No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee

by G. A. Henty

"Very well," Leigh said. "Then I will put on my hat, take a fresh horse from the stable, and ride off to see how the two wounded boys are going on."

"I can tell you that they are almost well; but still, if you don't want to hear Jean's story of all your adventures, by all means go round. I am sure that the tenants will be gratified at hearing that you rode over to see them, the very first evening you came home."

The Vendean leaders had for some time felt the necessity of having a generally recognized authority, and after the battle of Fontenay they decided to appoint a council, who were to reside permanently at some central place and administer the affairs of the whole district, provide supplies for the armies, and make all other civil arrangements; so that the generals would be able to attend only to the actual fighting. A body of eighteen men was chosen, to administer affairs under the title of the Superior Council; and a priest who had joined them at Thouars, and who called himself, though without a shadow of right, the Bishop of Agra, was appointed president. He was an eloquent man, of commanding presence, and the leaders had not thought it worth while to inquire too minutely into his claim to the title of bishop; for the peasants had been full of enthusiasm at having a prelate among them, and his influence and exhortations had been largely instrumental in gathering the army which had won the battle of Fontenay.

But although he was appointed president, the leading spirit of the council was the Abbe Bernier, a man of great energy and intellect, with a commanding person, ready pen, and a splendid voice; but who was altogether without principle, and threw himself into the cause for purely selfish and ambitious motives.

It was on the sixteenth of May that Fontenay was won, and on the third of June the church bells again called the peasantry to arms. The disaster at Fontenay had done more than all the representations of their generals to rouse the Convention. Seven battalions of regular troops arrived, and Biron, who had been appointed commander-in-chief, reached Niort and assumed the command.

He wrote at once, to the minister of war, to say that he found the confusion impossible to describe. There was an absence of any organization, whatever. The town was crowded with fugitives who, having distinguished themselves by the violence of their opinions and the severity of their measures, before the insurrection broke out, were forced to take refuge in the cities. The general reported that he had caused the assembly to be sounded again and again, without more than a tenth part of the troops paying the slightest heed to the summons.

The army was without cavalry, without waggons for carrying supplies, without an ambulance train--in fact, it was nothing but a half-armed mob. Biron himself was at heart a Royalist, and when he in turn had to meet his fate by the guillotine, openly declared himself to be one; and the repugnance which he felt on assuming the command against the Vendeans--which he had only accepted after a long delay, and after petitioning in vain to be allowed to remain at his former post--was heightened when he discovered the state of affairs, and the utter confusion that prevailed everywhere.

When sending the order for the bells to ring on the first of June, the superior council of the Vendeans issued a proclamation, which was to be read in all the churches, to the effect that provisional councils should be formed, in each parish, to provide for the subsistence of the women and children of men with the army. Receipts were to be given for all supplies of grain used for this purpose, which were to be paid for by the superior council. Those men who did not remain permanently with the army, as long as necessary, would be called upon to pay the taxes to which they were subject, prior to the rising.

The sales of the land belonging to the churches--which had been sequestrated on the refusal of the clergy to comply with the orders of the Convention--were declared null and void. As these had been bought by the upholders of the Revolution, for no devout Vendean would have taken part in the robbery of the church, the blow was a heavy one to those who had so long been dominant in La Vendee. These lands were, for the time, to be administered for the good of the cause by the parish council.

It was hoped that this proclamation would act beneficially in keeping the peasants in the field; as they would know that their families were cared for, and that if they only went out at times, they would subject themselves to taxation, and be regarded by the families of those who remained with the army as being wanting in zeal.