The saint of Poitou," Boulage. The roads were impassable while Henri la Rochejaquele in ac- for a carriage, and she was obliged to quired the title of "The intrepid." ride over, but so timid was she that The Vendean army had neither she required a man to hold her bridle wagons nor tents, but the sick and the whole way. She had hardly wounded received every possible atten- reached the peasant's house when she tion. They were transported as quickly as possible, Royalists and Republicans alike, to St. Laurant sur Sèvre. Here they were attended by the nuus of La of eloquent speech, which swayed and captivated his hearers. Cathélineau had, besides great calmness of judg ment, extraordinary courage, and “a military coup d'œil" that made him a leader of enthusiasts who felt but did not always see. found herself followed by a messenger, to say that her husband had been brought to Boulage severely wounded. On hearing this, not to lose a moment, she seized a horse that was in the mostly destroyed in detail. Santerre, courtyard, and without waiting to have the stirrups adjusted, galloped more than three leagues over the worst of roads. "Since that time," she writes, "I have never been afraid of riding on horseback." When Lescure was sufficiently recovered, he again took his place with the army. The moment was very critical, for the Vendeans found themselves attacked by General Westermann and ten thousand trained soldiers. The Republicans, marching on to Clisson, fired all the villages in their track. Arriving there, Westermann found the place practically undefended, and wrote, while under the very roof, to the Convention, saying he was about to burn down the château of "the chief of the brigands." Within a few hours the ancestral home of the Lescures was a blackened ruin ! one of the most virulent and odious of the Republicans who had brought disgrace on the Revolution, was amongst the first that fled before the peasants of the Bocage. The operations of the succeeding few weeks may be given in a paragraph from Alison's "History: Though the armies of the Republic had been again baffled, the forces at their command were too overwhelming not to triumph in the end. From this Westermann's triumph was short-time, exhausted in strength and perlived; he was assailed on all sides by plexed in council, the brave Vendeans the brave Vendeans, and after losing suffered a series of disasters. Lescure two-thirds of his men, escaped with was severely wounded at the Battle of difficulty with the remainder. The whole baggage of the Republican army fell into the hands of the insurgents. The ruthless burning of villages and châteaux, and the destruction of vast quantities of corn and hay, the latter so sorely needed in these years of famine, had enraged the Vendeans to such a degree, that Lescure and other leaders had the greatest difficulty in preventing reprisals by the killing of prisoners. At Châtillon, Lescure, at the peril of his own person, defended the prisoners against those officers and men who were crying out, "Let us kill these monsters; did they not burn your château ? " La Tremblaye. His wife was at his side without loss of an hour, and never again left him, through all the fearful time that ensued of their retreat to the other side of the Loire. The encumbered state of the roads, and the general confusion of things, is most graphically described by Madame de Lescure. She had secured a carriage for her husband, whose head was so shattered that he could hardly articulate, and his sufferings were terrible. The Lescure family-for her mother and their aged aunt were still with her made a halt of some hours at Boze, a league and a half the south side of the Loire. The ladies were thankful The Vendean revolt had now as- to throw themselves on a bed in a room sumed such a serious aspect that the full of soldiers. At three o'clock in Convention despatched a fresh army of the morning, however, they rose to fifty thousand men against the Royal- attend high mass, for all the ableists, commanded by Generals Biron bodied men were to join the army of and Santerre. At the outset the Ven- De Bonchamp as soon as day dawned. deans were defeated in a regular en- The Vendeans had resolved to make gagement, but such was their tenacity, yet another stand against the enemy. and their power of ultimate resistance, The mass was arranged at an hour that the horde of invaders shared the suitable for the peasants to attend befate of their predecessors, and were fore starting for battle. The church was completely filled. The for nothing. We will help you; we curate, an old man of venerable appear- are all aristocrats." ance, exhorted the soldiers in the most affecting manner. He conjured them to defend their God, their king, their wives, and their children. The roar of cannon was heard at intervals during this discourse; the scene around and the uncertainty in which we were as to the fate of the army, and of those dear to us, heightened by the obscurity of the night, made a profound and awful impression. The curate finished by giving absolution to those poor people who were going into battle. The loss of the Battle of Chollet, where the brave leaders D'Elbée and Bonchamp were mortally wounded, was an overwhelming disaster. The