UNIVERSITY OF CA RIVERSIDE, LIBRARY 3 1210 01981 1841 7b01-- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORMA L1[511AKY r /,b MARCEAU A BIOGRAPHY. GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON : YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN NEW YORK : 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND BOMBAY : 53, ESPLANADE ROAD CAMBRIDGE : DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. mm n print t'/i //u- ^.^ i Hift/if'tjiw ^ lirtiovaU '. FRANCOIS-SE?ERIN MAECRALL 1769-1796 CAPTAIN T. G. JOHNSON, I.S.C. LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1896 /^.[i/Jb^ CHISWICK press: — CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. u ^ \ " By Cobleniz, on a rise of gentle ground, There is a small and simple pyramid, Crowning the summit of the verdant mound j Beneath its base are heroes' ashes hid. Our enemy's, — but let not that forbid Honour to Marceau / o'er whose early tomb Tears, big tears, gusKdfrom the rough soldier^ s ha. Lamenting and yet envying sjich a doom. Falling for Fratice, whose rights he battled to resume. ^^ Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career, — His 7H0urners were two hosts, his friends and foes; And fitly may the stranger lingering here Pray for his gallattt spirit's bright repose; For he was Freedofn's champion, one of those. The few in number, who had not o'erstept The charter to chastise which she bestows On such as wield her weapons; he had kept The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wepi.' Childe Harold, Canto III. PREFACE. " T F we would faithfully depict a great man and JL place him in a true light, we must not isolate him from the scenes amidst which he has lived. We must, moreover, endeavour to know and under- stand the epoch that produced him — a task always laborious, but especially so when that epoch is the Frejidi Revolution." These words of an illustrious writer contain all the apology that need be made for introducing into this work so much of the history of the period as only concerns Marceau's life indirectly. That life, as Marceau himself points out in one of his letters, is wanting in " variety and abundance of material," and the question might well be asked why such a life is written. It is written because of the pure fire of patriotism that burned, with no unsteady flame, throughout its short portion ; be- cause of the strong sense of duty that pervaded it, and because of two or three of its leading incidents which illustrate the truth of Rousseau's saying, that " the man who has lived most is not he who has counted most years but he who has most felt life," But it is the humanity of Marceau that, above all, interests and attracts us. He is the Sidney of his Viii PREFACE. age as well as the Bayard of the French Revolution, le chevalier sans peur et sans reprocJie. In an age of extreme selfishness and revolting cruelty, during a decade of noyades and infernal columns, of savage decrees and bloody tribunals, it was not a little thing to have worn " the angel's robe of humanity " under the dolman and cuirass of a soldier of the Revo- lution. Contrast the instructions of Carnot for the conduct of a guerilla war in Ireland: ^^ thou shall pursue the enemy wJien beaten a outrance, and thou shalt give no quarter to prisoners ;^' contrast the decrees of the Convention against the soldiers of the Duke of York and against the unhappy inhabitants of La Vendee, with the whole purport and the lead- ing idea of Marceau's life, and it will become evident that this has something in it that should attract our attention and engage our thoughts, and make us forget, if it cannot altogether obliterate, the stains of barbarity and cruelty that blemish the character of a great nation. " I see thee yet, fair France — thou favour'd land Of art and nature — thou art still before me. Thy sons, to whom their labour is a sport, So well thy grateful soil returns its tribute ; Thy sun-burnt daughters, with their laughing eyes And glossy raven locks. But, favour'd France, Thou hast many a tale of woe to tell, In ancient times as now.' Unfortunately for herself and for civilization, France is liable,now as in 1793, tobe swayed byshort- sighted politicians who, too often for narrow and selfish purposes, trade on her enthusiasm and would PREFACE. IX make a tool of her patriotism. Now, as one hundred years ago, she is actively preparing to take the field against Europe, and is once more become what the historian said of her in 1793, one vast camp. We can therefore only hope that, in the event of a war, the imminence of which increases in proportion to her strength and preparedness for it, there will be not a few in her armies imbued with the spirit of men like Kleber, Hoche, and Marceau ; men who will show to the world not only that a soldier's life is not incompatible with humanity, but that patriot- ism cannot under any circumstances involve or justify the execution of inhuman and savage decrees. Those who would read a fuller biography of Marceau are referred to the writings of MM. Bois- thibault. Maze, and Parfait, to all of whom this little work is largely and agreeably indebted. For La Vendee, the impartial Beauchamp has been gener- ally relied on ; Thiers, on the other hand, has been found, on a closer acquaintance, wholly unreliable when treating of this portion of his country's history. For the story of Angelique des Mesliers, Chardon and Sergent have been followed ; the latter, indeed,, where his imagination does not run riot, has been found useful throughout. The details of Marceau's last hours are taken, with some additions from other sources, from Souhait. T. G, JOHNSON. CONTENTS. PART I. THE EURE-AND-LOIR. Chapter I. PAGE Chartres — The family of Desgraviers — Birth and educa- tion of Marceau — EnUstment 3 Chapter II. Apprenticeship to arms — Leave of absence — Marie Maugars— The Bastille— With Lafayette— Chartres once more — The call to arms — With the battalion of the Eure-and-Loir — Reims and the eve of war . i8 Chapter III. At the front — Desertion of Lafayette — Invasion of France — Defence and surrender of Verdun— In the enemy's camp — Ste. Menehould and the Bois du Courupt ... • • 3^ Chapter IV. The Thermopylcs of France — General Dillon — Valmy and Les Islettes — Transfer to the Germanic Legion- Cantoned in Chartres — Arrest and trial ... 45 Xll CONTENTS. PART II. LA VENDEE. Chapter I, PAGE La Vendee — The country and its inhabitants — The Civil War in La Vendee — Defence of Saumur — Bourbotte 67 Chapter II. The Lu^on division — Battles of Lugon and the Camp des Roches — Arrival of the Mayengais — First and second invasions of the Socage — Combat of La Tremblaie — Kleber — Battle of Cholet ... 94 Chapter III. The campaign north of the Loire — The rout 0/ Laval — Marceau in command of the advance-guard — The blockade of Dol — Battle of Antrain — Marceau as general of division and commander-in-chief ad interim — The dangers of his position . . .124 Chapter IV. Battles of Le Mans and Savenay — The war of La Vendde brought to a close — Triumph at Nantes — The sans- culotte general Turreau assumes the command — His treatment of Marceau — Illness and leave of absence . 146 Chapter V. Angelique des Mesliers — Marceau at Rennes — Agathe Lepretre 169 CONTENTS. XIU PART III. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. Chapter I. PAGE Marceau on leave — Letters to friends — Reception in the Hall of the Convention — With the Army of the Ardennes — Capture of Thuin — On the Sambre and Meuse — Arrival of Jourdan — Battle of Fleurus . .191 Chapter II. Marceau's explanation — Jourdan and Marceau — Battle of the Ourthe — hxi order of the day . . . . ii\ Chapter III. Battle of the Roer— Marceau reaches the Rhine — Cap- ture of Coblentz — Its significance — The civil govern- ment of the Electorate — Release of Hippolyte — A desolate winter 228 Chapter IV. Enforced inactivity — The destitution of Marceau's troops — Brutus and Cassius — Calumnies of the press — Jourdan's passage of the Rhine — Marceau's part in it — Burning of the bridge of Neuwied — Reconcilia- tion with Kleber. . • 244 Chapter V. Emira comes to raise fresh hopes — In the defiles and gorges of the Hundsriick — Kreuznach — Jourdan's advance — Marceau's defeat on the Glann and Nahe — Victory of Sultzbach — Negotiations with Kray — The armistice 259 XIV CONTENTS. Chapter VI. PAGE Marceau's occupations during the truce — Preparations for marriage — The armistice denounced — Marceau in command of the right wing— His several tasks during the advance of the French armies — His attitude towards the people — Retreat of Jourdan and junction of the right wing with the main army on the Lahn . 277 Chapter VII. The defence of the Lower Lahn — Limburg — Castel- verd's untimely retreat — Marceau "gives time" to Jourdan's army — In the forest of Hochstenbach — The end — Portrait of Marceau — Obsequies — Sub- sequent cremation at Coblentz 305 APPENDIX. I. List of services of General Marceau . . . 331 ::'] Letters of Marceau, as Commander-in-Chief to itj the Minister of War 333 ILLUSTRATIONS, etc. PAGE Portrait of Marceau (after the painting by Sergent) Frontispiece The District of the Invasion of 1792 . . 2 La Vendee in 1793 129 The Rhine, the Nahe and the Lahn . . . 304 Part I. THE EURE-AND-LOIR. " The Revolution by the side of yoidhful figures of giants^ such as D anion, Sai7tt-fust, and Robespierre, has young ideal figures, like Hoche and Marceau." — VICTOR HuGO. BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. CHAPTER I. Chart res — The family of Desgraviers — Birth and education of Marceau — Enlistment. IN the year 1790, in order to deal a final blow at what remained of the old feudal privileges and jurisdictions, the thirty-two ancient provinces of France were split up into eighty-three so-called departments. Thus out of the province of La Beaicce was carved the greater portion of the department of the Eure-and-Loir, which lies midway between Paris and Rouen on the one side, and the middle courses of the Loire, where it flows past Orleans and Blois, on the other. At about this same period — 1787 to 1790 — " that wise and honest traveller," Arthur Young, was on his travels through France. He traversed Le Pays Beauce, and found it to contain, as he has recorded, the cream of French husbandry. But this purely agricultural country, one of the great granaries of France, is little likely to attract the modern traveller. It is an immense and mono- tonous undulating plain of corn and pasture-land, 4 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. studded often with gay , orchards and snug, neat cottages, but with no real natural beauty for its dower. The cultivated hills of Perche run through one portion of the district from a north-westerly direction, giving rise on the south side to the Loir and the Huisne, feeders of that great revolutionary stream the Loire, and on the north to the Eure, which mingles its waters, not far above Rouen, with those of the Seine. On the left bank of the Eure, forty-eight miles south-west of Paris, is situated, partly on a hill and partly on low ground, the ancient town of Chartres, the chef-lieu of the department. Its streets are narrow and crooked and devoid of interest, but above them, crowning the gentle valley, rise the two tall unequal steeples of its magnificent cathedral, one of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture in France. This town of Chartres was the native place of, among others who have acquired fame, Mathurin Regnier, the poet and satirist, and forerunner of Boileau ; of the Girondin deputies Petion and Brissot, members of the National Convention, and two of the most remarkable and impartial minds of the Revolutionary period ; of Chauveau-Lagarde, who has a place in history as the defender of the " widow Capet," the unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette. In the Place Marceau of this town, near the flower-market, there has been raised a pyramid, the legend on which tells us that here also was born another illustrious citizen of France, one Marceau, THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 5 whose career is summed up in the following in- scription : A soldier at i6 years, a general at 23, he died at the age of 2y\ Francois Severin Marceau Desgraviers was born at Chartres in the Rue du Chapelet, now Rue Marceau, on the first day of March, 1769, the same year as Napoleon Buonaparte. His father, Maitre Marceau Desgraviers, was Registrar of Criminal Justice, and Procureur to the Bailiwick of Chartres. The ancestors of this Marceau family have been traced back to the year 1575, when we find them established at Thivars, a pretty village that grew up on the spot where the great road from Paris to Bayonne crosses the Eure. The Marceaus were originally all millers, and one branch of the family derived the name Desgraviers, by which it after- wards came to be distinguished, from their flour-mill of the same name, situated outside the town of Chartres. The origin of the word Marceau, or Marsault, has not been satisfactorily traced ; it is connected with the word saule, a willow, but in what relation we are unable with certainty to say. Marceau was a true child of the revolutionary era of France. He was born at a time when the influence of the writings of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, and the Encyclopaedists was awakening the mind of man to a sense of the intolerable burdens imposed on the greater portion of man- kind ; when native rationalism and speculative philosophy in France were working hand in hand, the one prompting and supplementing the other, and evolving a new theory of life. Ignorance and 6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. irreligion still brooded over the land. There were few schools, and little or no education worthy of the name, and the nobleman was as ignorant as the peasant. Religion had become a mask for licen- tiousness and depravity, and the French clergy were held in utter hatred and contempt. It was the hour of the calm before the storm, of the dark- ness that precedes the dawn. Journalism had already sprung into existence and found a voice ; the people were writhing fretfully under suffering, and the nation was beginning to feel the throes that were to give birth to liberty. But there was as yet no consciousness of all this. No man knew that the mightiest change in all human history was maturing. King and noble, priest and courtier heard not the warning voices, and heeded not the signs and omens that filled the air and presaged their ruin. In May, 1770, the marriage of the Arch- duchess Marie Antoinette with the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XVI., was celebrated with great pomp and high festival. Into such an age the infant Marceau was ushered. Marceau's father, Maitre Marceau Desgraviers, was an active and able man, but an epicure in his tastes, and given up to the life of pleasure so cus- tomary in his day. In the year 175 1 he had married Marie Anne Frangoise Salmon, of a respect- able bourgeois family. This worthy woman, after becoming the mother of six children, fell a victim to her husband's caprices, lost her reason, and died in her forty-fourth year. The eldest daughter of this union was Marie Jeanne, whom we shall know THE EURE-AND-LOIR. J hereafter as Emira, the devoted half-sister of the young Marceau, and worthy of a place among the great women who have nourished the youth of great men. After the conventional period of mourning was over, Maitre Desgraviers took unto himself, at the age of forty-seven, a second wife, thinking he had found someone who would manage his troublesome household for him. This was Anne Victoire Gaulier, whose father was an upholsterer, and a member of the Corporation of Chartres. She was only twenty-four years of age, and ill-suited to the charge for which her husband had destined her, being of a careless, frivolous disposition, with a taste only for the reading of romances, and of doubtful light literature. She bore him seven children, of whom the eldest, though he was to win immortal renown by his patriotism, humanity, and fearless generalship, never excited any feelings of tenderness in his mother's heart, and was the sub- ject only of her whims, and of her unreasonable and unnatural aversion. Marceau was baptized in the parish church of Saint-Saturnin, and named Frangois Severin, after his father. From the day of his birth his mother showed a foolish repugnance for her child, and refused to suckle him, or have the charge of him. His father, nothing loath, sent him thereupon to a nurse, whom he had every reason to trust. This was his niece, Marie Jeanne Aubert, who had married a vine-dresser named Claude Houdard. The Houdards lived in the valley of Luisant, not far 8 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. from Chartres, and managed certain vineyards, orchards, and cornfields which Maitre Desgraviers owned in that part of the country. They had an only child, Anne Catherine, who, though seven years older than the young Frangois, soon became his friend and constant companion, and was affec- tionately called Mama Francceur. Nothing better could have befallen the child than this planting out in a strange nursery. The Houdards were an honest, tender-hearted couple. They brought up their nephew as if he were their own offspring, and spared no pains to ensure and improve his health and happiness. He was allowed as much liberty, and as many companions, as he liked ; and the rough games with the village children, the constant exercise in the lanes and fields, contributed not a little, together with the wholesome farmhouse fare, and the bracing air of La Beauce, to his mental and physical advance- ment. Marceau was left for eight years under this for- tunate charge. During his exile his parents seldom came to see him, and Madame Houdard soon tired of the weekly visits to a house where her charge was neither welcomed nor wanted. One member alone of the Chartres household paid frequent visits to the farmhouse in the vale of Luisant, and was a source of constant consolation to the abandoned child. This was Francois's half- sister, Emira, in whom nature had united a great and generous heart, and a bright and lively intelli- gence, and who has shown to the world, by her THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 9 living example, what the sympathy and care of a woman so constituted is able to effect in it. We shall have occasion to introduce her frequently into these pages, for her life is linked with that of her young brother, whose friend and guardian-angel she continued to be until the hour of his death. Marie Jeanne Louise Fran^oise Suzanne, eldest daughter of Maitre Desgraviers by his first wife, was born in 1753, and was thus sixteen years older than her half-brother, Francois. At the age of fifteen she had been persuaded by her father into marrying one Nicolas Champion, a judge's clerk, for whom, however, she had no feelings akin to love or respect. She was only prompted to this self- sacrifice by the prospect it afforded her of leaving a home cursed by the presence of an indolent and cold-hearted step-mother. In spite of the domestic troubles which naturally followed such an union, and in order to make up for the unnatural mother's neglect, Emira now began to lavish on her half- brother all the love and the tender solicitude that should have been Madame Victoire's for her eldest child. Emira paid frequent visits to the farm at Luisant, attaching herself by an almost maternal instinct to the child, teaching him his lessons both here and when he was put to school, guiding his mind and moulding his character. When five years old Marceau was sent with his cousin Catherine to a small school for boys and girls, kept by one Noel Letard, an old invalid, who was assisted by the cure of Luisant. There was lO BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. not much discipline, but there were many holidays. This suited a temperament like Marceau's, brought up, as he had been, without restraint, and accus- tomed to outdoor life, and the playing of boyish pranks, rather than to sitting still, poring over his letters, under the ferule of the village schoolmaster. But the twofold influence of Mama Francceur and of his sister Emira did not fail to produce good results, and when Marceau left the school, in his seventh year, he was already in the highest class. It was not till Marceau was nearly eight years old that his father thought of sending for him. The Houdards were glad, for the child's sake, at his departure ; but Mama Francceur wept bitter tears, and would not be comforted till her young com- panion had promised to come and see his nurse and playmate as often as possible. Catherine Houdard later in life married, like her mother, an honest vine-dresser, and Marceau acted as bridesman at her wedding, and as godfather to her first-born. Arrived home after an absence of eight years, no outpourings of affection, no tender words of love welcomed Marceau. All was coldly and strictly ordered for him in his home. Time had not softened his mother's heart towards him, although at this period we find him a refined and handsome lad. He had a natural and prepossessing jnanner, slight but well-shaped limbs, and an erect carriage, while an alert though sometimes sad expression lit up his sunny countenance. But he had not yet developed those auburn locks which were to be so characteristic of the soldier of the republic in the THE EURE-AND-LOIR. II years to come, and so his mother's heart remained hardened towards her child because of his red hair and his rough ways. His father had intended that he should have a good school and college education, but having dis- graced himself one day in the eyes of madame, his mother, he was packed off once more, this time to an insignificant Brothers' school in the lower town. After the lapse of a year his father relented, and Marceau was sent to the Institute of Professor Chevalier, of Chartres, to be prepared for college, and with a final view to the bar as a profession. Assisted and encouraged by his sister Emira, who visited him almost daily, Marceau made rapid pro- gress in his studies, and grew up a lively and spirited boy, somewhat fiery at times, fond of out- door sports and riding, and of every healthy manly form of amusement and exercise. Thanks to Emira's loving counsels and practical guidance, and to the excellent teaching of the justly famous Chevalier, Marceau was admitted in 1781, at the age of thirteen, to the fifth class of the Royal College of Chartres. Among his companions at the Chevalier Institute were many who afterwards became known to fame, and not a few who took a leading part in the Revolution now about to burst over France ; but we will mention only one insignificant name, that of Constantine Maugars, to whom Marceau wrote some of his most touching letters, and for whom he evinced an affection that time and the brilliance of his career only strengthened and deepened. 12 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Unfortunately, at this moment, and when she could have been most useful to him during his college career, and during the bitter years that followed, his sister Emira, Madame Champion, was obliged, in order to escape from marital tyranny, to quit Chartres and bury herself in the Abbey of Louye, near Dourdan, in the department of the Seine and Oise, until such time as the separation between herself and her husband, for which she had applied, should be judicially decreed. By this separation Marceau found himself isolated and unhappy. Shunned by his parents, and denied a place in the family circle, in his sister Emira he had found the affection that should have been a mother's, and the pride and solicitude that was expected from a father. " The love of my elder sister for me," he afterwards wrote in his journal, " although we were not born of the same mother, was without bound or limit. Up to this period she had restrained my too ardent nature, soured withal by so much opposition. Her sympathy and kind- ness had made me alter my plans at least twenty times. Certain unhappy events now obliged her to leave our town and live in the country. In her absence, and thrown on my own resources, I imme- diately fell into the depths of despair." The correspondence between brother and sister while the latter was in the convent has unfortu- nately been lost. It was probably confiscated with the public papers of Emira's second husband, Ser- gent, who held several posts under the First Republic. The world has thus lost a series of letters whose THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 1 3 interest, from more than one point of view, must have been unique and universal. Marceau's college career was brief, but on the whole successful. During these years he did not live at home, where he was never welcome, but at the house of Professor Chevalier. As at the Insti- tute, he made several friends at the college, for his was a generous and affectionate nature, though liable at times to sudden outbursts of passion. He took a prominent part in all sports and pastimes, but continued, nevertheless, to be studious and pains- taking. During his collegiate career he passed through three classes, and was, on the whole, as we have stated, a successful though never brilliant student. " My education," he himself records in a journal preserved for us, but which, unfortunately, only deals with a portion of his life, " was that of other young men of the middle class ; that is to say, on emerging from infancy I was placed in a college to go through a course of classical studies. The events of this period of my life, as regards any of those I came in contact with, are not of sufficient impor- tance to need relating here. Pranks of every kind, great aptitude for learning, small outbursts of pas- sion, the result of a hot temperament and a haughty nature, these distinguished me from some of my class-fellows, whose small natural gifts compelled them to study a great deal in order to acquire a little learning. All who resembled me most in character were my friends ; I was envied and hated only by the dolts and dullards. I have preserved 14 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the memory of the former only ; as for the latter, I have entirely forgotten them. At the age of four- teen I had carried off several prizes, and then my school studies may be said to have ended." Maitre Desgraviers took his son away from the college after he had passed through the third class, and set him to study law and procedure in the office of Procureur Champion, with a view to a career at the bar. This was an occupation most distasteful to Marceau, and was the occasion of a bitter quarrel between him and his parents, which led him at last to abandon them and quit Chartres. Marceau thus speaks of this event : " My parents at this time thought of a profession for me, wishing me to find one in a career at the bar. Now, I had a real aversion for such studies and their application, and I spoke my mind out freely on the subject. My independence placed an obstacle in the way of their plans for me, and led to my parents treating me with even less respect than they did my brothers and sisters. I had a decided taste for the military profession, . . . and I resolved to use every means in my power to induce my father to yield to my wishes in the matter. And I should perhaps have succeeded had it not been for my mother, who had some interest in wishing me to take the gown, and whose opposition I found insurmountable. Neither my tears nor my entreaties could make her yield. She exercised a strong influence over my father. I was offered no alternative, not even that of trade, which in my despair I had suggested. THE EURE-AND-LOIR. I 5 " I fancied that by persisting in my wishes I might justify the despair I had been driven to, and that, by continuing to be amenable, my parents would sacrifice their wishes to mine as regards the choice of a profession, in which I alone should have been consulted. It was this that prevented me from at once leaving my home, and compelled me to live as a stranger during the last six months of my college life. At the end of that time I had resolved to do all I could with my father, and to go I know not where if he persisted in his com- mands. " The hope raised in my heart brought me, how- ever, but little peace of mind. Those six months soon passed, and the time drew near for fresh struggles, and for opening a career for myself either of happiness or of misery. I have long since realized how the first step we are obliged to take towards a decided end influences the remainder of our lives. " I had quite made up my mind not to abandon my first project, and I was fully prepared to obtain by my own exertions what I might have obtained by favour or money. It was my intention to become a soldier in order that I might rise to be an officer, and as my father would not go back on his first resolution I left him and enlisted." Before Marceau took this step he wrote to his sister, informing her of his intention, telling her also of his wish to drop the cognomen Desgraviers, retaining only the simple name Marceau. " I am a stranger to the Desgraviers," he complains in his letter, " I have no place in any of their hearts ; you l6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. alone have taken me to yours, I do not wish to retain their very name any longer. In society I will take that of their father, the name Marceau, leaving to them the one they bear. But you, my dear sister, must not forsake me, your son. For to you I owe all, as to a tender mother. Promise me that, like me, you will only keep the name Marceau. We two alone are united by the ties of love." He carried his intention into effect by enlisting on the 2nd December, 1784, in the infantry regi- ment of Angouleme. The engagement was, however, annulled, at the instance of his mother, as he was a minor. He was brought back, and a reconciliation took place between father and son, and the idea of the bar was abandoned. Another unhappy year followed. The ever-in- creasing coldness with which his parents treated him, only strengthening his resolution to leave them and join the army. He was not idle during this interval, for we find him studying mathematics, topography, and other sciences, with two learned professors of Chartres. At length, on the 2nd December, 1785, having already attained the age of sixteen, he finally turned his back on his home, and enlisted in the Savoie-Carignan regiment of infantry. In the enlistment register he is described as five feet nine and a half inches in height, with fair hair and brows, dark-brown eyes, a prominent forehead, covered by a shock of hair, a small mouth, and a freckled face. Up to the date of his leaving Chartres he had shown himself an active, robust youth, de- voted to all exercises and games, and especially THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 1/ to gymnastics, riding, and the chase ; and we find that in spite of mother and father, and because, no doubt, of his generous heart, he left behind him many sincere friends, who would regret his absence while they sympathized with him in his misfortunes. CHAPTER II. Appre7iiiceship to arms — Leave of absence — Marie Alaugars — The Bastille — With Lafayette — Chartres otice more — The call to arms — With the battalion of the Eure-and-Loir — Reims and the eve of war. THE Savoie - Carignan regiment, in which Marceau had enhsted, formed part of the garrison of the fortress of Metz, and thither he accordingly journeyed towards the end of the year 1785 ; his engagement dating in the register of the regiment from the 2nd December of that year. He served his apprenticeship to the profession of arms obscurely enough during a period of three years, that is, up to the date of his return to Chartres, in 1788. He was promoted in this time to the two first non-commissioned grades in succession, and appears to have both won the respect of his com- rades, and attracted to himself, by his irreproachable conduct and studious ways, the attention of his commandant, the Count de Serent. It is even stated that he now studied the biographies of great military commanders, such as Charles XII., Peter the Great, Marshal Saxe, and PVederick of Prussia. But the life must, on the whole, have been irksome to one THE EURE-AND-LOIR. I9 possessed at once of so ardent and refined a nature and so keen a sense of justice. For the army of France was not then, what it became soon after, a service where talent and genius, irrespective of birth or class, were alone recognized and assured success. Under the old government it partook of the aristocratic spirit of the age, and, as in every other department, there was the gulf of centuries fixed between the nobleman and the roturkr. The higher grades of military rank were reserved exclusively for the court nobility, and even ordinary commissions were bestowed only on wealthy landed proprietors. It can well be imagined that under such distinctions there could have been no sympathy or community of interests between the rank and file and the officers of the army, and that the latter lived apart from, and altogether despised, the former, as belonging to a lower order of humanity. It was only after the fall of the Bastille that the constitution of the army entered on a new phase. It was then that National Guards were organized in Paris and throughout the provinces. The middle classes formed the main strength of these new battalions, and they elected their officers from their own ranks. Then followed, in 1790, a more com- plete and systematic organization, under which all ancient distinctions and privileges were abolished, and seniority, merit, and patriotism, made the sole titles to promotion. Under the new system, health, vigour, and unity, were imparted to the army, which was inspired at the same time with an ebullient patriotism that carried all before it in its heat and 20 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. fervour, and enabled France to contend successfully with the formidable array of the principalities and powers of the rest of Europe. But these things were not so when Marceau joined the ranks. The road to advancement was closed, except in the instance stated above, against the middle and lower orders. Moreover, at this time, Prussian discipline was enforced in all its rigour, and the lot of the private soldier was a hard and barren one, devoid of all hope of preferment or sub- stantial reward. " The first two years of my service," Marceau has recorded, " made me regret ever having left my parents. Instead of any recognition of my sub- mission to discipline and devotion to duty, I received nothing but haughty and disdainful language from my superiors. The good work I did failed to bring me under favourable notice in the service. At the end of three years, when I had been promoted two grades, I was considered fortunate in being appointed instructor to certain imbecile and reckless young officers of the regiment. But my disgust reached a climax when I learnt the opinion that was held of me and my comrades. I determined to abandon as soon as I could a service in which there was no advancement, save to those of good birth. Having viewed my situation in a new light I recalled to mind the proposals my parents had made to me, but which I had rejected." Acting on this intention of carrying out what his parents had formerly required of him, Marceau obtained leave of absence from his regiment, and THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 21 passed the winter of 1788-89 among his friends at Chartres. This residence at Chartres was the commencement of Marceau's public hfe. A reconcihation with his parents was effected, and it was his object to succeed his father in his office, and to abandon for ever a miHtary career. What he had experienced during his three years' miHtary apprenticeship had dis- gusted him profoundly ; but there was a still more potent reason for his desiring to settle down in Chartres to a life of peace and industry. Marceau had f^len in love with Marie Maugars, the sister of his schoolfellow Constantine, and with whom he had been acquainted from childhood. " Love that is at once so terrible and so tender," says Marceau's journal, " made me feel his power for the first time." From this period dates that yearning of Marceau's, which never left him in his brief life, to win the love of some pure gentle woman, with whom he might pass his days in a peaceful and intellectual seclusion. Through the weary years of watch and battle on the Loire and the Rhine this yearning still clung to him. It was destined never to be satisfied. That life of domestic happiness and reciprocal feeling could only have been lived after the sword had been sheathed, and the sword was only sheathed to be placed, with garlands of woe, on the bed of death. This is the keynote to Marceau's life ; this it is that gives to it at once its elevation and its sadness. From this spring flow that humanity and lofty courage and that sense of duty which raise this 22 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. young warrior above so many others who have otherwise surpassed him by their achievements in campaign and stricken field. He now appHed for his discharge fi-om the infantry of the hne, but his colonel, the Count de Serent, obstinately refused to grant his request. The utmost that was conceded to him was, that he should stay in Paris for a few months to help to unravel the tangled skein of the accounts of his corps. In the spring of the memorable year 1789, Marceau accordingly left Chartres for Paris. He had already in his own province heard the loud complaints of his fellow-citizens against the abuses of what may be summed up as the old regime. The scion of a middle-class family, of an impulsive independent disposition, filled with indignation against the unjust claims of aristocratic birth, and alive to the people's wrongs, now calling aloud for adjustment, we can realize with what feelings of wonder and expectation the young republican en- tered Paris, that great and throbbing heart of his country. It was the irresistible compulsion of cir- cumstance that bore him away from the quiet waters of Chartres and plunged him into the seeth- ing ocean of the metropolis, but the necessities of his nature, and the guiding hand of his half-sister Emira steered him safely, though not without con- siderable risk and some damage, past the rocks and shoals of revolt and revolution, where so many others, embarked like him, suffered loss and ship- wreck. THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 23 " The Revolution," says Victor Hugo, " by the side of youthful figures of giants, such as Danton, Saint-Just, and Robespierre, has young ideal figures, like Hoche and Marceau." Two paths lay before these men at the opening of their young lives. The one led to the glory that emanates from fighting, humanely and with singleness of purpose, the battles of one's country ; the other, to the darkness and depravity which overwhelm those who cavil away the lives and liberties of human creatures because they have failed to adjust their passions and prin- ciples to ours. The two careers arose out of the same set of circumstances ; but who that is honest can mention Robespierre in the same breath with Hoche, or Saint-Just with Marceau ? Who can deny that the choice of Hoche and Marceau was influenced and regulated by higher and less interested motives than that of men, needy lawyers one-half of them, who flooded Paris in the guise of deputies of the people, but actuated only by sordid hopes and a selfish ambition ? In Paris, Marceau met his sister Emira again. Though she was still living in seclusion in the con- vent of Louye, he managed to see her frequently and whenever his duties permitted. For seven hours a day he was kept at the work of adjusting the accounts of his regiment, but at the beginning of July this task was accomplished, and Marceau was on the point of rejoining his corps when events in Paris compelled or induced him to remain. We have seen that during the reign of Louis XV. no one thought of the impending convulsion. " The 24 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. night is serene, the sunset fair, which precedes the fury of the tornado," says Le Pere Segur, But the storm had now burst. On the 5th May, 1789, the States-General opened their proceedings and, simul- taneously, the era of the French Revolution. Events succeeded each other rapidly. By June the repre- sentatives of the Tiers-Etat, outnumbering, thanks to Necker, those of the other two orders combined, had usurped the entire authority, and assumed the name and functions of the National Assembly. Early in July the French Guards revolted in sym- pathy with the masses. The excitement and enthusiasm of the people, now feeling their power, rose to its highest pitch. On the 14th July the Bastille was stormed and taken. Marceau, like Hoche, took part in that first triumph of the arms of freedom. But it must not be for a moment thought that he contributed to the excesses that followed in its wake, especially to the murder of the Governor Delaunay. That was the work of the infuriated mob from whose clutches the French Guards, whom Marceau had joined, endea- voured in vain to rescue this brave man, as well as several other victims. Through the instrumentality of friends, Marceau now procured his discharge and was about to return to his country and his first love, when he was per- suaded by his fellow-townsmen, Petion and Brissot, among others, to join General Lafayette, who was in command of the National Guard of Paris, a civic force established after the fall of the Bastille, and destined to play so prominent a part in the drama THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 25 of the next few yeais.^ M'aree^u, vv'as . appointed an extra aide-de-camp to Lafayette himself, a post which he held for five months. Of these five months and of the life he led in Paris Marceau records the following confession : " I say it honestly that it was a period that I divided between disordered pleasures and extra- ordinary work, to the great grief of my poor sister Emira." The labours referred to were studies in military subjects, and a " Manual of Instruction for the National Guard," which he wrote at this period, and which was officially adopted. At last he was almost compelled by Emira to leave Paris and abandon his mode of life there. " I should," says his confession, " certainly have suc- cumbed under such an existence had not my sister, feeling that I was throwing my life away, used all her influence over me, and held me back on the brink of the abyss. She forced me to leave Paris and to return to Chartres, where, moreover, we had both been summoned by our father's illness." Arrived at Chartres in October, 1789, he found the fortunes of his family at a very low ebb. A decree of the Constituent Assembly reorganizing the judicial system had practically abolished Maitre Severin's office and emoluments, and the troubles that came upon every family in France at that period had not overlooked the Desgraviers. Mar- ceau did all in his power to assist his parents. His first act was to break off his engagement with Marie Maugars, followed by another step equally distasteful to him, namel}', to rejoin the army, as no 26' ' ' '" BIOGkAPHV OF MARCEAU. Other prospect ^, offered ritsoif. During the six months he spent at Chartres he finished another mihtary manual, his "Treatise on Infantry Tactics." In response to the call of the Constituent Assembly, for active citizens to join the regular army as officers, Marceau submitted his application to the Minister of War, but it was ten months before he was successful. Meanwhile other duties were imposed on him. One of the consequences of the capture of the Bastille was the formation, throughout France, of provincial National Guards, on the model of that of Paris, under Lafayette. Marceau joined the National Guard of Chartres, and served in it during 1790-91 in the capacity of captain and company-commander. When the frontiers of France were menaced by the armies of Austria and Prussia, this National Militia was organized into volunteer battalions, and 300,000 men were enrolled and requisitioned. On the 27th June, 1791, Marceau was enrolled at the head of his entire company. The department of the Eure-and-Loir furnished two battalions, and Marceau was elected to the command of the second company in the first battalion. At the same time he obtained a brevet-lieutenancy in the 34th Regi- ment of the Line. This placed him in a dilemma, for he did not wish to abandon the young men of his town who had volunteered with him, and looked to him as their leader. A way was found out of the difficulty by appointing him to the staff of the army as adjutant-major of the first battalion of the Eure-and-Loir. THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 2/ In December, 1791, Marceau accompanied this battalion to Reims in the Champagne Province, where it was ordered to form part of the regular garrison. He spent the next six months at Reims. The year 1792 was an eventful one for Marceau, and it marks for us the opening of his brief but brilliant active military career. On the I ith February, Marie Maugars, the young girl to whom Marceau had been betrothed, died at Chartres, on which occasion he wrote to her brother Constantine the first of those letters which form so precious a part of the correspondence that unfolds his life and thoughts to us : "I do not wish to say overmuch," he writes, " on a subject that justifies your tears. The friendship that unites us can alone fill the void made in our hearts by this cruel loss. . . But, my dear friend, before long you will, I hope, feel that you have not lost all. Since, as I have already told you, there still remains to you one true friend who loves you tenderly." This offer of friendship was not the mere formal expression of sympathy during bereavement. Mar- ceau's thoughts, like all great and tender ones, sprang from his heart, and he wrote what he thought, and acted up to what he wrote. Already in his second letter to Constantine we find him taking a lively interest in the welfare of Maugar's brother, who had joined the battalion of the Eure- and-Loir at Reims. In March of this year he was elected lieutenant- colonel and second in command of the first battalion. 