[29] There was a town called Bedouin in the department of Vaucluse, which contained about 500 houses and some 2000 inhabitants: they had a good trade in silk, and the place was flourishing. In the month of May, 1794, the tree of liberty which had been planted without this town was cut down during the night. Fearing in those dreadful times the consequence of this act of individual indiscretion, the townsmen themselves informed the deputy Maignet of it, an ex-priest, who was then upon a Robespierrean mission in the department. This availed nothing in their favour: he issued a decree proscribing not only the people of Bedouin, but of the surrounding communes also, and condemned the town to be burnt. An officer, by name Suchet, commanded the battalion which accompanied Maignet’s commission to execute this decree. Sixty fathers of families, after the mockery of a revolutionary trial, were put to death, those who were spared being placed at the foot of the scaffold during the execution. Suchet then gave the word for setting fire to the town, and it was burnt to the ground. The church was the only building which was not destroyed by the flames, and that was demolished by means of gunpowder. Such of the inhabitants as had fled were hunted out in their retreats by the soldiers of the detachment, and shot like wild beasts. The answer of Robespierre’s Committee of Public Safety to the report of this transaction was, Le Comité est satisfaite de la conduite de Maignet.
Prud’homme, Hist. des Erreurs, des Fautes, et des Crimes commis pendant la Revolution Française, t. 2. 170–176.
I know not whether the Suchet of Tarragona was the Suchet of Bedouin. If he was not, then has France produced two monsters of the name instead of one.
[30] One of the first acts of the provisional government upon the overthrow of this tyrant, was to give orders for the liberation of those injured Catalans, and their removal to Spain; considering, they said, that the violence committed upon men, whose only offence was that of having fought in defence of their country, outraged humanity, and the laws which were consecrated by the nations of Europe.
[31] Por Urbano se debe entender en mi concepto, said Sr. Aner in the debates upon this subject, aquel que se halle armado para conservar la tranquilidad de los pueblos, y quando mas para La defensa interior de una provincia, sin tener que salir jamas de ella. Diario de las Cortes. T. 4. p. 103.
La carne es yerva, la yerva agua,
Los hombres mugeres, las mugeres nada.
[33] “Colonel,” said one of the 87th, the regiment which took the eagle at Barrosa, “Colonel, I only want to taich ’em what it is to attack the Aiglers.”
[34] One of those friends obtained leave to go to England at the beginning of the winter. Upon rejoining the army after the capture of the place, he expressed his sorrow to Lord Wellington that his request should have been granted at a time when an enterprise of such importance was contemplated. Lord Wellington replied to this effect: “Perhaps, ... you did me better service by your absence, than you could have rendered had you been on the spot. Have you never said that your presence was required at home for your own family affairs, and that it was your intention to ask leave as soon as the campaign was over and nothing more was to be done? And do you suppose that Marmont had not heard this, and known of your departure?”
Albemarle Street.