intrepid La Rochejaquelein fell in a skirmish a little later. As Alison remarks: — The Vendean war would now have ended had the Republicans used their victory with moderation. But the darkest period of the tragedy was now only commencing; twelve corps, aptly denominated infernal columns, were formed by Thurreau, with orders to traverse the country in every direction-seize or destroy all the cattle and grain — slaughter all the people—and burn all the houses. These orders were too faithfully executed. Madame de Lescure describes the passage of the Loire, which took place before the final catastrophe in fact, a slight success of the Vendean troops helped to cover the transfer of the wounded, which was accomplished amidst the noise of artillery. She writes: M. de Lescure was carried on a bed which they had covered as well as they possibly could, but he suffered horribly from the cold. I travelled by his side. I was three months gone with child; my situation was shocking. . . . Many compared this disorder, this despair, the bewildered crowd - this valley, and the stream which must be crossed, to the idea of the last judgment. The darkness of this picture is relieved by an instance of true fraternity. The Breton peasants on the right bank of the Loire came in crowds to help the fugitives, calling out, "Come, friends, come to our country; you shall want On entering the town of Varades, after the passage of the river, a Vendean peasant came up to the litter where the wounded Lescure was lying, looked at him with the deepest pity, then, pressing the hand of the brave wife who was toiling on by his side, he said, "We have left our country; we are now all brothers and sisters; we must not separate; I will defend you till death." These words, be it noted, were addressed to a seigneur and his wife, both of that noble class, but not of ignoble character of these aristocrats, who made slaves of their peasantry and brought upon society the catastrophe of the Revolution. In the severe trials and misfortunes which befell Madame de Lescure, in all her subsequent wanderings as a proscribed aristocrat, the peasants befriended her, often at the risk of their own safety. The brave Lescure died on the road, during an enforced march, some five weeks after he was so severely wounded in his last battle. It was said of Fénelon that his death was only a circumstance in his life; so was it with this humane and heroic soldier. His memory lives for those who seek their ideal, in the deeds of men who have trod this rough earth, believing in another world. After the death of her husband, and the subsequent disorganization of the Vendean forces, Madame de Lescure was in great danger of falling into the hands of the Republicans, who would certainly not have spared the widow of one of the most distinguished leaders of the revolt. To save her life for the sake of her child, and for the other yet unborn, she had recourse to every kind of disguise. She adopted the coarse dress of a peasant woman, lived with peasants, and often worked in the fields like one of them. Her father was killed fighting with the men of Poitou, but her mother shared her wanderings. These two ladies, with several other Royalists, were trying to make their escape from Ancenis, and Madame de Lescure thus describes the incident; We set out in the middle of the night; | birth to twin daughters. One of the it was cold, and rained hard. Nothing can infants died within a few days. They give an idea of our despair; hunger, had been baptized by a proscribed fatigue, and grief had transformed us all. priest-one of those faithful men who Everybody was in rags. We had great administered the rites of the Church difficulty in knowing each other under all at the risk of their lives. The testithese appearances of the most wretched poverty. At two o'clock in the morn-mony of the baptism was written with ing we arrived at the gate of a château; a nail on a pewter plate, and then carethe owner, our guide told us, had emi- fully buried. grated, but the farmer was living there. "I must die here in the road if we are not admitted," said my mother, who was utterly worn out. .. When at length the door was opened, the young girl who had served as a guide said, "Here are some brigandes who have escaped to our house; ... Madame de Lescure writes: "My recovery was rapid; for owing to my having led the active life of a peasant, I was hardly worse than those poor people are on similar occasions." For many months the wanderers knew nothing of the events happening in other parts of France. Some time early in July, 1794, a newspaper fell into Madame de Lescure's hands; in it she read the account of seventy persons executed in Paris, many of whom were friends. A little later she learned the fall of Robespierre. But many more months yet elapsed before the amnesty restored liberty to the Vendeans. Even then the misfortunes of Madame de Lescure did not terminate. Her name was in error on the list of but we are too near the road." A short time after this the little band of fugitives, who had hitherto kept together, were advised to separate. The Blues were expected every moment, and the greatest secrecy was necessary, and it was deemed advisable that Madame de Lescure should