28 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Of this election, and of his work at Reims, he says : " During the six months I passed at Reims, I was constantly occupied in instructing the troops. I instructed myself too, in order that by showing zeal and diligence in the important post I now held I might meet with advancement and success. I received from my comrades a further proof of their esteem and confidence, for when war was declared, they nominated me a lieutenant-colonel. Still young, and the youngest of those of my rank, I neglected nothing in order that I might distin- guish myself and realize the expectations of my friends. My labours did not pass unnoticed, and every general under whom I served in the first campaign testified to my good work in a marked manner." Among these generals he particularly mentions Lafayette, who wished to attach Marceau to his staff, and whose desertion of the cause of the Republic its armies and posterity were soon to deplore. In April, 1792, war was declared by the French government against the Emperor of Austria and his allies. The causes of that war, and the part played in it by Marceau, will form the subject of the next chapter. One event we must anticipate here, namely, the death of Marceau's father on the 19th May. In July, after his father's death, the news of which only now reached him through Emira, and still mindful of the past, he wrote to his mother : " I will only ask that you should regard me as one of your sons, and as one who by his present and future conduct will one day fully merit your love THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 29 and tenderness. I beg of you not to leave me longer in uncertainty either as to your indifference or your friendship for me. Let my brothers and sisters, too, be assured of my love for them." " This appeal, this language," says Maze, " seem most touching to us. Marceau has written other letters more affectionate perhaps, but none that reveals more clearly the generosity of his soul. He wishes to be reconciled to his family before he marches out to meet the enemy." It is not known whether his appeal found any response in the cold heart of the obdurate and shallow-minded mother. On the 4th May Marceau wrote his last letter from Reims. This was to Constantine Maugars : " We leave to-morrow and hope to be at Montmedy in four days, about half a league off the enemy. A week after our arrival I hope to be able to give you definite news as to what part we are to play in the ensuing campaign." CHAPTER III. At the front — Desertion of Lafayette — Invasion of France — Defence atid surrender of Verdun — In the enemy's camp — Ste. Menehould afid the Bois dii Courupt. ON the 5th May, 1792, Marceau accompanied the two battahons of the Eure-and-Loir when they were despatched to Montmedy to form part of the garrison there. To arrive at the reason for this forward movement, and to reaHze the nature of the struggle in which Marceau played, for one so young, so prominent a part, we must make a brief survey of what took place in 1792 on the frontier between Dunkirk and Bale, dwelling here and there on those events of military history more directly connected with this biography. The year 1792 was the most important in the military annals of the French Revolution. In that year France proved to Europe that her republican armies could contend, and contend successfully, with the choicest troops of Austria and Prussia. In that year also commenced the long struggle of Europe against French invasion and innovation, scarcely terminated by Waterloo and the downfall of Napoleon. The conduct of the National Assembly and of THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 3 1 the mob of Paris had alarmed the crowned heads of Europe. Asylum was offered to the emigrant nobles of France, who had fled beyond the frontier, and the armies of Austria and Prussia were moved up to support their designs. The French govern- ment complained, with reason, of this encourage- ment, seeing that it allowed large bodies of the emigrants to be assembled at Coblentz, Treves, and other places uncomfortably near the French frontier. The Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia and the Electors, on the other hand, had equal cause of complaint against the propagandism of France, which aimed at overthrowing their thrones by means similar to those which had undermined the ancient monarchy of France. They particularized the violation by France of the seignorial and pro- prietary rights of the Catholics and nobles in Alsace, and the illegal annexation of Avignon and the Venaissin. The ultimatum of the Emperor, now addressed to the French, required the restitution of these rights and acquisitions, as well as the re- establishment of monarchy in France on its former footing of independence. This ultimatum was, of course, rejected in Paris, and war declared against the Emperor on the 20th April. Neither Prussia nor Austria had any wish for war, but France was burning to dislodge the emigres, and to spread everywhere the revolutionary spirit which animated her. " Their revolution," said the French, " could not stand still. It must advance and embrace other countries, or perish in their own." 32 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. The desire for war was universal in France, and its declaration on the 20th April was hailed with joy and enthusiasm. The real intention of the powers, allied together by the treaty of Pilnitz and subsequent conventions, was to form a bulwark against the attacks of the new spirit of aggression, to obtain indemnities for the German princes and their Catholic subjects, and if possible to restore the constitutional and personal liberty of Louis XVI. In the armies of the Republic there were many sincere and earnest men who, at this time, wavered in their allegiance, and whom the dethronement of the king in August finally estranged from the republican cause. But there were also not a few whose love of freedom and justice was not terrified or diminished by the excesses of the mob and the politicians of Paris, and whose devotion to the French Republic, and service in her armies, was characterized by singleness of purpose, and by upright, honest conduct, both during the doubtful opening days of the first campaign, as well as throughout the years wherein victory ensured unity. Among the number of these we might reckon Marceau. From the outset he never hesitated as to the side he should espouse, nor wavered in the part he had to play. To support the Republic by overcoming her enemies, wherever met, and who- ever they might be, was the single role that destiny and inclination assigned to him. The eastern frontier of France, from Dunkirk to Bale, was defended in those days, first, by a chain of fortresses, created by the genius of Vauban, extend- THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 33 ing along the Belgian frontier and down to Metz ; then by the Meuse and Moselle valleys, and, further south, by the Vosges mountains and the Rhine. A force of 150,000 men had been put in requisition throughout France to guard this extensive frontier. The Army of the North, under Rochambeau, pro- tected it from Dunkirk to Philippeville, the armies of the Ardennes and the centre, commanded by Lafayette, from Philippeville to Landau, while a force of 45,000 men, under Liickner, lay along the Rhine between Lauterburg and Bale. As early as May a force of i20,ooo Austrians, Prussians, Hessians, and emigres had been collected, and extended along this frontier, with Mons, Coblentz, and Mayence as bases of attack or defence. The initial attack of the Allies, not taking into account their movements in the Netherlands^ was directed against the French centre at Sedan and Metz, where Lafayette and Kellermann com- manded respectively forces of 25,000 and 20,000 men. The first line of the French defence lay along the fortified towns of Montmedy, Longwy, Thionville, Saarlouis, and Bitsch. Behind these lay the great fortresses of Mezieres, Sedan, Verdun, and Metz, and the woody heights of the Ardennes and the Argonne. The Allies purposed to break through these lines into the Champagne province, and so secure the great road to Chalons and Paris. On the 25th July the Duke of Brunswick broke up his camp at Coblentz, and on the 30th of the same month the French territory was invaded by D 34 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the Allies, 60,000 Prussians under Brunswick form- ing the centre, with 20,000 Austrians under Clerfayt on the right flank, and 10,000 Hessians and 16,000 Austrians on the left. All available troops had been hurried up to the front to meet the invaders, including the two volun- teer battalions of the Eure-and-Loir, who formed part of the army of the Ardennes, and had already, as we have seen, been ordered to proceed to Montmedy. On the eve of the struggle a great misfortune befell the French army by the desertion of their general, Lafayette. Loyal at heart to the monarchy, though a lover of abstract liberty, disgusted with the circumstances accompanying the overthrow of the throne and the imprisonment of his king -and queen, frustrated in his endeavours to rouse the army and march at its head to Paris, on the 20th August he crossed over to the enemy's lines, leaving behind him a message to his countrymen, as charac- teristic of him as of the times in which he lived. " Continue to love liberty," he wrote, " in spite of its storms, and serve your country." Such were the farewell words of one whom Marceau had served and intimately known. It is impossible to suppose that a character such as Lafayette's, with its large experiences of life in both the new and the old world, could have failed to leave a strong and lasting impression on the mind of the young and vigilant soldier. We can indeed plainly discern how many of the nobler qualities of the former reappear in the latter ; the love of liberty and order, the humane pity and the THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 35 magnanimity that owed no account to prudence of its motives. Dumouriez took Lafayette's place at Sedan, the whole army, except that on the Rhine, being at the same time placed under his command. Lafayette's desertion was naturally the cause of considerable excitement and alarm in the army of the Ardennes. Many of the officers who had served under him were shaken in their allegiance, many actually deserted and joined the hnigres, thinking, though of course wrongly, that they were following the example of their chief When the news reached Montm^dy, the volunteer battalions, including those of the Eure-and-Loir,took it as a signal and a favour- able opportunity for disbanding and returning home. Marceau, who was in temporary command of his battalion, ordered it to assemble, and succeeded by [his fervid and patriotic language in not only preventing its dissolution, but in instilling into it some of his own enthusiasm and patriotic ardour. " Comrades," he said, at the close of his address, " can your com- manc^ers make you forget your country ? If they desert their posts, does this give you any right to abandon yours ? It is at the front alone, face to face with the enemy, that honour can be won." For Marceau at least there was no doubt or com- punction as to what line of conduct he should pursue. He was already master of himself as of men. The enemies of liberty and of his country were at its gates ; what else was required of the patriotic at heart and of soul than to go forth and do battle with that foe ? 36 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. But the tide of invasion rolled by Montmedy. The Allies, mustering before that town and Thion- ville, proceeded to attack Longvvy, which lay between these towns, and on the 22nd August compelled it to surrender. The strong fortress of Verdun, on the Meuse, the work of Vauban, lay next in their path, and its garrison had to be hastily reinforced and provisioned. Among the troops sent to its aid were the two battalions of the Eure-and-Loir. Marceau arrived at Verdun on the 30th August, and on the same day the Allies occupied the heights of St. Michael, and encamped before it. The Prussians threw a bridge across the Meuse, and were not long in completing the investment of the town. The fortifications of Verdun had fallen into dis- repair, but this defect had been remedied to some extent. It was not expected that Verdun, however strong its defences, could, with its small garrison of 3,500 men, and meagre supply of provisions, hold out for any time against the entire invading army. But at least as protracted a defence as was under the circumstances possible was expected of it, in order to give the French army time to concentrate in rear of it from the cantonments of Metz and Sedan. These were certainly the views of its com- mander, the brave Beaurepaire, and his lieutenants, among whom we may include Marceau. On the 31st August an aide-de-camp arrived in Verdun bearing a message from the Duke of Bruns- wick, and calling upon Beaurepaire to surrender the fortress unconditionally in the nameofLouisXVI. This letter was read before the Communal Council, THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 37 and the following reply, signed by Beaurepaire, returned : " The Commandant and the troops of the garrison of Verdun have the honour to inform the Duke of Brunswick that the defence of the place has been intrusted to them by the King of the French people, of whose loyalty it is impossible to doubt. They cannot in consequence, without being wanting in the fidelity they owe to him as well as to the nation and its ordinances, surrender the place so long as there remains to them any means of defence. They hope also, in so acting, to win the esteem of the illustrio'us warrior with whom they will have the honour to cross swords." This message was delivered before noon. During the whole of the remainder of the day a brisk artillery fire was kept up against the enemy, but it failed to have much effect on the besiegers, who were too far off, and protected by the formation of the ground they occupied. Late in the evening several Prussian batteries opened fire on the town, which they continued to shell throughout that night. Very little damage was done, and few persons were injured, but the effect on the cowardly town's-people, and on the volunteers, who had never before been under artillery fire, was disastrous. The latter joined the townsfolk, and paraded the streets in disorderly gangs, and it needed all the energy and authority of Beaurepaire and his lieutenants to restore order in the town, and maintain discipline among the volunteers of the National Guard. On the 1st September a second summons was 38 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. received from the enemy and laid before the council. Marceau accompanied Beaurepaire to the meeting, and warned him on the way thither that the majority of the council were in favour of capitulation. Arrived there Beaurepaire endeavoured in vain to convince the Council of Defence of the urgent necessity of pro- tracting the siege. Marceau supported his chief with all the eloquence he could command. " We owe it to our country," he said, " and honour demands that we should go to the very end. Let us die, if needs be, in defending this place, fortified by Vauban, and made illustrious by the memory of Cluvert ; let us die, I say, rather than surrender it lightly to the stranger." The meeting then became stormy, and it was necessary to adjourn till the following day. At three o'clock of the same afternoon Com- mandant Beaurepaire was found lying dead on the floor of the council chamber with his skull broken in and his pistols at his side. History has been unable to place the cause of his death beyond all doubt or dispute, but the evidence points to assassi- nation rather than suicide, and it is not idle to con- jecture that the same hand that committed the foul deed had something to do with the unsigned missive of surrender received the same evening by the Duke of Brunswick. The remains of Beaurepaire were escorted to the citadel by the Mayenne and Loire volunteers, while profound gloom reigned in the hearts of the military chiefs who had served and learnt to respect him. Marceau in particular had become much attached THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 39 to Beaurepaire, " finding in him all that he himself possessed of ardour, disinterestedness, and love of country." ^ The Council of Defence met again on the morning of the 2nd September, when one Neyon, of the Meuse battalion, was elected commandant. It was decided at the same time to surrender the fortress on the conditions prescribed by the Duke of Brunswick. By a custom long prevalent in the army, the youngest officer present in the garrison had to carry the white flag of truce and the letter of capitulation to the Prussian camp. This officer was Lieutenant- Colonel Marceau, then only twenty-two years of age. It must have been particularly galling to Marceau, who had so vehemently raised his voice against sur- render, to have to perform this duty ; to be the spokesman of those whom he knew to be actuated by motives of cowardice, if not by treason and disloyalty. On the morning of the 2nd September Marceau, preceded by a trumpeter carrying a white flag, left Verdun for the enemy's camp, through which he was conducted to the tent of the King of Prussia with his eyes bandaged. It is said that when the bandage was removed it was noticed that Marceau's eyes were filled with tears. The story is not incredible, seeing how de- grading and distasteful a task had fallen to the lot of the brave youth who had advocated that it would be better to die than surrender the great fortress ignominiously ^ M. Parfait. 40 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Marceau was next taken before the Duke of Brunswick, and now on his return to Verdun, in passing through the groups of Prussian soldiers, he had to undergo the further humiliation of their triumphant looks, which spoke to him of their easily- bought victory. The capitulation was accepted by the Duke of Brunswick in the name of the King of Prussia, and General Kalreuth returned to Verdun with Marceau to arrange the details with Commandant Neyon. Marceau, it is said, pleaded hard with the Duke of Brunswick, in the name of the volunteer com- manders, that the battalions of Mayenne-Loire and of the Charente should be allowed to take with them the guns they had brought with them, as these were their own property. This, although against the custom of war, was conceded, and the terms of capitulation allowed the garrison to leave the fortress by the Gate of France with arms and baggage, and with four field-pieces, conformably to the demands of the commandant. It is also alleged that Marceau was present when Neyon and the Municipal Council were assembled to regulate the order of surrender. Hearing the details, and that a deputation of women was to be allowed to wait on Frederick William II., to thank him for his clemency and magnanimity, Marceau left the hall, and was only prevented from taking his own life by being suddenly called away to the citadel, where the volunteer commanders were arranging for their departure, and for the trans- port of the body of Beaurepaire. We give this THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 4I story for what it is worth ; it has little authority to support it. When Marceau came back from the Prussian camp to Verdun he found the town being pillaged by the people. He himself had lost his clothes and 400 livres, all he had saved. Order was not re- stored until the Prussians entered and took pos- session of the town on the evening of the 2nd September. On the 3rd September, as agreed, the French troops evacuated the fortress, taking their arms with them. The procession set out at an early hour. At its head rode several squadrons of Prussian cavalry, followed by a wagon, where, under a tricolour flag, lay the body of Beaurepaire. Next came the volunteer battalions, the regular corps of the French army bringing up the rear. Three thousand five hundred men filed out on that grey morning in silence and shame, victims not so much of their own pusillanimity as of a treachery that was to repeat itself, on a far larger scale, eighty years later in a fortress not very far south of Verdun. A legend concerning this portion of Marceau's life, and told in all gravity by most of his bio- graphers, may be disposed of here. The story runs that as the Prussian cavalry escort turned bridle to return to Verdun and passed the volunteer batta- lions, Marceau cried out in defiance : " Adieu, till we meet again on the plains of Champagne ! " The character of Marceau, the gloom that must have reigned in all hearts, and especially in his, at this 4^ BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. moment, are sufficient to dissipate the gossamer of which this story is woven, a story more worthy of some braggart of war than of a brave soldier in the hour of his humihation. The French troops had been ordered to take the direction of Ste. Menehould, in rear of the Argonne forest, where they were to join the Army of the North under Dumouriez. After the Prussian cavalry returned to Verdun the retreating French troops got mixed up, and were soon stricken with panic. Following, not the example of the Irish mercenaries present, but the dictates of their own hearts, the volunteer battalions disbanded themselves on the march, and many of the soldier-citizens took the road to Epernay. The commanders could exercise no authority, as the different regiments had become hopelessly intermixed. Among those who fled to Epernay were three hundred volunteers belonging to the Eure-and-Loir. In vain Marceau begged and commanded, argued and threatened, there was no stopping their flight ; they succeeded in taking with them even some of the choicest of his troop of Chasseurs. Nor was order restored until Galbaud, who had been sent to reinforce Verdun, was met. The combined forces then retreated to the pass of Les Islettes, the garrison of Verdun passing through it to Ste. Menehould. Marceau makes the barest allusion to these events in his journal. " The stress of war," he says, " took me to Verdun, and thence to the army of General Dillon." In a letter to Constantine Maugars, written on THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 43 the 7th September from the Bois du Courupt, where he was posted after reaching Ste. Menehould, Marceau comments on the conduct of the inhabitants of Verdun, and on the treachery of those who so readily agreed to the capitulation. It is only in a postscript of two lines that he refers, as though the words burnt him as he wrote them, to the part he had been forced to take in that unhappy affair : "It was I who went to the camp of the King of Prussia and arranged the articles of the capitulation." The letter, though so reticent on this point, does not fail to inform Maugars of the later conduct of the volunteers of their department : " The battalion of the Eure-and-Loir," writes Marceau, "which during the siege had given some proofs of courage, has just disgraced itself, and shown to all France how little she can rely on her volunteers. Three hundred cowards have not long since deserted their colours, moved thereto either by fear or the desire to return to their homes. . . . Oh ! my friend, you cannot think how it cuts me to the heart to speak thus of my fellow-citizens, and how it grieves me to have to admit to you that I regret they ever thought me worthy of leading them. How unfortunate is the man who is compelled by his position to endure evils which he cannot remedy. This is my case ; compelled as I am to serve by profession, and at the same time to endure the pain of seeing insubordina- tion rampant in our army. The friend of libert}', and therefore of order, I cannot without grief see its progress impeded by those who should rely on example alone. I blush to have to admit that our 44 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. troops are more feared than the enemy. It is to be hoped that this state of affairs will not last long, otherwise France will be brought to the verge of ruin, and will find herself deserted by all officers and men who now love her and desire her welfare. I shall be of this number. Compelled by necessity to remain here, I prefer poverty to ignominy, and I would rather that men said of me ' Marceau was virtuous, and he was no coward.' To work for a livelihood will be more tolerable to me than to see the possessions of virtuous citizens plundered and pillaged without having the power to prevent it. I prefer honour to riches, and poverty to infamy." "The friend of liberty, and therefore of order! " — " I prefer honour to riches ! " Well may one of Marceau's biographers ^ exclaim at the simplicity and depth of these phrases, coming as they do from the pen of one so young and thrown without a guide, except that of an upright heart, into the wilderness of a revolu- tion such as that of 1789. ^ M. Maze. CHAPTER IV. The ThertnopylcE of France — General Dillon — Valmy and Les Islettes — Transfer to the Germanic Legion — Cantoned in Chartres — Arrest atid trial. THE capitulation of Verdun was naturally in- terpreted in Paris as an act of base treachery and undisguised treason. The National Convention at once decreed that all officers who had voted for it should be placed on trial. The decree exempted by name, among others, Marceau, who, as the decree stated, had showed an example of courage and patriotism under trying circumstances. Comman- dant Neyon, who had been thought fit to fill Beaurepaire's place, and whose first act had been to agree to the terms dictated by the enemy, was sentenced to death and guillotined. The troops who had formed the garrison of Verdun, including the Eure-and-Loir battalions, were placed under General Dillon and formed part of his division. Dillon commanded the left wing of Dumouriez's army of the Ardennes, and de- fended at this time La Chalade and Les Islettes, the two southernmost passes of the Argonne forest. Dumouriez, who when the allied armies entered France by way of Longwy and Verdun, was at 46 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Sedan with 25,OCXD men, had conceived the grand plan of retreating before the superior forces of the AlHes and defending the Argonne. At the council of war, pointing to the forest on the map, he said to one of his officers : " That is the Thermopyl^ of France." This forest of Argonne extends from the vicinity of Sedan some fifteen leagues south-west to Passa- vant. It is only three to four leagues wide, but, owing to the roughness of the ground and the numerous woods, watercourses, and uplands to be threaded or crossed, is only penetrable by an army through a few defiles, such as an inferior force might easily fortify and defend. These defiles, com- mencing from the north, are named respectively : Chene-Populeux, near Sedan, Croix-aux-Bois, Grand Pre, La Chalade, and Les Islettes. The last-named defile opens opposite Verdun, and through it passes the great road that connects that fortress with Ste. Menehould, Chalons, and Paris. To the east of the Argonne lies the rich and fertile country of the Trois-Evech^s ; to the west are the sterile and muddy plains of the Champagne province. Through the Trois-Eveches and parallel to the Argonne range, at a distance of three to five leagues, runs the river Meuse, both banks of which, from Stenay to Verdun, were now occupied by the for- midable forces of the Allies. To occupy the Argonne passes it was therefore necessary to make a flank march along the front of the allied army. But Dumouriez, whose genius resembled in some respects that of Napoleon, never THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 47 doubted of success. Ordering Beurnonville to sup- port him on the left at Rethel, and Kellermann on the right from Bar-le-Duc, he commenced this movement on the ist September, 1792. Dillon, marching between the Argonne and the Meuse, led the way, and after driving the Austrians back over the Meuse, occupied, on the 4th, La Chalade and Les Islettes. Dumouriez himself had reached Grand Pre the day before, and by the 7th the other two defiles were taken possession of and the road to Paris secured. It will be seen how important was the task in- trusted to Dillon ; and Marceau with his regiment was ordered to join the advance guard of Dillon's division, his camp being fixed in the Bois du Courupt, south of Les Islettes. Dumouriez wrote to the Convention informing it that he had occupied the Argonne, and asked that reinforcements and supplies should be sent to Chalons in his rear. " Grand Pre and Les Islettes," he added, " are our Thermopylae ; but I shall be more fortunate than Leonidas." On the loth September a general attack was made all along the line by the Allies on the French outposts before the five defiles, but it was every- where successfully repulsed. At La Chalade and Les Islettes Dillon had to bear the brunt of the Prussian attack, never, however, very skilfully directed or seriously maintained. On the 15th, the Austrians under Clerfayt suc- ceeded in forcing Croix-aux-Bois, the second of the five passes, which Dumouriez, misinformed of its 48 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. importance, had failed to guard with a sufficient force. In a day the French Thermopylse was turned ; Dumouriez's position, from one of strength and security, became one of extreme danger, and the road to Chalons and Paris was open. Dumouriez's genius did not forsake him at this critical hour. On the 17th he fell back from Grand Pre to Ste. Menehould du Roi on the Aisne, and took up a new position, with his face to the Cham- pagne and his back to the Argonne forest he had abandoned. The pivot of this manoeuvre was Dillon's division, which still maintained itself at La Chalade and Les Islettes, and formed the im- pregnable right of the French army, the other wing of which now rested on Dampierre and the Aune. On the 19th, Beurnonville and Kellermann joined Dumouriez, raising his force to 70,000 men. Keller- mann had been ordered to occupy Gisancourt on the left ; but, misunderstanding the order, he passed on to the low hill of Valmy, nearer the centre and opposite the heights of La Lune. The forces of the Allies, pouring through the now unoccupied passes, soon came up with the French. Their object was to make themselves masters of the road to Chalons, to force the two defiles de- fended by Dillon, to extend their right as far as Vitry, and thus surround Ste. Menehould and crush the combined armies of Dumouriez and Keller- mann. On the 20th September took place the " Can- nonade of Valmy," which it is not to our purpo.se to give in detail. It was an indecisive action fought THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 49 between the Prussians, under Brunswick, occupying the heights of La Lune, and the left centre of the French army at Valmy under Kellermann. Some 20,000 cannon shots were fired, the bulk of the forces on either side w^as never employed ; each side maintained its position and claimed a victory, and the combined losses did not exceed 1,700 or 1,800 in killed and wounded. Whatever the cause of the failure of the Prussians to carry the inferior position of the French, certain it is that Valmy was claimed as a victory by the Republicans, and proved the turning point in the campaign of 1792. It was a great moral victory. It gave to the French army a self-confidence previously lacking, and a prestige which enabled it in the future to endure defeat with equanimity, as well as to win great battles in the name of the Republic. To quote the words of Goethe, who was present at Valmy : " From this place, and from this day forth, commences a new era in the world's history." We left Marceau in his camp in the Bois du Courupt. The prospect of the coming battle, and the return of nearly all the deserters from his corps, soon made him forget his past misfortunes. He forgave his compatriots, and devoted his time and energy to the reorganization of his battalion. How far he and his brother officers succeeded, may be gathered from the fact that his battalion was soon after considered sufficiently disciplined to form part of the advance guard of Dillon's army of 8,000 men defending La Chalade and Les Islettes. E 50 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Marceau, with Dillon's advance guard, could not have taken part, as many of his biographers have stated, in the cannonade of Valmy, unless we con- sider three attacks made on Les Islettes at about the same time as part of that action. These attacks by a strong detachment of the Allies on that important pass, on which rested the back and right of the French army, were sustained and defeated by the bravery and obstinate courage of the regulars and volunteers under Dillon. And it was at Les Islettes, the true Thermopylee of France, the defile that bars the road to Chalons and Paris, that Marceau first experienced the joys of battle, and distinguished himself in the forefront of the fight and in the eyes of his commander. From this day until he left the army of the Ardennes, Marceau was attached as an aide-de-camp to Dillon's staff. Marceau, still in the Bois du Courupt, wrote to his friend Maugars on the 24th September, and it is clear from this letter that the " two affairs " he there mentions do not include Valmy, which is alluded to further on in the same letter : " There has been, my dear friend, a long interval between this letter and my last. But there has been a reason for the delay, namely, frequent marches, and two affairs in which I commanded 200 men. Our general, Dillon, who is a good patriot, and, what is more, a fine soldier, has twice with the advanced guard, composed of 8,000 or 9,000 men, repulsed the enemy before us, numbering about 8,000. I was intrusted with the pursuit of the fugitives, whom I followed up to their very en- THE EURE-AND-LOIR. $1 trenchments without other loss than that of two chasseurs of a Frank company. The enemy's main forces, numbering 48,000, penetrated into the Cham- pagne, but our brave general, Dumouriez, held them in check by taking up an advantageous position with 17,000 men only. In his repulse of their attacks he displayed both talent and firmness. He was forced to fall back so as to place himself in touch with the reinforcements he expected, but his retreat was as clever as that of Turenne. " But how can I tell you of the cowards, and traitors, and scoundrels withal, who, though they call themselves Frenchmen, have merely the name, and who in this retreat have very nearly lost us both our empire and our liberty. Some 1,500 of the enemy's hussars followed up the retreat in the hope of plunder. Admirable order reigned during the march, when suddenly the scoundrels alluded to quitted the ranks, crying out they were betrayed and cut off A portion of the army was thrown into disorder, and it needed all the genius of the general to prevent the panic from creating a disaster. He took up a good position, nearer to us, and was presently joined by Generals Kellermann and Beurnonville. The next day there was a cannonade of twelve hours, in which we lost 1 1 5 killed, and about 600 wounded, the greater part seriously. The enemy must have suffered heavily from our fire. During the last two days there have been frequent skirmishes. The enemy's advance guard is two miles from Chalons. Liickner is said to be not far off that town with 32,000 federates, or 52 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. say, rather, scoundrels, who are only men in name, and through whom we shall be lost if they are not brought to order. They pillage everything and murder everyone whom they fall out with. By so acting they think to show how brave they are ; and yet the cowards refused for four days to march to our succour. They wish to conquer without fight- ing, and to live as well here as they did in Paris. As for us, devoted as we are to the public cause, we despise those who know no other master than their own will, and we shall use all the force in our power to bring them to order. For three days we have been without bread, as the convoys have had to make a detour to avoid the enemy. Sed pro patria pati oportet. I have little else to tell you. Your brothers are flourishing, and so am I. Write and tell us the names of our young friends and acquain- tances who have left Chartres, what posts they hold, and where they have gone to, for I do not think any have joined our army. These little things often escape us, and when we speak of friends, you know what that means. Make time if you have none ; sleep less, and while we keep watch and ward over the safety of the empire, you do the same over the tender friendship that is thine." The letter mentions two actions before the de- files defended by Dillon, and then the retreat of Dumouriez to a position in rear of Les Islettes. The panic referred to occurred twice during Du- mouriez's change of front from Grand Pr6 to Ste. Menehould. The second sauve qui pent was a serious one, as more than 1,500 men escaped to THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 53 Chalons, spreading everywhere the tale of the utter destruction of the Army of the North. All, how- ever, was retrieved by the efforts and the calm assurance of Dumouriez and his generals, and the moral victory of Valmy followed. But let us read and re-read this letter of Mar- ceau's, so beautiful in its simple gravity. Sed pro patria pati oportet. " These words," says Hippolyte Maze, " depict him faithfully. Though he seeks a refuge in the army, the life of a soldier has no fascination for him. The faults and the blunders he witnesses grieve him sorely. The thought of duty alone sustains him. He consoles himself by pouring out the thoughts of his heart to his friends, and he closes his letter by calling to mind the noblest words of Roman antiquity." The last days of September arrived. The fine army of the Allies posted before Ste. Menehould and Les Islettes began to melt away under scarcity and disease, and on the 30th the retreat began. Dumouriez directed his generals to pursue and de- stroy the enemy, and then betook himself to Paris. He ordered Dillon to advance by Clermont and Varennes, and cut off the road to Verdun, and Dillon alone of all the generals carried out his orders in a proper spirit. So impetuous was his pursuit that, on one occasion, he nearly brought on an engagement with the entire Prussian army. Before long Verdun was retaken, and it must have been with mixed feelings of joy and regret that Marceau re-entered the fortress whose base betrayal he had so unwillingly witnessed. By the end of 54 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. October the Allies had entirely evacuated French territory. We must sum up here the rest of the campaign of 1792, as we shall have to return to this frontier with Marceau after the Vendean interval of almost eighteen months. After the retreat of the Allies, Dumouriez again turned his attention to Flanders. On the 6th Novemberhe fought and won the battle of Jemappes, which led to the conquest of the whole of the Nether- lands south of Antwerp. This city, too, was occu- pied, and the navigation of the Scheldt opened to free commerce. The French army then advanced on to the Rhine to meet Custine at Coblentz, and took up its winter quarters at Roermond, Aix-la- Chapelle, and Namur. On the Rhine, meanwhile, Custine had taken Speyer, Worms, and Franken- thal, and on the 21st October occupied Mayence, the key to the western provinces of the empire, and the only fortified post of- the Allies on the Rhine. The Duke of Brunswick, alarmed at Custine's pro- gress, moved with all his forces against him, and compelled him to recross the Rhine and take up a position for the winter between Bingen and Fran- kenthal, with a garrison at Mayence. In these events Marceau unfortunately took no part, for, after the allied armies had retreated beyond Longwy and Thionville, he accompanied Dillon, who had been suspended and recalled to Paris. This unfortunate general. Count Arthur Dillon, was seized by the revolutionary tribunal of Paris, and, in spite of the services he had rendered to the Republic, THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 55 guillotined on the 13th April, 1793. Again, under conditions which prognosticate no good to himself, does Marceau lose the chief he has faithfully served, and whose respect and admiration he had won. " I became intimate with this general," he says in his diary ; " he certainly had more talent than manners, but I endeavoured to profit by the former to the best of my ability." That Marceau was much attached to Dillon is evident from his accompanying him to Paris, where he not only prepared his defence for him, but exerted himself with influential friends, such as Brissot and Petion, so as to place his general's conduct in its true light before the tri- bunal. His efforts were, however, in vain, and he only compromised himself by his connection with one who, however unjustly, was condemned as a royalist and a traitor. His sister, Emira, whom he often saw during his visit to Paris, warned him of his danger, and found an excuse for his leaving Paris before the guillotine could claim him for a victim. Marceau's health had suffered much from the constant exposure of a long campaign ; but, moved by his sister's entreaties to quit Paris, and urgently pressed to rejoin his corps, he had already made up his mind to do both, when he was offered, and at once accepted, a first lieutenancy in the Light Cuirassiers of the Germanic Legion. Acting on the advice of Emira, he had applied to be employed in the regular army, and had been nominated a sub-lieutenant in the 83rd Regiment. He justly thought, however, that his qualifications $6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. and services entitled him to a better recognition, and the letter he wrote from the Bois de Courupt to the Chartres municipality, asking them for their intervention, deserves to be quoted for the direct- ness and modesty with which he puts forward his claims : " Dear fellow-citizens, I have received from the citizen minister of war a letter wherein he informs me that I have been nominated a sub-lieutenant in the 83rd infantry regiment. I have no doubt that I owe this partly to your recommendation, but will you allow me to remark that a sub-lieutenancy of infantry is not what I thought I had the right to expect from the justice of the citizen minister. I venture to hope, from the interest you have taken in me, that you will be pleased to represent that I can reckon eight years of honourable service both in the Line and in the National Guard ; and that in the latter, through the suffrages of my fellow-citi- zens, I have served in a high grade. . . . Elected lieutenant-colonel by my comrades, and having served for five months in this grade, the minister, who is a just man and a patriot, cannot, I think, resist the just demands of a soldier who, ever since the declaration of war, has acted a part in it under the eyes of generals in a manner which won their esteem and always at the most perilous posts." In his journal he has told us his reasons for wish- ing to join the cavalry, and the steps he took to that end. " The love of glory," he confesses, " had taken the place of all other passions in me. The nature of the studies I had long devoted myself to had THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 57 enlarged my views. After due reflection I resolved, instead of rejoining my corps, to serve in the cavalry, in order that I might have a wider acquaintance with both arms of the service. I therefore asked for a letter from the minister Pache. He refused it, but offered me, at the same time, the post of captain, which I accepted." The promptings of Emira, who now plainly saw of what stuff her brother was made, had as much to do with this inclination and the subsequent appoint- ment as any desire of Marceau's to move forward in the path of glory. The brevet-captaincy was cer- tainly obtained from Pache by the intervention of Conventionnel Sergent, an engraver by profession and the friendof Emira, who became his wife after her divorce from the obnoxious Champion de Cernel. The Light Cuirassiers to whom Marceau was appointed formed part of the foreign or Germanic Legion. This corps was raised in 1792 by a decree of the Legislative Assembly, and reorganized by Westermann from soldiers trained in the regular wars on the Rhenish frontier. It consisted of some four or five thousand men, of whom one-third w^ere light cavalry, and the remainder infantry, or fan- tassins. Marceau joined the corps in 1792, his sister Emira again coming to his assistance, by providing the somewhat expensive and brilliant uniform and equipment of an officer — the helmet of burnished steel, the silver-plated cuirass, the horse with its costly trappings and modernized coat of mail. The German Legion, when Marceau first joined it,existed, however, to a great extent on paper, but it was 58 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. being rapidly brought up to full strength by the admission of discontents, deserters, and foreigners. The attempt to weld these elements into a compact disciplined body brought considerable trouble on the unfortunate officers, including Marceau, to whom the difficult task was intrusted. The cantonments of this mongrel corps were at Fontainebleau, Orleans, Chartres, La Flcchc, and other places, with headquarters at Philippeville. Marceau appears, from his journal, to have been first quartered, with a detachment of his cuirassiers, at his native place, Chartres, and there enjoyed two months of rest, so necessary to him in his state of health. " Here," he says, " I remained two months, which were not marked by any great event ; on the contrary, this monotonous and peaceful existence, where I was so happy, seemed to reveal to me that all my passions had now been stilled and stifled. I say this because the passion for glory I had felt some little time before tormented me no longer, and because death, that had carried off the youthful object of my affection, seemed to have extinguished for ever the love that I had experienced. Happy days ! Why did you not endure, or rather why, yielding to circumstances and the advice of friends, did it enter into my mind to leave a place where life would have been tranquil and peaceful ! I enjoyed excellent health, and I was not devoured by a thousand cares, one only more cruel than another- What had I then done to the kind Heaven to be so unfortunate ? But we must needs follow our destiny, and I must resume my sketch." THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 59 The two months at Chartres were, indeed, the period of cahn that precedes the storm, a storm that tore away the root-strings of Marceau's heart. But to the hour of his glorious death he braved it manfully, and his belief in humanity, in a future of joeace, in the justice of the great cause in whose armies he fought, was never shaken by its blasts. If you live among men, it has been said, the heart must either break or turn to brass. Marceau, full of hope, and courageous to the last, did not, per- haps, live long enough to discover, or to illustrate the truth of this aphorism. The first trouble arose from the soldiers of the German Legion. We have seen what was the com- position of this corps. Deserters from other regi- ments and other countries, adventurers from Paris, filled with the insubordinate spirit of the metropolis, were an element of disorder in the corps, and could not brook the submission required of them to the authority of their officers. A large body of these would-be soldiers now charged the latter with treachery, and conduct unbecoming patriots and citizens. These vague charges, together with their grievances, were laid before the bar of the National Convention early in the year 1793. This assembly appointed three delegates, Bourbotte, Julien of Toulouse, and Bourdon, to hold an inquiry into the matter, and to place under arrest all whose conduct appeared to them unworthy or unpatriotic. The delegates summoned before them at Philippe- ville twenty-five officers from among those who had been foremost in maintaining order among the 60 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. troops, and improving the discipline of the corps. Marceau, as might have been expected, was of the number so summoned, and, though still suffering, was obliged to travel from Chartres to Philippeville, to appear before the Triumvirs of reform and revenge. Augereau and Westermann were also among the twenty-five. From Philippeville these unfortunate men were conducted to Tours, where the delegates now established themselves, so as to be nearer the Orleans battalions, who were the principal accusers. At Tours, in the Place d'Armes, surrounded by troops and a gaping crowd, these twenty-five brave men were ordered by the delegates to surrender their swords. All refused, and not a few protested loudly, until Marceau stepped forward, with a proud and dignified air, and presented his weapon to the representatives of the government. The small band was immediately surrounded by a military- escort, and conducted to the Tours prison, where they were kept confined in cells. Here Marceau might have remained until the advent of Napoleon, or some other restorer of order, had it not been for the energy and wisdom of his sister Emira, who once more came to his aid. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that, but for her timely intervention, Marceau, in spite of his services and his innocence, would have added one more to the number of those, who, like Dillon, Custine, Houchard, and a host of others, though they had fought valiantly for the Republic, were sacrificed to the howling, insatiable mob by the THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 6 1 irresponsible and bloodthirsty tribunals of Paris. For innocence and faithful service were no more safeguards in those days than they had been in Flanders during the tyranny of Alva and his fiendish master. As in the case of the victims of the Flemish Inquisition, the guilt of those sus- pected, or even named, was a foregone conclusion, and the judge went through the formality of a trial with the death-warrant already signed, sealed, and delivered to him. The terrible days of May were, moreover, now at hand. Girondist and Jacobin were waging their war of mutual extermination. The wave of insur- rection swept the land. It is quite possible, there- fore, that Marceau might have been forgotten in his dungeon, or taken and kept a prisoner by those very royalists he had been preparing to meet in arms. Emira, escaping with difficulty from Paris, has- tened to Tours with her friend, the engraver Sergent, now a member of the National Conven- tion. Three weeks of imprisonment, and all the ingratitude and injustice that had been Marceau's sole reward, must have almost broken the heart of one gifted wnth so fine a sense of right and wrong, and at the same time so great a prey to melancholy. After a short stay at Tours, Emira and Sergent hastened to Saumur, where the representatives of the people were then holding their court, and simultaneously conducting the campaign against the rebels. Sergent demanded and obtained per- mission from his colleagues that Marceau should be 62 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. forthwith summoned before them, and examined as to the imputations made against him. Bourbotte alone resented this act of justice. Choudieu was appointed president, with Bour- botte public prosecutor, and Richard, Bourdon, Tallien, Goupilleau, Julien of Toulouse, and Caux as members of the tribunal. Marceau was transferred in custody to Saumur, and the trial was proceeded with rapidly. A memoir dealing with his services, supported by affidavits as to its correctness, collected by the un- tiring Emira, was placed before the court by Sergent. The prosecutor failed to bring home to the accused any one of the charges on which he had been arrested and imprisoned. Marceau con- ducted his own defence " with simplicity and rare modesty," says M. Parfait. " During his examina- tion not a complaint escaped his lips, not even an indirect recrimination of his enemies. He either disdained them or desired to forget them." Repre- sentative Goupilleau of Fontenay, who saw and heard Marceau for the first time, could not help exclaiming : " If this officer, whom I now see for the first time, and whose manner of defending him- self I appreciate and admire, is not as staunch a republican as he is a brave soldier, I shall never place faith in any man again ! " Judgment was passed on the 8th June, 1793. The Commission declared Marceau to be absolutely guiltless, and acquitted him with honour, and ordered that he should be reinstated as captain in the German Legion, and his sword and horse THE EURE-AND-LOIR. 6T) restored to him. This was almost the unanimous verdict of the judges, of whom Bourbotte alone abstained from voting. We shall see by what means Marceau heaped coals of fire on the head of this persistent enemy. Marceau's comments on his incarceration are worth extracting from his journal : " For one entire month," he records, " I was treated as a malefactor, and confined in a dark and unwholesome prison- house. A memoir placed before the Committee of Public Welfare, and the interest my friends took in my case, at last secured me my liberty. As indem- nity and by way of recompense, I received the grade of lieutenant-colonel. But can the unhappy victim of injustice ever be indemnified, and can any recompense atone for that injustice? I reflected long on this subject, and in the end I did all I could in my new grade, which I at first refused, but was compelled finally to accept, to restore to my corps that discipline which the arrest of its principal officers had destroyed." With his transfer to the German Legion and to the seat of the war of La Vendee, Marceau took leave of the department of the Eure-and-Loir, and the battalion raised from within its borders. He had suffered much, for the sting of injustice is sharp, and the pangs of ingratitude burn like fire. But there was reserved to this sensitive and intense soul a torture more refined still, and more lasting, than even these instruments could inflict. We shall see how like a hero of old time Marceau bore him- self in this conflict with an untoward world. Part II. LA VENDEE. " In this part of La Vendee the Republic certainly gets the upper hand. But which Republic, for in this triufnph the Republic assumes two forms ? There is the Republic of Terror that wotdd fain conquer through severity j and the Republic of Mercy, whose methods are cleinency and forbearance. Which of these is destitied to succeed? These two forms, the conciliatory and the implacable, has each a representative exercising his particular sway and armed with a distinct authority, the military commander, namely, and the civil delegate. To which of these will it be giveti to prevail ? Of the two, the delegate has formidable powers to support him, for he comes armed with the menaci?tg order of the Paris co/nmune, ' No mercy ! no quarter /'.... The other, the soldier, possesses but one source of power, that which e7nanates fi'otn the exercise of humaiiity atid pity." — Victor Hugo. CHAPTER I. La Vendee — The country and its inhabitants — The civil war of La Vendee — Defence of Sauniur — Bourbotte. MARCEAU regained his freedom on the 8th of June, 1793, and on the following day, having already hurried his sister Emira and her friend Sergent out of Saumur, he was called upon to resume his place in the Republican army as Captain of Cuirassiers of the German Legion, and to defend the town against the attack of the Royalist army of La Vendee. This brings us at once to the second portion of Marceau's military career, and his connection with the civil war in the west of France. He did not now draw his sword to arrest the march of an invading foreign foe, but to suppress an insurrection of his own countrymen, whose object it was to restore royalty at the expense of the new Republic, of which he was an avowed and ardent soldier. It was his fortune to initiate, at the chateau of La Tremblaie, and on the heights above Cholet, the ruin of the Royalist cause, and, at Le Mans and Savenay, to deal the final blow to its once invincible army. But in giving the story of these triumphs 68 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. we must not be understood to say that they are for us, or were for Marceau, a subject for gratulation or self-glorification. Though we find him ever in the forefront of the fight, manfully doing battle with the enemies of the Republic, there is no note of exultation, and no desire or fulfilment of ambition based on the slaughter of his countrymen, or arising out of the smoking ruins of their chateaux and cabins. The words of the Royalist leader, when he first went out to join the insurgents, would have found a ready response in Marceau's heart. " We must never expect human glory," said Bonchamps to his weeping wife ; " civil strife affords none." The insurrection in La Vendee is one of the most momentous events in the history of the French Revolution. Someone has compared it to a rising of the ancient Gauls at the voice of the Druids and led by their great chiefs. But Victor Hugo was nearer the truth when he said that two words, country {pays) and fatherland {patne), entirely summed up the war of La Vendee ; that it was the strife of the local idea with the universal, of peasants versus patriots. La Vendee militant, that is, the La Vendee that took up arms, was not an extensive tract of country. It covered an area of i,ioo square miles, and may be said to have been bounded, approximately, on the north by the Loire from Nantes to Saumur ; on the east by a line running from Saumur through Thouars and Parthenay to Niort ; south by the road that connects Niort with Sables-d'Olonne on LA VENDEE. 69 the sea-coast ; and west by the Bay of Biscay. It comprised the greater portion of the departments of La Vendee and the Deux-Sev^es, three-tenths of the Loire-Inferieure, and two-fifths of the Maine- et-Loire, thus embracing a part of each of the old provinces of Poitou and Anjou, and of the County of Nantes. Within this area there were, in 1793, ten arrondissements and six hundred communes, with a total population of 720,000 souls. We shall better understand the sublime and des- perate nature of the struggle, in which Marceau played so prominent a part, when we realize that of this population only one-fifth joined the insur- rection ; that this force, not exceeding 150,000 men, and divided into five irregular armies, had at one time arrayed against it 200,000 soldiers of the Line and of the National Guards, including some of the flower of the French regular army ; that, notwith- standing this, the struggle was maintained with vigour and success through a period of at least a year, during which veteran armies were vanquished over and over again, and the road to Paris twice cleared for an unopposed march of the Catholic armies. It was only when the wounded animal was driven from its lair by a formidable and sys- tematic attack, when La Vendee had been aban- doned in her smoke and ashes, and 130,000 of all sexes and sizes had perished, that victory declared itself for the arms of the Republic. Even then the Vendean army, most terrible when it stood at bay and in its death-throes, only succumbed through divided counsels and unavoidable misfortunes rather 70 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. than to the force of arms or to superior mihtary skill and valour. The reason of this protracted success of the ill- armed and undisciplined bands of La Vendue will become plain when we learn the peculiar conforma- tion and aspect of the country which was the seat of the struggle, and the character of its inhabitants. La Vendee, as it then existed, may best be described as a large labyrinth without roads, or as a vast fortress where nature had provided all that was needed to maintain a successful resistance. Dumouriez, in traversing La Vendue shortly before the outbreak, had said : " If I had to wage civil war, it is here I should come." This country, for the most part a wilderness, where agriculture con- sisted chiefly in the culture of rye and buckwheat, is divided by nature into three distinct parts, known severally as the Bocage, the Marais, and the Plain. The Bocage or Gatine, occupying more or less the centre, is an assemblage of small mountains and of high hills, which are now linked together in a chain and now cut and cross each other, forming a multitude of valleys, giving birth to numerous streams, and pouring their waters into three or four rivers : the Thouet, the Sevre-Nantaise, the Lay, and the Sevre- Niortaise. The Bocage comprised some 560 square miles of the insurgent country. It was covered, as its name implies, by numerous forests of oak, chest- nut, and beech, either disposed in masses on hillside and valley, or surrounding the enclosures of the scattered small farms of the metayer, or lining the deep water-courses which often, in the absence of LA VENDUE. 71 roads, afforded the only means of communication between one parish and another. The rough-hewn hills, with cataracts pouring down their sides, the innumerable streams with their steep shaggy banks that stray eccentrically through them, the quickset hedges which enclose each isolated property and prevent a view of human habitations, the roads far below the level of the land through which they run, all combine to give the country a severe and savage aspect. This Socage, with its stony soil but pure air, its difficult roadways but aged oaks ; these great Vendean woods with their mystery, their solitude, and their tragic and sinister beauties, were the very centre, the fostering hearth of the great civil war. As you descend from the mountains and leave behind you the last slopes of the hills, and traverse the plains nearer the sea, the scene changes ; the waters seem to flow no longer, and the ground declines till it terminates in salt marshes, and is everywhere cut up by a multitude of canals, which render access almost impossible. We have come to the Alarais, or marshland, covering some 135,000 hectares of wet, dry, and salt marshes. There were two extents of marshland, the one lying south of Lugon and Fontenay, and stretching from La Gironde to Talmont ; the other bordering the ocean from Saint-Gilles to the Loire. This flat, marshy country was a worse labyrinth even than the Socage, where an invading army could lose itself or be cut to pieces in detachments. The rest of the country may be included in the 72 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Plain, which was better cultivated than either the Bocage or the Marais, though less wooded than the former, and where the houses were grouped into villages, presenting a more homely and human aspect than either of these. Thus of the i,ioo square miles over which the insurrection spread, fifty per cent, may be called the Bocage,and eight per cent, marshland ; the remainder consisted of plains, dunes, islands, and lakelets. Before the advent of Napoleon only three practic- able roads traversed the country. One from the Sables-d'Olonne to Nantes, passing through Palluau and Lege ; another from the Sables to Niort, through Lu^on and Fontenay ; while a third connected Nantes with Fontenay by way of Montaigu, Chantonnay, and Sainte-Hermione through the heart of the Bocage. Within this area there were no manufactories and no great towns. Niort had a population of 7,000, all the others were only large villages, of 2,000 to 3,000 souls. The population in these favoured the Republic, and did not, as a rule, join in the Vendean revolt. Whether in town or in country there were few of those magnificent chateaux to be found in most other parts of France. The land was cultivated by metayerSy who divided the produce of their small farms with the proprietors. The wealth of the country was in its cattle, and the inhabitants trusted more to this source than to the land for their sustenance. The Vendeans were all either shepherds or agri- culturists, and it was only by a sad destiny that they LA VENDfiE. 73 were called upon to be soldiers. Their mode of life was simple, their customs almost patriarchal. They loved their chiefs, who lived and died in the midst of them, while the system of sharing profits and produce formed the strongest bond, that of common material interests, between the landlord and his tenants. The people were strongly religious, and closely attached to their village pastors, who were a reflex of the people, and men of extraordinary purity of character. The pale-faced, dark-haired Vendean of the woods and the uplands, with his sad and gloomy mien, was an ignorant credulous creature, slow of spirit and fondly attached to his native soil, but impatient of authority, and capable of the most sublime heroism, and of an almost mystic devotion w^hen roused to defend his hearth or the religion of his forefathers. The dweller in the plains, the child of the Loire, or the grenadier of La Vendee, as he has been called, did not live in such isolation, and was in consequence more civilized and intelligent, and of a more robust and sociable disposition than his brother of the woods and waters. The toiler in the Marais was a large, fair-haired man as a rule, full of enthusiasm, but without energy or vigour to support it. All, however, had a strong religious faith and an unconquerable attachment to ancient habits. While their faults, which were those of ignorance and cre- dulity, closed the door to them against the reception of the new revolutionary ideas, a mystic resignation made them irresistible in the hour of battle. 74 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. It is almost superfluous to say that such a people were in favour of the ancient monarchy, and opposed to the French revolution with its iron level, and that it is to the resistance offered to this revolution, which produced a profound agitation throughout La Vendee, that the beginnings of the civil war must be attributed. The persecution of the nobles and of the clergy, who never actually fomented the intestine quarrel, by the democratic party, was undoubtedly one of the great causes which led to civil war, while the levy of 300,000 men ordered by the National Convention in February, 1793, was the firebrand that inflamed in a few days the entire country south of the Loire. " Everywhere," says the historian, " the insurrec- tion bore the same character ; the indignities offered to the clergy were its exciting cause ; and a mixture of courage and devotion its peculiar character." The first spark was kindled near Vannes in Mor- bihan. In February, 1790, the peasants rose in con- sequence of the severities practised against their pastors, who had been removed because they refused to take the revolutionary oaths and to submit to the new circumscription of the churches. This led to the churches being abandoned, and to assemblies in the woods for prayer, and so to conflicts with the National Guards, by whom the peasants were finally dispersed with much slaughter. In May, 1791, another abortive insurrection broke out in Lower Poitou, and in parts of Anjou, and was suppressed with the same severity. LA VENDUE. 75 Now occurred the flight of Louis XVI., and his return to Paris as a prisoner of the people. This inflamed the hearts of the Royahsts of the west, and led to the famous conspiracy of the nobles of Brit- tany and Normandy in alliance with the refugees at Coblentz and in the Channel Islands, and the promise of succour from England. The Marquis de la Rouarie was the soul of this vast conspiracy, which had for its object the restoration of the throne and the rescue of the country from the oppressive yoke of the demagogues, and the death of this nobleman in January', 1792, proved an irreparable loss to the Royalists, and prevented that simultaneous action on both banks of the Loire which it was his object to secure. The conspiracy was discovered, and twelve noblemen of Brittany were guillotined at Rennes. The Royalists, left without leaders, were dispersed, and order restored once more with the usual accom- paniment of burning chateaux, ruined homes, and wholesale arrests and slaughter of nobles, priests, and peasants. But from the ashes of this great conspiracy arose the living flame of insurrection which soon enveloped the whole of the west of France. " Three months after the death of La Rouarie, the extraordinary levy ordered by the National Convention, the ill- treatment of the clergy, the excesses of the patriot Vendeans and of the employes of government, the sudden removal of all commercial intercourse, caused a general insurrection to break out. The peasants, wounded alike through their material inte- rests and their religion, and seduced by the party 76 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. most interested in their revolt, compelled the nobles to place themselves at their head.'" The attempt to force the obnoxious levy of men in March, 1793, occasioned a general resistance, which broke out without any previous concert at the same time over the whole of the four most western departments south of the Loire. The tocsin sounded and the inhabitants of 600 communes rose as one man. We will summarize as briefly as possible the events of the war up to the attack on Saumur on the day after Marceau's release from the dungeon-house of that town. The principal points of revolt were Saint- Florent, in Anjou, where Cathelineau, a Vendean pedlar and wool-dealer, defeated the Republicans, and Chatillon, in Poitou. In March, Cholet, in Anjou, was taken by the peasants, and before Easter 50,000 men were in a state of insurrection throughout La Vendee. And now appeared on the scene the chiefs, who were hitherto wanting to the people. Some came forward of their own free will ; others were torn from their castles and compelled by their tenantry to lead them to battle. The insurgent forces came to be amalgamated into three or more distinct armies, which, with their leaders, we must briefly notice here. First, there was the Army of Upper Vendee, otherwise known as tJie Grand Army. It could muster at need 50,000 men, and comprised all the insurgent parishes between the Sevre-Nantaise and the Loire. ^ Savany. LA VENDUE. ^7 Its chiefs were the noble-hearted Bonchamps, who with La Rochejaquelein may be regarded as the heroes of La Vendee ; Stofflet and d'Elbee, both ex-officers ; Lescure, tJie Saint of Poitou, and first husband of the author of those vivid memoirs which have made this civil war so horribly familiar to us ; and last, Cathelineau, already alluded to, known as the Samt of Anjou and the first elected commander-in-chief of the Catholic forces. There was next the Army of Lower Vendee, 1 5,000 to 20,000 strong, raised in the Marais and on the sea-coast. It was commanded independently by Charette, an ex-naval officer, and, in Napoleon's estimation, the only genius of the revolt. Between the Grand Army and that of the Marais were several intermediary ones, the most important being that under Royrand, an old chevalier of the order of St. Louis. It was known as the Army of the Centre, and its rallying points were Les Herbiers and Chantonnay. It mustered from 10,000 to 12,000 strong. Moral unity and mutual confidence constituted the strength of these Royal and Catholic armies, in which nobles, priests, and peasants were bound together in the defence of a great cause. It was not so however with the Republican armies who were opposed to these. They were made up of National Guards, undisciplined volunteers, men requisitioned against their will, and of troops of the Line, forming altogether an incoherent mass, with- out prestige or harmony. If we add to this, that the generals who at first commanded these elements 78 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. were old and inexperienced, we shall be able in some measure to account for the numerous defeats of the Republic at the hands of the Royalists of La Vendee. Easter recalled the insurgents to their homes, from which nothing would induce them to stay away long. The Vendean army, easily assembled at the sound of the tocsin, was with difficulty kept to its standards. After a victory the peasants would disperse to their farms to tend their cattle or culti- vate their fields, leaving their leaders with only a personal following of, at most, two or three hun- dred men. Even when in touch with the enemy they had no patrols or sentinels, and their cavalry force never at any time exceeded one thousand. But, acting in such a country, it was impossible for the Republicans to withstand at the outset even so irregular a force, animated as it was by religious enthusiasm and indomitable valour. The Vendeans either ambushed their enemy in the deep defiles and roads of their country, keeping up a withering fire from behind the hedgerows that surrounded each farm, or else broke them into flight by a sudden, fierce, and impetuous attack on flank, centre, and rear. They proceeded to battle as to a fete^ and everything gave way to that great religious march. After Easter the Vendean leaders collected their followers again. The peasants were apportioned off into divisions. The Army of Anjou, 10,000 strong, under Bonchamps, was to act from the side of Angers, the Grand Army, 20,000 strong, under LA VENDUE. 79 d'Elbee took up a central position about Bressuire ; the Army of the Marais watched Nantes and the Sables, while Royrand's corps held the southern approaches into the Socage. It must not be under- stood, however, that the Vendeans were divided into regular battalions ; each parish had its captain, each captain rallied to the chief of his division, who, in his turn, rallied to his generalissimo. The Republican army held Nantes and Angers, and the entire right bank of the Loire, and Saumur on its left bank ; in the east they occupied Thouars and Bressuire ; in the south Lugon and Fontenay- le-Comte, and Sables-d'Olonne on the sea-coast ; while numerous guards defended smaller towns throughout the disaffected district. In the first week of May, Bressuire and Thouars, the keys of Anjou and Poitou, were taken by the Vendeans under Bonchamps, Lescure, and La Rochejaquelein. On the 13th, the white army carried Chataigneraie by assault, and advanced on Fontenay, which covered the road to Niort. But they were defeated in the plain of La Pissotte before Fontenay on the i6th, and compelled to re-enter the Bocage, with a loss of all their cannon. The combined Vendean army of 35,000 men, under Lescure, La Rochejaquelein, Bonchamps and d'Elbee, now took the field, and marched, full of enthusiasm, against the town. The Republicans under Chalbos were completely defeated and pur- sued to Niort, which the Vendeans might also have seized had they pushed on after the battle. Meanwhile the divisions under Cathelineau, 80 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Charette, and Stofflet, though repulsed in an attack on the Sables-d'Olonne, had been victorious in other parts of La Vendee, and threatened Nantes from the left bank of the Loire. The advance on Niort from Fontenay had been deferred because the Republican generals Salomon and Lygonier were threatening Thouars and Cholet in rear of the Grand Army, which in consequence re- entered the Bocage, fixing a rendezvous at Chatillon for the 1st of June. Meanwhile the Republic had not been idle. Rein- forcements were poured in from all parts of France, from the Alps, from Orleans, and from the suburbs and Alsatias of Paris. Among the corps ordered to the scene was the Germanic Legion or Legion of the North, in which, as we have seen, Marceau held a commission. There were three separate Republican or blue armies in the west of France at this time : (i.) The army of the coasts of La Rochelle, with canton- ments at the Sables-d'Olonne, Niort, and Saumur ; this force was under Biron, with Westermann in command of the advance guard, (ii.) The army of the coasts of Brest, under Canclaux, guarding Angers and Nantes and the Loire-Inferieure gene- rally, (iii.) The army of the coasts of Cherbourg. As arranged, 40,000 Vendeans were collected on the 1st of June at Chatillon, under Cathelineau, Lescure, and La Rochejaquelein. On the 7th, a portion of this white army defeated Lygonier at Doue, and pursued him to the heights of Bournan, which protect the town of Saumur. The Vendeans, LA VENDEE. 8 1 seeing that the Republicans held a strong position here, and not deeming a frontal attack feasible, retired from before Saumur. A council of war was held, at which it was decided to attack Saumur from Varrains and under the heights of the chateau, that is, from the east and south-east of the town. For this purpose the Vendean army advanced to Montreuil, but, hearing that Salomon was coming from Thouars to the relief of Saumur, while the greater half of the army continued its march along the Thouet to St. Just, the remainder stopped at Montreuil where it gave battle to Salomon, who was utterly defeated with the loss of half his forces and retreated to Niort leaving Saumur to its fate. On the loth of June the white army arrived in sight of Saumur. Thus, in scarce three months from their first rising, the Royalists were in military possession of almost all the depots of La Vendee and the Deux-Sevres, and of the Loire-Inferieure and the Maine-et-Loire departments south of the great river. The territory in their occupation formed a circle with a radius of twenty miles. Cholet, Montaigu, and Mortagne lay about the centre, and it was here that the Vendeans concentrated their forces and stored their provisions and war-material for prospective cam- paigns. The humanity of the Vendeans after their early victories was in marked contrast with the atrocious cruelties practised by the Republicans. There were, it is true, appalling massacres at this period at Machecoult and other places in Lower Poitou, but G 82 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. these were quite exceptional and due solely to a vile wretch named Souchu, who soon after deserted the Royalists, whose cause he had thus of express purpose stained. The Vendean rule then was the rule of humanity. The warmest partisan of the revolution, on the other hand, cannot but charac- terize the excesses of the patriots as cruel and in- human. " The houses of the rich laid waste, chateaux pillaged and given over to the flames, the wholesale spoliation of the peaceful proprietors of the Plain, the persecution of ministers of religion, the attempt to undermine the individual liberties of the richest nobles of the land, and those who had hitherto been most powerful." Such is the picture painted by a historian by no means partial to the insurgents ; would that the truth ended where he has left it ! The patriots were goaded on to the committal of these things by the same power that inaugurated the Reign of Terror in Paris. The early measures of the National Convention were marked by a bloody and ruthless spirit, while many of the revolutionary agents with the armies exceeded, only too eagerly, the cruel orders they from time to time received. The very first of these orders, though modified sub- sequently, required the Republican soldier to exter- minate men, women, and children, and even animals, in La Vendee ! This cruel spirit and these inhuman enactments are mentioned here to account for the savage nature of the struggle, and the strength and energy of the opposition, and, further, to point to the difficult task LA VENDUE. 83 that was set before those generals of the RepubHc who could never have approved of such conduct towards an enemy, far less towards a brother and a country- man. It is, alas ! true that there were some com- manders, like the brave Westermann, whose troops were well defined as a horde of assassins, who more than realized the wishes of the bloody tribunes of Paris ; but it would be unjust to suppose that the Republican generals as a rule endorsed the massa- cring of prisoners and the laying waste of the country with fire and sword. " Cruejty," says Montaigne, " is the mother of cowardice ; " such a charge could never, therefore, be laid with any justice or reason to the account of men like Kl^ber, or Dubayet, or Marceau, although they might have been the in- voluntary witnesses or the indirect agents in scenes and individual deeds which filled their souls with horror and drove them often to the verge of despair. As for Marceau, after the defeat of the Repub- lican troops at the Camp des Roches and the retreat to Lu^on, we find him, with Bard, at the head of the party of indulgence formed at Niort, Lugon, and Fontenay, while Rossignol and the party of terror were thirsting for blood at Saumur. " The bronze mask of civil war," as Victor Hugo has well said, " has two profiles — one turned towards the past, the other towards the future, but as tragic the one as the other." With this long but necessary digression we return to Marceau and the defence of Saumur. The town of Saumur commands one of the great 84 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. passages over the Loire. It lies at the opening of the angle formed by the junction of the Thouet with the Loire, at the foot of some hills which are suddenly cut off by the valley of the former river, after having run some distance along the southern banks of the latter. The old chateau is situated at the extremity of these hills, and commands the town and the two rivers. The position of Saumur is thus naturally a strong one ; covered absolutely on the north by the Loire, and on the south and west by the broad deep stream of the Thouet, it is only accessible by the heights on the east, and through the meadows of Varrains to the south-east, while the great bridge across the Loire renders a retreat to Angers always open and easy. Three principal routes converge towards this bridge : those from Doue and Montreuil, which unite on the knolls of Bournan, about half a league from the town, and then cross the Thouet by the bridge of Fouchard ; that from St. Just, which skirts the right bank of the Thouet and enters the town through Varrains ; lastly, there was a road connecting Fontevrault with the eastern suburbs of Saumur. The defences of the town consisted mainly of two large redoubts placed on the heights of Bournan, and supported by an intrenched camp in front of the bridge of Fouchard. As the attack was expected from the direction of Doue and Montreuil only, the greater portion of the troops with a formidable artillery was located here. Another redoubt had been traced on the right bank of the Thouet in the LA VENDUE. 85 meadows of Varrains, and was connected with the Loire by an old moat and wall, and by windmills and vineyard-fences, which offered, it was thought, a sufficient obstacle to an advance from the east and south-east. The Republican army thus took up a position outside the town, with the chateau and the town and its suburbs as a second line of defence to fall back on. The patriot army numbered 16,000, exclusive of volunteers. Reinforcements were, in addition, intro- duced on the eve and morning of the attack by Generals Coustard, Berthier, and Santerre. Menou was commandant of the town, Berthier was posted on the left, Santerre was intrusted with the defence of the intrenched camp and the Varrains redoubt, while Coustard commanded the troops occupying the heights of Bournan. The strength of the attacking force has been variously stated, but, seeing that a large portion of it had been detached to cope with Salomon, it could not have exceeded 20,000, with 100 pieces of cannon. The advance was in three columns along both banks of the Thouet. The left, under Lescure, was directed against the redoubts of Bournan and the bridge of Fouchard ; the right, or Bonchamps' division, commanded, in Bonchamps' absence, by Stofflet, advanced along the hills that fringe the Loire, while La Rochejaquelein, with the third column, moved between these hills and the Thouet on the redoubt of Varrains. The main attack was directed against the Republican left, but that on the centre and right was no less direct or decisive. S6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. The white army continued its march from Montreuil along the Thouet to St. Just, the bridge of which, across the Doue, was neither defended nor destroyed. The actual attack commences at 4 p.m., by which time the advanced posts on the Dou6 road are taken in rear, and the sharpshooters are engaged all along the line on the east and south of the town, while a vigorous artillery fire is com- menced on both sides. The Vendeans, impatient of restraint, cannot await the development of the preconcerted plan. They precipitate themselves on the fortified heights, the intrenched camp, the wind- mill inclosures, and the bridge of Fouchard, but are everywhere driven back. They retreat, but rally and re-face the enemy, although they have lost more than 300 in the first onset ; three times repulsed, three times they return to the attack. Lescure's column on the left had been roughly handled, and, in fact, was in full retreat towards St. Florent before it could be rallied by the calm courage of its leader, who had himself been wounded. Marceau, with half a squadron of chasseurs, de- fended the approaches to the bridge of Fouchard, and contributed not a little to the first discomfiture of Lescure's division. He charged with great per- sistency, and drove the insurgent cavalry and in- fantry back over the bridge. His career was only arrested by the unfortunate overturning of some wagons, which gave the enemy's cavalry time to re-form and the peasants to recover from their panic. Marceau's cuirassiers, checked and taken in LA VENDUE. 87 flank and rear by the infantry fire, were in turn now charged by the Vendean horsemen and rolled back over the bridge. Marceau continued, however, to defend the chaussee of Fouchard until after dusk, when the arrival of Lescure and Marigny with artillery compelled him to fall back towards the chateau with a dozen men — all that was left to him of his cuirassiers. While Lescure rallied his men on the left, Stofflet's division, in its second attack, had carried Berthier's position and the hill of Notre Dame on the right. In vain did Menou and Berthier place themselves at the head of their troops ; these could not be brought to face the enemy, whose impulsive onset swept all before it up to the very gates of the town. At the same time the youthful La Rochejaquelein, borne onward by his intrepid valour, stormed the redoubt in the meadow of Varrains at the head of his division, and entered the Grande Place with but four or five followers, pursuing the flying blues through the town and across the great bridge, and turning their own guns on them and against the castle. Coustard, seeing that the fire of the batteries on his left had ceased, and that the Vendeans were in possession of the bridge of Fouchard, and his retreat inevitable, conceived the design of reinforcing the left and of charging the enemy in the town, and so taking them in rear. But he failed to accomplish his object because the infantry refused to support the cavalry, and allowed these with their brave 88 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. leader, Weissen, to be sacrificed. It was now that Lescure turned the redoubts of Bournan, driving off Coustard, who abandoned his position, and re- treated with at least some show of order. It was nine o'clock when La Rochejaquelein first entered the town, but Coustard retired at a much later hour, and the castle, defended by 1,400 men, kept up a steady fire throughout the night. The carnage was great, the victory was complete, and the flying Republicans were pursued across the Loire for some distance along the road to Angers, We have seen Marceau retreating from the bridge of Fouchard with a remnant of his cuirassiers. It was his intention to reach the chateau, which he saw still maintained its fire. He was proceeding across the meadows of Varrains when he saw a group of peasants around a prisoner whom, in the heat of victory, they were threatening to despatch. Marceau charged with his handful of cuirassiers and put to flight the soldiers of La Rochejaquelein taken un- awares. He rescued the prisoner, who was wounded, and wore the tricolour scarf of a delegate of the Na- tional Convention, and whom Marceau now recog- nized to be none other than his implacable foe, the deputy Bourbotte. Hastily dismounting he offered him his horse and assisted him into the saddle, saying, " It is better that I, a soldier, should die than that the enemy should have the satisfaction of putting to death a representative of the people." The peasants returned, and Bourbotte's retreat was with difficulty covered by the affrighted cuirassiers, who heard cries of despair and treachery all around them. It LA VENDUE. 89 was a brave and a generous act, and one which could not fail to transform Bourbotte from a dangerous opponent into a constant and useful friend. On the 14th June, prompted thereto by Bour- botte's own report, the Convention unanimously decreed as follows : " Citizen Marceau, an officer of the German Legion, who rescued Citizen Bourbotte, a representative of the people, from the hands of the rebels near Saumur, has deserved well of his country, and he is specially commended to the minister of war, in order that he might be promoted to a higher grade than that he now holds." The Republican army retreated to Angers, La Fleche, and Le Mans, spreading consternation in its flight. Its loss could have been scarcely less than 2,000 in killed and wounded, while there were left in the hands of the Vendeans 80 cannon, 10,000 muskets, and 11,000 prisoners. The losses of the Vendeans have been variously given, but seeing that the two armies had attacked each other with desperation, and that the Vendeans were three times beaten back, they must have exceeded 1,000. But the victory was of the greatest importance to the Royalists. It gave them the control of an im- portant passage of the Loire and of the navigation of this river, and opened up communication with the departments on its right bank, at the same time it compromised the fate of Nantes and Angers and the bridges of Ce, while it exposed the Indre-et- Loire and the Vienne departments to the incursions of the white army. Bonchamps, cured of his wounds, arrived with 90 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. 5,000 men the day after the battle, and it was now resolved to attack and secure Nantes. The defence of Nantes is one of the most important military events of the revolution, but we can only refer to it briefly here. Leaving La Rochejaquelein with a weak garrison to hold Saumur, the Grand Army, under command of Cathelineau, marched down the right bank of the river, while Charette, with 20,000 men, was asked to co-operate on the left bank. Angers was taken. But before Nantes was reached the army of peasants melted away to return to their fields and their cattle, and only 10,000 presented themselves before the town under Cathelineau. Charette commenced the attack at 2 a.m. on the 29th June. Cathelineau, delayed at Nort, did not arrive till 10 a.m. The combat was, however, sus- tained for eighteen hours, and Cathelineau succeeded at one time in reaching the very heart of the town. But the attack was ill-concerted, the Republican troops well posted, and, when Cathelineau fell mortally wounded, the Vendeans lost heart and beat a hasty retreat across the river, thus losing the command of its right bank which their victory at Saumur had secured. Cathelineau died of his wounds soon after, and d'Elbee was elected com- mander-in-chief of the white army in his place. During the attack on Saumur many of the Republican troops had behaved with anything but bravery. In the midst of a fight some one would cry out " Treason ! we are betrayed ! " and imme- diately there followed panic and flight. The German Legion, although trained to arms in the Rhenish LA VENDfiE. 91 provinces, especially distinguished itself in this manner, and it was resolved to disband this corps forthwith. Marceau thus found himself transferred to another regiment, the i ith Hussars, at the same time that he was appointed, through the influence of Bourbotte, adjutant-general on the staff of the army of the coasts of La Rochelle. He was ordered to place himself under the orders of Biron, who commanded this army, and who had his head- quarters at Niort with his advance-guard, under Westermann, at Saint-Maixent. While the Vendeans took Saumur and Angers and threatened Nantes, Royrand, with the army of the Centre, held the forces of Biron, and especially the division of Lugon, in check by occupying Chan- tonnay. Here he collected his peasants together, and on the 28th June attacked Lu^on, but was defeated with great loss by Sandoz, who, in spite of his victory, was relieved by Tuncq. Commissaries had meanwhile been sent to Biron insisting on his making a diversion to save Nantes. Biron only moved Westermann forward into the Bocage, but failed himself to support him. In June, Westermann occupied Parthenay and Amaillou which he pillaged and burnt, likewise the chateaux of Lescure and La Rochejaquelein. On the 3rd July, after a severe engagement at Moulins aux Chevres, he occupied Chatillon. The Grand Army, however, assembled against him at Cholet, and two days afterwards utterly routed him at the same spot, with the loss of two-thirds of his forces. Finding it difficult to dislodge the Vendeans from 92 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the south and east, it was resolved, at Biron's sug- gestion, to invade La Vendee from the north, that is, from the bridges of Ce near Angers, and to effect a junction with the army of Niort through Coron, Cholet, and Mortagne. The advance commenced on the 15th July, the blues were victorious at Martigne-Briant, but Santerre was utterly routed on the 1 8th near Coron and compelled to retreat to Saumur. The inactivity of Biron was most marked, and Marceau was obliged to share in it. Biron com- plained that it was his clemency and moderation towards the Vendeans that the Convention disliked. This was true, but there is no doubt that Biron, a peer of France and the son of a marshal, had no heart in the work of suppressing the Royalists. He was now suspended and summoned to Paris. " I have been recalled," he said, unmoved, to Marceau, on receipt of the order, " it is the be- ginning, I will go to the bitter end." One Rossignol, a journeyman goldsmith of Paris, a man of no education, an adventurer, and one of the principal actors in the September Massacres, took Biron's place. Marceau was transferred to the Lugon division, commanded by Tuncq, as adjutant- general, a post for which Bourbotte had originally selected him. As for Biron, his fate was the fate of Custine and of Dillon. On arrival in Paris he was accused at the bar of the Convention, and the arrest of the inhuman monster Rossignol was one of his crimes. As an ex-noble he could expect no mercy, and was LA VENDEE. 93 delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal. His last words as he mounted the scaffold were : " I have been unfaithful to my God, to my order, and to my King. But I die full of faith and of hope and of repentance." The blow was a heavy one to Marceau, who had become even more closely attached to Biron, whose personality was so much the more attractive, than he had been to Dillon. He has expressed his grief at the loss of his leader and his friend in words that are the most touching of any in his journal : " He heaped on me," he says, " kindnesses of every description. His solicitude for me was that of a father. Out of the goodness of his heart he took my education in hand, and instructed me especially in my profession, and taught me how to study men. No man can realize what I suffered at our separa- tion, now, alas ! becorrie eternal. After I lost him I felt myself alone in the world, for in all La Vendee I had but him for my friend. I needed rest, but, as though to overwhelm me with misery, I was compelled by fate to live among men who bore no manner of resemblance to him, and intercourse with whom made me feel my loss all the more keenly, inasmuch as there was no one now to whom I could confide the troubles of my soul." CHAPTER II. The Lugon division — Battles of Luqon and of the Camp des Roches — Arrival of the Mayenqais — First invasion of the Socage — Second invasion — Combat of La Tremblaie — Kleber — Battle of Chalet. LU^ON, where Marceau now arrived, is five miles to the west of Fontenay and on the northern border of the Marais. The absence of fortifications is made up for by advantageous posi- tions in advance of the town, approached across open plains, which afford no shelter to an attacking army. It redounds to Marceau's credit that he continued to serve in the army after his friend Biron had been replaced in the command by Biron 's bitterest enemy, the demagogue Rossignol. In spite of what it cost his feelings he never forgot that it was the Republic and not its generals he served. Now, as in the future, he kept out of all political partisanship by making the rule of military obedience the law of his life. The Lugon division was commanded by Tuncq, that of Fontenay by Chalbos. Both divisions were watched by the army of the Centre assembled at the camp of I'Oie near Chantonnay, under Royrand. LA VENDUE. 