1795.

THE CHOUANS DEFEATED BY HOCHE.

self pushed forward with his Chouans. Hoche, who commanded the Republicans, had, at that time, only five thousand men under his command; and his position, in a hostile country, at a great distance from his communications, was very precarious. A vigorous blow at this moment might have placed the whole country watered by the Loire in the hands of the Royalists. Had the Breton chief been supported by a coadjutor of ordinary skill and activity, the movement could hardly have failed; but D'Hervilly, despising his irregular auxiliaries, had withdrawn the artillery and supports from Meudon, the advanced post of the Chouans, in order to aid in the reduction of Penthièvre, which made no resistance. Hoche, taking prompt advantage of this error, assumed the offensive, and, driving the Chouans back in confusion, encamped upon the heights of St. Barbe, which commanded the fort. It became necessary, therefore, to dislodge the French General before any other step was taken. But the tide of fortune was changed. The attack on the French camp was repulsed; after an obstinate engagement, in which D'Hervilly was disabled by a wound, the Royalists retreated to Penthièvre, under cover of a heavy fire from the English fleet.

The Royalists

supported.

Penthièvre was strong enough to hold out until the arrival of the reinforcements which were anxiously expected; but the army of inefficiently Hoche was rapidly augmented, and the Royalists, closely invested, saw their bright prospects rapidly fade away. The tempestuous state of the weather kept the English transports at sea; and the Count de Sombreuil, a young nobleman in command of a small body of emigrants, was the only officer who succeeded in landing his men. This tardy and scanty reinforcement greatly depressed the spirits of the Royalists, who had been taught to expect prompt and powerful support from Great Britain. Treachery,

8 PENTHIÈVRE BETRAYED BY TREACHERY. CH. XXXVI.

also, which might have been kept down by success, was encouraged by misfortune, and completed the ruin of the expedition. The French prisoners who had been received into the ranks of the invaders, merely on their representations that they were willing to serve on the opposite side, only waited for an opportunity to rejoin their former comrades. These men, who cared more for the military glory of France than the colour of their flag, had no vocation to support the forlorn hope of a falling cause; and it soon became known in the camp of Hoche that the Republicans had friends in the garrison of Penthièvre. Many desertions took place; and a night attack on the garrison was planned in concert with the traitors. The surprise was successful. On the night of the 21st of July, amidst storm and tempest, the Republicans were admitted into the fort. The Governor and the emigrants within the walls were immediately massacred; in a few minutes, the three-coloured flag was raised upon the ramparts; and the cannon of the fort was turned upon the peninsula, along which the corps of Sombreuil, alarmed by the sound of musketry, was rapidly advancing, amidst the roaring of the waves and winds, from its cantonments at the extremity of the land. But it was too late. The advanced guard of the Royalists was swept down as soon as they advanced within range of the cannon of Penthièvre. The main body was pressed by the columns of Humbert; and, under cover of the guns of an English corvette, which with difficulty maintained a position within range of the shore, the discomfited Royalists, intermingled with a terrified crowd of peasantry, retreated to the sea in the hope of regaining the boats, which lay tossing on the raging surf. Humbert, unwilling to risk an engagement with desperate men, halted his troops at the extreme point of retreat. A parley took place between the Republican General and the Royalist Chief;

1795.

CAPITULATION OF SOMBREUIL.

9

and after a few minutes, De Sombreuil, returning to his ranks, announced that he had concluded a capitulation with Humbert, and ordered the men to lay down their arms. The greater number obeyed, and were marched off as prisoners of war; some, who dispersed rather than yield, or trust to the faith of the Republican leader, either perished by the sword, or sought a voluntary death. The remnant of the expedition, consisting of nine hundred men, together with several hundred Chouan militia and peasantry, was brought off by the English fleet. Tallien, the Commissioner of the Convention, at the head-quarters of Hoche, refused to ratify the convention under which the emigrants had surrendered to Humbert. The Republican Generals, from fear of this infamous wretch, and the power which he wielded, were base enough to palter with their plighted words, and affected to question the validity of the capitulation. Sombreuil, when led forth to execution, solemnly affirmed that he had capitulated on an express stipulation that his soldiers should be treated as prisoners of war. Other officers of rank were executed with their noble and chivalrous leader. The venerable Bishop of Dol, who had favoured the Royalist cause, underwent the same fate. All the prisoners, with the exception of a few boys, were put to death.