go to some distance from her mother, and assume the character of a poor peasant woman, whose task it was to attend to the sheep in the fields. In the Breton parish of Prinquiaux there were some four hundred inhabitants, "and not one of them was capable of betraying us," writes Madame de Lescure. For nearly two years the Marquise de Donnissan and her daughter were driven from place to place, often separating for better concealment, but always living the life of the peasantry. In a miserable cottage, with hardly the bare necessaries of life, the widow gave and she found herself obliged to leave France immediately on pain of death. She sought exile in Spain, living near the frontier for eight months. While there she heard of the death of her surviving child, an infant of sweet promise. It was during this lonely exile that the bereaved woman wrote these interesting memoirs, which have a permanent value in the history of the Vendean War; and as a narrative of adventure, are full of the genuine romance and pathos of real life. In a period of violence and cruelty such as the world has rarely seen equalled, the memoirs record acts of devotion and self-sacrifice, and deeds of brotherhood, that serve to reconcile us to that human nature of which history sometimes makes us despair. The subsequent story of our heroine's life may be briefly told. Of all her near relatives her mother alone survived, and it was at her earnest request that, after nine years of widowhood, she consented to marry again. She says herself: In marrying Louis de la Rochejaquelein, | affection in her eyes, but she is debrother of Henri, it seemed to me that I scribed as having a bright and benevoattached myself still more to La Vendée, lent expression. She said smilingly to and that by uniting two such names I did Miss Edgeworth: "I am always sorry not offend against him I had loved so when any stranger sees me, parceque je sais que je détruis toute illusion. Je sais que je devrais avoir l'air d'une héroïne, et surtout que je devrais avoir much. The times were still very evil for those who were known to be Royalists at heart, and though the La Roche-l'air malheureuse ou épuisé au moins, jaqueleins desired only to live quietly rien de tout cela hélas !" "She is on their estates in Poitou, they were much better than a heroine," writes subject to endless persecutions on the Miss Edgeworth, "she is benevolence part of Napoleon. Their peaceable and truth itself." and obscure mode of life was of no avail in soothing the irritation of the emperor, who expected homage and service. to Events follow one another rapidly in France. The abdication of Napoleon gave but a few months of repose to Europea repose rudely broken by his return from Elba. The Marquis de la Rochejaquelein lost no time in assembling the faithful Vendeans defend the Royalist cause. Leading a troop of volunteers, he was unfortunately killed in action a few days before the Battle of Waterloo; and thus fell another member of a noble family, who had served France as much by their private virtues as by their deeds in arms. Again a widow, the Marquise de la Rochejaquelein devoted herself to her family and her estates. She had succeeded to all the property of her first husband, whose family was now extinct, but his name was held in such respect, that though his château had been burnt by the Republicans, the government never alienated the property. When Charles X., the man who had failed to learn the lesson of adversity, was sitting on his unstable throne, the English flocked to Paris, and amongst these visitors was Maria Edgeworth, who made a point of seeing and know. ing everybody of any celebrity. She had an interview with Madame de la Rochejaquelein, and has left a record of the incident in one of her published letters. The lady of La Vendée had lost the slimness and beauty of youth, and was nearly blind from a nervous Her daughters took their visitor over the house; in the salon were portraits of M. de Lescure and of Heuri and Louis de la Rochejaquelein. From Longman's Magazine. THE goldfinches sing so sweetly hidden in the topmost boughs of the apple-trees that heart of man cannot These four walls, withstand them. though never so well decorated with pictures, this flat white ceiling, feels all too small, and dull, and tame. Down with books and pen, and let us away with the goldfinches, the princes of the birds. For thirty of their generations they have sung and courted and built their nests in those apple-trees, almost under the very windows—a time in their chronology equal to a thousand For they are years. so very busy, from earliest morn till night—a long summer's day is like a year. Now flirting with a gaily decked and coy lady-love, chasing her from tree to tree; now splashing at the edge of a shallow stream till the golden feathers glisten and the red topknot shines. Then searching in and out of the hedgerow for favorite seeds, and singing, singing all the while, verily a "song without an end." The wings never 1 [There is no title on the MS. of this paper, and probably Jefferies himself found it difficult to label. For lack of a better name I have called it "Nature and Eternity." It is much in the vein of "The Story of My Heart."-ED. Longman's Magazine.] |