95 Chantonnay, situated on the edge of the Bocage, guarded the approaches to it from the south, and its possession was the object for which the rival armies constantly contended during the next few months. On the 25th July, Tuncq, after driving the Vendeans away from Saint-Philibert and the bridge of Charron, advanced to Chantonnay itself But, after destroying all provisions and munitions of war he could not carry away with him, and pillaging and burning the town, he fell back once more to Pont-Charron and thence to Luqon. The only result of this incursion into the Bocage was to provoke an attack on Lu^on. D'Elbee joined Royrand at Chantonnay, and the combined force of i2,ocxD to 15,000 Vendeans ad- vanced on the 30th to attack Lugon. After five hours' desperate fighting they were completely routed and pursued to the bridge of Charron. It is doubtful whether Marceau was present at any of these engagements. Either he had not yet arrived or was attached to Tuncq's staff. The latter theory would account for the omission of Marceau's name equally as well as the former, for Tuncq did the least of the fighting, leaving everything to the officers of his division. It was at this period that two parties were formed among the Republicans ; that of terror and studied atrocity at Saumur, represented by Rossignol and Ronsin, and that of humanity and indulgence, and disapproval of the rigour of the Convention, at Niort, Lugon, and Fontenay. Marceau's arrival at 96 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Lugon as adjutant-general introduced into that town the tenets of the latter party, for we find no more useless expeditions and no more wilful destruc- tion of towns and villages. The Vendeans, repulsed before Lugon, determined on a second attack, both to retrieve their defeat and to insure the safety of Royrand's division of the centre. The garrison of Lugon consisted at this time of 5,370 infantry, 414 cavalry, and 31 guns ; reinforced after Marceau's arrival by 2,000 infantry and cavalry, and some light artillery from Niort and Fontenay. D'Elbee proceeded to Les Herbiers, where he was joined by Charette, and, on the 12th August, a junction was effected with Royrand's army at the camp of rOie. Tuncq had ample notice of the premeditated attack, for Marceau with the advance- guard had reconnoitred the Bocage and sent him word that the Vendeans were massing near Chan- tonnay with the intention of moving either on Lugon or the Sables-d'Olonne. He accordingly drew up his division, now nearly 9,000 strong, on the same heights where he had been previously victorious, and in two lines. He masked his light artillery with the first, and ordered the second to lie down till it received the signal to rise and throw itself on the enemy. The Vendean army, variously estimated at between 14,000 and 35,000 men, advanced on the 14th August, in three columns. The right was under Charette and Lescure, the left under La Rochejaquelein, while d'Elbee and Royrand com- LA vend£e. 97 manded the centre. Lescure, confident in the supe- riority of numbers, gave the fatal advice to attack the RepubHcan army on open ground. A little after midday Lescure and Charette began the action with great spirit, and the left wing of the blues fell back before their determined onset, losing five guns. But, for want of clear instructions, the Vendean centre delivered its attack too late, the two divisions before d'Elbee held their own and retired leisurely on the second line; the artillery was now unmasked, and the second line rose up and fell on the Vendeans. The light artillery, used in action for the first time and ably manoeuvred, acted with great effect on the level plain, and spread death and consternation among Royrand's peasants. It was now that Marceau, with a body of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry, made an impetuous charge all along the left front, completely turning the enemy's right and scattering Lescure's men in all directions. La Rochejaquelein and Marigny arrived on the scene, but only in time to cover the retreat. The rout was soon complete, the Vendeans leaving 1,500 dead and wounded, and eighteen guns, on the fatal plain. Their entire artillery would have been lost to them had it not been for the courageous action of La Rochejaquelein, who with sixty men covered its retreat at the bridge of Bessay, while forty peasants of Courlay, of Lescure's division, protected with crossed bayonets the centre, and sustained the whole charge of the Republican cavalry without losing ground. H 98 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. The Royalists were pursued as far as Saint-Her- mand, where a strong advance-guard was posted, and Chantonnay was occupied once more. Lecomte and Marceau, with 7,000 men, were left in charge of the new position. Tuncq himself returned to Lugon, leaving his advance-guard, if we may call it so, dangerously posted with its flank exposed to a sudden attack from the direction of Saint-Fulgent. Early in September, Rossignol, who had visited all his divisions and had blamed the generals for not acting in concert, ordered the Lugon division to sweep the country between Chantonnay and La Roche-sur-Yon, and to keep touch with the Sables- d'Olonne column on its left. At the same time he ordered Chalbos's division up to Chataigneraie on the right. The Vendeans, alarmed at this activity, were once more moved to dislodge the Republicans from the important position of Chantonnay. A new plan was concerted with Royrand, who was to make a false move towards Quatre Chemins on the 5th September, while the Grand Army, 15,000 to 25,000 strong, suddenly attacked Lecomte's camp at Les Roches. The action commenced at five o'clock in the afternoon, and by nine of the same evening the Republican army had been driven from its in- trenchments and entirely beaten, with a loss of two-thirds of its men and all its artillery. Lecomte's despatch gives some interesting par- ticulars of the disaster, while it proves how efficient Marceau had become in the profession of arms, and LA VENDUE. 99 in the handling of men even under the most adverse circumstances. Being informed that the Vendean army, 25,000 strong, with twenty-one guns, was descending from Les Herbiers towards Chataigneraie, Lecomte moved forward the Orleans battalion to the bridge of Charron, already guarded by a Dordogne batta- lion and some artillery. While absent on the heights beyond Saint- Vincent, now menaced by the enemy in force, Lecomte received a despatch to the effect that the Dordogne battalion had aban- doned the bridge without firing a shot. He at once sent his adjutant-general, Marceau, to rally the fugitives, and to establish order at the bridge. Marceau met the fugitives close to the camp of Les Roches, and a little further on the Orleans battalion, which had also retired. The bridge of Charron being abandoned, and Chantonnay already in the hands of the rebels, Marceau placed these battalions in array on the left of the great road that commands the latter town, to hold the enemy in check, advancing at the same time two field-guns and some cavalry. Certain battalions posted on Marceau's left now precipitated themselves back on to the camp and exposed his flank. Marceau rallied them and induced them to reform, at the same time Lecomte came up with reinforcements. Order was com- pletely restored, and the enemy forced to retire on this side. Foiled on the left, the Vendeans now vigorously assailed the Republican right. Marceau foresaw 100 BIOGRAPPIY OF MARCEAU. this manceuvre, and, as the enemy were executing it in loose order, thought the time had arrived for a cavalry charge. But the cavalry refused to move, and it was to no purpose that he placed himself at their head and incited them on. The two batta- lions of the Charente-Inf6rieure at this moment attacked the flank of the insurgents with desperate courage, and had the cavalry followed Marceau the disaster that ensued would have been wholly averted. Marceau's troops continued, however, to make a stand, and a vigorous fire was maintained along the entire line as the enemy came on in over- whelming numbers. Suddenly the Calvados bat- talion quitted its post in the centre, exposing the Vengeur and the Deux-Sevres battalions, which were compelled to retire and take refuge in the woods. The enemy, taking advantage of the gap, poured in and cut the Republican line in two. Lecomte, ignorant of what had happened, had continued to fight with two battalions, when Mar- ceau, cutting his way through the enemy's ranks at great risk to his life, came and informed him of the defeat of the centre. On this Lecomte retired through the woods, Marceau helping him to save the debris of his army. The enemy's attack had been directed with great skill and foresight against the only road that afforded a retreat, and to this cause Lecomte rightly assigned the loss of nearly all his artillery, provisions, and transport. He owed the safety of the 2,500 men, all that remained of his force of 7,000, to the valour LA VEND£E. IOI and skill of his adjutant-general, Marceau, whom he eulogized highly in his despatches. "The victory was due," says the Vendean ac- count, " to Bonchamps' division, . . . which, with great intrepidity, carried the intrenchments. Thus surrounded, the defeat of the blues was terrible. The great roads were intercepted, and their columns bewildered in the Bocage. They lost all their cannon and baggage, and seldom had suffered so great a loss of men. A battalion that had assumed the name of tJie Avenger^ and had never given any quarter to any Vendean, was wholly exterminated." The shattered remnant of the Lugon division was reunited under Beffroy, who ordered Lecomte and Marceau to reorganize it, and make it fit to take the field again. This check was likely to derange Rossignol's projects, because the disorganization of one of the columns would leave a chasm between the division of Les Sables and that of Fontenay. We shall see how it effected the so-called first invasion of the Bocage. The other Republican divisions had, like that of Lu^on, failed to maintain a footing in La Vendee, now transformed into a vast fortress, well pro- visioned, covered with impenetrable forests, and defended by 100,000 armed peasants, inured to war and supplied with a formidable artillery. The National Convention had been at length convinced by these and previous failures that greater resources and stronger measures were needed to attack the insurgent country if more decisive results 102 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. were to be obtained. The measures proposed were, that strong reinforcements of regular troops be sent, that a levee e7i masse of the inhabitants of the dis- tricts bordering on La Vendee be prepared, and that the Vendeans be exterminated, their habita- tions destroyed, their crops reaped and carried away, and their forests cut down or burnt. We pass over in silence the reflections to which these last proposals of the Convention must have given birth in the minds of those soldiers, who, like Marceau, were called upon to be the instruments for carrying them into effect. The first of these measures led to the arrival at Tours, under the command of Dubayet and Kleber, of the garrison that had lately defended Mayence, followed soon after by those of Lille, Conde, and Valenciennes, in all some 16,000 veterans, the flower of the French army. Their arrival changed the aspect of the war, and led to some of the most important events in the life of Marceau. The forces of the Republic in and around La Vendee were divided, as we have seen, into two armies ; that of the coasts of La Rochelle in six divisions under Rossignol, and that of the coasts of Brest under Canclaux. Each army had its central committee of surveillance, which watched the conduct of the generals and saw that the orders of the Convention were carried out. The veterans of Mayence were unwilling to place themselves under the demagogue Rossignol, who, moreover, had never proved himself capable of even the lowest military command. A council of war LA VENDfiE, 103 was held on the 2nd September at Saumur, when it was agreed that the Mayengais should join Canclaux and not Rossignol, and that the main advance on Mortagne and Cholet should be under- taken from Nantes and not from Saumur. Canclaux was to sweep Lower Vendee and be at Lege be- tween the nth and 13th September. His arrival here was to be the signal for the departure of the several divisions of the Army of La Rochelle. The two armies were to unite at Mortagne on the i6th, previous to a combined advance on Cholet. Rossignol agreed to these measures, but did not hesitate to modify them to suit his own views. The columns of Lugon and Niort were to advance sup- porting one another towards Bressuire and Argentin, and to reach these parts on the 14th. The Lugon column had already advanced a second time towards the Bocage, and numerous skirmishes had taken place around Saint-Hermand and Chantonnay, in which Marceau, as adjutant-general and commander of the advance-guard, played a prominent part. On the 14th Beffroy received orders to retire to Lugon, maintaining advance posts at Pont-Charron and Saint-Hermand only; Chalboswas also ordered back to Fontenay. Rossignol's order was the result of the defeat of Chantonnay ; but this was only the excuse fgr disarranging a plan he had never at heart approved of. Meanwhile Dubayet's division continued its march down the right bank of the Loire to Nantes, where all was made ready for the preconcerted invasion of the Bocage. According to the plan agreed upon at 104 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Saumur, the entire insurgent country was to be scoured between the loth and the i6th September, and the rebels were to be enclosed by the Repub- lican columns between Mortagne, Bressuire, and Vihiers. Their destruction would then be inevitable. A force of 200,000 men now surrounded La Vendee, to oppose which the Royalists had one army near Nantes under Charette, one on the left bank of the Loire under Bonchamps, two divisions in Anjou and East Poitou under La Rochejaquelein and Lescure respectively, while Royrand's army watched as before the approaches from the south. The designs of the Republicans were well known to the Vendeans. This knowledge and their central position gave the latter an immense advantage. While the isolated divisions of the blue army acted separately and could not succour one another, the Vendeans could concentrate their entire force rapidly on any threatened point. The Vendean leaders, many of whom were either trained soldiers or had gained an experience of this kind of warfare in America, were not slow to take advantage of this and to develop the plan of allowing the enemy to enter the Socage and then to attack each division in turn with superior forces. This accounts for the attack on Lecomte and Marceau at the camp of Les Roches, above described. It was necessary, before the advance of the divisions commenced, to secure the rear by inflicting a crushing defeat on the force that menaced the south, and so to prevent any invasion of the Bocage from that direction. LA VENDEE. IO5 And now commences a struggle so terrible that all that has gone before seems to have been only a prelude to it. We are called upon to harden our hearts and to witness nothing but scenes of carnage and desolation, which fix our attention by their enor- mous and lurid atrocity. Fortunately for us there are a few soldiers of the Republic who play their part humanely and bravely through these scenes. All war is cruel, but there are two ways of waging it. Westermann and Rossignol afforded examples of the one method, Kleber and Marceau of the other. We have seen that Rossignol had ordered the columns of Lu^on and Fontenay to return to their respective bases. At the same time he issued the unwise order for the divisions of Santerre and Duhoux to advance from Thouars and the Loire on to Cholet. On the 14th September Thouars was taken by Lescure, but this success was followed by the victory of Santerre over the Vendeans at Doue. On the 17th Santerre was again victorious at Vihiers and Gomord, but the following day he was drawn into a trap between Vihiers and Coron, and his army utterly routed with loss of all its artillery. The same fate befell Duhoux, who had advanced to support Santerre. Everywhere the Republican advance from the east and north was checked, and their divisions scattered, while the terror produced by these victories broke up the levee en masse assembled between Tours and Poitiers. On the 9th September the army of Canclaux I06 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. entered Lower Vendee, the right under Beysser maintaining touch with the Sables d'Olonne column. " The Republicans marched with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other." Pornic, Bourg- neuf, Machecoul, Palluau, Lege, Montaigu, and Clisson, were successively taken, and the white army driven from Lower Vendue into Poitou and the Bocage. Canclaux and the Mayen^ais had done more in a week than all the armies of the west had hitherto been able to effect in six months. At many of these places were found culverin bearing the arms of England, also English powder, guns, and standards, showing that assistance had been given to the Royalist cause from without. In the middle of August an English squadron had hovered about Belle- lie and the mouths of the Loire, but it drew off without effecting anything. Much was promised by the English government at this period, but the assistance only arrived after the Vendean armies had been destroyed and the Royalist cause almost desperate. The Nantes and coast divisions now concentrated their advance on Mortagne. Charette meanwhile, collected his forces together at Tiffauges, where he was joined by Bonchamps and d'Elbee. On the 19th September the Vendeans, 40,000 strong, were in array of battle on the great road between Tiffauges and Cholet, with their front towards Torfou. On the same day Kleber attacked them, but, in spite of the heroic courage and efforts of his veterans, he was defeated and compelled to retreat. The same fate befell Beysser at Montaigu on the 22nd. LA VENDEE. 10/ Bonchamps defeated Canclaux himself on the march from Clisson, while Charette gained a signal victory over the column from Sables-d'Olonne. The defeat of the coast divisions was as crushing as it was complete ; they retired discomfited to their respective bases at Nantes and Sables- d'Olonne. During their rapid marches and counter- marches and fierce onslaughts the Royalists dis- played more than the activity and tenacious valour for which they had already become famous. The victory of Saint-Fulgent, which was, so to speak, the last prize of their courage, put the seal on the reputation of the illustrious chief who led them to battle. " Thus," says Alison, " by a series of most bril- liant military combinations, seconded by the most heroic exertions on the part of the peasants, was the invasion of six armies, amounting to 100,000 regular troops, part of whom were the best soldiers of France, defeated, and losses inflicted on the Re- publicans, incomparably greater than they had suffered from all the allies put together since the commencement of the war ; a striking proof of the admirable skill with which their chiefs had availed themselves of their central position and peculiar mode of fighting to crush the invading forces, and a memorable instance of what can be effected by resolute men, even without the advantages of regular organization, if ably conducted, against the most formidable superiority of military force." The veterans of Mayence, though repulsed, were not annihilated, nor was it probable that brave and I08 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. experienced commanders like Canclaux, Dubayet, and Kleber would easily give up a campaign, the initial result of which was merely to give them a knowledge of their own weaknesses, as well as of the enemy's country and tactics. Canclaux resolved on a second advance, and solicited Rossignol to co-operate with his army. Rossignol and his council decided that the columns of Saumur, Thouars, and Chataigneraie should unite at Bressuire on the 7th October, and thence march to Chatillon to make their attack concur- rently with that of Canclaux. The columns of Lugon and Sables-d'Olonne, because of their late reverses and of the dangers which threatened them from Lower Vendee, were ordered to keep for the present on the defensive. On the 25th September the Mayengais, leaving Lower Poitou untouched on their right flank, again advanced and occupied successively Clisson, Montaigu, and Mortagne, defeating d'Elbee and Bonchamps at Saint-Symphorien, between Tiffauges and Mortagne. The Republicans owed their suc- cess to the ruinous dissensions which now broke out among the Royalist chiefs, and under which they abandoned their plan of rapid combinations against individual divisions. Charette drew off towards Noirmoutiers, while Lescure and Beaure- paire took post near Chatillon, leaving Bonchamps to meet the main attack from the west and north- west almost unaided. The defeat of the Mayen^ais had meanwhile pro- duced something like a panic in Paris. Barrere, LA VENDUE. 109 rising in his presidential chair, addressed the Con- vention in these memorable words : " The inex- plicable La Vendee exists still. . . . The brigands must be exterminated by the 20th October, They are like the giant in the fable, who was only vulner- able when he touched the earth, and we must hunt and expel them from their own soil before we shall be able to suppress them." Further reinforcements were despatched, but the most important measure, and one that should have been adopted six months before, was that by which all the armies were united into one, and called the Army of the West. L'Echelle, a pompous and in- experienced general, was appointed commander-in- chief, Canclaux and Dubayet recalled, Rossignol sent to Rennes, and all the commissioners, except Bourbotte and Turreau, both of whom exercised considerable influence on Marceau's life, removed to other spheres of action. Kleber assumed the command till L'Echelle should arrive, but the advance of the Nantes column was suspended before Tiffauges. After the arrival of L'Echelle at Saumur it was agreed that the army should continue its march on Cholet, where it should form a junction with the three columns from Bressuire ; at the same time orders were given to the Lu^on and Sables divisions to advance towards the general rendezvous. Chalbos advanced from Chataigneraie to Bres- suire, Westermann clearing the enemy before him and burning and pillaging the country far and wide. A junction was effected with the Saumur no BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. and Thouars columns at Bressuire, whence Chalbos, with 20,000 men, proceeded to Chatillon, now covered by the divisions of Lescure and Beaure- paire. On Chalbos being reinforced, the Vendeans fell back leisurely, abandoning the town to Wester- mann and his horde of marauding cavalry. The next day, however, Bonchamps came up with his division and utterly routed Westermann, the main Republican army retiring to Bressuire. Wester- mann returned to Chatillon by night with a handful of men, and committed a horrible carnage on the Vendeans, many of whom were too drunk or too fatigued to oppose him, or to realize that the enemy was again in their midst. Women and children, blues as well as whites, were included in the indiscriminate slaughter. The Royalists now fell back from Chatillon with the intention of re- uniting at Mortagne to prepare for a general battle. Previous to his advance on Bressuire, Chalbos had called away Lecomte's corps, thus reducing the Lu^on column to 3,000 men ; but this was made up again by the arrival of some companies of grena- diers from Saint- Fulgent, whom Marceau selected, together with other tried battalions, to form his advance-guard. Beffroy had already handed over the command of the Lugon division to General Bard. This division was to march to Les Herbiers, and then, after driving the enemy off, to Mortagne, when it was to establish itself on the heights over- looking the Sevre, and erect batteries to cannonade the town and bridge. By so doing it would place LA VENDUE. Ill itself between the Mayengais and the Chatillon column now converging on Mortagne. These orders were carried out and the advance through the Bocage conducted with the greatest skill, rapidity, and caution. On the morning of the 14th October, Marceau occupied the heights over- looking the Sevre Nantaise with his advance-guard. The evacuation of Mortagne by the enemy and the approach of the army of Mayence under L'Echelle facilitated the march of the Lu^on column, the enemy opposed to it retiring on Mallievre ; only at Les Herbiers, where Royrand was posted with 3,000 men, had any opposition been met with. The Vendean army under d'Elbee and Lescure, with whom the forces of Bonchamps and Royrand had now effected a junction, occupied at this time the heights of Saint-Christophe, covering Cholet and the roads that converge on it from Tififauges and Mortagne. Bonchamps by the road of Tiffauges, and Lescure by that of Mortagne were to march round the flanks of the advancing blue army and take up a position in its rear. Arrived at the heights of the Sevre, the Lugon column received orders from L'Echelle to go through Mortagne without stopping there and to advance on the road to Cholet, where it would be met by a battalion of direction to connect it with the advance-guard of the Mayengais under Beaupuy. The staff-officer, Robert, who conveyed the order, omitted to tell this general of his part in the manoeuvre, and thus nearly caused the destruction of the entire column, which owed its safety to 112 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the bold stand made by Marceau and his advance- guard. "In passing through Mortagne," says Bard's re- port, " I forbad all manner of pillage, under pain of death, and my adjutant-general, Marceau, saw that my orders were punctiliously obeyed. I advanced along the road to Cholet without meeting with any reinforcements. What I did meet was the enemy, who burst upon us from every direction." By some mistake Bonchamps' advance along the Tiffauges road was delayed. This, and the sudden advance of the Lu^on column, prevented Lescure's march to the rear, and the Vendeans were met in the avenues of the Chateau de la Tremblaie, half way between Mortagne and Cholet. Marceau, suddenly assailed, thought at first that the attack was a mistake on the part of the battalion that should have supported him ; but he was soon undeceived when he felt the brunt of Lescure's army bearing down on him. He at once placed himself on the defensive, and his troops, though taken by surprise, sustained the fire that almost encircled them with great composure and firmness. Bard came up to Marceau's rescue, but had to fly back immediately to the tail of his column, which, having been ambuscaded by the Vendeans, and fearing to be cut off, was beginning to retreat to Mortagne ; he had just succeeded in rallying his men when he fell, mortally wounded. He was carried to Mortagne, and Marceau assumed command of the column. In the midst of his brave grenadiers Marceau con- tinued the struggle in front. The enemy threatened LA VENDUE. 113 to envelop him, and he would have succumbed to superior numbers had not the battalion of chas- seurs under Tyran, sent by Beaupuy, arrived at this juncture. The combat was protracted and stubborn, the brave Tyran was killed, but Marceau redoubled his efforts and suddenly assumed the offensive, and, charging at the head of his troops, drove the Ven- deans before him, securing the chateau of La Trem- blaie in his front and the woods occupied by the Vendeans on his right. Meanwhile, Beaupuy, in command of Kleber's advance-guard, hearing the cannonade on his right, and seeing the column of Lugon engaged, despatched Tyran as above mentioned, and simultaneously ordered an advance on Saint-Christophe. Seeing that his left was protected by Kleber he pushed on to the front himself in time to seethe white standards of La Vendue, on which the fair hands of Madame de Lescure (afterwards the Marchioness de la Roche- jaquelein) had embroidered the golden lilies of France, moving on to the heights of La Tremblaie. Beaupuy, by making a circuit round these heights, turned the right flank of the Vendean army, which gave way before his brisk attack. The offensive was resumed along the entire line and the enemy fell back on Cholet. Lescure rallied a few of his brave peasants and made a last charge, but a ball struck him above the eye and he fell senseless to the ground. He was carried away, bathed in blood, but still breathing, by a faithful servant who had accompanied him to the field of battle. The loss of their chief completed the rout of the I 114 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Vendeans, who fled through Cholet, and thence by night to Beaupreau on the way to the Loire. The enemy's artillery and cavalry continued to occupy Cholet, and, as it was now night, the Repub- lican army, overcome with fatigue, bivouacked on the heights, where Kleber attempted to restore order by arranging the troops in two irregular lines, with the Lu^on division on the right. Kleber's head-quarters were in a field of gorse on the left of the main road. Here, at midnight, Marceau, impatient to make the acquaintance of the great soldier of whom he had heard so much, visited him seated before the camp fire. Kleber, pre- occupied and anxious about the safety of the army, received the young officer coldly, and asked him how far off" the troops he commanded were bi- vouacked. " About one mile from here," replied Marceau. " Then," said Kleber, " you ought not under the circumstances to have left them. Go back and resume your command. There will be time enough for us to see each other when we have seen the last of the enemy." Marceau, stung to the quick by such a welcome, especially after the episode of La Tremblaie, retired disheartened and dejected. But Kleber made amends to him the very next day, and showed the confidence he had in him by placing him in the centre of the new position. They met in the thick of the fight when bullets were flying all around them. Kleber stretched out his hand, which Mar- ceau grasped in silence, and their friendship was sealed for ever, that great friendship which will out- LA VENDfiE. 115 live even their military renown and their humanity. No two men were outwardly more dissimilar ; it was their humanity, their integrity, their courage which dared all for the cause they both loved and honoured, that united them so closely together. Henceforth, from the day of the battle of Cholet, they walk side by side, supporting each other through the perilous life of a soldier ; together they fight in La Vendee, on the Sambre and Meuse, and on the Rhine, until the day when the unerring bullet of the Tyrolese rifleman severs them for ever. Kleber continues on his path, but at length, in Egypt, and not many years after, he, too, closes his glorious career. The day after the battle of Saint-Christophe the Vendean artillery, after firing a few parting shots, evacuated Cholet, covered by their cavalry. Kleber immediately ordered his troops to traverse the town and occupy the heights beyond it. The movement was carried out with great precision and the strictest discipline was maintained, Beaupuy and Marceau led the way with their advance-guards. Kleber had issued stringent orders for the protection of life and property, pickets were posted in every quarter and street, and the soldiers were prevented from entering the houses and pillaging the town. The river Moine runs before Cholet ; beyond it is unequal, hilly ground, forming a semicircle of heights. On the left of this semicircle is the wood of Cholet ; in the centre, but a little thrown back, Cholet itself; and on the right some heights crowned by a chateau. Kleber placed Beaupuy with the Il6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. reserve of the Mayengais under Haxo on the left before the wood, the Lugon column in the centre protecting the main road from Beaupreau and the approaches from Chemille and Trementines, and Vimeuxwith the rest of the Mayengais on the heights to the right. The Republican forces numbered 22,000 of all arms, including nearly 3,000 cavalry and thirty pieces of artillery. The arrival of the columns of Chalbos and Miiller from Chatillon at 2 a.m. on the 17th October, added 9,000 more to the number. As no enemy appeared on the morning of the 17th October, it was resolved to advance to Beaupreau^ and to send a flying column to intercept them in case they moved on Nantes. At Beaupreau, where the white army was as- sembled, all was disorder and disagreement. Bon- champs at length prevailed on the other chiefs to make a last effort to crush the invading force at Cholet, and pass the Loire into "Brittany as con- querors. The Royalists accordingly advanced to the number of 41,000 men upon Cholet on the morning of the 17th October. By 2 p.m. the advance-guards of Beaupuy and Marceau were driven in. The Royalists, who marched for the first time in close columns like troops of the line, precipitated themselves at the charge along the whole line with the rage and valour that is born of despair. Their object was at once to engage the Re- publicans at close quarters and to silence their guns. Bonchamps and d'Elbee with 14,000 men directed all their efforts against the centre, at the same time that La Rochejaquelein and Stofflet bore down on LA VENDUE. 117 the wings. On the right Vimeux was so advan- tageously posted that all the endeavours of the enemy against him proved unavailing. Such was the fury of their onslaught, however, on the left flank, that they carried all before them, gained possession of the woods of Cholet, drove Beaupuy back on his reserve, captured a large park of artillery, and pene- trated to the very faubourgs of Cholet. The Repub- licans strove in vain, their position was turned and the battle appeared to be lost. But Marceau, with the column of Lu^on, stood fast in the centre and enabled Kleber to bring up his reserves. The words of Kleber's despatch graphically describe what occurred here : " The centre, formed of the Lugon division under the orders of Marceau, was perfectly covered. This brave young warrior and his doughty companions in arms had already shown at La Tremblaie what they were worth and what they could do. " While the combat was still doubtful on our left, the head of IMuller's division, 4,cxx) strong, arrived on the scene. Here was a reinforcement arrived at a critical moment ! It advances, but before it gains the heights it is panic-stricken, and flies back in disorder, even to Cholet, spreading consternation everywhere. . . . Thus, without even having seen the enemy, these soldiers leave it to the army of Mayence and the column of Lucon to reap the glory of the victor>'. " The cannonade along the centre suddenly in- •creases. I hasten there with Damas. The rebels, rallied against this point, return at the charge. Il8 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Marceau sees them, but never flinches. He ad- vances his artillery, which he has carefully masked. The unsuspecting horde of fanatics is now within half a gunshot of him. At this moment he opens fire with grape, mowing down entire lines as they rise up against him. The rebels, taken aback, stop, give way, turn their backs, and follow the example of their left. Marceau now takes up the pursuit^ and I support him with the five battalions I had placed in echelon behind to cover our possible retreat." But the Royalists rally, re-form, and return to the attack, and are only kept at bay by Marceau's grenadiers, who again and again cut their way into the ranks wedged into the line. Soon Royalist and Republican are mingled together, and the field of battle becomes an arena of furious gladia- tors, who single out each other in mortal combat. While the centre maintains itself and presents this horrible picture, and the Vendean right is still victorious, in spite of the heroic efforts of Beaupuy, the reserve of Mayence guards is ordered up. Traversing Cholet, it rolls back the flank of the Vendeans, at the same time that the cavalry charge from right to left along their disordered ranks. The first shock of the Mayengais is bravely sus- tained, and even repulsed. Beaupuy orders another charge, and at last the intrepid courage of this com- mander and his veteran troops, together with the stubborn firmness of Marceau's grenadiers in the centre, triumphs over the blind desperation of the Royalists. LA VENDUE. 119 D'Elbee, Bonchamps, and La Rochejaquelein rally 200 cavalry and some infantry, and precipitate themselves on the conquerors like wild animals, leaving everywhere traces of blood and carnage. The Republican cavalry, the Mayengais, and the grenadiers charge once more the soldiers of Bon- champs and d'Elbee, The direst confusion follows. Ranks, standards, chiefs, soldiers, friend and foe, white and blue, meet in indiscriminate collision and recognize each other only to deal mortal blows with sabre and bayonet. Beaupuy is surrounded, but numerous squadrons come to his assistance. The Vendeans are now massacred around d'Elbee and Bonchamps, who are themselves struck down, and their bodies with difficulty rescued. Ten thousand Vendeans are left on the field during this two days' fight around Cholet. The remainder retreat to Beaupreau, protected by La Rochejaquelein. Westermann, hastening up from Chatillon, is sent in pursuit, supported by a corps of infantry under Beaupuy. " Thus ended," says Kleber, " this bloody and memorable day. The enemy took twelve pieces of cannon, . . . d'Elbee and Bonchamps were mor- tally wounded, never before had they engaged us in so obstinate, so well-directed a battle, and yet one that has proved so fatal to them. The rebels fought like tigers, our soldiers like lions." To advance was impossible ; the soldiers were overcome with fatigue, and the Republican army had suffered heavy losses, Marceau's division having 120 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. been especially severely handled. A bivouac on the spot was ordered. The Catholic army was pursued to Beaupr^au, which Westermann entered the same night. Had he continued the pursuit the next day instead of staying to plunder, the remnant left from Cholet might have been destroyed, for, in spite of the energy of La Rochejaquelein, the retreat of the Royalists had ended in disgraceful and headlong flight. This remnant arrived safely at Saint-Florent on the Loire. Here were found 5,000 Republican prisoners confined in the church. The Vendean soldiers, furious at the treatment they had received from Westermann, and at the sight of their burning homesteads, gathered round the edifice and pointed their guns, charged with grape, on the unfortunate prisoners. Bonchamps, expiring of his wounds near by, heard of their intention, and at once sent Auti- champ to beg of them, at his last and dying request, to spare the wretches. The Vendeans immediately fell back at the name of their great chief, and the massacre was averted. Bonchamps expired soon after at the hamlet of La Meilleraie. His noble and generous soul took its flight accompanied by the consolation that he had known how to forgive, and that, to his last wish, 5,000 victims of this unhappy war owed their lives. " While the last moments of the Royalist chief were ennobled by an act of mercy, the triumph of the Republicans was stained by unrelenting and LA VENDUE. 121 uncalled-for cruelty. The towns of Beaupr6au and Cholet were burnt to the ground, the inhabitants of every age and sex put to the sword." ^ To whom we are to impute the blame of this it is difficult to say. The previous conduct of Kleber and Marceau, and the character we know they bore through life, excludes the possibility of participation, and ab- solves them from all personal blame if not from all responsibility. After considerable difficulty the entire Vendean army, that is, what was left of it, with thousands of women and children and helpless followers, was conveyed in safety in twenty-five boats across the Loire, and escaped the ravenous vengeance of Westermann, who arrived too late, and vented his rage by devastating with fire and sword the unhappy and unoffending country around Saint-Florent. Kleber bewailed in his report that during these two days he had lost in his division alone fourteen commanders of brigades and battalions and chiefs of staff, and a great body of veteran soldiers. But what of that, the Bocage had been cleared ; La Vendee — at least, so it was fondly imagined — had ceased to exist, and the triumphant representatives might well write to the Convention : " A profound solitude reigns in the country recently occupied by the rebels ... we have left behind us nothing but ashes and piles of dead." On the evening of the i8th October, on their arrival at Beaupreau, both Kleber and Marceau were promoted, by the unanimous voice of the ' Alison. 122 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. representatives, the former to the grade of a general of division, the latter to that of a general of brigade, the brevets to date from the battle of Cholet. The following was the order in Marceau's case, signed by Bourbotte, Turreau, and others, and ratified by the Convention on the 5 th November, 1793 : " The representatives of the people with the Army of the West, reunited at Beaupreau, in con- sideration of the courage, bravery, and military talent displayed by citizen Marceau under all cir- cumstances and in active warfare against the Ven- dean rebels, and because of the pure and never- failing patriotism with which we know him to be imbued, do hereby nominate him provisionally a general of brigade, and direct that he assume the functions of one from this date, and that a copy of this be sent to the Executive Council in order that justice be at once done to a good citizen by ex- pediting his confirmation as general of brigade." After Cholet, L'Echelle had kept Marceau near him as chief of his staff, in which capacity he accompanied him to Nantes, The command of the Lu§on division was conferred on Canuel. < 1) hJ > J C3 S <1) i g CO >> ^ < > X 3 lU G 3 W l-H ►_; l-H r^ > CHAPTER III. The Campaign north of the Loire — " The rout of Laval" — Marceau in command of the advance-guard — The blockade of Dol — Battle of A n train — Marceau as general of division and commander-in-chief ad interim — The dangers of his position. THE passage of the Loire by the Vendeans, carried out in view of a victorious army, without preparations and with the aid only of some twenty small boats, deserves to be ranked as a great military exploit. Well might the Republicans, on their arrival in force at Saint-Florent on the 19th October, express astonishment at seeing the royal army safe on the opposite bank. All their projects of extermination had once more fallen to the ground. The blame rests in the first place with L'Echelle for not urging the pursuit, and, in the next, with the officer who, posted on the right bank with 10,000 men, should have defended Varades until the arrival of L'Echelle. " What a difference it would have made," wrote Beaupuy, " if our side had held Varades. All France would have been purged of rebels. The Loire would have been their cfrave." LA VENDUE. 