Quiberon.

The expedition to Quiberon has been often quoted as one of the many proofs of Pitt's inca- Results of the pacity as a war minister. The censure failure at is just. The plan, as propounded by its able and energetic author, appears to have been the best military plan which had yet been submitted to the English Government. It was designed to revive and support the insurrection in La Vendée, and to organise an insurrection in Brittany, which was ripe for revolt. A junction with the army of the Upper Rhine, by way of Franche-Comté, or Alsace, was

10

OBSTINACY OF CHARETTE.

CH. XXXVI.

contemplated as the result of these operations. The plan had been framed by De Puisaye, in concert with the Breton leaders, with whom, as well as with the people of the province, he had unbounded influence. The alarm of the French Government at the condition of the insurgent provinces had been shown by the policy of conciliation which they had anxiously pursued. The haughty Republicans, who had no terms but those of defiance for the powers of Europe, condescended to treat with the leaders of Vendéan and Chouan bands on terms of equality and even of concession. While De Puisaye was negotiating in London, Charette, the most formidable of the Vendéan chiefs, concluded a treaty of peace with the Republic, by which, in return for their recognition of the Republic, the Vendéans were to receive a large indemnity for their losses in the war, and many privileges which were not accorded to the French people in general.* A similar treaty, though not so favourable, was made with some of the Chouan chiefs. Even these terms were assented to by the insurgents only as a truce; and many of the patriotic chiefs refused any terms whatever. The principal Chouan leaders remained in arms; and Stofflet, the rival of Charette, in La Vendée, rejected the overtures of the Republicans.

M. de Puisaye accompanied the complete statePlans of De ment of his plans and resources, which he Puisaye. laid before the English Cabinet, with an emphatic intimation that their early decision, one way or the other, was of urgent importance. Yet four months were frittered away in negotiations and conferences; and it was not until the arrival of a deputation from the Breton leaders, urging the immediate return of their chief, that the Government determined upon supporting the expedition with an

The Treaty is dated March the Annual Register of that year, 7, 1795, and is to be found in p. 255.

1795.

THE GOVERNMENT ALARMED.

11

De

auxiliary British force of ten thousand men. Puisaye was impatient to convey this joyful intelligence in person to his friends; but the ministers detained him in England to organise the expedition. The preparations were making rapid progress, when it became known in London that Cormatin, who commanded in the absence of De Puisaye, had entered into a truce or treaty with the Commissioners of the French Convention. The Ministry became alarmed; it was in vain they were told that Cormatin had exceeded his authority; that of one hundred and twenty-five chiefs, twenty-two only had signed the treaty; and that Cormatin himself had declared that it was only a temporising measure to obtain a suspension of arms until the opportunity for action should arrive. The English Government retracted their offer of ten thousand men, and offered a subsidy of ten thousand guineas instead. The men were to follow, in the event of the expeditionary force of a few French regiments being able to obtain a footing. in the country. De Puisaye was not even consulted in the appointment of his principal officers; the most unfit man that could have been selected was forced upon him as his second in command, with a commission so obscurely drawn, that the Lieutenant claimed, and for a time exercised, to the serious hazard of the enterprise, the chief authority.* Had the British succours accompanied, or promptly followed, the expedition, it is all but certain that it would have been successful. It was not without much hesitation that Hoche, one of the most enterprising of the French Generals, ventured to attack Penthièvre, even after he had occupied the adjacent heights;

*D'Hervilly was brought off with the remnant of the expedition, and died of his wounds in England, four months after the action on the heights of St. Barbe.

This brave and loyal, though sadly incompetent, officer frequently expressed his regret for the errors into which he had been led.