The Last Vendée; or, the She-Wolves of Machecoul
Copyright, 1894 ,
If you ever chanced, dear reader, to go from Nantes to Bourgneuf you must, before reaching Saint-Philbert, have skirted the southern corner of the lake of Grand-Lieu, and then, continuing your way, you arrived, at the end of one hour or two hours, according to whether you were on foot or in a carriage, at the first trees of the forest of Machecoul.
There, to left of the road, among a fine clump of trees belonging, apparently, to the forest from which it is separated only by the main road, you must have seen the sharp points of two slender turrets and the gray roof of a little castle hidden among the foliage.
The cracked walls of this manor-house, its broken windows, and its damp roofs covered with wild iris and parasite mosses, gave it, in spite of its feudal pretensions and flanking turrets, so forlorn an appearance that no one at a passing glance would envy its possessor, were it not for its exquisite situation opposite to the noble trees of the forest of Machecoul, the verdant billows of which rose on the horizon as far as the eye could reach.
In 1831, this little castle was the property of an old nobleman named the Marquis de Souday, and was called, after its owner, the château of Souday.
Let us now make known the owner, having described the château.
The Marquis de Souday was the sole representative and last descendant of an old and illustrious Breton family; for the lake of Grand-Lieu, the forest of Machecoul, the town of Bourgneuf, situated in that part of France now called the department of the Loire-Inférieure, was then part of the province of Brittany, before the division of France into departments. The family of the Marquis de Souday had been, in former times, one of those feudal trees with endless branches which extended themselves over the whole department; but the ancestors of the marquis, in consequence of spending all their substance to appear with splendor in the coaches of the king, had, little by little, become so reduced and shorn of their branches that the convulsions of 1789 happened just in time to prevent the rotten trunk from falling into the hands of the sheriff; in fact, they preserved it for an end more in keeping with its former glory.
Alexandre Dumas
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Illustrated Sterling edition
THE LAST VENDÉE
OR, THE
SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL
BOSTON
PUBLISHERS
CONTENTS.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOL. I.
VOL. II.
THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL
VOLUME I.
THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL
CHARETTE'S AIDE-DE-CAMP.
THE GRATITUDE OF KINGS.
THE TWINS.
HOW JEAN OULLIER, COMING TO SEE THE MARQUIS FOR AN HOUR, WOULD BE THERE STILL IF THEY HAD NOT BOTH BEEN IN THEIR GRAVE THESE TEN YEARS.
A LITTER OF WOLVES.
THE WOUNDED HARE.
MONSIEUR MICHEL.
THE BARONNE DE LA LOGERIE.
GALON-D'OR AND ALLÉGRO.
IN WHICH THINGS DO NOT HAPPEN PRECISELY AS BARON MICHEL DREAMED THEY WOULD.
THE FOSTER-FATHER.
NOBLESSE OBLIGE.
A DISTANT COUSIN.
PETIT-PIERRE.
AN UNSEASONABLE HOUR.
COURTIN'S DIPLOMACY.
THE TAVERN OF AUBIN COURTE-JOIE
THE MAN FROM LA LOGERIE.
THE FAIR AT MONTAIGU.
THE OUTBREAK.
JEAN OULLIER'S RESOURCES.
FETCH! PATAUD, FETCH!
TO WHOM THE COTTAGE BELONGED.
HOW MARIANNE PICAUT MOURNED HER HUSBAND.
IN WHICH LOVE LENDS POLITICAL OPINIONS TO THOSE WHO HAVE NONE.
THE SPRINGS OF BAUGÉ.
THE GUESTS AT SOUDAY.
IN WHICH THE MARQUIS DE SOUDAY BITTERLY REGRETS THAT PETIT-PIERRE IS NOT A GENTLEMAN.
THE VENDÉANS OF 1832.
THE WARNING.
MY OLD CRONY LORIOT.
THE GENERAL EATS A SUPPER WHICH HAD NOT BEEN PREPARED FOR HIM.
IN WHICH MAÎTRE LORIOT'S CURIOSITY IS NOT EXACTLY SATISFIED.
THE TOWER CHAMBER.
WHICH ENDS QUITE OTHERWISE THAN AS MARY EXPECTED.
BLUE AND WHITE.