125 If we include women and children, some 50,000 Vendeans crossed the Loire on the evening of the 1 8th and on the 19th October. Of these thirty to thirty-five thousand were armed men, capable still, as we shall see, of not only holding the patriot army at bay, but of inflicting on it the most crush- ing and humiliating defeats. Arrived safely across the Loire, the Vendeans elected the youthful La Rochejaquelein their gene- ralissimo, in the room of d'Elb6e, mortally wounded at Cholet, and then continued their march, over- coming all opposition, along the banks of the Mayenne to Chateau-Gonthier and Laval. At Laval, having outmarched their pursuers, they were able to rest and re-establish order in their ranks. The object of their leaders was to occupy Rennes, where it was expected an insurrection would break out, and thousands of Bretons join the Catholic cause. In this, as in all their expectations of the north of the Loire, they were doomed to disap- pointment, for not only did the Bretons, with the exception of those of the Morbihan, fail to enlist under the white standard in anything like numbers^ but they treated the Vendeans like wandering brigands, fearing to succour them, and refusing often to give them shelter. The Republican army crossed the Loire in two columns, Beaupuy with the advance-guard and the Lugon division by the bridges of Ce, the rest of the army by Nantes. Kleber and Marceau, who were with L'Echelle, advised that the advance north from the Loire should be in several columns along- 126 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. both banks of the Mayenne, and that the troops should be allowed to rest, and their clothing and provisions be looked to before being engaged in another active campaign. But these generals were overruled, and L'Echelle pompously ordered the army to march " majestically forth in mass " against the front of the enemy. " Thus," says Kleber, " 20,000 men, aligned along a single column, were marched out to attack a post accessible by several roads, without so much as a false attack or a diversion being attempted. It seemed most extraordinary to us, but we had to obey ! " The two advance-guards, respectively under Beaupuy and Westermann,met at Chateau-Gonthier on the 25th October. Westermann, rash and im- petuous as ever, came up with the enemy the same ■evening at Croix-de-Bataille, between Entrames and Laval, and was drawn into a battle. The Vendeans, lying in ambush, were prepared for him, and, profiting by the confusion of darkness, repulsed him with loss. He retreated, however, in order, and occupied Entrames, where some heights and the line of the Joanne beyond the village afforded an excellent position. This combat was only the prelude to a more general action. The next day L'Echelle arrived at Chateau- Gonthier with his entire army, 25,000 strong. Not satisfied with the position, he gave Kleber orders to push on to Villiers, three miles beyond Chateau- Gonthier, on the road to Laval, at the same time he withdrew Westermann from the heights of LA VEND£E. 127 Entrames, which the enemy immediately occupied, and, posting their guns there, opened fire on the Mayen9ais, who, under Beaupuy, formed the ad- vance-guard of the Republicans, Kleber and Marceau, the latter still acting as chief of the staff, prepared a plan of attack along both banks of the river, and advised a halt at Chateau-Gonthier ; but L'Echelle and the council of war, urged on by the representatives, could not be moved from their purpose of making a reconnais- sance in force the next day, and thus hazarding a general engagement with the main body of the Vendean army, strongly posted on the left bank of the Mayenne. Marceau was with the advance-guard, consisting of Beaupuy 's division, when, at eleven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, the action commenced by a brisk attack on the part of the Vendeans, who had issued from Laval in force, and were deployed on the heights of Entrames and along the line of the Joanne. Marceau was wounded at the commence- ment of the fight, but he continued to discharge his duties, and at once communicated with Kleber, who advanced with his division to support Beaupu}-, and deployed on the right and left of the road so as to extend himself as much as possible. These three generals had to bear the brunt of the attack, for L'Echelle, who had placed his whole army in one column, was unable to come to the assistance of the troops at its head, while his attempts to deploy the second division and support the left wing were useless and of no avail. He could neither 128 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. give the necessary orders, nor would the formation of the ground permit of any manceuvre. The attack meanwhile developed rapidly. Bands of Vendean sharpshooters flung themselves on the head of the column, causing it to give way and retire in disorder. La Rochejaquelein flew through the Poitevin ranks, animating the peasants. Stofflet charged and took a whole battery, which he imme- diately turned against the enemy. La Roche- jaquelein and Royrand pressed heavily on the centre, advancing their guns step by step against the phalanx of Mayengais, and mowing them down with close-range fire. "The Vendeans had to do with the redoubtable garrison of Mayence," says a writer, " but they fought with the courage of despair, and on no former occasion had exhibited a more enthusiastic valour." While this took place in front, Dehargues, with a column, threw himself on the Republican flank, and after a desperate struggle the Mayengais began to give way. " And now," writes Kleber, " the rout commenced,, not in my division engaged in the fight, but in that which had as yet taken no part in it. The soldier^ who always has an eye at his back, seeing the first division make a half-turn to the rear, at once hastened to follow suit. Cries, exhortations, prayers are repeated in vain. Disorder reigns supreme, and for the first time I behold the soldiers of Mayence flee before an enemy. The Vendeans pursue us,, and gain possession one by one of our guns, which they turn against us. We lose heavily in men." After five hours' fighting, and at the close of day, LA VEND£E. 129 the approaches to Chateau-Gonthier are gained. But here Stofflet, with some picked troops, sHps behind the Repubhcan columns, and assails them in flank and rear, firing at fourteen paces, and then overwhelming them with bayonet charges. Marceau, Beaupuy, and Kuhn rallied some bat- talions of Mayengais in the town, and, placing two cannon in position, attempted to sustain unaided the attack of the royal army on the bridges of Chateau-Gonthier. This only arrested its progress for a moment, for La Rochejaquelein coming up shouted to his soldiers : " What, my friends, shall the conquerors sleep out of doors, and the con- quered in the town ! " and throwing himself on the guns carried them, and pursued the blues across the open country far beyond the town. Fifteen thousand soldiers fled to Rennes, Angers, and even to Nantes, whence many did not return to the army for a fortnight. It was with difficulty that Kleber and Marceau collected 7,000 men to- gether at Lion-d' Angers, where, on the 28th October, they took up an advantageous position, covered by the river Oudon. In this action, the memorable rout of Laval, as it is called, the Republicans lost 12,000 men and nineteen guns, and the formidable bands of Mayence were almost annihilated, and ceased to exist hereafter as a separate corps. The defeat was the more humiliating in that only some seven or eight thousand Royalists were actively engaged, whereas L'Echelle had his entire force of 30,000 men at his back and under his orders. As for L'Echelle himself, overwhelmed with K 130 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. shame and filled with despair, he hastily resigned the command and fled to Nantes, where he ended his brief and unsuccessful career by taking his own life. The road to Paris was now open, and nothing but the reluctance of the Vendean peasants pre- vented the Catholic army from marching to the gates of the capital itself The Army of the West reassembled at Angers on the 30th October, where it remained till the lOth November. Kleber and Marceau, distrusted by the representatives but indispensable to them, did everything in their power to repair the disaster, and to reorganize the army so as to render it fit to face once more the determined foe. When rein- forced and amalgamated, this army consisted of a compact force of 17,000 men. Kleber reserved the command of the first division for himself, and con- fided the advance-guard, some 3,000 strong, and made up principally of Mayen^ais, to Marceau. From Lion-d' Angers, on the ist November, Marceau wrote to his friend, Constantine Maugars, asking him to come and join him : " As it seems that, in spite of the wretched state of my health, I must see the last of this campaign, and be obliged to take part in several more battles, I beg of you to let me know as soon as possible if you feel inclined to come and join me as my aide-de-camp. I will not mention the advantages to be reaped, in a military sense, from this post. They cannot be compared with those my heart will experience. Come, therefore, if you love me, or at least give me LA VENDUE. 131 sound reasons for your refusal. I shall await your reply with impatience. I should be delighted if you could be present at the next battle. I hope that is not far off now, and that we shall make up for our last defeat." One of Marceau's biographers has well remarked, that we do not know which to admire most in this simple letter, the tenderness of heart of the writer of it, or the patriotic ardour it displays in its very restraint. While the Republican army recruited its strength and prepared to renew the struggle, the Royalist leaders remained idle at Fougeres, divided in opinion, and uncertain what line of march to adopt. They had apportioned their forces among five grand divisions, forming together a formidable army, sup- ported by a park of fifty-four guns of various calibre. But there were few leaders remaining in whom the Vendeans placed much confidence. At Laval, Royrand had been mortally wounded, and, soon after, De Lescure (the first husband of the Mar- chioness of La Rochejaquelein, whose immortal memoirs illustrate for us all the pathos and the horror of this unhappy war) succumbed to the wounds he had received at La Tremblaie. While they hesitated, despatches arrived from England, in which the English government showed its disposition to assist the Royalists, adding that troops were ready to bear upon any point they might name. Granville, the nearest seaport town to Jersey, was selected, and a suitable reply sent back to the ministers, Pitt and Dundas. Leaving Fougeres, therefore, the white army marched to 132 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Granville by way of Dol, Pontorson, and Avranches, to co-operate with its English allies from over the sea. The prolonged occupation of the Dol-Laval road by the Royalists had been viewed with the greatest alarm by Rossignol, now in command of the Army of the North, with his head-quarters at Rennes. He appealed to his colleagues at Angers to help him to defend this important town, pointing out, at the same time, the advantage to be gained by an amal- gamation of the two armies. The representatives at Angers, anxious to avoid giving Kleber the com- mand, at once fell in with Rossignol's views, for- getting what the army had already suffered from his ignorance and incapacity. On the 15th November the Army of the West, led by Kleber and Marceau, entered Rennes, and Rossignol, the Jacobin goldsmith of the faubourgs of Paris, was placed in supreme command of the combined forces. The Royalists appeared before Granville at the appointed time, and at once attacked the town. Unaccustomed to the storming of walled towns, unsupported by the English, and enfiladed by the withering fire of some vessels in the harbour, they were obliged to retire on the approach of the Cher- bourg division, and, after performing prodigies of valour, to fall back on Avranches. The English expedition, under Lord Moira, appeared off the coast after this retreat had been effected. Arrived at Avranches, at the loud and persistent demands of the peasants, who longed to see their homes LA VENDfiE. 133 again, it was resolved to return to Dol, and thence to Angers, there to secure a passage over the Loire back to La Vendee. At Pontorson, Rossignol attempted to intercept the retreat of the Vendeans, but his general, Tribout, was driven out of the town at the point of the bayonet, and the gates of Brittany were once more open to the Catholic army. On the 19th No- vember they occupied Dol without obstacle, and here it was thought the insurgents would be brought to bay, for the Republicans barred their way to the Loire, their right resting on Pontorson and the sea, and their left on the intrenched camp at Antrain, while Marceau, with the advance-guard, was posted at the crossing of the four roads from Rennes to Antrain, and from Fougeres to Dol. Dol was then a walled town, and consisted of a single wide street, which was the high road to Dinan. On the opposite side the road divided, one branch leading to Pontorson, the other to Antrain ; Dol lay in the angle formed by these two roads. At the council of war it was proposed by Kleber that before a general engagement was hazarded, the enemy should be blockaded in this town, their supplies cut off, and their strength sapped by fre- quent and harassing attacks. Rossignol and the representatives approved of this plan, which would have succeeded beyond all doubt, and put an end to a war already productive of so much misery and bloodshed. As soon as the news of the defeat of Pontorson was received, the advance on Avranches was stayed, 134 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. and all precautions taken to maintain the post at Antrain. The i8th and 19th November were occupied in strengthening the position, and troops were sent right and left to complete the cordon, St. Malo and Dinan being occupied. On the after- noon of the 20th, however, a despatch was received from Westermann, who commanded the advance- guard on the Pontorson road, pointing out that he knew the enemy were in a miserable plight in Dol, and that if Kleber and Marceau would co-operate from Antrain, he would advance the same night from Pontorson, and it would be all over with the Catholic army, which would be utterly destroyed. Rossignol and the representatives took fire at this despatch. Marceau was at once ordered to march with his column, and attack Dol simul- taneously with Westermann, to whom a favourable reply was sent. The Royalists, far from being in the condition Westermann had described, had taken every pre- caution against a surprise. " To animate the sol- diers," writes an eye-witness, " the drums beat to arms. The moment the Vendeans had formed themselves at the entrance of the town, the attack began, in the midst of a dark night. The cries of the soldiers, the roll of the drums, the fire of the howitzers, casting a transient gleam over the town, the noise of the musketry and cannon, all con- tributed to deepen the impression made on those who expected life or death from the issue of the battle." Westermann commenced the attack at midnight LA VENDUE. 135 of the 20th-2ist, without awaiting the infantry divi- sion that was to support him, and without making sure of the arrival of Marceau on his left. He was opposed by 6,000 Vendeans under La Rochejaquelein, who fell on him with his usual impetuosity, com- pelling his column to recede to Pontorson. Along the Dol-Antrain road Marceau led the way with 3,000 men. The Vendeans, foreseeing they would be simultaneously assailed by both roads, after beating back the attack on the left, hastened to strengthen their right, and Marceau encountered them at 4 a.m., drawn up in great force outside the town. But he never hesitated to deliver battle. The enemy far outnumbered him, but his firmness and his wise dispositions equalized the combat and the Republicans gained ground everywhere. Marceau commenced the attack by a vigorous onslaught on the advance-guard of the insurgents, drawn up under Prince Talmont in front of the town. Stofflet was dislodged from his position in a wood on the right and took shelter in Dol. " The darkness of the night," says Madame De Lescure, who was present at the time, " and the rage of the two parties were such that in the midst of the con- fusion the combatants grappled hand to hand and tore each other to pieces. They even took cartridges from the same caissons." The retreat of Stofflet spread terror among the Vendeans, who fled, taking with them, or trampling under foot in their flight, the helpless multitude of women and children crowded together in the squares and avenues of the town. After three hours of desperate fighting Marceau 136 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. remained master of the field, and a thick fog alone prevented him from taking advantage of the con- fusion and pursuing the enemy into and beyond Dol. At daybreak Muller's division arrived, but the moment for securing the victory was past. La Rochejaquelein, victorious on the left,hadcome along the cross-roads to the aid of Prince Talmont, who, at the head of 800 men, still maintained his position with heroical courage on the right. By dint of superhuman efforts the Vendean leaders now rallied their troops and beat off the Republicans. The priests, and even the women, led by the widows of Bonchamps and De Lescure, assisted in animating the soldiers and in recalling them to their duty. The exertions and the military skill of Marceau were all spent in vain. Miiller, who was now in command, and his staff, were intoxicated, and un- able to issue orders. La Rochejaquelein, taking advantage of the confusion, took up a strong position on the flank, and poured down on the Republicans, who, in their turn, were put to flight. Marceau had sent word to Kleber, asking him to come and extri- cate them from their plight. Kleber hastened to him, and advised him to take up a retrograde but a very strong position in the environs of Trans, which he did, after some trouble from the Vendean riflemen. Marceau's timely dispositions, and the fact that the Vendeans had themselves suffered heavily, pre- vented the latter from carrying the intrenchments along the Couesnon, as they might otherwise have done. They returned to Dol in solemn procession, headed by their priests, and chanting aloud their LA VENDEE. 137 thanks to God who had given them the victory. The main body of the RepubHcans, except the battahons that held Antrain, bivouacked that night in front of the woods of Trans, Marceau alone with the advance- guard returned to the moor nearer Dol, which he had occupied the morning before. Day broke, and neither side had taken the offen- sive. As many of the troops, however, had taken no part in the previous encounter, the representatives, notwithstanding the experience of the preceding day, were eager to risk a second attack. In vain Kleber and Marceau pointed out to them how much more doubtful success would be after the recent check, their advice was unheeded, and a second advance ordered to commence at lo o'clock along both roads. But Rossignol had prepared no plan of action, and had issued no detailed instructions, and it was already past midday, when a brisk cannonade roused his army. Westermann was engaged with the enemy. La Rochejaquelein, weary of his uncer- tain position, and anxious to take advantage of the enthusiasm of his troops, had given the signal for attack and forestalled the Republicans. A second time was Westermann defeated and forced back in disorder to Avranches, leaving all his artillery in the enemy's hands. On their right the Vendeans met with a more obstinate resistance. The battle here lasted fifteen hours, but the issue, owing to the absence of a single and predominant will on the side of the Republicans, was never for a moment doubtful. Kleber and Marceau, both devoured by vexation, 138 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. made a reconnaissance towards Dol. Scarcely had they reached the battlefield of yesterday, between the villages of Boussaye and Vieuville, when they came up with the Vendean advance-guard, closely followed by their army. Soon after the engagement commenced the ad- vance-guard of the Army of Brest took to flight, leaving Marceau to bear the entire attack unsus- tained. But Kleber now brought up some battalions of Mayengais, forming part of Canuel's brigade, and the two generals, taking up a strong position, showed a formidable front to the enemy, giving time to the troops in their rear to come into action. But the Vendean column that had pursued Westermann now appeared on their right flank, while Stofflet moved round the left ; and Kleber, seeing his position no longer tenable, ordered a retrograde movement, which the intervention of Rossignol converted into a rapid retreat. " Our flanks in air, our rear exposed," writes Kleber, " the greater portion of his troops in full flight, Rossignol now orders a retreat. . . . We arrive at nightfall at the bridge of Antrain, the passage of which is made in the greatest confusion. Marceau undertakes to defend this bridge with whatever soldiers he can get together, irrespective of com- pany or battalion. But the enemy continues to ad- vance, and, forcing the passage, converts what might have been called an orderly retreat into a fea^-ful rout. While Marceau sustains unaided the efforts of the enemy, the other generals with the represen- tatives are deliberating what they should do, but LA VENDUE. 139 when the taking of the bridge is' announced, it is seen there is nothing to be done but to follow the tide and retreat to Rennes." The intrenchments carried and Marceau dis- lodged, the victorious Royalists, led by their young commander, entered Antrain pell-mell at the heels of the fugitives whom the Vendean cavalry pursued for many miles along the road to Rennes. The Republican army lost 6,000 men, killed and wounded, in this battle of twenty-two hours' duration. Arrived at Rennes, Rossignol called together the members of the council of war and admitted to them his unfitness for command. He asked them to ac- cept his resignation and to give him only a battalion, if they wished to save the Republic. But Prieur de la Marne, the constant enemy of Kleber and Marceau, refused to accept Rossignol's offer, and insinuated that the responsibility of defeat rested not with him, but with certain generals, meaning Kleber and Marceau, who had failed to assist him with their counsels and military skill. Prieur con- veniently forgot that the enemy had been engaged against the repeated warnings of the former general, and that the devoted courage of the latter had alone averted disaster. Seeing there was no getting rid of the sans-culotte general, Kleber now proposed to the council that an officer should be appointed as Commandant of all the troops actmg under a Geiieral-in-chief, that is, under the orders of Rossignol, and, effacing himself, suggested that Marceau should fill this strange post, while Westermann and Debilly should respectively 140 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. command the cavalry and artillery. The council approved of this proposition and submitted it to the military tribunal at Paris for confirmation. Kleber had recommended Marceau because he could reckon upon his entire devotedness. " The subject was a delicate one," he explains in his memoirs, " and I was sure of raising feelings of jealousy, but the exigencies of the service out- weighed all other considerations. The step once taken, I felt relieved of a great burden. I was Marceau's friend, and felt sure he would undertake no enterprise without first consulting me. He was young, active, intelligent, and full of audacious courage. Calmer than he, I felt I should always be at his elbow to restrain his ardour, should it carry him too far. We mutually agreed not to abandon each other until we had succeeded in bringing back victory to our standards." The Vendean army had quitted Dol and Antrain, and marched by Ernee to Laval, threatening Angers, which they would be obliged to carry to secure their passage over the Loire by the bridges of Ce. On the 28th November the council of representa- tives directed the main body of the Republican army to move to Chateaubriant. Marceau, with the advance-guard, arrived here on the 30th, and learnt that the Vendeans were marching on Angers. He sent two messengers in succession to Rossignol, asking whether he should succour the town, but the only reply he received was to the effect that Rossignol would be at Chateaubriant the next day. When the LA VENDUE. 141 representatives arrived and learnt for themselves that Angers was threatened, they asked Rossignol why troops had not been sent to the assistance of their colleagues. Rossignol laid all the blame on Marceau, who was sent for. A lively scene ensued, ending in Rossignol retiring suddenly to bed on the plea of indisposition ! " After all," said Prieur, in conclusion, to Marceau, " it is less your fault than Kleber's ; it is he who advised you, and to-morrow we will establish a tribunal to send him to the guillotine ! " Marceau, overcome with grief, immediately went over to Kleber's quarters and repeated all he had heard. It was eleven o'clock at night, but Kleber roused the representatives from their sleep and demanded an explanation, which ended in the humiliation of Prieur, and led to the marching out of the army, at midnight and in intense cold, on the road to Angers, where it arrived on the evening of the next day. Owing to the exertions of Beaupuy and Mar- tigny. Angers no longer needed succour. The Vendean attack had failed, and the bridges of Ce were safe. Marceau made a reconnaissance in force towards the town, only to find the siege abandoned, and the Vendeans in full retreat up the right bank of the Loire, still hoping to secure a passage at Saumur or Tours to their homes in the Bocage, At the bivouac before Angers were found the bodies of women and children, who had died of cold and hunger. They, at least, would never see those homes again. 142 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. From Angers the Republican army marched to Bauge, where it was joined by the Cherbourg divi- sion under Tilly, a reinforcement which raised its strength to 40,000, and made it once more a for- midable force. The Grand Army of La Vendee, on the other hand, abandoned by its officers, harassed by the light cavalry of Westermann, en- feebled by constant marching, and decimated by disease and cold and hunger, was melting away day by day. The Committee of Public Safety, on hearing of the defeat of Antrain, had removed Rossignol from the command, conferring it on another general even less qualified to hold it. This was Turreau, a monster whose name deserves to be mentioned in the same category with men like Marat, Couthon, and Collet-d'Herbois. Fortunately, he was at this time absent with the Army of the Pyrenees, and the Convention ordered that Marceau should act as commander-in-chief until his arrival, promoting Marceau at the same time to the rank of a general of division, the commission to bear date from the lOth November, 1793. " The army marched immediately," says Thiers, " and from this moment everything was conducted with harmony and firmness." Beauchamp uses the same language, and does homage to the genius of Marceau. " It was under this officer," writes the Vendean historian, " that the army of the Republic dealt the most decisive blows to the Royalists. If he did not reap all the glory of the battles by which Greater Vendee was suppressed, the historian LA VENDUE. 143 who overlooks nothing will, in this respect at least, be just to his memory," With his commission, Marceau received a list of officers whom the Convention directed should be dismissed. The ordinance comprised Kleber and all the Mayence generals, but allowed Marceau to avail himself of the services of Kleber, and one or two others who " might be of some service to the Republic ! " Marceau at first refused the post offered him, urging his youth and inexperience. He even wrote to his sister Emira and to the Conventionnel, Sergent, asking them to beg of the Committee to remove him from the command, which he had virtually been filling since the retreat to Rennes. What most affected Marceau, as brave as he was humane, was the terrible nature of this war. To a friend he once said : " Whenever I awake from sleep and think of the horrors of La Vendee, I am almost maddened by the awful recollections that arise, and there is then no more sleep for me." Another objection that weighed heavily with Marceau was, that he would supersede many whom he knew to be more deserving of the command. His young and generous soul cried out against the injustice done to these men, and especially to Kleber. " What," he urged, " is my courage when compared to his ! " His scruples were at length overcome by the representatives pointing out to him that Kleber would be always near him and would virtually direct the operations. " Well, then, let it be so," said Marceau, grasping 144 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the hand of his friend, " in accepting the title I will leave to you the actual command and the measures necessary to insure the safety of the army. As for me, I will bear the vexations and the responsibility, and my only wish will be to be allowed to lead the advance-guard in the hour of danger." " Be easy in your mind, my friend," replied Kleber, " we will fight together, and we will be guillotined together ! " What a picture of the revolutionary era we have here ! Two noble, unselfish souls linked together, thrusting aside all other issues and interests save those only that concerned the welfare of their Republic, eager to lead her armies to victory, even though the sword of hatred and jealousy were held thereby in suspense over their devoted lives ! It is both curious and sad to read to-day how the incapable boaster, Rossignol, deprived of his command, depicted these same two men in his report to Bourbotte, the Minister of War, and the Committee of Public Safety : " You wish to know," he wrote, " what I think of Marceau ? He is a petty intriguer, mixed up with the Mayen^ais clique, whose ambition and self-love will one day be their ruin. I have followed his career and studied him closely enough to be able to form, with my great good sense, a just estimate of his worth. He was the friend and the neighbour of that scoundrel Petion .... he has moreover served in the ci-devant Germanic legion, whose principles were more than suspected. The obser- vations of Representative Prieur, who is here, tally LA VENDEE. I45 with mine. In a word, I am compelled to say that Marceau is a source of anxiety to the patriots, whose society, moreover, he shuns. As for Kl^ber, during the last week he has been self-absorbed. He has nothing to say to the council now. . . . He is a good soldier, but he makes a trade of war, and he serves the Republic as he would serve a despot." Similar charges were made in secret against other generals, and the soldier was placed in opposition to his officers. " The soldiers are all good men, but their chiefs are worthless," runs the report, " and it is in the name of the country that I invite you to remedy these defects." Many of the representatives followed the example of Rossignol, and, " in the name of the country," laid serious accusations against Kleber and Marceau, who replied to these calumnies with their accus- tomed dignity, restraint, and pride. " In this manner were treated those great men,, who laboured night and day to preserve the unity of their country. As a reward, they were obliged to defend their lives at once against the Vendeans and against the scaffold ! " CHAPTER IV. Battles of Le Mans and Savenay — The War of La Vendee brought to a close — Triiitnph at Nantes — The sans-culotte General Turreau assiimes the command — His treatment of Marceau — Illness and leave of absence. FOILED in their endeavour to open a passage by the bridges of Ce, and finding any attempt to repass the Loire at Saumur and Tours hopeless, because of the measures taken by Marceau, the Vendeans now realized their desperate situation. In their extremity the firmness of La Rochejaque- lein once more came to their aid, and it was re- solved to alter the destination of the army, and move by La Fleche upon Le Mans, where the co- operation of the Royalists of Maine might reason- ably be expected. The retreat began by Bauge and the castle of Jarze, Westermann, supported by Marceau, follow- ing close on the heels of the numerous Vendean rear-guard, commanded by the brave Piron, Arrived at La Fleche on the 9th December, the Vendeans found the bridge over the Loir destroyed, and a force of 4,000 men lining the opposite bank, pre- pared to defend the passage. Leaving the rear- guard to stand firm against Westermann, and taking LA VENDUE. 147 300 horsemen, with 300 more infantry mounted be- hind them, with him. La Rochejaquelein forded the river higher up at Sainte-Colombe, and appeared suddenly before the town at dusk. The blues, surprised and taken in rear, fled, panic-stricken, by the road to Le Mans. La Rochejaquelein repaired the bridge and threw himself on Westermann with 3,000 men, driving him back with great loss on to Muller's division, sent to support him. This glorious success astonished the Republicans, and well it might, for had not Marceau arrived with the Cher- bourg division, the events before Dol would have been repeated. On the loth December, at daybreak, the white army evacuated La Fleche, and La Rochejaquelein appeared the same evening before Le Mans, which he occupied after a severe action with its garrison. The Republican divisions, the designs of the enemy being unknown, had been scattered in all directions. On arrival within five miles of Laval, Marceau had divided his army into three columns, to which he gave the routes of Vendome, Tours, and Angers respectively, to march concentrically on the bridge of Pontlieu, outside Le Mans. Mliller, preceded by Westermann, commanded the left, Kleber the right, towards the Loire, and Tilly the centre. On the nth December Marceau wrote from La Fleche to the Minister of War, detailing the steps taken to follow up the enemy and to prevent it from crossing the Loire into La Vendee. " From these details," the letter continues, "you will see, citizen-minister, that we have adopted a system of 148 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. warfare in which foresight plays a part equally with force, and which must inevitably lead to the ruin of the robbers, at the same time that it does not expose us to the danger of a great reverse. . . . Under this system the cavalry is incessantly in motion, with the infantry in vigilant support. . . . The enemy has taken the direction of Le Mans. They are being actively pursued. To-morrow the entire army will take up a position near Le Mans. ... If the Army of the North would only arrive in time from Alengon, the war would be finished." The first letters of Marceau as general-in-chief bear the impress of a mind still young and artless ; at the same time they are imbued with a profound sentiment of duty, and exhibit certain qualities which raise Marceau far above the mere brave or beau sabreurhe is sometimes falsely depicted to have been. The language of the letters, though often written in haste and on the field of battle, is firm, elevated, and patriotic, and always to the point, as that of despatches should invariably be. On the 1 2th December the scattered Republican divisions were united, under the orders of Marceau, at Foulletourte, previous to an advance on Le Mans. Each division had its instructions, and its allotted place in the line of advance. The end of this prolonged tragedy of civil war now drew nigh. The town of Le Mans, situated on the high road from Alengon to Tours, occupied a strategic point of some importance. It was, moreover, rich and abundant in resources. It lies on the left bank of LA VENDUE. 149 the Sarthe, above its junction with the Huisne, which runs along its southern suburbs, and protects with its strong flood the town on this side. Just beyond the bridge of the Huisne, where the roads from Tours and La Fleche unite, is the village of Pontlieu, the approaches to which are protected by- heights flanked by pine-woods. The great road from Paris to Angers passes by to the south-east, within a league of the town. The exhausted Catholic army, mustering only 12,000 fighting men, was in no condition to resist the formidable columns now converging on Le Mans, and yet their defence of the town was stub- born and heroic. They had taken up a strong position facing the roads by which the Republican army must advance. The streets of Le Mans were cut up and barricaded. The bridge over the Huisne was covered by artillery and protected by a line of intrenchments, while, on the right of the heights before Pontlieu, La Rochejaquelein had placed the bravest of his troops, under Stofflet, in ambush in the pine-woods, between the Sarthe and the road from La Fleche. Informed, on the morning of the 12th, that the Republican columns were moving on Le Mans by the roads from Tours and Angers, La Roche- jaquelein sounded the assembly, and at once marched against the enemy. Westermann was overthrown at the first shock, and fell back on Muller's division. Supported by Miiller, he again advanced on the height before Pontlieu. Taken in flank, and vigorously charged in front, these generals I50 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. were soon repulsed with loss. Muller's division disbanded, and, with the exception of some bat- talions, fled back as far as Foulletourte. Marceau, hearing at Foulletourte of the defeat of Westermann and Muller before Le Mans, at once set out to join them. At Armage he overtook the Cherbourg division commanded by Tilly, and arrived with it in time to avert a disaster. The division of Cherbourg, with the grenadiers of Armagnac in front, advanced boldly, eager to measure their strength for the first time with the enemy. Marceau hastened to commence the com- bat, and himself directed all the movements. The sight of him passing along the ranks inspired all with confidence, for his valour, especially since Dol, was known to the whole army. " I will fight," he is reported to have said to his soldiers at Rennes, " if I have only thirty men at my back." The Vendeans had advanced along the road, but, with the aid of the Cherbourg division, the re- mainder of Muller's division, and a few brave Mayengais, Marceau, after some severe fighting, drove them back to their original position on the Huisne. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the Ven- deans being thrown into confusion on the left, Stofflet's division was isolated, and obliged to abandon the pine-woods on the right. Such was the impetus and directness of Marceau's attack, with Westermann leading the way, that many of the Vendeans abandoned the intrenchments and entered Le Mans in great disorder, the remainder being rallied with difificulty before Pontlieu by the LA VENDUE. 151 exertions and authority of La Rochejaquelein and Stofflet. Night was now approaching, and Marceau ordered Westermann and Tilly to halt and take up a defen- sive position in front of Pontlieu, and await the arrival of Kleber, thus deferring the attack on Le Mans itself until the next day. Marceau, at the same time, handed to Westermann a letter from the Conventionnel Bourbotte, reproaching him for having compromised the army by his im- prudent audacity, and warning him, if he valued his head, not to engage the enemy again, but to confine himself to his reconnoitring duties. After reading the letter, Westermann said to Marceau : " The best position, in spite of the threats of Bourbotte, is in the town itself. Let us make the most of our good fortune." " You play for high stakes, my brave" replied Marceau, grasping Westermann's hand ; " but never mind, advance, and I will support you." Marceau immediately ordered the Cherbourg division to support Westermann, and the attack on Le Mans was begun. It is 5 o'clock and the sun has set. Wester- mann, followed by the grenadiers of Armagnat, advances on Le Mans in perfect silence. While the cavalry swim or ford the Huisne, the advance- guard of the Cherbourg division forces all the intrenchments which mask the approaches to the bridge, and form up in line of battle in the alleys of Pontlieu. The charge is now sounded, and with 152 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. a rush the bridge and its defences are carried, and the RoyaHsts in full flight. They then fight at the entrance of the town, until at length the Vendean general, his officers and soldiers, renouncing all hope, suffer themselves to be carried along in the rout, which had been long begun. Marceau advanced his troops steadily through the town ; but half-way up the streets he was met by a murderous fire that checked even the auda- cious Armagnacs. La Rochejaquelein had estab- lished batteries down all the avenues emerging from the Grande Place, and had placed sharpshooters in the adjoining houses, and his formidable dis- positions effectually prevented any further progress. At 9 p.m., Marceau, without ceasing his fire, called a halt. His intention was to surround the town so as to prevent the escape of the enemy towards the Loire, and at the same time to protect his right flank, which was in danger of being cir- cumvented by the Vendeans. He despatched a column to take possession of the road from Paris on his right, moved up the guns taken from the Vendeans in front, in support of Westermann, and lined with infantry all the streets abutting on the great square, now become the headquarters and the last rallying-point of the Vendean army. It was a wild night and bitterly cold. A terrible fusillade, broken only by discharges of artillery, was kept up on both sides in spite of the darkness that enveloped all. Each side maintained its ground. Uncertain of the enemy, and unacquainted with LA VEND£E. 153 Le Mans and its surroundings, Marceau had already sent for assistance to Kleber and to the representa- tives, pointing out his precarious position. Prieur and Bourbotte replied, " We received your letter on the way. Troops are hurrying forward to your succour. Hold fast, and we shall be with you." Kleber had responded to his friend's appeal since midnight, and was hastening forward in spite of fatigue and bad roads. On receipt of Marceau's letter, Kleber, turning to his aide-de-camp, Savary, remarked : " Marceau is young. He has made a mistake and must be made to feel it, but we must hasten to help him out of his difficulty." The risk incurred by Marceau before Le Mans has been exaggerated. His position there, of the true nature of which Kleber was ignorant, with the Sarthe on his left, and the road to Paris secured on his right, it would have been impossible for the enemy to have turned, and Kleber should have known that it was the duty of the main body to support what was after all only a strong advance- guard, in action, rather than to expect the latter to fall back on the former. But the victory was already won. Confusion had spread among the Vendean ranks, and the streets were blocked with their dead bodies and with aban- doned vehicles and wounded horses. La Roche- jaquelein and the chiefs realized that the battle was lost, and thought only of the means of retreat. Meanwhile the fight in» the streets continues. A handful of Vendeans, devoted to death, serve the batteries and mow down the ranks of the patriots. 154 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. At length, after midnight, both sides are wearied out, the firing ceases, and each is content to watch the other until daybreak. Kleber arrived before dawn with the first division, and Marceau's first care was to relieve by fresh troops those of Tilly and Westermann, utterly worn out after their six hours of incessant combat with the foe. With the exception of a few thousand men who still manned the guns or occupied the houses in the principal square and its outlets, the Vendeans had already evacuated the town during the night. At 7 o'clock the charge was once more sounded, and the attack renewed at all points. A bayonet charge followed. Nothing could resist this supreme effort of the Republicans, and the mighty crowd of Ven- deans was forced out of the town and took to head- long flight along the road to Laval. In vain La Rochejaquelein assembled 1,500 men to check the advance of Marceau's victorious columns. He was wounded, overthrown, and borne along the tide of terrified fugitives. Eight hundred brave men alone maintained their ground to the very last, and were cut down almost to a man by Westermann and his hussars, who carried on the pursuit ten miles along the road to Laval. At 8 o'clock in the morning the battle ceased, and the butchery began. It was no longer a struggle, but a bloody orgie, in which the Republican soldiers, urged on by the representatives of the people, lost all self-control, and defied all the efforts of their generals to restrain them. " Ten thousand soldiers, and an equal number of LA VENDEE. 155 women and children," says Alison, whose account is perhaps a little exaggerated, " perished under those relentless swords . . . youth, grace, rank, and beauty were alike disregarded ; and the vast crowd which had flocked together to avoid destruction, perished under the incessant discharges of grape- shot, or the platoons of the musketry, under the eyes of the Commissioners of the Convention." Marceau and K16ber, groaning in spirit at the sight they saw, set themselves in vain to oppose this outrageous abuse of victory, deliberately advised and carried out by some of the sans-culotte repre- sentatives, accustomed to the shambles of Paris. At length, to stop the massacre and pillage, Marceau caused the assembly to be sounded, and marched all the soldiers he could recall to their standards out of Le Mans, and thus diminished, if he did not altogether dissipate, the chaos and the awful discord of horrors that had prevailed within the town. According to an eye-witness, Marceau and Kleber rode through the scene of desolation profoundly moved and bathed in tears, rescuing individually many women and children from the hands of the brutal soldiery. Among those rescued from death by Marceau, alas ! for a few days only, was the young and beautiful Vendean, Angelique des Mes- liers, " whose touching history," writes M. Parfait, " has been so often reproduced, and under such a variety of forms. Romance and the stage, the painter and the engraver, have each in their own way made it their own, not, however, without distorting some of the facts." We leave the consideration of 156 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. this, one of the most interesting and widely-known incidents in the life of the young Republican general, to the pages of another chapter. The subject, though in itself so tragic, and arising out of the capture of Le Mans and the subsequent massacre, demands that we should deal with it apart from the noise of battle and from the incense of holo- causts of victims of an indiscriminate and needless slaughter. Before leaving Le Mans, Marceau despatched a letter to the Minister of War, giving an account of the battle.^ From Laval, two days later, he sent a second despatch on the same subject.' Both letters are marked by a simplicity and modesty characteristic of the writer, and should be read for an unvarnished and straightforward summary of the events before Le Mans. In the second letter Mar- ceau mentions " the horrible butchery " that ensued, and even Westermann, in his Memoirs, has ex- pressed himself in similar terms. It is necessary to mention this because the massacre has been denied by more than one authority, including even Savary, the chief of Marceau's staff, and at that time acting as aide-de-camp to Kleber. As for the victory of Le Mans, its crushing effect on the Vendeans cannot easily be exaggerated. " The defeat of Le Mans," says Madame de Lescure, who was present, and witnessed the battle in the streets, and shared in the disastrous retreat, " cost the lives of more than 15,000 men. It was not in ^ See Appendix, No. I. - See Appendix, No. II. •LA VENDUE. 157 the battle the greatest number died ; many were crushed to death in the streets ; others, wounded and sick, remained in the houses and were massacred. Some died in the ditches and in the fields, or on the roadside. A number reached Alengon, where they were taken, and conducted to the scaffold." And again : " Such was the deplor- able defeat of Le Mans, in which the Vendean army received its death-blow." Such of the Royalists as escaped from Le Mans re-assembled at Laval under La Rochejaquelein, and then, marching night and day, arrived at Ancenis on the 1 6th December, when they again attempted the passage of the Loire. Owing to the precautions taken by Marceau to protect both banks of the river, they were again foiled in their endeavour. La Rochejaquelein with a few soldiers crossed over to the left bank to seize some boats which lay there loaded with hay. While employed in clearing the boats he was attacked by a Republican patrol and compelled to take refuge in the neighbouring woods ; at the same time a gun- boat came up before Ancenis and sank all the rafts that had been made and floated by the Vendeans on the right bank. Thus, at the very moment when his skill and resolution were needed most, the Ven- dean army was separated from its general and deprived of its last hope. They were now pressed by the hussars, who had arrived at Ancenis, and re- solved to retreat to Brittany through Nort and Rennes. But they knew their last hour was at at hand. " Nothing now remained but death." 158 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Marceau, as above mentioned, had taken all measures after Le Mans to prevent the enemy from crossing the river. He warned the commandants of Saumur, Angers, and Nantes, caused both banks of the Loire to be patrolled, and despatched Miiller with a strong column to Angers with orders so to dispose his troops as to effectually prevent the enemy from repassing the Loire into La Vendue. Westermann meanwhile continued the pursuit, while Marceau followed more leisurely with the main body of his army. On the 1 6th December he left Laval for Craon. Here he again wrote to the Minister of War, inform- ing him of the intentions of the enemy and the improbability of their being able to cross the river at Ancenis or elsewhere. " I expect a battle near Ancenis," he writes ; " I even think that the enemy, now at bay, will engage me in advance to protect their work (of constructing rafts to cross over to the left bank). I am preparing to give them a warm recep- tion. Whatever happens, you may trust to my doing my utmost both to retain your confidence and to insure the triumph of the cause of liberty and equality." Turreau, the general appointed in the room of L'Echelle, had now arrived at Angers ; but, for reasons to be hereafter given, he did not think fit to relieve Marceau and assume the command. On the 1 8th December Marceau advanced to Saint-Julien, beyond Chateaubriant, on the road to Ancenis. He here learnt of the enemy's failure to cross the Loire, and of their intention to make for LA VENDfiE. 