—One body of troops were diſpatched after another, who were all ſucceſſively defeated, and every where fled before the royaliſts.
It is not unuſual in political concerns to attribute to deep-laid planſ and abſtruſe combinations, effects which are the natural reſult of private paſſions and iſolated intereſts. Robeſpierre is ſaid to have promoted both the deſtruction of the republican armies and thoſe of La Vendee, in order to reduce the national population. That he was capable of imagining ſuch a project is probable—yet we need not, in tracing the conduct of the war, look farther than to the character of the agents who were, almoſt neceſſarily, employed in it. Nearly every officer qualified for the command of an army, had either emigrated, or was on ſervice at the frontiers; and the taſk of reducing by violence a people who reſiſted only becauſe they deemed themſelves injured, and who, even in the eſtimation of the republicans, could only be miſtaken, was naturally avoided by all men who were not mere adventurers. It might likewiſe be the policy of the government to prefer the ſervices of thoſe, who, having neither reputation nor property, would be more dependent, and whom, whether they became dangerous by their ſucceſſes or defeats, it would be eaſy to ſacrifice.
Either, then, from neceſſity or choice, the republican armies in La Vendee were conducted by diſſolute and rapacious wretches, at all timeſ more eager to pillage than fight, and who were engaged in ſecuring their plunder, when they ſhould have been in purſuit of the enemy. On every occaſion they ſeemed to retreat, that their ill ſucceſs might afford them a pretext for declaring that the next town or village was confederated with the inſurgents, and for delivering it up, in conſequence, to murder and rapine. Such of the ſoldiers as could fill their pocket-books with aſſignats, left their leſs ſucceſſful companions, and retired as invalidſ to the hoſpitals: the battalions of Paris (and particularly "the conquerors of the Baſtille") had ſuch ardour for pillage, that every perſon poſſeſſed of property was, in their ſenſe, an ariſtocrat, whom it was lawful to deſpoil.*
* "Le pillage a ete porte a ſon comble—les militaires au lieu de ſonger a ce qu'ils avoient a faire, n'ont penſe qu'a remplir leurſ ſacs, et a voir ſe perpetuer une guerre auſſi avantageuſe a leur interet—beaucoup de ſimples ſoldats ont acquis cinquante mille francs et plus; on en a vu couverts de bijoux, et faiſant dans touſ les genres des depenſes d'une produgaloite, monſtreuſe." Lequinio, Guerre de la Vendee. "The moſt unbridled pillage prevailed—officers, inſtead of attending to their duty, thought only of filling their portmanteaus, and of the means to perpetuate a war they found ſo profitable.—Many private ſoldiers made fifty thouſand livres, and they have been ſeen loaded with trinkets, and exerciſing the moſt abominable prodigalities of every kind." Lequinio, War of La Vendee. "The conquerors of the Baſtille had unluckily a moſt unbridled ardour for pillage—one would have ſuppoſed they had come for the expreſs purpoſe of plunder, rather than fighting. The ſtage coacheſ for Paris were entirely loaded with their booty." Report of Benaben, Commiſſioner of the Department of Maine and Loire.
—The carriages of the army were entirely appropriated to the conveyance of their booty; till, at laſt, the adminiſtrators of ſome departmentſ were under the neceſſity of forbidding ſuch incumbrances: but the officers, with whom reſtrictions of this ſort were unavailing, put all the horſes and waggons of the country in requiſition for ſimilar purpoſes, while they relaxed themſelves from the ſerious buſineſs of the war, (which indeed was nearly confined to burning, plundering, and maſſacring the defenceleſs inhabitants,) by a numerous retinue of miſtreſſes and muſicians.
It is not ſurprizing that generals and troops of this deſcription were conſtantly defeated; and their reiterated diſaſters might probably have firſt ſuggeſted the idea of totally exterminating a people it was found ſo difficult to ſubdue, and ſo impracticable to conciliate.—On the firſt of October 1793, Barrere, after inveighing againſt the exceſſive population of La Vendee, which he termed "frightful," propoſed to the Convention to proclaim by a decree, that the war of La Vendee "ſhould be terminated" by the twentieth of the ſame month. The Convention, with barbarous folly, obeyed; and the enlightened Pariſians, accuſtomed to think with contempt on the ignorance of the Vendeans, believed that a war, which had baffled the efforts of government for ſo many months, waſ to end on a preciſe day—which Barrere had fixed with as much aſſurance as though he had only been ordering a fete.
But the Convention and the government underſtood this decree in a very different ſenſe from the good people of Paris. The war was, indeed, to be ended; not by the uſual mode of combating armies, but by a total extinction of all the inhabitants of the country, both innocent and guilty—and Merlin de Thionville, with other members, ſo perfectly comprehended this deteſtable project, that they already began to deviſe ſchemes for repeopling La Vendee, when its miſerable natives ſhould be deſtroyed.*
* It is for the credit of humanity to believe, that the decree waſ not underſtood according to its real intention; but the nation haſ to chooſe between the imputation of cruelty, ſtupidity, or ſlavery— for they either approved the ſenſe of the decree, believed what waſ not poſſible, or were obliged to put on an appearance of both, in ſpite of their ſenſes and their feelings. A proclamation, in conſequence, to the army, is more explicit—"All the brigands of La Vendee muſt be exterminated before the end of October."
From this time, the repreſentatives on miſſion, commiſſaries of war, officers, ſoldiers, and agents of every kind, vied with each other in the moſt abominable outrages. Carrier ſuperintended the fuſillades and noyades at Nantes, while Lequinio diſpatched with his own hands a part of the priſoners taken at La Fontenay, and projected the deſtruction of the reſt.—After the evacuation of Mans by the inſurgents, women were brought by twenties and thirties, and ſhot before the houſe where the deputieſ Tureau and Bourbotte had taken up their reſidence; and it appears to have been conſidered as a compliment to theſe republican Molochs, to ſurround their habitation with mountains of the dead. A compliment of the like nature was paid to the repreſentative Prieur de la Marne,* by a volunteer, who having learned that his own brother was taken amongſt the enemy, requeſted, by way of recommending himſelf to notice, a formal permiſſion to be his executioner.—The Roman ſtoiciſm of Prieur accepted the implied homage, and granted the requeſt!!
* This repreſentative, who was alſo a member of the Committee of Public Welfare, was not only the Brutus, but the Antony of La Vendee; for we learn from the report of Benaben, that his ſtern virtues were accompanied, through the whole of his miſſion in thiſ afflicted country, by a cortege of thirty ſtrolling fiddlerſ!