WHICH SHOWS THAT IT IS NOT FOR FLIES ONLY THAT SPIDERS' WEBS ARE DANGEROUS.
IN WHICH THE DAINTIEST FOOT OF FRANCE AND OF NAVARRE FINDS THAT CINDERELLA'S SLIPPER DOES NOT FIT IT AS WELL AS SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS.
PETIT-PIERRE MAKES THE BEST MEAL HE EVER MADE IN HIS LIFE.
EQUALITY IN DEATH.
THE SEARCH.
IN WHICH JEAN OULLIER, SPEAKS HIS MIND ABOUT YOUNG BARON MICHEL.
BARON MICHEL BECOMES BERTHA's AIDE-DE-CAMP.
MAÎTRE JACQUES AND HIS RABBITS.
THE DANGER OF MEETING BAD COMPANY IN THE WOODS.
MAÎTRE JACQUES PROCEEDS TO KEEP THE OATH HE MADE TO AUBIN COURTE-JOIE.
END OF VOL I.
THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL.
VOLUME II.
THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL.
IN WHICH IT APPEARS THAT ALL JEWS ARE NOT FROM JERUSALEM, NOR ALL TURKS FROM TUNIS.
MAÎTRE MARC.
HOW PERSONS TRAVELLED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE LOWER LOIRE IN MAY, 1832.
A LITTLE HISTORY DOES NO HARM.
PETIT-PIERRE RESOLVES ON KEEPING A BRAVE HEART AGAINST MISFORTUNE.
HOW JEAN OULLIER PROVED THAT WHEN THE WINE IS DRAWN IT IS BEST TO DRINK IT.
HEREIN IS EXPLAINED HOW AND WHY BARON MICHEL DECIDED TO GO TO NANTES.
THE SHEEP, RETURNING TO THE FOLD, TUMBLES INTO A PIT-FALL.
TRIGAUD PROVES THAT IF HE HAD BEEN HERCULES, HE WOULD PROBABLY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED TWENTY-FOUR LABORS INSTEAD OF TWELVE.
GIVING THE SLIP.
MARY IS VICTORIOUS AFTER THE MANNER OF PYRRHUS.
BARON MICHEL FINDS AN OAK INSTEAD OF A REED ON WHICH TO LEAN.
THE LAST KNIGHTS OF ROYALTY.
JEAN OULLIER LIES FOR THE GOOD OF THE CAUSE.
JAILER AND PRISONER ESCAPE TOGETHER.
THE BATTLEFIELD.
AFTER THE FIGHT.
THE CHÂTEAU DE LA PÉNISSIÈRE.
THE MOOR OF BOUAIMÉ.
THE FIRM OF AUBIN COURTE-JOIE AND CO. DOES HONOR TO ITS PARTNERSHIP.
IN WHICH SUCCOR COMES FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER.
ON THE HIGHWAY.
STATE OF SIEGE.
WHAT BECAME OF JEAN OULLIER.
MAÎTRE COURTIN'S BATTERIES.
MADAME LA BARONNE DE LA LOGERIE, THINKING TO SERVE HER SON'S INTERESTS, SERVES THOSE OF PETIT-PIERRE.
MARCHES AND COUNTER-MARCHES.
MICHEL'S LOVE AFFAIRS SEEM TO BE TAKING A HAPPIER TURN.
SHOWING HOW THERE MAY BE FISHERMEN AND FISHERMKN.
INTERROGATORIES AND CONFRONTINGS.
WE AGAIN MEET THE GENERAL, AND FIND HE IS NOT CHANGED.
COURTIN MEETS WITH ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT.
THE MARQUIS DE SOUDAY DRAGS FOR OYSTERS AND BRINGS UP PICAUT.
THAT WHICH HAPPENED IN TWO DWELLINGS.
COURTIN FINGERS AT LAST HIS FIFTY THOUSAND FRANCS.
THE TAVERN OF THE GRAND SAINT-JACQUES.
JUDAS AND JUDAS.
AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.
THE RED-BREECHES.
A WOUNDED SOUL.
THE CHIMNEY-BACK.
THREE BROKEN HEARTS.
GOD'S EXECUTIONER.
SHOWS THAT A MAN WITH FIFTY THOUSAND FRANCS ABOUT HIM MAY BE MUCH EMBARRASSED.
FOOTNOTES
THE END.