159 Rennes with a final view to entering Morbihan and Lower Brittany. He, in consequence, ordered a retrograde movement to Chateaubriant to cover Rennes, and prevent the enemy from marching round his left flank by way of Nort and Derval. From Chateaubriant he wrote to the Minister of War, explaining the necessity for this movement, which the representatives were inclined to carp at. " One more victory," the letter concludes, " and there will be an end to the rebellion." He also wrote to Bonnaire, who was in command of the Army of the North, now advancing from Alen9on, and directed him to move towards Rennes, the probable destination of the Vendeans, Arrived at Nort, the Royalists found the way to Rennes blocked before them. They marched there- fore to Blain, intending to reach Morbihan by a more direct route. They were scarcely in a condi- tion to risk another battle. Despair had seized them ever since their failure to recross the Loire at Ancenis. Their army was dispersing fast. Some of the troops concealed themselves in the country, while others went up and down the banks of the river seeking a passage. Many, including 150 cavalry, surrendered themselves to a false amnesty treacherously held out to them by the Republican commissaries, and were taken to Nantes, where they were put to death by Carrier and his agents. Hardly io,ooo could be induced to follow the standards, and of these only 6,000 or 7,000 were armed. By a flank move on Derval and Blain, Marceau l6o BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. had again prevented the Vendeans from entering Morbihan. But they had taken up a strong position behind Blain, and resting on an old but strong chateau, and easily repulsed the light troops of Westermann, who, as usual, engaged the enemy without waiting for his supports. On the 2ist December Kleber arrived at Blain, and reported to Marceau that the enemy's troops were drawn up in array of battle along the river and on the heights behind the town. Marceau, whom bad roads had delayed, prepared for battle, but rain and snow came on, and, soon after, night, and all were obliged to rest on their arms. Next day, Kleber advanced in the centre, Westermann on the left, and Tilly on the right ; but the enemy had evacuated the town in the middle of the night, and had retreated, under cover of a heavy fall of snow, to Savenay, a large town situated on a height to the left of the road from Nantes to Roche-Bernard, and capable of being defended. On the 22nd December Marceau passed through Blain, and arrived before Savenay on the evening of the same day. The advance-guards of the two armies at once engaged, and a brisk cannonade was kept up on both sides. The representatives, Prieur and Turreau, seeing the advance-guards in position, were eager to bring on a general attack ; but Marceau remained firm, and continued on the defensive. A thick fog now arose, and added to the dark- ness of the night. It was bitterly cold. The snow lay like a shroud around the combatants. The dis- LA VENDUE. l6l charges of musketry and cannon continued, although each side was ignorant of the position of the other. One RepubHcan battaHon began to waver, and it needed the presence of Marceau, Kleber, and Beaupuy to restore confidence. At length the musketry fire ceased on both sides, the troops bivouacked on the field of battle, and a desultory cannonade alone broke at intervals the silence of the freezing night. On the eve of battle, Marceau received a letter from Turreau, who, as we have seen, had already arrived at Angers. Turreau reproached Marceau for not having rendered him any account of his operations, and for not awaiting his orders. With the advice of Kleber, Marceau, who was vexed and irritated, replied as follows : " I am before Savenay. To-morrow at dawn I intend to attack and destroy the enemy. If you wish to see the end of the war^ come quickly." At break of day Marceau proceeded to put into execution the purport of his reply to Turreau, by sounding the assembly, and ordering a general advance against the enemy. All his dispositions were carefully made and developed, and the march of the columns was marked by the utmost pre- cision and order, Canuel commanded the left and Kleber the right, while Marceau himself, assisted by Tilly, took charge of the centre. The battle began furiously. Marigny, at the head of the bravest Vendeans, precipitated himself three times against the division of Tilly. Fleuriot, Lyrot, Talmont, Piron, and other chiefs performed M 1 62 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. prodigies of valour. Long and with heroical reso- lution they held the immense columns brought against them in check. But all their efforts were in vain, for while Marceau and Tilly drove in their centre, Westermann, Kleber, and Beaupuy, filing over the heights behind Savenay, turned their posi- tion from the west, and Canuel was equally success- ful on the left. Fleuriot succeeded in cutting his way through the Republican columns, and gained the woods with a part of the army, the remainder with Lyrot retired into the town, now penetrated on all sides. The fight here was terrible, and did not cease until Lyrot had fallen, and the Vendeans had expended their last cartridge and cannon-shot. Marceau and Kleber, meeting in the town, and having no cavalry with them, formed a troop with the members of their staff, and charged and finally overthrew the enemy. Each division now pursued the Vendeans by a different route. But the Vendean rear-guard con- tinued to fight with unshaken bravery, protecting their retreat on the road to Guerande, where Marigny stopped his cannon in a small wood, and began a second battle, which lasted an hour, and gave the fugitives time to escape. Two hundred Vendean cavalry saved themselves in the marshes of Montoir, some 1,200 infantry surrendered, and the remainder plunged into the forest of Gavre, whence they were able to reach Morbihan and Brittany. But the greater portion had perished, after a resistance truly heroical, under the fire and LA VENDEE. 163 the swords of the Republicans. " I saw and observed them well," wrote Beaupuy to Merlin de Thionville, after examining the bodies of the slain, " I recognized in their countenances the same stern expression and invincible resolution as after Cholet and Laval. By their appearance and looks they wanted nothing of soldiers but the dress. Troops who have beaten such countrymen may well hope to conquer other nations. If I am not mistaken, this war of brigands and peasants, so much ridi- culed and despised, has been one of the severest in which the Republic has been engaged. I now feel that it will be mere child's play for us with all our other enemies." Marceau was justified in saying to the Minister of War in his despatch dated from Montoir after the battle,^ that if this battle was not the most bloody, it was the most memorable that had been fought since the commencement of hostilities. Well might Marceau say : " The war of La Ven- dee is at length over on the right bank of the Loire." The defeat of Savenay sounded the death-knoll of the Royalist cause. The Vendean army was de- stroyed and the struggle finished between Greater Vendee and the Republic. It is true that the san- guinary measures adopted, after the exit of Marceau from the scene, the infernal columns of his successor, Turreau, and the noyades of Carrier perpetuated a guerilla war which long consumed the vitals and paralysed the forces of the Republic ; but henceforth the civil strife in the West of France assumes a ^ See Appendix, No. III. 164 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. different aspect, and the safety and existence of the new repubHc are insured and never more in doubt or danger. To Marceau and the generals who seconded his efforts is due the merit of this achievement. Their great mihtary talents, once left unshackled, speedily brought to a close an insurrection that had cost France so much of her precious life-blood, and the desolation of what had once been her happiest rural provinces. While these generals broke the power of La Vendee in 1793, it was left to Hoche, who resembled Marceau so closely in many of the noblest traits of his character and genius, to complete three years later the pacification of the country and to proclaim to its inhabitants in ever-resounding words : " Peasants, return to your cottages ! we will respect your priests. Go, and pray to your God in peace !" The National Convention declared in its decrees that the Army of the West had deserved well of the country. It is doubtful whether posterity will altogether ratify this decree. The Republican army had outrageously abused its victories. " This," says the impartial Beauchamp, " may be ascribed to the evil times, and the ferocity of those whose courage consisted in massacring the disarmed and suppliant foe. But how are we to distinguish the innocent from the guilty ? On the other hand, who would dare to rise up in judgment against such men as Marceau and K16ber, whose memory even envy and party malice have learned to respect. These men must have groaned in spirit over the revolting excesses LA VENDUE. 165 they witnessed, without reaping any advantage from their numerous successes. The authority of the generals did not in fact extend at that period beyond the boundaries of their own mihtary camps." The active struggle over, Marceau established temporary cantonments throughout the seat of the late war. He so arranged the garrisons that while both banks of the Loire were protected, an impene- trable barrier was raised between Greater and Lesser La Vendee, between the North and the South. Lastly, he sent Tilly's division to Haxo, who had asked for reinforcements, to aid in the reconquest of the island of Noirmoutiers. The troops that had taken part in the war, though in excellent spirits and now in a high state of disci- pline, were much in need of rest. Disease, exposure, and forced marches, had thinned their ranks. Of the 15,000 soldiers comprised in the Army of the West one half filled the hospitals, while a greater portion of the remainder were rendered unfit for service through skin and other diseases. After the battle of Savenay a portion of the army of the Republic entered Nantes in triumph. The people went out to meet the generals with crowns and garlands in their hands. The town was illu- minated, and a splendid fete organized, at which Marceau and his generals were presented with civic crowns and congratulatory addresses, and hailed as saviours of the Republic, much to the disgust of Turreau and other representatives who were like- wise present. At length, on the 26th December, the sans-culotte 1 66 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. general Turreau took over the command of the Army of the West from Marceau. The next day the two generals met at the house of Representative Carrier, and a lively scene ensued. Marceau, who was not likely to forget an injury easily, demanded an explanation of Turreau's conduct towards him and for the letters he had thought fit to write to him and concerning him. Turreau replied that an officer of the army should respect his general-in-chief. " It was your duty then," retorted Marceau, "to have come and performed your part as such in the pre- sence of the enemy. A brave man would have hastened to join us ; you concealed yourself during the days of danger. You must understand that up to the time you asked me to hand over the charge to you we remained equals." Here ended the inter- view, but it was not without its consequences to Marceau. In Turreau, in fact, both Marceau and Kleber found an enemy more dangerous than Rossignol, because more vain, ambitious, and imperious. He at once disarranged all Marceau's plans for the safety and pacification of the country, and forbad Tilly to co-operate in the attack on Noirmoutiers. He followed up these acts, whose only consequence was the creation of a new war in La Vendee, by writing a series of false reports to the Committee of Public Safety against both Marceau and Kleber. His first act on assuming command had been to order these two generals to Chateaubriant, where they were placed in charge of a mere handful of troops, and continually harassed by petty and vexa- LA VENDUE. 167 tious orders. On one occasion Marceau received an order from Turreau's headquarters to levy con- tributions in and around Chateaubriant. Marceau returned the first order with a note that it had been probably sent to him by mistake. But the order was repeated with significant threats in case of dis- obedience. To this Marceau sent the following reply, which put a stop once for all to Turreau's hectoring ; " The order of the Committee of Public Safety does not apply to me. During my tenure of office as commandant and throughout the period of war I have never levied contributions. The responsi- bility, of which you so frequently make mention, has nothing alarming about it for those who, in their desire to do their duty, devote all their time to it and keep an upright heart. I am one of this number, and, as there is nothing you can reproach me for, I have in consequence nothing to fear." Brief but brave words that portray for us a fear- less young spirit, bold and self-reliant because of the consciousness of its own purity of purpose, and of a life consecrated to duty. The two friends, Marceau and Kleber, though in exile, enjoyed the repose at Chateaubriant, and spent many happy hours together. It was at Chateau- briant also that Marceau received from the Council- General of his native city a copy of the record of its proceedings, thanking him for having saved the department of the Eure-et-Loir from a Vendean invasion, and recognizing his zeal and valour at the head of the two Republican armies. This acknow- 1 68 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. ledgment by his fellow-citizens of his services must have been very dear to Marceau, and counter- balanced, if possible, the neglect they had met with from other quarters, not to mention the infamous accusations of insubordination and lukewarmness in the cause of the Republic brought against him in secret by his enemy Turreau. Through the exertions of Kleber, backed by the certificates of doctors and surgeons, Marceau, after some spiteful opposition on the part of Turreau, obtained leave of absence from the army. For two days he was at death's door, and his condition caused the greatest anxiety to his friend Kleber, who nursed him through his illness. Marceau was relieved of his duties by Kleber, and on the 19th January, being even then far from convalescent, he left Chateaubriant for Rennes. From that day his connection both with the Army of the West and with Greater and Lesser La Vendee virtually ceases, and he returns to these scenes of civil strife no more. CHAPTER V. Angeliqtie des Mesliers — Marcemi at Rennes — Agathe Lcpretre. WE have now to deal with one of the most interesting episodes in the life of Marceau, reference to which has been briefly made in the foregoing chapter, his efforts, namely, to save from death a young Vendeenne, after the defeat of Le Mans. " It was at Le Mans," says Chardon, " that the friend and rival of Kleber, he who was to fall ere long at Altenkirchen, young in years, but old in glory, saved Angelique des Mesliers on that bloody day, the 13th December, 1793." There was, and may still be, in the museum of Le Mans, a picture representing the defeat of the Vendeans. The principal group in the centre con- sists of Marceau and his staff saving the fair Royalist in the Place des Halles. All around the group is the havoc and confusion of war. Angelique des Mesliers and her saviour stand out in full relief from the chaos that environs them. She is kneel- ing, pale, scared, her fair hair dishevelled ; with outstretched arms she implores Marceau, who has arrived before her at the head of some chasseurs a I/O BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. cheval, to save her from the ruffianly soldiers. Marceau wears the elegant costume of a colonel of hussars, which sets off his tall and elegant figure. In the heat of the battle he has lost his shako. With one hand he reins in his steed, the other is stretched out to shield the fair young fugitive before him. We have in this picture the romantic aspect of this episode, an aspect so often reproduced in drama and story, and popularly accepted. But, in truth, there is very little in the facts themselves of the nature of the romance we ordinarily love to weave. The story of Angelique des Mesliers is more piteous in its moving woe than that of Cor- delia, more solemn, in the lesson it teaches us, than that of Antigone. For her fate illustrates the fate of thousands of her sisters at this period ; it is an epitome of the cruel war of La Vendue. It was on his departure on horseback from Le Mans on the afternoon of the 13th December, that Marceau met Angelique in the Place des Halles, whither she had been pursued by a party of sol- diers, whose intentions we can gather from what had already been enacted in Le Mans since the defeat of the Vendeans. Marceau rescued her from the soldiers and sent her in charge of two grenadiers to the chief of his staff, Adjutant-General Savary, who had not yet left the temporary headquarters of the army. Savary questioned the prisoner and learnt her name, and that she was from Montfaugon, in the bocage of La Vendee. She further explained that she had been separated from her parents and LA VEND£E. 171 brother in the confusion of the battle, and feared they had all perished. She did not wish, she said, to survive them, and begged that she might at once be led out and shot. Savary reasoned with the young girl, and succeeded in calming and reas- suring her. As he was himself about to leave the town, he placed the fugitive in Marceau's cabriolet, the only vehicle ready at hand at the time. In this she was conveyed, suitably escorted, to Varges, and the next day to Laval. At Laval, Savary found her a safe hiding-place, first with a woman who faithfully attended to all her wants, and next with an old c\ir6, who lived in a secluded locality outside the town. To each, then, is due the praise for this generous act of pity. To Marceau, for having first saved the life and protected the honour of Angelique at a most critical moment ; to Savary, for having taken all measures necessary for her further safety. That Angelique herself looked upon Marceau as the principal instrument of her salvation is proved by the fact that to him alone she addressed her expressions of gratitude, if not of love. In a letter to her mother, which we shall quote later, she dis- tinctly names Marceau as her saviour, and in her last moments, as we shall see, she still thinks of him alone, and is anxious he should know by some outward token that she was grateful to him to the very end. If anything were wanting to convince us of the part played by Marceau in this tragedy, the follow- ing note, written in his own rapid handwriting, and 1/2 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. preserved among the archives of Laval, would suffice to fill the gap and remove our doubts : " Citizeness des MesHers," runs the document, " a native of Nantes, but residing usually at Mont- faugon (in the department of the Maine-et-Loire), having declared to us that her mother had compelled her to accompany her with the army of rebels and afterwards in their passage of the Loire, now sur- renders herself to us, and abandons the rebel army, and wishes henceforth to live as a good citizen. She asks for the present certificate to insure her safety. I affirm that the citizeness above-named came and surrendered herself of her own accord at my headquarters on the 22nd of the month Fri- maire, in the 2nd year of the Republic." The 22nd Frimaire of that year corresponds to the 1 2th December, 1793, that is, the voluntary surrender, in itself a generous fiction, is antedated and made to appear by a pious fraud, which only shows the ingenious humanity of the young general, as though it had taken place on the eve instead of, as we know, on the afternoon of the battle, and after the defeat of the Vendeans. " The perusal of these lines," says M. Henri Chardon, " makes us admire all the more the nobility of Marceau's soul." And here we must recall for a moment the in- fluence of that sister to whom Marceau owed so great a debt of nature. For, this act of humanity is traceable to that influence, however remote. In writing an account of the rescue and of his victory to Emira, Marceau has himself recorded as follows : LA VENDEE. 173 " At that moment it occurred to me that she was of your sex, and I thought that perhaps she too had a brother who loved her ! " After his arrival at Laval, Marceau, pre-occupied with the care of his army, had forgotten all about his prisoner. On being reminded of her, he at once paid her a visit in her place of refuge in company with Kleber. He then noticed, as he subsequently told his brother-in-law Sergent, that she was in the spring-time of her life, and wondrously beautiful. Her language, her manners, and her timid modesty, all betokened that she belonged to a family, the male members of which must have held high rank in the Vendean army. Kleber, too, has thus described Angelique in his memoirs : " Never have I seen a woman more beauti- ful and more shapely, and in every respect more interesting. She was scarcely eighteen years of age." On the 1 6th December Marceau left Laval in pursuit of the remnant of the Vendean army. He never saw Angelique des Mesliers again. Before we describe the circumstances of her martyrdom we must attempt to answer a question which has often been asked. Was there any love between these two young creatures, between the youthful, humane, and victorious general of the Re- public and the beautiful Royalist of tender years and noble birth ? We have positively nothing to prove that the feelings of Marceau towards the woman he had rescued ever deepened from sympathy and pity 174 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. into love. All we know is that he shed bitter tears of regret when he first learnt that, after all, he had failed to save her. The memory of her fate sad- dened the remainder of his life, and whenever the incident was afterwards referred to in his presence and hearing he was strongly agitated and often moved to tears. The case of Angelique is different, and it is more than probable that, with her, gratitude rose to affection, and friendship ripened into love. " It is quite credible," says M. Chardon, " if we recall the appearance of Marceau at this period as he has been represented to us in the engravings of Sergent and Souhait, or by the chisel of Preault. And it will be admitted that this general of twenty- four years, with his picturesque costume set off by doltnen and fluttering scarf, with his tall and upright figure, . . . his vehement nature and pure soul, and, above all, with the aureole of the protector around him, was not ill qualified to inflame with love a young and noble girl, who, moreover, had only her heart to offer in payment for the debt of gratitude she owed him." Well might she, without forgetting what she owed to her cause, love the young Repub- lican general, who knew how to be merciful to his enemies, and whose hands were pure of the blood of his prisoners. But this love, if it ever existed, remains an enigma to this day. Its mystery was promptly buried in the grave. The guillotine rudely shattered in pieces this silent betrothal of the heart. When Marceau provided an asylum and a safe- conduct for Angelique he had not reckoned on the LA VENDEE. 1 75 cunning and atrocious cruelty of the Revolutionary Committee, or of the Military Commission set up in Laval by Commissaries Prieur and Turreau the day after his departure from Laval. The inhabitants of Laval were ordered, under pain of death, to report all strangers living with them, and domiciliary visits were commenced to insure that the order was obeyed. Mademoiselle des Mesliers had not the good fortune to escape this quest of victims. Relying on the safe-conduct, it is probable that she did not even try to conceal herself. She was arrested on the 26th December, and at once conducted to prison. Before the Revolutionary Committee she mentioned the circumstances of her rescue, and produced Marceau's certificate. So far from availing her aught, this document and Angelique's deliverance almost proved fatal to her liberators. The Commissioners were suspicious of all the generals with the Army of the West, and Prieur and Turreau, glad of having surprised Marceau's secret, at once denounced him to the Committee for having shielded a young Vendeenne from the action of the law. Special proceedings were instituted against Marceau, Kleber, and Savary, which would have been fatal in their consequences had not Bourbotte, whose life Marceau had saved at Saumur, destroyed the papers. Both here, and afterwards at Nantes, Bourbotte showed his grati- tude to Marceau by defending him against Turreau the representative, and the still more dangerous Turreau the general. Marceau, surrounded by enemies, was fortunate in having at least one in- 1/6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. fluential friend among the representatives. Bour- botte met the generals after the battle of Savenay, and informed them of the risk they had incurred of having their lives forfeited. He did not add — for having perpetrated a humane act that the world will never fail to admire. A few days after her arrest Mademoiselle des Mesliers wrote the following letter to her aunt from her prison-house, of which, however, and of her im- minent danger, no mention is made. The unfortu- nate girl was either unconscious of the fate that awaited her, or wished to allay the anxiety of her relatives : " You must already have learnt," she writes, " that at Le Mans the Republican army gained a complete victory. I had the great misfortune to be separated from my family during the terrible con- fusion that followed our defeat. I desired death, but I have met with nothing but compassion in the midst of the Republican troops. I was saved by General Marceau, who treated me most humanely. I have also cause to be proud of his kindness and his generosity. He brought me to Laval, where, however, in spite of his precautions to shield me from all danger, I was arrested, and have been now three days under detention. ... I can only ascribe my safety to my youth, which the kind general who protected me knew how to respect." On the morning of the 22nd January, 1794, Angelique des Mesliers appeared before the Revolu- tionary Committee of Mayenne, together with seven other Vendeans, of whom three were matrons and LA VENDUE. 177 four young girls, one of these being barely fifteen years of age. The charge held to be established against them, on their own alleged confessions, was that they had constantly joined their lot with that of the brigands of La Vendee, had followed to all places devastated by them, and ivere in consequence the abettors and accomplices of all the murder and pillage committed by them ! The Committee accordingly proceeded to condemn them to suffer capital punishment, the sentence to be executed immediately, there being no appeal. Sentence was pronounced at eight o'clock. At nine o'clock on the same morning this assassmation under the forms of law was brought to its bloody close. The heads of eight unoffending women, young and old, fell under the blade of the guillotine in the Place au Ble, now named the Place du Palais. " It was thus," says M. Parfait, "that Angelique des Mesliers perished on the scaffold on the cold grey morning of a winter's day, one of a group of martyrs." Angelique is but the type of the thousands who perished at this period in the West of France, the victims of a war waged with ruthless ferocity by the so-called representatives of the people, the agents of that Revolutionary Tribunal established with a view to the summary punishment of all enemies of the Revolution. Her fate only transcends that of her sisters of La Vendee, because of the transient gleam of hope cast over it by the simple act of one N 178 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. who waged not war with women, nor dyed his hands in innocent blood. It is sad to think that Marceau and Savary, in taking Angelique out of Le Mans, were the uncon- scious cause of her death. No revolutionary tribunal was established at Le Mans. The Commune, to its eternal honour be it said, would not hear of it. Thus many, if not most, of the Vendean women, in- cluding perhaps Angelique's mother, who had re- mained behind in Le Mans, escaped death, though not in all cases imprisonment. Marceau did not hear of the fate of Angelique until after he had left the Army of the West and was recruiting his health in the midst of friends near Rennes. We have seen how, disgusted with the treatment he had received, and a victim to the base jealousy of Turreau, he had obtained leave of absence from the army. He did not, however, visit Chartres, as he had originally intended doing. He had made the acquaintance, during his several visits to Rennes, of one of the wealthiest and noblest families of Brittany, the family of Lepretre of Chateaugiron. At first he had simply been quartered on them, but was soon able to render them a service, which could not easily be forgotten, and which drew closer the bonds of a first friendship. The family consisted of the Count and Countess of Chateaugiron, two daughters, and a son, Hippolyte. Hippolyte, who was not much older than Marceau, had been travelling abroad when the flames of revolution first broke out in Paris, to spread all LA VENDfiE. 179 over France. Having returned on the first news of the event, he found himself, soon after his arrival at Rennes, watched and denounced as an emigre. It was in vain that the Count, now Citizen Lepretre interceded on his son's behalf, and recalled his own services to France ; Hippolyte was fast drifting towards the scaffold, and was only rescued from an untimely death through the intervention of Marceau. The latter, on hearing of Hippolyte's danger, sug- gested to him, in the presence of the assembled family, that he should join the Republican army as his aide-de-camp. " My friend," said Marceau, " would you be rescued from the wretches who pursue you, then come and be one of my aides-de-camp. I promise you, you will be well protected in that capacity." The offer was at once accepted, and Marceau's intimacy with the family established. On the conclusion of the campaign, Hippolyte obtained leave and returned to the chateau, where he informed his mother and sisters of Marceau's condition, and of his intention to visit Paris to con- sult a physician. The Countess at once despatched her son to Chateaubriant to beg of Marceau to be their guest, promising that he would be looked after like a second son, and his health restored by careful nursing. Marceau hastened to accept the invitation. There was already in the family of Chateaugiron one whom he would be glad to see again. This was Agathe, the eldest daughter of the Count and Countess, a l8o BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. beautiful and refined girl of seventeen or eighteen summers, a canoness of the Catholic Church, but imbued with the philosophy of Descartes, of whom her mother was a direct descendant. Sergent, Marceau's brother-in-law, who often saw Agathe Lepretre both before and after Marceau's death, has left the following description of her : " Who could fail to feel the sweet influences of love at the sight of a young girl of seventeen years, tall, well-made, and with a complexion of a dazzling whiteness ; favoured moreover with a countenance at once frank and gentle and yet animated by two large blue eyes beaming with expression and pro- claiming a soul full of tenderness ? A fine head of hair of a light flaxen colour, always loosely and simply put up, heightened her great beauty. Her hand would have offered a model to the sculptor. . . . The soft intonation of her voice and a pleasant smile, across which one saw the beautiful row of pearly-white teeth, added still further to her won- drous charm. One easily sees in such a portrait a seductive woman, but, besides being this, she was a woman of strong will, and firm and constant in all her resolutions." First impressions are deepened during absence, and Marceau had not forgotten Agathe since the day he left Rennes to the day of his return to the chateau as a guest of her family and as a patient whose sufferings she had promised to assuage. This fact alone justifies our opinion that Marceau's feel- ing for Angelique des Mesliers had not deepened into love, and that the tender emotions which her LA VENDUE. l8l position gave rise to were neither revealed nor reciprocated by him. Arrived at the Chateaugiron mansion, Marccau met Agathe daily, and their mutual love ripened and grew. But they were slow to make known their feelings to each other, and the refined modesty of Marceau would perhaps have kept his secret locked in his heart until he had left Rennes, had it not been that the Countess herself, Agathe's mother, broke the barrier between her daughter and the young general. The Countess of Chateaugiron was a woman of considerable spirit and independence of character, and a descendant, as before mentioned, of the illus- trious Rene Descartes. Though she had married a feudal noble who was a Royalist to the core, she had enough of that philosopher's teaching embedded in her expansive mind to welcome the Revolution, and to attach herself to the Republic, cost what it might to her class and family. This sagacious woman was not slow in detecting and interpreting the relations, however unexpressed, that existed between Marceau and Agathe, and she proceeded to reveal the two young souls to one another. She admitted of no barrier between noble and bourgeois, and the union with the Republican general was altogether in accord with her wishes and her opinions. Besides, she was really attached to Marceau. On one occasion, being with her daughters by Marceau's bedside, she exclaimed : " How proud should not the mother be who has brought into the world such a son !" This was sufficient encourarement for l82 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Mademoiselle Agathe to confide her sentiments to her mother, and she must have congratulated herself on the result, on learning that her mother approved of them and was her best friend and ally. The betrothal was for the present kept a secret from the Count on the plea that he was pre-occupied repairing his ruined chateau of La Mothe. His pre- judices it was hoped would be overcome when he was made to realize how deeply the family was indebted to General Marceau, and that in the book of true nobility every hero ranks as a noble. Thus it was that Marceau at last found the happiness that had been hitherto wanting in his life, and the emotions of love contributed, with the careful nurs- ing by tender hands, both to improve his health and raise his spirits. He had written to his sister Emira, informing her that he had postponed his departure for Chartres and was now at Rennes, where he was being well looked after, and he hoped she would come and see him there. Emira and Sergent had already written congratu- lating Marceau on his victories at Le Mans and Savenay. In his letter to Emira, inviting her to visit him at Rennes, he replies to these felicitations as follows : " What, my dear sister, do you congratulate me on these two battles, or rather these two massacres ! And do you really wish to have a leaf from my laurels ! Do you not know that they are stained and soiled with human blood, with the blood, moreover, of our fellow countrymen ? I shall not return to La LA VENDEE. 1 83 Vendee ; it is painful to me to have to fight against Frenchmen. I will remain in the West no longer. I wish to take up arms against a foreign foe ; in this only is honour and glory. I am asking for a post on the frontier, and I hope that my friends will assist me in obtaining it." Emira accepted the invitation, and arrived post- haste at the chateau, where she was welcomed by all the members of the Lepretre family. It was after her arrival, and during the revelation of Marceau's new-born love, that he heard of the death of Angelique des Mesliers. One day, as Emira was seated at Marceau's bed- side with the Countess and her two daughters, a courier arrived, who delivered to Marceau a small sealed packet. " Who has sent this to me?" asked Marceau. " General, I received it from the executioner of Nantes," was the reply, " whence I have come direct, with the order to deliver it to nobody but you, and to take back a receipt." At the mention of the word executioner, Marceau recoiled with horror, and refused to accept the packet, saying : " I have nothing to do with any executioner." The Countess, her daughters, and Emira, their curiosity aroused, pressed him to open the packet. They expected something strange and mysterious that quelled for the time their repugnance. But Marceau continued to hold out, until they repre- sented to him that it may be some unfortunate who claimed his protection. 1 84 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. He submitted to their entreaties, and received the sinister packet from the courier, and unfastened it. Enclosed in many folds of paper was a plain gold watch. With the watch was a note, which explained as follows : " In removing from prison to the place of execution a young Vendean girl (brought here for trial from Le Mans), she handed me this small watch, concealed up till then in her bosom, and said to me : ' Promise me, in the name of God, to have this sent to General Marceau, wherever he may be, the only proof I can give him of my gratitude.' I promised I would do this, and I have fulfilled my duty." The letter was signed by the executioner of Laval, by whom it had been sent to the executioner of Nantes, who had now forwarded it to Marceau. On learning the nature of the legacy, and the fate of Angelique des Mesliers, Marceau cried out, as if in the agony of his soul : " Poor unhappy child, I promised her she should live !" The letter fell from his hands, the tears ran down his cheeks, and he remained speechless, seated upright in bed, as though gazing into the past, while Emira held one hand and Agathe the other. This scene, which could only have enhanced the love of Agathe for one who displayed so much nobility of soul, took place at the end of January, 1794. It may be taken as the truest and most probable version of the story as to when and where Marceau first heard of Angelique's fate. All other accounts are fictions of the imagination with no foundation in fact. LA VENDfiE. 185 Marceau had not mentioned his engagement to his sister Emira. The discovery both surprised and hurt her, for her brother had never failed to consult her in all important matters connected with his troubled life. She saw at once that his pretended recovery to health was only the temporary rallying of a naturally strong constitution, due to the in- fluence of new sensations, and that her brother was still dangerously ill. She determined therefore upon removing him to Paris in order to consult proper physicians, and if possible to efface the memory of the Royalist's daughter, union with whom was incon- gruous in the eyes of a Republican and the wife of a member of the National Convention. But Marceau and Agathe, through the mediation of the Countess, continued to write to each other frequently, and neither time nor the non-realization of their vows was able to sever the connection be- tween them. It was left, not to Emira, nor to Monsieur Lepretre, but to the hand of death to accomplish this. Towards the beginning of February, Marceau set out with his sister Emira for Chartres, where they intended to halt a few days before proceeding to Paris. " Marceau and his hosts," writes M. Parfait, " parted on the best of terms, each filled with hope. Kleber came to appoint a rendezvous on the northern frontiers, that is, with the Army of the Ardennes. The traveller Hippolyte gallantly promised to pay Emira an early visit in Paris. And Marceau, de- lighted and enchanted, carried away with him the love of the beautiful Agathe de Chateaugiron, the 1 86 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. canoness of Maubcuge, with her large eyes beaming' with intelligence and virtue." Marceau closes his so-called " Journal," with a reference to this leading event of his life. The conclusion is sad, but full of hope : " I will not speak of the events that followed my meeting with Kleber again, except that they brought us to Rennes. Here, for the first time, I experienced the full power of love. I concealed it from every- one. I should not even have had the consolation of relying on any one, had not my secret been wrested from me. The passion that consumed me gave birth to others. The first and foremost of these was the passion for glory. It was my desire to become famous by fighting the enemies of my country and so to make myself worthier of her whom I loved. I knew her virtues, and I essayed to be virtuous too. I had nothing to offer her except a large heart, my honour, and a life unspotted from the world. I would have her clothed with the world's esteem. If I have not attained my objects, if, in spite of my efforts, I am still confounded with those who were only commanders in name, it is not for want of zeal or purpose. If I have not been able to shelter my- self from calumny or to command the esteem of all, in this respect, too, grave injustice will in truth have been done to me. I await patiently the more for- tunate time when I shall begin to be better known. Perhaps those who caused my unhappiness will have occasion to regret it. My manner of life holds out to me the promise of a better fate." Such are the concluding words of Marceau's LA VENDUE. 187 memoir, or private journal, written when he was not twenty-five years of age, and of which almost the whole has now been quoted in the preceding pages. The confession was certainly not intended for the eyes of the world. It was written probably at the suggestion of the Countess of Chateaugiron after Marceau had left Rennes for Paris, and it was in- tended for the girl to whom he was now afiRanced, with a final view to its being perused by her Royalist father, as a justification of the career of the young Republican who presumed to ask for his jdaughter in marriage. " This manuscript," says Sergent, " which we now possess, was kept religiously guarded by Marceau's sweetheart, for whom he had written it. She and her mother alone knew of it." As for the young girl for whom this confession was in the first instance made, she will ever be " clothed with esteem " by all who read the biography of Marceau and the story of the lifelong love he bore her. He has fulfilled at least a portion of the task he imposed on himself. Part III. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. " The at'jny of the Sambre-and-Meuse was not one of the armies of the Republic and of the Etnpire whose successes were the most brilliant. But it was this army that initiated our long series of triumphs. In its ranks were trained the greater nu?nber of those warriors who carried our victorious standards into so many lands, and tnade glorious the na7ne of />a«<:-^."— Claude Desprez. CHAPTER I. Marceau on leave — Letters to friends — His reception in the Hall of the Convention — He joins the Army of the Ardennes — Capture of Thuin — On the Sambre and Me use — Arrival ofjourdan — Battle of Fleurus. MARCEAU spent the remainder of his leave either in Paris or at a chateau in the neigh- bouring country. Under proper medical treatment, and the vigilant care of Emira, his health improved rapidly, and he was almost cured before he was convalescent. During this period he lived in complete seclusion, avoiding whenever possible the visits of those who sought his society in the capital, and, above all, shunning politics and political personages. He was unable to revisit Chartres before proceed- ing to the frontier, as he had earnestly wished to do, but he kept up a connection with his relatives there and with the companions of his youth, by the frequent exchange of letters with them. On the 2 1st February he writes to Constantine Maugars from Paris, inquiring in affectionate terms after his friends of the Eure-et-Loir, for Constan- tine himself, for the silent Guillard, and for Madame Duchesnoy, with a kiss for pretty Modeste if she be 192 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. not unwilling ! These letters are continued through- out the ensuing campaigns, many being written on the battlefield of to-morrow or yesterday. They one and all show the affectionate regard of Marceau for his friends, and reveal a tender and gentle nature that looks for sympathy away from the scenes that form its own environment. In the letter to Maugars above mentioned occurs the following characteristic passage : " I say nothing about the temper of the public. Here, as elsewhere, it is a whirlwind to be avoided, a ray of light you must not allow to beam on you. This is the maxim I follow, and I show myself nowhere. I shun both committees and public offices, and keep to myself This I find to be the more profitable course." " This role and this language," writes M. Maze, " recall Kleber and Hoche. Such an attitude well became the generals of the Republic during those troublous times. In the interests of France we must always regret that all the colleagues of these disinterested men were not marked by the same reserve." It is recorded for us by Sergent that on one occasion at least Marceau did not succeed in avoid- ing the public gaze or " the applause of list'ning senates." Soon after his arrival in Paris, and when he was well enough to walk, Marceau paid the usual official visit, required of all high officers in the army, to the great Committee of Public Safety, the execu- tive of the National Convention. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. I93 He arrived early, dressed in the uniform of a full general, and awaited the members in the Hall of the Convention. The deputies dropped in gradually, the number of visitors increased, and soon Marceau found himself the subject of their conversation and scrutiny. All eyes were fixed on him. One member, incited thereto by the recent reverses on the frontier, stood up, and, pointing to Marceau, said : " Are you surprised that our soldiers are defeated in battle, and that the civil war is never-ending, when you see young men like that wearing the uniform of a general ! " To this a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal added : " You see now the manner of men to whom we confide the task of leading our children to slaughter, you know now why our defenders raise the cry of treason ! " These murmurs and ejaculations led to a tumult, and one member was about to bring the subject formally before the Con- vention, when Bourbotte entered the hall. " What is it all about ? " he asked. " That young officer," said the deputy, pointing: to Marceau in scorn. " What ! " said Bourbotte, turning round, and recognizing the young hero who had saved his life, " is it Marceau, my friend Marceau ! " And he ran up to him and folded him in his arms. When the crowd of deputies and lookers-on heard the name, and knew it was the general who had brought to a successful close the sanguinary war of La Vendee, they made the hall resound with their cries of " Long live Marceau ! " " Long live the Republic!" The tribunes and deputies descended O 194 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. from their seats and surrounded Marceau, and over- whelmed him with their praises and greetings. Bourdon, deputy for the Oise, who with Bouchotte had appointed Marceau generalissimo, mounted the tribune and addressed the assembly in these words : " Fellow-citizens and representatives of the people, beholdtho. valiant soldier, the fearless young Marceau, one of the glories of the French name, the con- queror of Le Mans ! Let us greet him with our plaudits, and, in order to efface the recollection of the incident that has just taken place, let us say in the words of the poet : ' To those of heroic mould, Valour is neither young nor old.' " Marceau, confused and troubled, was glad to be called away from this extempore seance to the audience with the Committee of Public Safety, where the congratulations were renewed, but not with the same embarrassing vehemence. Here he was informed that he must get well soon, as it was intended to send him to the north for service with the Army of the Ardennes. The physicians had prescribed at least six weeks for Marceau's restoration to health, and, thanks to his iron constitution, this period was not exceeded. On the 14th April, 1794, he was able to leave Paris to join the Army of the Ardennes. We have seen that the campaign of 1793 ended in the conquest of the Netherlands south of Antwerp, and the advance of the French armies on to the Rhine. In the following year the Convention THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 195 ordered a levy of 300,000 men, but before the decree could operate Dumouriez had been defeated by the Allies in the Battle of Neerwinden, and by the end of March the entire French army compelled to retire once more behind their own frontiers. This was followed by the surrender of several fortresses on the Flemish frontier, and, on the eastern frontier, by the fall of Mayence, so heroically defended by Kleber and the veterans whom we have seen anni- hilated in the war of La Vendee. This was the culminating point of the success of the Allies. Henceforth, owing to the great French levies coming forward, and the dissensions among the Allies, the armies of the Republic resume the ascendency, not to lose it again until the memorable campaign of 1799. In the latter half of the year 1793 the siege of Dunkirk is raised, Jourdan gains the decisive action of Wattignies and relieves Maubeuge, and finally, before the year expires, both in Flanders and on the Rhine, the Allies have been once more com- pelled to evacuate French territory, and the French become the invaders. Great preparations had been made by the National Convention, and France now resembled a vast camp where each one laboured for the defence of the national independence. All that was best in France had gone to the front. Under the decrees, over a million men were raised, of whom at least 700,000 were available for the frontier. This force was wielded with great genius by a central committee presided over by Deputy Carnot, who was also a member of the Committee of Public 196 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Safety, and was soon to become, in Napoleon's terse but expressive phraseology, " the organizer of victory." The French forces protecting the frontier from Dunkirk to Bale were divided into four armies, called respectively the Armies of the North, the Ardennes, the Moselle, and the Rhine. The Army of the Ardennes acted conjointly with that of the North, the two being under the supreme command of Pichegru, their operations extending from Dun- kirk to Philippeville. The Army of the Ardennes, to which Marceau had been posted, was now united in two divisions at Beaumont under Charbonnier, and formed, with three divisions of the Army of the North, under Desjardins, Pichegru's right wing. These five divi- sions faced the Allies on the Sambre and Meuse, and maintained touch with the Army of the Moselle on their right. The corps so constituted consisted of fifty or sixty thousand men, badly equipped and ill disciplined. Charbonnier and Desjardins were commanders more zealous than capable, and possessing little or no authority, their operations being controlled by the ferocious St. Just and by Lebas, both deputies from Paris. At Beaumont, Marceau, as pre-arranged, found Kl^ber, who had likewise been transferred from La Vendee. These two, with Scherer, who commanded one of the divisions, were capable of leading Pichegru's right wing to victory, but their opinions were not attended to, while the plans of the supreme generals were subordinated to the am- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. IQ/ bition and the bloodthirsty zeal of the representa- tives of the people above named. Both Kl^ber and Marceau, after their successes in La Vendee, deserved to be placed in more inde- pendent commands, or at least under more impor- tant generals. Marceau was placed at the head of one of the two advance-guards, and in this capacity- he carried out all that depended on him to sustain the honour of the Republic and its Army of the Ardennes. The Allies — that is, the left wing of the army of Prince Coburg — were established in front of Mons, and guarded both banks of the Sambre, their main body occupying an intrenched camp on the left bank between Rouvroi and Grandreng. The move- ment now prescribed by Pichegru to his right wing was to pass the Sambre and march upon Mons, at the same time to secure the Meuse between Namur and Liege, and thus cut off the enemy in the event of their retreat in that direction. The Sambre flows between well-wooded banks and elevated plateaus cut up by ravines and water- channels, and offers great difficulties to an attack- ing force. The first attempt of the passage of this river was made on the loth May. The Republicans advanced in seven columns. The two advance- guards, that of Marceau and Duhesme, both under the orders of the former, were directed against the intrenched post of Thuin, one division of the centre to support the movement. Marceau commenced the attack at 3 a.m. The enemy occupied the woods in front of the town, 198 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. where they offered a short but stubborn resistance. Expelled by Marceau's chasseurs, they shut them- selves up in the formidable redoubts encircling the town. Marceau now took possession of the heights on the right bank of the Bimele, at the junction of which with the Sambre the town of Thuin is situated. As the fire of his light guns produced but little effect, and without waiting for the support- ing division, he resolved to carry the intrenchments and redoubts, as soon as the first breach was made, by what he called in his report French revolutionary methods, that is, at the point of the bayonet. Hardy, one of his La Vendee comrades, moved forward with the chasseurs and artillery, and drove the Austrians, unaccustomed to such tactics, from the ramparts. There remained but the ancient chateau, from which bullets were showered down on the French troops until a handful of sappers scaled the walls from the rear, and made prisoners of the de- fenders. Thuin occupied, Duhesme drove the enemy across the Sambre, and, crossing the river near the abbey, occupied Lobbes after a sharp action with the retreating foe. The capture of Thuin, effected without the co- operation of the supporting division, was a brilliant achievement, and Marceau had the honour to be the first, since the fall of Landrecies, to rally victory to the Republican standards. The delegates with the army did not fail to recognize, in their reports, the brilliance as well as the importance of the victory. Marceau took up his headquarters near the farm THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 1 99 of Beaudrebut, where the enemy still maintained itself on the banks of the Sambre. He was not allowed to remain here long. It was necessary, during the move on Mons, for Desjardins to cover his right wing in the direction of Charleroi. This task was entrusted to Marceau, who on the follow- ing day passed the Sambre by the bridge near the abbey of Alnes, and occupied the heights of Lernes. He was not seriously engaged with the enemy on this day, for the attack of the Austrians was directed against the centre, where it was repulsed. The advance was continued on the 12th May, Marceau carried Fontaine-l'Eveque after several hours of severe fighting, and, the other divisions following his example, both banks of the Sambre, from Maubeuge to Marchiennes, passed into the possession of the French. But the Austrians were at this juncture strongly reinforced, and defeated, with heavy loss, the left wing of the French army at Grandreng, in its attempt to approach Mons. Marceau, who was ordered to make a demonstra- tion towards Charleroi, maintained his position after some skirmishes, but was obliged to retire when the left wing was driven back over the Sambre. He effected his retreat with precision, covering that of the divisions forming the right wing. In their retreat the French army set fire to the abbey of Lernes and to the town of Thuin, but for this act of inhumanity neither Marceau nor his troops were responsible. St. Just, impatient under defeat, resolved to at- tempt a second passage of the river. The generals 200 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. disapproved of the operation, but were obliged to obey this terrible pro-consul. The several columns moved forward once more, and in the same order, and for two entire days the advance-guards of the opposing armies engaged each other all along the line. The French maintained their position on the right and in the centre ; at Erquelinnes on the left, however, they suffered a severe defeat, and their army remained exposed and in a perilous plight, with its back to the Sambre. On the 24th May Marceau and Kleber were ordered to advance towards Frasnes, to make a grand foray in that rich district. They advanced to Anderlues, taking 15,000 men with them. The Austrian general, Kaunitz, on being informed of this weakening of the French line, attacked it forth- with, and inflicted a heavy loss on its left wing at Peissant. But for the courage and skill displayed by Kleber and Marceau, who covered the retreat of the centre and right respectively, the French army would have been annihilated on this day. As it was, the Republicans were once more driven across the Sambre with a loss of 4,000 men. In spite of his victory, Kaunitz was replaced by the Prince of Orange in the command of the Imperial forces on the Sambre and Meuse. After this defeat St. Just called a council of war at Thuin. Kleber and Marceau were present, and pointed out the disorganized state of the army. The other officers present reported that their troops were starving, ill-clad, and bare-footed. One and all advised a rest till Jourdan should come up with THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 201 40,000 men. St. Just had, however, made up his mind, and replied to these representations : " There must be a victory for the Repubhc to- morrow ; choose between a siege and a battle ! " And so a third attempt of the passage was re- solved on. Previous to the advance a new distribution of troops was made, and a new plan of attack pre- scribed. Convinced that in all the previous actions success had almost always depended on the issue of the first attack, St. Just, Charbonnier, and Desjardins formed a new advance-guard division for both armies. This consisted of nine select bat- talions of infantry and four regiments of light cavalry. The command of this division was entrusted to Marceau, who had Duhesme and D'Hautpoult under his orders as brigadiers. The plan of attack adopted was that Marceau's division, supported by Veza's, should attack the camp of La Tombe above Marchiennes-aux-Ponts, while Mayer's division turned the road from Philippeville to Charleroi, and Fromentin forced the passage of the river on the left. - Marceau's grenadiers, without food for forty- eight hours, and wearied out with a double march, refused to pass the wood in front of the position. The menaces of St. Just and the entreaties of Duhesme were all in vain ; but the soldiers responded at once to the stirring appeals of Marceau and Kleber, who now arrived on the scene. The divisions of Marceau and Veza ad- vanced and formed beyond the plains. They were 202 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. received here by a murderous fire, and taken in reverse by the enemy's batteries. But Marceau held on tenaciously, and before night-fall the enemy was compelled to evacuate the camp, leaving only enough troops to defend Marchiennes. On the 29th May, the day fixed for the passage of the Sambre, having occupied the camp of La Tombe, Marceau carried Marchiennes and forced the crossing of the river, and took up a position behind Fontaine-l'Eveque, while Fromentin occu- pied Gosselies. Veza and Mayer, after a first defeat, also succeeded in crossing the river, and encamped opposite Fleurus, their right resting on the Sambre at Chatelet. This completed the in- vestment of Charleroi, the actual siege of which was entrusted to Mayer, the other divisions form- ing an enceinte round him. Marceau's division covered the ground from Marchiennes to Fontaine- l'Eveque and Courcelles. The position of the French army was anything but a safe one. It was altogether too extended, stretching as it did from Maubeuge to Lambusart. The Prince of Orange, who had again been rein- forced, was not slow to detect this, and resolved on a general attack, with 28,000 men, on the line between Fontaine-l'Eveque and Lambusart, while with 7,000 more he broke through it at Erquelinnes. The attack was delivered on the 3rd June. On the day previous an attempt had been made on Marceau's division, but it had been successfully met by his infantry, while his cavalry had shat- tered several regiments of the Emperor's hussars. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 203 On the day of the main attack, Marceau main- tained his ground against all the efforts of Latour, who had been directed against him. He even pre- pared to take the offensive, so as to draw off the enemy from the left wing of the army, but a column, 8,000 strong, tried to turn his left, and he was obliged to withdraw his cavalry and maintain himself as best he could on the heights of Leernes and at Fontaine. " I can speak in terms of the highest praise," wrote Marceau, in his report of the day's fighting, " of the conduct of the officers and soldiers. Never was order better maintained both during the manoeuvres and on the march. Neither bullets nor shells, nor the marked superiority in numbers of the enemy, were able to compel a single man to quit the ranks." The French, meanwhile, had been compelled to raise the siege of Charleroi, and Fromentin, driven back to the Sambre from Gosselies, exposed the whole of Marceau's right flank. Alive to the danger, the latter masked his retreat in front of the wood of Monceaux, and gave time to his division to retire by Alnes and Lendely. He had nearly effected his retreat when he received orders to maintain his ground on the left bank of the river at any cost. He returned to the task without hesita- tion, and retook Leernes. The enemy now tried to turn his flanks, but he defeated all their efforts, and taking advantage of their disorder, his task being accomplished, once more made good his retreat. The troops retired in the best order. " All the 204 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. soldiers," says Marceau, in his report, "have dis- played great courage. Not a single complaint was heard, although the fight lasted from four o'clock in the morning till eight at night." The other divisions had repassed the Sambre at Marchiennes and towards the woods of Monceaux, where, fortunately, a bridge had been constructed. Thus ended the third attempt to secure the Sambre. The French lost 2,000 men on this day, but they had been more successful, and their failure was due to the large and timely reinforcements received by the Austrians, as well as to their own too extended position. But heavier blows, more decisive in their results, were now to be dealt by the army of the Republic on the Sambre and Meuse. We have seen that Carnot, at the head of a com- mittee, controlled the armies of the Republic on all the menaced frontiers. Recognizing the futility of opposing the invasion equally along the entire line, he resolved to pierce it by concentrating an over- whelming mass of troops against one or more points only. For this purpose the Sambre, between Maubeuge and Namur was selected, and Jourdan, in command of the Army of the Moselle, was directed to transfer himself with 40,000 men to Charleroi, leaving only a screen before the Prussian camps at Luxembourg. " This step," says Jomini, " was one of the cleverest and most fortunate of the early campaigns, and decided the fate of the Netherlands." Jourdan arrived before Charleroi with his advance-guard on the 3rd June, in time to see the THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 205 troops of the Republic streaming back over the Sambre, defeated in their third attempt on the river and their first against the fortress. On the day following, the bulk of his army arrived in the neighbourhood of Charleroi. The divisions of the Moselle, and the corps under Charbonnier and Desjardins were formed into a single army, to be called henceforth, and to be known to fame as the Army of the Sambre-and- Meuse. This army consisted of 91,000 men, of whom about 10,000 were detached under Scherer, to guard the Sambre between Thuin and Mau- beuge. The remainder were to lay siege to Charleroi, to act on the real line of operations and penetrate the enemy's line, and to put an end to the fluctuations of victory. It is not to be supposed that this heterogeneous mass of men came into action at once. It was essential first to amalgamate and organize the dif- ferent elements of which it was composed, to secure the hitherto neglected supplies, and to bring up the material necessary for the siege of Charleroi, an operation in which the new army was to make its first trial of strength. In all these undertakings Marceau's Vendean experience stood him in good stead, and Jourdan had frequently to acknowledge, in his orders of the day, the assistance he received both from him and from Kleber. There was, moreover, a redistribution of com- mands at this time, and Marceau was placed at the head of the two divisions of which the late Army of the Ardennes had been composed. 206 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Jourdan resolved when all was ready to recross the river, and at once invest Charleroi. This town is strongly seated on the left bank of the Sambre. Beyond it is a series of positions forming a semi- circle, the extremities of which rest on the river. These positions, under the conditions of the war- fare of those days, were scarcely advantageous, forming, as they did, too extensive an arc, and needing a larger force than Jourdan had at his dis- posal for their adequate defence. While Hatry's siege corps invested Charleroi on both banks, the bulk of the French army occupied these positions, being so disposed as to cover the operations of the siege in all directions. On the 1 2th June Jourdan successfully crossed the river. The Austrians had left only a cordon of four battalions and some cavalry to defend it, while the greater portion of their forces was concentrated at Rouvroi. The French army occupied the same position as it did on the 2nd and 3rd June, but its line was more extended. Marceau's divisions formed the right wing, and were deployed in advance of the wood of Campinaire ; they connected the French line with the Sambre, and occupied the bridge of Tamines in rear, and the posts of Baulet, Wausersee, and Valaine in front. The French centre lay about Lambusart, Fleurus, Wagne, and Gosselies, while the left wing under Kleber continued the line along the stream of the Pieton back to the Sambre. Jourdan, aware of the weakness of his position, resolved to attack at once. On the i6th June he ordered his two wings to advance, while he himself THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 20/ moved against Orange with a compact force in the centre. But the AlHes forestalled him, and met his troops close to their encampments. Orange de- livered his attack in five columns, of which four were sent against the French centre and right alone. Jourdan was received by a tremendous cannonade, which forced him to retreat to his first position. Marceau's advance-guard was driven in, and Valaine occupied. By 1 1 o'clock the fight raged all along the line with varying fortune. The disposi- tions of Kleber on the left, and of Jourdan in the centre, together with Marceau's tenacity in defend- ing the wood of Campinaire, prevented the Allies from taking advantage of their first successes. In- deed, victory was on the point of declaring itself for the French, when Beaulieu, who commanded the Austrian left, directed an overwhelming force against Lambusart and Campinaire, under protec- tion of a heavy artillery fire. The troops of Le- febvre and Championnet were driven back, and re- passed the river in great disorder, while Hatry raised the siege and followed their example. Jour- dan now ordered a general retreat, which was carried out in good order, Kleber on the left and Marceau on the right covering the entire army and preventing the enemy's pursuit. The Allies on this day lost 2,200 men, the French 3,000, but the latter had terminated the action with more honour than on previous occasions, their de- feat being due to the radical defects of their posi- tion and to the failure of their ammunition. Jourdan, with his usual tenacity of purpose, had 208 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. no sooner been driven back, than he made prepara- tions for renewing the attack. Drawing on Mau- beuge for more artillery, in which arm the enemy- had shown itself very much superior to him, he re- crossed the Sambre for the fifth time, and Charleroi was invested for the third time. Coburg, who had long hesitated, now came to the succour of his left wing, and joined it at Nivelles on the 22nd June, but, by a fatality which marked all his acts, hesitated to attack the French until the 26th. In the interval, Jourdan, convinced that the issue of the campaign depended on the immediate fall of Charleroi, spared no efforts to reduce it. The works were pushed forward with prodigious celerity and success. On the 25th June the enemy's batteries had been silenced, and all preparations made for an assault, when the Austrian general, intimidated by the threats of St. Just to put the entire garrison to the sword, surrendered at discretion. His troops marched out of Charleroi the next day with the full honours of war. It was in the midst of these interminable conflicts that Marceau received a piece of news which affected him deeply. Emira wrote from Paris to say that Hippolyte Lepretre, his aide-de-camp and friend, and the brother of his affianced wife, had been arrested on his way to the Sambre, and was now imprisoned at Luxembourg. He had been arrested under the Law of Suspects, by which anyone who, for the most trivial reason, could be suspected of disliking the new political regime^ could be thrown THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 209 into prison, and once there, as Marceau knew full well, he rarely escaped the scaffold. Marceau at once wrote to the Committee of General Security in Paris, demanding the libera- tion of his aide-de-camp. Emira also promised, through Conventionnel Sergent, to do all she could for the young man's immediate release. But Mar- ceau was impatient, and asked for leave, which it was not probable would be granted when a great battle, the battle of Fleurus, was impending. No replies were received by him from Paris in answer to his numerous letters, and it was many days before he could hear of the fate of his friend, whom he had already rescued once from the agents of the Terror. On the 26th June, Coburg, ignorant of the fall of Charleroi, attacked the French intrenched camps around it with a force of 70,000 men. Jourdan's army occupied the same position as on the i6th June, except that both flanks had been drawn in and the troops had had time to throw up breast- works and redoubts along their front. The two divisions of the Army of the Ardennes, 16,500 strong, under the command of Marceau, formed as before the right wing of the French army. Marceau's right rested on the Sambre, his centre lined the wood of Copiaux, while on the left he occupied Lambusart and connected with Lefebvre at Campinaire. His advance-guard was posted at Baulet, Wausersee, and Valaine, in front of the above positions. The centre of the Republican army consisted of three divisions, 26,500 strong, of which the division p 2IO BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. of Lefebvre was posted on the right adjoining Marceau. These three divisions extended in a semi- circle from Campinaire to Thumeon, along which they occupied several redoubts and earthworks as well as the towns of Wagne, Fleurus, Heppignies, and Gosselies. Kleber, with 10,000 men, and Mont- aigu with 8,500, formed the left wing ; the former, with his main body, was posted on the plateau of Jumet, while the latter guarded the Pieton and com- pleted the line to the Sambre. Hatry's division, 1 1,000 strong, with 2,700 cavalry under Dubois, was posted at Ronsart behind the centre, while 6,000 men were held in reserve at Fontaine-l'Eveque, behind the left wing. It will thus be seen that the right wing, under Marceau, had no reserve except what it could draw on from the centre. Coburg divided his corps into three columns, of which three divisions, 16,000 or 18,000 strong, under Beaulieu, were told off to force the right wing by both banks of the Sambre and at Lambusart, and then converge to attack the fortress of Charleroi itself. The action commenced at daybreak on the 26th June. Each of Coburg's corps delivered battle separately, and only united late in the day. We are only concerned here with the attack on the right wing. On the left and centre the Republicans met with varied success, and it is doubtful whether the centre would not have been turned and over- whelmed, owing to the retreat of Montaigu, had not Coburg, on hearing of the fall of Charleroi, with- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 211 drawn his columns from those points and ordered their retreat to Brussels. The attack on the right of the French position was delivered with consummate ability by the Austrian general, Beaulieu, who at the outset drove in Marceau's advance-guard, and occupied the cense of De Fays, Wausersee, and Valaine with its wood. Marceau's troops now extended themselves along the wood of Copiaux, and stubbornly defended the intrenchments they had made there. After being held in check during several hours, Beaulieu at length occupied the outlets and cross-roads to the Maison Rouge on the French right, thus turning the line of fieldworks, and compelling Marceau to abandon his position. The retreat was precipitated by charges of cavalry, in which arm Marceau was far inferior to his adver- sary. The infantry, however, still held ground, until at a critical moment the supply of ammunition failed. A panic spread through the ranks, the alarm was sounded, some soldiers cried out, " Sauve qui pent ! " and soon the retreat was turned into igno- minious flight. In vain did their general throw himself at the head of his troops and endeavour to restore order and reanimate their courage ; nothing could stop them, and they fled back to the Sambre, which they crossed at Pont-a-Loup in horrible confusion. Without troubling himself about the rest of his soldiers, Marceau, at the head of some battalions who had remained firm, threw himself behind the hedges and in the gardens of Lambusart, which he 212 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. defended with desperation, exposing himself every- where as though he sought death. But Beaulieu, being reinforced, now launched ten squadrons of cavalry against Lambusart. Twice Marceau repulsed them at the point of the bayonet, but he was at length obliged to fall back from the village, and take up a new position between it and the adjoining wood. Lefebvre, on hearing of Marceau's plight, sent Soult to his aid with two battalions of infantry and some cavalry; at the same time he massed twelve guns against Lambusart, now occupied by the enemy. Beaulieu, on attempting to deploy from the village, was stopped by a vigorous fire from Marceau. Masking the village, he then deployed in its rear, and advanced to the attack from its northern side, but here the twelve guns placed by Lefebvre mowed down his battalions with grape-shot. The Austrians, nothing discouraged, returned three times to the charge, only to be repulsed each time with tremen- dous loss. The village of Lambusart, still held by Beaulieu, had now become the focus of the attack and de- fence ; Beaulieu concentrated his three columns upon it, and the Austrian centre moved to his sup- port. Jourdan was not slow in detecting this move- ment, and detached a brigade of Hatry's division of the reserve to the aid of Lefebvre and Marceau. Meanwhile the battle raged around the village. Lambusart was in flames. The artillery fire was so brisk on both sides that the opposing forces could not see each other for the smoke. The shells lighted THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 21 T, the ripening corn and the wooden huts of the French camp, throwing a lurid glare over the scene, and enveloping in smoke and ashes the soldiers of Marceau and Soult, who struggled amidst it. On the approach of Hatry, Lefebvre and Marceau assumed the offensive. The Imperialists, though surprised by this double attack, offered a stubborn resistance, and only abandoned Lambusart and its vicinity after they had strewn the ground with their corpses. It was now 6 o'clock, and Beaulieu was pre- paring to renew the struggle, when the order reached him to retire to the Sambre and to Gembloux. He abandoned the contest and withdrew his troops, who left the battlefield in perfect order, preventing any effectual pursuit by Marceau or Lefebvre. Coburg and his army retreated in the direction of Nivelles, Jourdan, for want of ammunition, being unable to pursue them. Such was the battle of Fleurus, as it is called. At most it was a drawn battle, in which the French remained masters of the field. The losses on each side were about equal, some five or six thousand men being /lors de combat. But the results of the battle were far-reaching. By this victory Carnot's plan had been consummated. The line of the Allies had been pierced, Belgium lay open to the French, and the war was transferred from the frontiers of France to the Rhine and to the territory of the Allies. CHAPTER II. Marceaii's explanatiott—Jourdan and Marceau — Battle of the Ourthe—An " Order of the Day." IT was but natural that Jourdan and the repre- sentatives should expect from Marceau an ex- planation of the misconduct of his troops on the iield of Fleurus, and the latter was not slow in giving it. The reports are characteristic of the writer. The day after the battle he wrote to Jourdan from Lambusart : " I owe you an account of what hap- pened yesterday on the right. I will relate the events as briefly and as clearly as I can." After mentioning the successful attack on his outposts at Auvelois, he continues thus : " I need not speak of the different manoeuvres I found necessary to oppose an enemy double our strength in infantry and cavalry, and with three times our artillery. It will suffice for you to know that the right of the line of the Ardennes division, that is, the hill of Boulet and the redoubts covering Lambusart, were defended for eight hours with an obstinacy equal to that of the assailants, and it was only after its artillery had been dismounted and rendered useless that this division yielded to superior force. The retreat became disorderly because the enemy by a charge THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 21 5 of more than 3,000 cavalry made an opening in the line which it became impossible to defend." He leaves it to Lefebvre to report what occurred after the division of the Ardennes had been defeated. In spite of the desertion of his troops he is still able to say a word in their defence : " I need not speak of the numerous brave deeds that have been done to-day, nor of the cowardly acts that have disgraced it. Those who have made it illustrious by the former will find their reward in the satisfaction that they have performed a duty much needed of them. As for the others, I like to think they will seize the first opportunity to make amends for what they have done, and will once more prove themselves worthy of the qause they defend." He proceeds, in conclusion, to assign by sug- gestion the morning's defeat to its true cause : " It will be necessary to reinforce the right of the line. The enemy has already twice attacked it in force, and on each occasion our divisions have had to bear unsupported the weight of superior numbers brought to bear on this point." The despatch was followed by a letter to the representatives, which for its fearless and straight- forward assertion deserves to be cited in its entirety : " I have forwarded to you, at the same time as to the general in command, a report of the affair of the 8th, and of all that concerns the divisions of the right under my orders. In this matter, as in all others, I have not deviated from the truth, the sole guide of my expressions. You will therefore find no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that it 2l6 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. was neither my fault nor that of the troops I had the honour to command, that is, of the division of the Ardennes, which unaided sustained the efforts of the enemy from 3 a.m. to 1 1 a.m., but was unable to secure the victory for itself in the end. Candid and loyal, and incapable of dissimulation, I have told you that many have distinguished them- selves, even as many have not behaved as I should have wished them to do. But inexperience is the cause of many evils, and in this instance, as in many others, it has perhaps prevented some of the troops from doing what was expected of them. I have not even concealed from you my hope and belief, that the success of the day will obliterate the memory of those particular faults, which those who commit them must make amends for when they fight once more the enemies of our country." It has been said that in this first campaign Marceau was not as successful as either his talents or his valour deserved, and that at Fleurus he was particularly unfortunate in the wholesale desertion of his troops. But we have seen that up to the day of the great battle he had no complaint to make against Fortune, for he had been uniformly success- ful in the conduct of the part assigned to him in the general plan of the campaign. As for Fleurus, it will be conceded that not only did Marceau do all that was possible under the circumstances, but that his efforts alone prevented the complete defeat of his corps, and the consequent turning of the right flank by the enemy, whose object it was to penetrate to Charleroi. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 21/ Not only did Jourdan and the representatives accept Marceau's explanation, but they extolled him in their despatches for the valour he had displayed and the consummate ability he had given proof of when face to face with a superior foe. Kleber had once said that Marceau had few equals in the dexterity with which he could modify or completely change a plan of attack in the very heat and height of a struggle. His abandonment of his panic-stricken troops to Mayer and to their own devices, and his assumption of a new and more con- centrated defence around Lambusart confirm Kleber's opinion and led Jourdan to adopt it in his report. In the operations subsequent to the victory of Fleurus Marceau continued to render important services. In the advance on Mons he defeated Beaulieu's advance-guard at Gembloux. Later on, at Onoz, he repulsed a sudden attack and main- tained his ground during sixteen hours against strong combinations of the enemy. But, though he held his own, Beaulieu's position was too strong to be forced. Encamped towards Gembloux and Sombreffe, the latter successfully defended the roads leading to Namur, and defeated all the efforts of the French to turn the line of the Allies in that direc- tion. It was only on the 6th and 7th July that Beaulieu fell back on Gembloux after a severe struggle and yielded Sombreffe to the Republicans. At Onoz, Marceau had a fall from his horse and was obliged to retire to Givet for a week. " This violent contusion of the thigh," he writes to Jourdan, 2l8 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. " will take time to heal, but be sure I shall return as soon as possible to the post of honour whither my country calls me." Pichegru and Jourdan's troops had meanwhile entered Brussels, and on the nth July the two armies were united in one long line, their left at Vilvorde and the right towards Namur. The Allies fell back on the Meuse. Marceau returned to his command on the i6th July and his first act was to force the passages of the Meuse at Namur and Huy, and to carry the enemy's intrenched camps on both banks of that river at the point of the bayonet. The enemy attacked his outposts at Stree, but he led a cavalry charge against them, utterly routed their cavalry, and took the Austrian commander prisoner with his own hand. At this stage of the campaign Jourdan received orders to stay his march until such time as the four French fortresses in his rear still held by the Allies should be reduced. The opposing armies therefore remained inactive in view of each other during the next six weeks. The Austrians under Clerfayt, who had succeeded Coburg, guarded the Meuse from Roermond to Maastricht, with their left they occu- pied the CJiartreuse heights behind Liege and those of Sprimont behind the Ourthe and the Aywaille. The Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse occupied a position facing this line, the divisions of Marceau and Mayer (both under Marceau) being posted on the extreme right at Str^e and Huy in advance of Namur. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 219 It was intended at the beginning of September to send Marceau and his corps to reinforce the Army of the Moselle, whose operations had been tardy and unprofitable. Marceau objected strenuously to leaving his friend Kleber and the Grand Army with which his name was now so honourably associated. He prevailed on Representative Gillet to interfere^ and the obnoxious order was cancelled. There was now another friend whom Marceau was unwilling to part from, one who, ere long, occupied a higher place in his esteem than even Kleber. This was Jourdan,his commander-in-chief, with whom Marceau was already on most intimate terms. He had learnt to admire Jourdan's auda- cious genius, and a closer acquaintance had ripened into deep mutual regard. Jourdan had early formed a correct estimate of his friend's military talents, and used all his efforts to retain him in his command. We shall find that he entrusted to Marceau those great and arduous undertakings where, though his impetuosity would be held in restraint by the very nature of the command, there would be full scope for his skill in occupying and his tenacity in holding a position and for his unwearied activity in the presence of an enemy. Amid the cares of an arduous campaign Marceau did not forget his friends in France. He wrote to them frequently, while they, as he complains, in the enjoyment of their ease and leisure, failed to reply to his letters as often as he would have wished. His friend Maugars, now his aide-de-camp, was on leave at Chartres. On the 8th September Marceau 220 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. writes to him from camp : " Heavy blows will have to be dealt before the present campaign comes to an end. You would doubtless not be averse to playing a part in it with the best of your friends. . . . The army that laid siege to Valenciennes is expected here every moment. On its arrival we shall attempt something. May fortune, which has so far favoured me, enable me to announce our complete success. I shall have to regret your not taking any part in it, at the same time I shall have been free of all anxiety on your account." The reference here is to Scherer, who, after reducing Valenciennes and Cond^, rejoined the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse with twenty-four battalions and ten squadrons, raising Jourdan's effective strength to 116,000 men. This army was now in excellent condition, having benefited both in health and discipline during the not unwelcome inactivity within intrenched camps. The admini- strative service alone languished, and, as we shall see, continued to deteriorate until, at length, its incapacity and neglect brought about the ruin and defeat of this magnificent force, through cold, ex- posure, and starvation. The four fortresses having fallen, Jourdan was free to continue his advance on the Roer and the Rhine. In numbers he was superior to his opponent Clerfayt, whose army did not exceed 84,000 men. Of this force 28,000 made up the left wing, placed under Latour, and extended from Liege to Sprimont. The heights of Sprimont behind the Ourthe and Aywaille, the extreme left THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 221 of the Austrian position, were defended by 22,000 men, the remaining 6,000 Hned the Ourthe from Esneux to Liege. It was here that Jourdan deter- mined to strike a decisive blow and so force the strong h"ne of defence. The right wing of the Republican army had been placed under Scherer. It consisted of the divisions of Marceau, Mayer, and Hacquin, and the brigade of Bonnet. On the 1 3th September these forced the passage of the Ourthe at Comblain-au-Pont and Durbuy, and were now established on the left bank of this river and its tributary, the Aywaille or Ambl^ve. On the 17th Kl^ber made a strong demonstration against the right and centre of the Imperialist position, which Clerfayt thereupon reinforced. This was what Jourdan wanted, for it drew away the reserves of the enemy, while Scherer, with 30,000 men, attacked the left. • The Aywaille, before it joins the Ourthe, meanders for a distance of two or three miles along a deep bed between steep abrupt banks. Beyond this por- tion of the river rises a well-wooded ridge, which crowns the vast plateau of Sprimont. Plateau and ridge can only be gained by the defiles of Halleux, Aywaille, and Sougnies, now defended by twelve battalions of infantry and a formidable artillery. Behind Sprimont and its plateau lay Latour's reserve of ten more battalions and 3,000 cavalry, while a strong brigade watched the passage of the Ourthe at Esneux. This was the position Scherer was ordered to carry. 222 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. He divided his corps into three columns. Marceau commanded the first division, which was directed against the heights of Halleux and the right and centre of the plateau of Sprimont. On Marceau's right, and further up the Aywaille, was Mayer, who, acting under Marceau's orders, was told off to carry the village of Aywaille and then penetrate the Aus- trian centre. Beyond Mayer, and opposite to the village of Sougnies, was Hacquin's division, destined to fall on the left flank of the enemy. Bonnet was to force the passage of the Ourthe at Esneux, and create a diversion in rear of the Sprimont heights. The battle commenced at the break of day. Latour's advance-guards were overpowered before the villages of Rouvrai and Aywaille by Marceau, and driven across the river at the point of the bayonet. Marceau now plunged into the rapid waters of the Aywaille at the head of his troops, gained the opposite bank under a heavy fire, and was soon master of the defiles of Halleux-le-Grand, while Mayer occupied the corresponding gorges in his front. On the extreme right, Hacquin had not been so fortunate. He had advanced too soon. After fording the river and carrying the foremost heights, he was assailed by overwhelming numbers of the enemy. His troops were driven out of the defiles and almost hurled into the Aywaille. But he reforded the river and returned to the attack, and, surmounting the heights, bore down on the left wing of the Austrians at the charge, carrying all before him. Latour, fully occupied on the left, paid little heed THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 223 to Marceau and Mayer, who, on emerging from the defiles, had formed their divisions into one massive line of battalions, previous to storming the heights. Marceau directed his cavalry against the right flank of the enemy while he assailed the position in front with the infantry of both divisions. His troops advanced with bayonets fixed and singing the Marseillaise, now for the first time used as a battle-chant, Marceau was the first to crown the heights at the head of his columns. Here a deadly fire of shot and shell met the French, and for some time the issue seemed doubtful. Mayer had come up on the right, but for three hours the fire n6ver slackened, during which, though neither division lost ground, the Republican ranks were mown down and raked from end to end. But Hacquin's column had now gained the woods of Sougnies, and threatened the left flank of the Imperialists on the heights of Louveigne, at the same time that Bonnet, after crossing the Ourthe, repulsed the Austrians at Esneux and Hoteigne and disturbed Latour's reserves in his rear. Latour, assailed in front, menaced on both flanks, his road to Cologne threatened, and abandoned by his numerous cavalry, which had refused to face Marceau's squadrons, beat a retreat to the heights of the Vesdre. Thus, by a skilful manoeuvre, Scherer had cut off Latour from the centre, and had Jourdan been able to support him from Liege, the entire left wing of the Imperialists must have sur- rendered. Marceau's division had borne the entire brunt of the first attack on the plateau, and had 224 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. contributed materially to this brilliant success. His division alone took on this day 1 5 guns, 40 caissons, over icx) horses, and 500 prisoners. The attack was well conceived and executed, and was equally honourable to Jourdan and to the generals engaged in it. The Austrians lost, altogether, 1,500 men killed and wounded, 36 cannon, and 2,000 prisoners. Kleber envied his colleagues this day and paid homage to the victors in an eloquent order of the day which he issued to his division. These were not the only fruits of the victory. During the same night the Imperial army quitted all its positions on the Meuse and Ourthe, and retired in haste in several columns towards Rolduc and Aix-la-Chapelle. The pursuit was taken up the next day along the entire line. Scherer's advance-guard, after several skirmishes, gained the heights of Clermont on the 20th, and Scherer and Marceau soon after entered Limbourg and Aix-la-Chapelle. The further ad- vance towards the Rhine was barred by the Austrians, who were found strongly posted behind the Roer, the passage of which they were prepared to dispute. They occupied the right bank of that river from Niederau and Kreutzau to Roermond. The left, under Latour, was concentrated around Duren ; the centre, though advanced beyond the left bank so as to utilize the plateau of Aldenhoven, was protected by the fortified town ox place of Jiilich on the right bank ; the right, under Werneck, completed the line as far as Roermond. The front of the Austrian position was covered by THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 225 the Roer, a small but rapid river, fordable only at a few points. It flows between well- wooded heights and steep banks of which the right almost invariably commands the left. The Austrian advance-guards, posted on the right bank, defended all the approaches with a numerous artillery. Jourdan lost no time in making his dispositions for a decisive attack. Leaving only 15,000 men before Maastricht, he took the remainder of Kleber's corps to form his left wing. His right wing, still under Scherer, was already established at Eschweiler, opposite Diiren and Mirweiler, and his centre at St. Georges and Kellenberg facing Altorp, Aldenhoven, and Linnich. On the 19th September, we find Marceau at Blen- deff, where he writes a brief and modest account of his part in the previous day to Constantine Maugars, still absent on leave. He expresses a hope that at the end of the campaign he too will obtain leave and join him and his other friends at Chartres. On the 27th he is at Eschweiler, when he again writes to his friend, upbraiding him for his neglect in not answering his four letters. Between these dates Marceau issued an order of the day to his divisions, which is as a flash of manly anger in the cause of discipline, humanity, and patriotism : " During the last few days," runs the order, " cer- tain defenders of the country forming the advance- guard of the right wing of the army, appear to have forgotten the principles of humanity by which their conduct has hitherto been guided. Some, to their Q 226 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. great dishonour, have given themselves up to un- bridled pillage ; others have done even worse. The officers, too, seem to be suffering from a most culpable apathy in allowing to be committed with impunity, and under their very eyes, all manner of offences, the least heinous of which must rouse the anger of every good Republican and of all who love order and their country. . . . " The general now gives notice that he will combat with the wrongs which the enemies of the Republic would make us suffer, and that he will do all in his power to expel forthwith from the army all those who, either by their weakness or ignorance, are responsible for these wrong doings. He therefore gives warning for the last time that all those Republican soldiers, who are found without leave at a distance from their posts, or are seen wandering about the villages, will be punished as deserters. Those who are found pil- laging, or in possession of pillaged articles, will be punished with death. Those officers, who cannot when called upon give a proper explanation of the misconduct of their soldiers, or who from weakness let them go unpunished, will be handed over to the military commission, and tried as the accomplices of those who have actually infringed the orders. " Those who love their country and their duty will, I trust, see in this order the necessity for re- establishing harmony in the army, and for securing all those means that will insure us success against our enemies. Those, on the other hand, who would dishonour their comrades, and care little to win the esteem and affection of their fellow-citizens, or THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 22/ who are not afraid of being ranked as thieves and robbers, will find in this order their own condemna- tion. These can be assured that nothing will prevent the general from enforcing among the soldiers of the Republic the principles of justice and humanity which should be their only guide and aim." Marceau directed that this order should be read to each company, and that generals of brigade should insure it a wide publication. CHAPTER III. Battle of the Roer — Marcean reaches the Rhine — The capture of Coblentz — Its significatice — The civil government of the Electorate — Release of Hippolyte — A desolate winter. ON the 30th September, Jourdan, previous to an advance, reviewed his army in a vast plain to the west of Aix-la-ChapclIe. It afforded a magnificent spectacle, for, in array of numbers, in discipline, and that indefinable aspect of vigour and confidence that success and experience give to troops, the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse was at this time the finest in all Europe. On the day of the review the commander-in-chief unfurled be- fore this army a standard which the National Con- vention had decreed to it, and which bore the in- scription : " To the A 7'my of the Sambre-and-Meuse from a grateful country T Jourdan's plan to force the line of the Roer was similar to the one adopted with so much success on the Aywaille and the Ourthe. Now, as then, he determined to turn the left of the enemy's position, and, to this intent, Scherer was ordered to force the passages of the river between Niederplombach and Mirweiler, and to advance on Duren, while on his extreme right he occupied Niederau and Kreutzau THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 229 and so threatened the road to Cologne behind Diiren. This attack was to be simultaneous with the advance of the left and centre, and each general was ordered to take his division as rapidly as possible to the position indicated to him. At daybreak on the 2nd October, one hundred thousand Republicans moved forward in the most perfect order, massed in columns of brigades. The right wing left its camp at Eschweiler, and at 1 1 a.m. arrived on the heights of Merode, where Sch^rer made his dispositions for the attack. Marceau was ordered to pass the ford of Mirweiler and to take Diiren, with Mayer supporting him by a frontal attack on his right, while Hacquin's division was directed to make a circuit and cross the river at the ford of Vinden, occupy Kreutzau and Binsfeld, and so turn the extreme left of the Imperialists. It was midday before these arrangements were completed. Hacquin was a long time in making the circuit by Vinden, and Scherer, in consequence, deferred his attack, thus giving time to Clerfayt to prepare for the frontal attack along the heights between Mirweiler and Niederau. It was now 3 o'clock, and Scherer, growing im- patient, threw the divisions of Marceau into the Roer. Marceau divided his troops into two columns. He launched Lorges's brigade on Diiren, while at the head of the other brigade and his cavalry, he prepared to force the passage lower down the river. After a warm engagement the ford of Mirweiler 230 BIOGRAPHY OF MxVRCEAU. was carried, Adjutant-General Klein setting the example to the soldiers by swimming the river at the head of the column. The Austrian intrench- ments were next taken at the point of the bayonet, and Marceau established himself on the right bank of the river. Lorges meanwhile assailed the village of Duren. This post, defended by strong ramparts and ditches filled with water, and down the ap- proaches to which the Austrians had pointed several batteries, was stubbornly defended. But nothing could resist the valour of Lorges's brigade ; the ramparts were stormed, and the French took possession of Diiren under the very guns of the overhanging heights. But Mayer had not come up on the right, and nothing had yet been heard of Hacquin. Marceau's position became critical, and he had to bear for some time the whole brunt of Latour's efforts. On Lorges attempting to deploy, he was overwhelmed by the fire of the batteries in the redoubts and on the heights behind, and was obliged to retire within the village for shelter. The Austrians, emboldened by their success, advanced to dislodge Lorges. His brigade was in imminent peril of being annihilated when Marceau, seeing the danger, and placing him- self at the head of his squadrons, hastened to his aid from Mirweiler, By a brilliant and impetuous charge on their flank, Marceau broke through the heavy masses of the enemy, and saved Diiren. Meanwhile Mayer, who had crossed the Roer opposite Niederau and Lindersdorf, and had been received by a galling fire of artillery, found himself THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 23 1 obliged to deploy, with the hope, by so doing, of con- necting with Marceau on his left. This he succeeded in doing by 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The efforts of both parties were now concentrated upon Diiren. So far only Latour's advance-guards had been engaged. His main body, posted on the heights above, now came into action, and sixty pieces of cannon poured into Marceau's divisions a shower of shot and shell. But the two divisions held their ground heroically, and gave time to Hacquin to carry out the movement that had been prescribed to him. Towards 7 o'clock Hacquin emerged from the woods of Kreutzau, and fell upon the enemy's left flank, and threatened their communications on the great Cologne road. The Imperialists were thus compelled to retreat, and withdrew the whole of their left wing from the heights above Buikersdorf, Diiren, and Niederau, While these events were taking place on the French right, in the centre Championnet had seized the plateau of Aldenhoven, and carried his pursuit to the very glacis of the fort of St. Jiilich. Lefebvre, repulsing the Austrians at Linnich, also reached the Roer, while Kleber, by skilful manoeuvring and a brisk and well sustained fire of artillery, kept the enemy fully engaged before him at Rathen. But the decisive action was on the right, where Scherer had to support the efforts of Latour during several hours with the sole divisions of Marceau, and success had depended on the latter holding his position till the arrival of Hacquin. It will 232 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. thus be seen how materially Marceau contributed to the triumph of the Republican arms on the banks of the Roer on this day. The French prepared to renew the contest, and at dawn of the following day the commanders of the advance-guards moved towards the citadel of St. Jiilich, but only to find it evacuated. The Austrians, during the night, not only abandoned the Roer at all points, but the next day, fearing to be cut off from Coblentz and Cologne, they repassed the Rhine at Mlihlheim and other places. Marceau and Dubois were sent in pursuit of the retiring foe, and on the evening of the 4th October they came up with the rear-guards. By a single charge they put them to flight while in the act of deploying, and took 100 prisoners and a great number of horses. After this skirmish, Marceau's division pushed on and reached the great object of the campaign — the Rhine ! Both Jourdan and the representatives warmly eulogized Marceau in their reports ; the former especially commented on his tenacious defence of Duren. Both on the Aywaille and the Roer, Marceau wiped out the memory of Fleurus, and established once more the valour of his divisions in the eyes of the Convention and the Republic. The ultimate results of the battle of the Roer cannot easily be exaggerated. The Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse had pierced the centre of the immense line of the Allies, the victory decided the fate of Flanders, and it drove the Imperial army back on to the Rhine. Carnot said of the im- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 233 portance of the victory : " It will be at least equal to that of Fleurus. It will be a landmark in French history, and it will cover with immortal renown all those who have contributed to this memorable success." Praises were lavished on Jourdan's army by the National Convention and by a "grateful country." Carnot, writing of the soldiers and officers of this army, reported "that these young warriors have shown to us that in firm- ness and stability they can surpass all that history tells us of the Greek phalanx or the Roman legion." On the 6th October the French reached Cologne, and on the 12th we find Marceau established, with his headquarters, at Bonn. Kleber and Gillet had returned to the siege of Maastricht, which sur- rendered to them early in November. After the fall of this fortress and of Rhinfels there only remained to the Coalition, at the end of the year, Mayence and Luxembourg on the left bank of the Rhine ; for Marceau, having been sent against Coblentz, turned the Allies, as we shall see, out of that strong position, and effected a junction with the Army of the Moselle advancing under Ren6 Moreaux from Treves. For Marceau and his troops, whose strength had been taxed to the utmost by the events of the last few months, the next few days were days of com- parative rest and leisure. But Coblentz still re- mained in the possession of the enemy, and, as Marceau pointed out in a letter to Jourdan, the French could not hope to remain in peaceable occupation of their winter quarters on the Rhine, 234 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. SO long as this important place was in the hands of their opponents. It was necessary, moreover, that Jourdan should effect a junction with the Moselle Army on his right, and this could only be done by both armies extending their respective flanks in the direction of Coblentz. Rene Moreaux, who com- manded the Army of the Moselle, did not, however, fall in with this plan, and consequently Marceau was ordered to march up the river and secure the ancient capital of the Carlovingian emperors with his division alone. The troops under Marceau's command had just finished an arduous campaign ; one half of their number either filled the hospitals or were under medical treatment ; they were sadly in need of clothes ; the commissariat had already failed, and the supplies were insufficient and irregular. In the face of this, and the large numbers of the enemy around Coblentz, the undertaking was sufficiently hazardous, especially as the co-operation of the Army of the Moselle could not be relied on, whereas the Prussians might at any moment come to the assistance of the fortress. Marceau, while obliged to Jourdan for the honourable distinction, and for the large field opened out to his troops by the task assigned to them, pointed out to him clearly the dangers and difficulties that attended it. He ends his letter, however, merrily enough, defining his line of march, arranged so as to deceive the enemy as to his pur- pose. After Heppingen and Andernach, he says, he will be at Coblentz. " I can see you already THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 235 smiling and saying, ' Stop, stop, citizen Marceau ! are you not going rather too fast ? ' " Having secured his communications with Taponier, who commanded the left wing of the Moselle Army, and after he had informed this general of his plans, Marceau left Bonn on the 20th October for Coblentz. The march was attended by many difficulties, and grave obstacles had to be surmounted. Mar- ceau's letters to Jourdan are, however, uniformly cheerful, and enable us to follow him on his march day by day. On the 20th October he writes : " The rain falls incessantly, the main roads, at times mountainous, are deceptive and abominable, and the cross-roads we are sometimes obliged to take are no better. It took us twelve hours to cover a distance of one league. The soldiers' rations neither arrive in time nor in sufficient quantities. Shoes are wanting to the tune of thousands." He is not now astonished, he says, in another letter, at the sluggishness of the Army of the Moselle. His zeal and his ardour are, however, still unabated, and he hopes to be at Andernach the next day. On the 22nd October he arrived at Andernach, where, after a successful engagement with two divi- sions of the enemy, he pushed a reconnaissance towards Coblentz itself " To-morrow," he writes, " it is my purpose to move my entire division against Coblentz." He hopes Taponier will co- operate, although, so far, the Army of the Moselle has not shown any signs of life. On the 23rd October the enemy's camp, situated 236 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. on some hills half a mile outside the town of Coblentz, was attacked at the break of day. Mar- ceau's cavalry routed that of the Austrians, and compelled it to take shelter behind the numerous intrenchments they had thrown up. Then fol- lowed a lively cannonade on both sides, but it did not last long, as the French cavalry, by a favourite manoeuvre of Marceau's, turned the position behind the intrenchments, while the infantry attacked it in front. The Austrians fled into the town, and were so closely pursued that had they not destroyed the bridge over the Moselle, a large number would have been cut off and captured, in spite of the fire from the earthworks on the right bank of the river and from the fortress itself. In his despatch to Jourdan on the subject, from which the above description is taken, Marceau pro- ceeds to relate how he effected the capture of the fortress itself: "The impossibility of gaining posses- sion by main force of a town, which, as you know, is commanded by a strong fortress, .... induced me to propose to the Austrian general that he should surrender it to me conditionally. My pro- position was supported by what was only meant as a menace, namely, that in case of his refusal I would reduce it to ashes." To this General Melas replied : " Sharing your sentiments I have deter- mined to surrender the town of Coblentz to you to- morrow, the 24th October, at 8 o'clock in the morning." The Austrians were allowed to march out with all their arms and cannon, and on the same morning the tricolor flag floated on the ram- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 237 parts of one of the strongest fortresses of the Rhine. Two brigades of the Army of the Moselle arrived on the heights of Coblentz on the afternoon of the battle, only in time to assist Marceau in enforcing the capitulation by their presence. In his report Marceau rendered full, justice to his soldiers, praising their patience on the arduous march, as well as their ardour during the attack. His warmest praise is, however, reserved for the cavalry, a branch of the service which had become especially proficient under the training it received from Marceau and his staff. The report to Jourdan ends with a humorous postscript : " Another would have delighted to have composed a brilliant letter describing our brilliant expedition, but, for us, to fight with determination is better than all the flowers of rhetoric. The affair was warm, but here we are ! " In forwarding Marceau's report on the capitula- tion of Coblentz to the National Convention, Jourdan added the remark : " This document is all the more interesting, in that it is dictated and marked by modesty." The news of the fall of the fortress was received by all Republicans throughout France with trans- ports of joy. Coblentz had been the place of rendezvous of all the so-called emigrants, noble or otherwise, who had fled their country, and were held to be traitors to France, and the principal instigators of the war. Hence the honour decreed to those who had taken part in the enterprise was all the greater now that the tricolor floated over 238 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. the town hateful to all Republicans for its royal memories and its painful associations. On the 27th October Marceau wrote to Jourdan on this subject as follows : " The tree of liberty was planted yesterday opposite the palace of the Elector. The tree of liberty at Coblentz ! . . . . After all, it is not so much out of place to have the symbol and emblem of liberty where the monster once resided ! " Though the peaceable possession of the Rhine was secured, Jourdan and Gillet were anxious, because they found their forces far too widely dis- persed, and Maastricht still held out. Marceau shared their anxieties. An additional division was sent to reinforce him, and he was charged with watching the Rhine from Andernach to Rheinfeld, taking over some of the cantonments occupied by the Army of the Moselle. Nothing could exceed the disgraceful state in which he found these can- tonments, the whole region moreover had been ruined and devastated by Moreaux's troops, neither food nor forage could be obtained. This added con- siderably to the difficulties of Marceau's task, namely, of effectually guarding the Rhine, and of providing for his troops during an exceptionally severe winter, when both the Rhine and the Meuse were frozen over, and no longer offered a barrier against the forces of the Allies. At Coblentz Marceau arranged for the civil government of the country under his occupation. In this he displayed, as might have been expected, the greatest magnanimity and the most liberal views THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 239 on the subject of government. He left to the towns their own burgomasters and native magistrates, with all their administrative and judicial functions, and endeavoured by all means within his reach to con- ciliate the hostile population into whose homes he had introduced war and all its unrighteous accom- paniments. In the midst of his troubles arising out of the effectual guarding of the Rhine, at least one source of consolation fell to the lot of Marceau after the capture of Coblentz. For it was now that he learnt of the release of Hippolyte Lepretre, after a deten- tion of six months in a Paris prison. Emira and Sergent had not ceased to exert themselves in the interests of the young man, and Madame Lepretre, who had joined them for the purpose in Paris, was able to contribute her portion by a lavish use of subsidies to those civilians of the capital with whom rested the fate of her innocent son. After Hippo- lyte's release both mother and son wrote to Mar- ceau, whose heart might well beat with a twofold joy at the thought of the safety of his friend, and that it would no longer be possible for the obdurate count to refuse his consent, after the services rendered to his family by Marceau and his re- latives. To Hippolyte, Marceau wrote on the 29th Octo- ber ; " Your detention and its cause have always been an enigma to me, for, in spite of my earnest requests, no one has yet thought fit to give me an explanation. In endeavouring, as much as it lay in my power, to procure you your liberty, I only 240 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. followed the dictates of my own heart. My love for my sister will henceforth have increased twofold^ if that be possible, by the knowledge that she has obtained you satisfaction and has contributed to your liberty." Marceau enclosed an undated order to Hippolyte to enable him to join him whenever he cared to do so, regretting that he could not have him as his aide-de-camp, as the rules only allowed him to have two. He concludes with the hope that during the ensuing winter he will be able to visit Paris. It will perhaps be as well to mention here that Hippolyte never availed himself of Marceau's order, for, out of deference to his father's un- doubted political convictions, he never again re- joined Marceau or the army of the Republic. A few days later he replies to Madame Lepretre's letter, asking her that her son might be allowed to rejoin him. " Perhaps," he adds, " I shall have the pleasure of coming myself to take him away from you. The fall of Maastricht, while assuring us our winter quarters, may at the same time give me some hope of obtaining leave of absence, during which it will be a pleasure to assure you once more, and in person, of my gratitude and my respect." This letter is formal enough, but we can read it with the eyes of the hopeful mother, whose aim it is to unite her daughter by the most sacred bonds to one eminently worthy in her esteem of such a favour. Another source of consolation to Marceau, at this time, was in the prospect of the return of his friend Maugars to duty. " Your letter," he writes to the latter, " has given me great pleasure, dear friend. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 24I You are then coming back to me, if so I am con- tent. Lose no time, and set out on your journey at once. . . . You will see my sister, and perhaps, also, Hippolyte, who is at the Marais. It will give me great pleasure if you will visit this last-mentioned place and examine the faces there, and see whether you are satisfied with the family, and with the young man in particular." What Marceau thought of matrimony and of the married state we can gather from a letter written at this time, that is, after his hopes had been raised by the news of Hippolyte's liberation. " I congratu- late you," he writes from Bonn to his dear friend, " on the vows you are about to take. They alone can hold out to us any hope of happiness. From what I know of your character, I feel sure that matrimony has sweet joys in store for you. I only regret that, in the midst of what we call glory, I am unable to witness your happiness, or to follow your example in taking to myself a young and charming companion. // is only then, my dear friend, that we can call ourselves liappy, all else is merely ephemeral. Friendship alone compensates us for the immense void we must feel in our lives when, so to speak, we have no one to cling to." But for what we know of the emotions that filled Marceau's heart at this time, they would strike us strangely now, these tender words of longing for the love that compensates, and the peace that satis- fies more than all the glory and the pageant of war, written as they were during watch and ward in the face of a foe beaten, but at bay, and by one whose R 242 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. name and achievements had already been heralded with pride and honour throughout the length and breadth of a great republic, of a grateful country. For the rest, the months of November and De- cember were sad enough for Marceau, and taxed to the utmost his energies and patience. Through- out a rigorous winter, and almost isolated from the rest of the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, he had to guard Coblentz and eighteen miles of the Rhine, along a mountainous and wasted tract of country, and in face of a greatly superior foe, who might at any moment advance and overwhelm him. He had ii,ooo men under him, but his force was decimated by disease, want, and exposure, which rendered the task set before him almost a hopeless one, and post- poned indefinitely all chances of obtaining leave from the army. He lost, moreover, about this time, his friend Jourdan, who, in spite of his great suc- cesses, had been called away to Paris to answer cer- tain charges preferred against him by his enemies. Kleber, too, was absent with the Army of the Moselle, which inv-ested Mayence under his skill and guidance. This destitution, his critical position, the sad plight of his soldiers, and the ever-vanishing hope of obtaining leave to see once more the face of the sweet girl with whom he had plighted troth, plunged Marceau, in this winter of 1794-95, ^^ deep melan- choly. Read in the light of after events, there is something inexpressibly touching, and yet instruc- tive too, in a letter addressed to one Cochon about this time. " I am sorry," writes Marceau, " not to THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 243 be able to respond to your wishes in the matter of furnishing you with materials for a biography of myself. Accept for your kind intentions the thanks of one to whom your letter has given the greatest pleasure ; but give up, my friend, your project of writing, and seek some worthier object, not so much for its virtues, for I pretend to practise these as much as anyone, but for the variety and abundance of the material that can be procured. As for me, possessed of small means, I have, by dint of hard work compelled fortune to favour me a little. I owe my position to my ardent nature, my disin- terested patriotism, and to the interest I have always taken in my profession. . . . After the peace, if I live to see it, we can give ourselves up to the pleasure of some joint labour of love, either of the kind you desire to undertake or some other." "There is," says Maze, "a sort of desolate prophecy in the words after the peace, if I live to see it. Marceau seems to have had a sad presentiment that he never would witness this peace." So true it is, we say, that in this world the highest natures suffer most, and live and die furthest off from the realization of their dreams. CHAPTER IV. Enforced inactivity — The destitution of Marceau's troops — Brutus and Cassius — Calumnies of the press— four dan^s passage of the Rhine — Marceau's part in it — The burning of the bridge of Neuwied — Reconciliation with Kldber. A LMOST the entire first portion of the year ±\_ 1795 Marceau passed in comparative inac- tivity. He had, it is true, to be as vigilant as before on the Rhine, and the construction of intrenched camps at Bonn, Coblentz, and else- where, demanded all his energy and his constant supervision ; but want, we might almost say famine, paralysed Jourdan's army and confined it to its fortified camps and strong places on the left bank of the Rhine. " The absence of all care and fore- thought in the military administration, the unfitness and indifference of the men whom it comprised, created for us," says a French writer, " the most cruel and embarrassing situation, and wellnigh brought ruin on our country." It was proposed at this period to add another division, that of Vincent, from the Army of the Rhine, to the forces already under Marceau's com- mand. For reasons that will appear presently, Marceau sought to prevent this, and, for the purpose. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 245 again had recourse to his friend Gillet. In the absence of Jourdan it was on Gillet that he mainly relied, and in all his letters Marceau expresses a deep and sincere attachment for this upright and conscientious civilian. At the beginning of the year he confesses to this staunch friend that he no longer possesses the " tranquillity of soul " that constituted his happiness during the last campaign. He rejoices to hear the news of Gillet's return after a temporary absence from the army. " Sad at heart and dejected in spirit, I felt overwhelmed this even- ing with the darkness, as it were, of my night, when your letter reached me. Its effect on me was like that of balm when first applied to a long neglected wound." Marceau had his own way in the matter of the undesirable addition to his command, and, though he was relieved of the defence of Coblentz, Vincent's division never became a portion of the force for which he was responsible. This was not, however, brought about without a passage of arms with Kleber, who was in the first instance responsible for the proposed transfer. " What ! " wrote Mar- ceau to his friend, " you send into this country, which you know to be devoid of all resources what- soever, an entire division with, seriously speaking, no commissariat at all ! And this under the specious pretext that it forms a part of the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse ! Do those who act in this manner believe in their hearts that they are satisfactorily performing their duty or rightly dis- charging their responsibilities ? It is far from being 246 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. SO, and the ghosts of the soldiers who perish of cold and hunger will cry out against the criminal indif- ference of the agents who have acted in this manner towards the defenders of the country." Other letters show a more bitter spirit still, and prove that the relations between the two friends must have been somewhat strained, especially on the part of Kleber, whom Marceau reproaches for wilfully misunderstanding him. There is no doubt that the hearts of all were sore at this trying season, and to this source the mutual recriminations can be traced. In this present instance there was, how- ever, one other cause, namely, the attitude of Kleber towards Jourdan. He criticized his chief's plans, disobeyed his orders, and altogether showed so rebellious a disposition that, in the end, Jourdan was obliged to arrest him and suspend him from all his functions. We think, after weighing all the facts, that Marceau sided very properly with Jourdan, and rightly blamed Kleber for his timidity and irresolution, which led him to thwart his chief and prevented the development of his undoubtedly great military talents. We shall presently see under what circumstances this friendship was renewed and restored to, if it had ever lost, its pristine strength and perfection. Kleber himself was at this time conducting, much against his will, the investment of Mayence de- fended by 20,000 Austrians. In the month of March of this year, 1795, he wrote to Marceau the following brief letter, which throws a side-light on Jourdan and his army : THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 247 " I have just received the order from the Com- mittee of PubHc Safety to return to the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse. My joy is unbounded ! As for you, move heaven and earth not to leave it ! " Meanwhile this army, to which its commanders were so closely attached, continued to suffer, and with the sufferings of his troops rose the indignation of Marceau against those responsible for their miserable plight. He appeals to Ernouf, Chief of the Staff, and to Gillet against the criminal indiffer- ence of the agents, " those rogues and rascals," as he calls them, " of the administrative service." He points out how subversive of discipline this privation must be, and that, although want has been more or less felt during the past two months, it has now reached its climax ; there has been no bread for two days, and the murmurs in the camp have become loud and dangerous. As for punishing the soldiers against whom complaints are made,^ how can this be done, he asks, when with magazines full and near at hand, they are left to starve ? " Assuredly," the letter concludes, " Tantalus himself was not so cruelly tried ! " So great was the destitution of the army that the soldiers were allowed by their officers to roam the country, disguised as peasants and as beggars, in search of their daily food. To the utter collapse of the administration was principally due the ill- success that the arms of the Republic met with during the eventful year 1795, ushered in with so many hopes founded on the glorious campaign of the previous year. 248 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Though Marceau felt the keenest sympathy for his soldiers in their misery and did all that was in his power to remove the cause of their sufferings, he enforced the strictest discipline, and adhered closely to the terms of his order of the day quoted in a previous chapter. He was especially severe against all forms of pillage and unauthorized requisi- tion and extended his protection as far as possible to the unhappy people whose country had become the scene of this protracted and omnivorous war. In spite of this attitude, both the foreign and French journals were full at this time of calumnies directed against Marceau, of scurrilous letters pur- porting to have been written from Treves, and com- plaining of the vexations of the inhabitants and the expense which they had been put to by Marceau's exactions and requisitions in general, and his indul- gence at all costs in the chasse, in particular. Marceau felt himself under the necessity of writing to the municipality of Treves on these subjects. In their reply the municipal administrators and officers of that town expressed their surprise that such com- plaints had been made, and such reports circulated, for they were entirely ignorant, they said, of the facts on which they were based. After admitting that the gravest injustice had been done to Marceau by either ignorant or vindictive persons, they go on to say, in conclusion : " You see, therefore, that the calumniators by their self-evident falsehoods have proclaimed them- selves to be our enemies as well as yours, since they have supposed it possible for us to reproach you for THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 249 that which is in the order of things, and dictated by- circumstances. We are all the less able to reproach you for aught, seeing that we are one and all ready to testify that since you have been in occupation of our town, you have had order and justice for your guides in all your transactions, and you have procured us some measure of peace, for which we shall be ever grateful to you." These were the only matters, outside his proper sphere of duty, which Marceau concerned himself about ; for all else, of a political or civil nature, he showed great indifference, mindful only of the state of his troops and of the military tasks assigned to him as a soldier of the Republic. In his profession he had not yet risen to the important height that made Jourdan nervous and Pichegru a traitor. He served the cause more humbly and, as compared with the latter, more faithfully, and yielded to neither in singleness or tenacity of purpose. The insurrection of the First Prairial, Year III. (20th May), the downfall of the Mountain, the decrees of death and deportation against the former Terrorist deputies, events which, at this time, once more roused Paris and all France, were of little im- portance or interest to Marceau on the Rhine. To his friend Gillet, who was naturally anxious as a deputy and civilian, he writes that he will not pass an opinion on any of these events, that he is too far from the scene to be able to judge of them, and a stranger to all political quarrels which distract France and the Convention. As for himself and those engaged like him, he writes : " Our wishes, our efforts, and all 250 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. our labours have but one end, that of the Republic one and indivisible." He only complains when the welfare of his soldiers is neglected, and the rights of his officers ignored. But this period of inactivity was at last over. On the 6th September Jourdan commenced his brilliant and perilous passage of the Rhine, which he success- fully effected at Eichelcamp, Dusseldorf, and Neu- wied, and established himself on the Lahn a fort- night after. The passage of the river at Neuwied, in which Marceau was engaged with several other divisions, was not seriously opposed ; the Austrians guarding the approaches, fearing to be turned, re- treated in haste and fell back on Nassau. The passage had been facilitated by the construction of a bridge of pontoons and boats brought up from Metz and the Moselle. On the retreat of the enemy the other divisions marched on to join Jourdan on the Lahn, while Marceau was left to protect this bridge, and to reduce at the same time the impor- tant and famous fortress of Ehrenbreitstein on the right bank of the river, and defended by a garrison of 3,600 Austrians and a numerous artillery of heavy guns. While Jourdan descended, therefore, into the rich valley of the Maine with the bulk of his army, and invested Mayence from the right bank of the Rhine, Marceau, left with 11,000 men, commenced a tete de pont before the crossing at Neuwied, fortified the islands of the river, and opened the lines of Monta- bauer, which were to form the investment of Ehren- breitstein. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 2$ I Though superior in numbers to the garrison, he was absolutely without the means or material needed to reduce so formidable a fortress, and his efforts were confined to blockading the enemy within the walls and cutting off all its supplies. Although Marceau did not take part in Jourdan's advance, he kept him informed of all the move- ments of the enemy towards Coblentz and the. Lower Rhine. On the 9th September he writes to congratulate his chief on his successful passage : " You know me well enough, I think," he says, " to be convinced that this is not a cold compliment that I offer, but the precise expression of a heart sincerely attached to you." He has very little important news to communicate in his letter, his story is the old story : " Always want of bread, always want of meat, and always some new rascally trick on the part of the administrators ! " The siege works supervised by Marceau were carried on and completed with rare intelligence and energy, and after some lively actions, the garrison of 3,600 men was entirely cut off from all outside communication, and strictly confined within the walls of the fortress. Scarcely had this been effected when the siege had to be abandoned owing to the retreat of the army of the Sambre-and-Meuse. It is convenient to record here that in his report to the Committee of Public Safety, Ernouf, the chief of Jourdan's staff, acknowledged, in terms of praise, the services rendered by Marceau before Neuwied and Ehrenbreitstein, and the measures taken by him to insure the safety of Jourdan's retreat. The orders 252 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. of Marceau at the same time show with what severity- he maintained order and discipline among his troops, both along the river and within the lines of invest- ment. We have seen Jourdan adv^ance as far as Mayence and the Maine. At the same time Pichegru, with the Army of the Rhine, crossed that river and took Mannheim. Clerfayt, with 94,000 men, now opposed Jourdan, while Wurmser, with 79,500 more, guarded the Upper Rhine and the valley of the Neckar against Pichegru. To insure success in the presence of these overwhelming odds, it was necessary that Pichegru should cross the Rhine in force and seize Heidelberg, the key to the valley of the Neckar, and that both armies should then advance between the Maine and the Neckar, and, from their con- centric position, deal with each of the Austrian armies in succession. Pichegru, however, either failed to grasp the situation, or else treacherously omitted to carry out what was so obviously required of him. The French were in consequence driven from the Neckar, and Jourdan was left en flecJie in the heart of Germany, exposed to the full attack of Clerfayt's forces, which could at any time be reinforced by a portion of those under Wurmser. A position such as Jourdan's could not long be maintained, and on the night of the 15th October the retreat of the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse commenced. It was effected in three columns. Kleber conducted that of the right by Wiesbaden and Nassau to Montabauer, where he effected a junction with Marceau's division. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 253 This division had been selected to form the rear- guard of Kleber's column after junction with it, and Marceau was expressly ordered by Jourdan to take all measures necessary to secure the retreat of this column across the Rhine, to sink or burn his flotilla of boats after he had raised the siege he had been conducting, and, if hard pressed, to abandon the tete de pont of Neuwied, and destroy the bridge itself after the last of the troops had crossed over in safety. Kleber arrived on the heights of Neuwied on the 1 8th October, and found the bridge in flames, and himself and some 25,000 men cut off from their only retreat, and at the mercy of the Austrians, who might at any moment fall on them in over- whelming numbers and drive them into the Rhine. This burning of the bridge of Neuwied is a well- known incident of military history, and the blunder or accident that caused it has been unjustly and wrongly attributed by more than one writer, in- cluding the great Jomini, to Marceau, directly by some, and indirectly by others. We have seen that Marceau received an order from Jourdan to sink or burn all boats, great or small, on the right bank of the river, or forming part of his siege flotilla, after the last of the troops had crossed over by the bridge, or otherwise. Marceau entrusted the execution of this order to an officer of engineers. Captain Souhait, one of his staff, while he himself superintended the evacuation by his troops of the intrenched camp of Metternich and the lines of investment. All went well, and Marceau arrived at the head of his siege corps on a height overlook-. 254 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. ing the left bank of the river. Here he saw, Hke Kleber, his bridge of boats and pontoons in flames, and the only connection with the right bank severed. Realizing at a glance what had happened, Marceau galloped down to the scene with his aide- de-camp, Maugars. He found the bridge destroyed beyond all remedy, and Kleber's troops at the mercy of the enemy. Grasping the awful state of affairs and recognizing, with his quick, sensitive nature, that the blame of it would attach to him as commander of the rear-guard, he fell into the deepest despair and, it is said, would have taken his own life there and then, but for the energy and affectionate intervention of his friend and aide-de- camp, Maugars. When he had recovered himself, Marceau wrote a hurried note to Kleber, taking the entire blame on himself, and begging of him to come to his succour, to repair the fatal blunder, which would bring disaster on the army. Kleber replied in most affectionate terms, telling Marceau he need not be anxious, that there would be no loss to the army, as he intended to fight and keep the enemy at bay, and that meanwhile the only remedy under the circumstances would be to repair the bridge as speedily as possible. Captain Souhait, to whom the order for the destruction of the boats was entrusted, admitted afterwards to the whole army that the accident that ensued on his execution of it was entirely his own fault, and due, not to the orders of his general, but to his own precipitancy in carrying them out. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 255 It appears that this officer, on the appearance of some of the enemy's cavalry on the right bank, caused all the boats on that side to be burnt. The burning vessels, abandoned to the stream, were carried down with the drift towards the bridge of Neuwied, against which they struck with violence, breaking through it at some points, and, at others, setting fire to the boats and pontoons of which it was constructed. In this manner the bridge was speedily either carried away or consumed, and Kleber cut off on the right bank with 25,000 men of the right wing of the army. Kleber's situation was desperate enough on the night of the i8th October, but, fortunately for him, Clerfayt, ignorant of the accident, had relinquished the pursuit and halted on the Lahn, and only pressed the retreat by sending a small corps of cavalry as far as Montabauer. Had he attacked the next day he would probably have found it hard to dislodge Kleber, then reinforced by Bernadotte's division, which had recrossed the river to support him. On this day, at dawn, Kleber, who had heard of Marceau's anxiety, and knowing his sensitive, im- pulsive nature, jumped into a boat, and crossed the river alone. He came to his friend's assistance in answer to his appeal, both to dissipate his despair, and to help him out of his dilemma. The rest of the story is best told in the words of Marceau's sister, Emira, and her husband Sergent, who were both present at the time on the Rhine, and witnessed the first meeting of the two friends. *' I was at the time," writes Emira, in a letter to the 256 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. " Constitutionnel," defending her brother against certain allegations of another journal, in connection with this event, " by my brother's side, and here I was informed of what had happened. General Kleber, who, like Marceau, only commanded a division, had been for some time somewhat cold towards my brother. Kleber now embraced him", and spoke to him in these words : ' Have you then forgotten that Kleber is near you ? Have you no longer any faith in your friend ? Have you forgotten that he has sworn affection till death to his brother in arms ? Come, let ns mount our hoj'ses a)id all will be remedied.' As a matter of fact they were during the whole of that day together, after this, on the other bank of the river." Sergent confirms Emira as to the words (noble, generous, precious words) in which Kleber first addressed Marceau, and adds that he witnessed the spectacle of the burning of the bridge of boats, and next day saw the two generals on horseback going towards Bendorf According to Sergent it was Emira herself who communicated her brother's state of mind to Kleber, and thus induced him to cross the river at the dawn of the day that witnessed their reconciliation. Kleber, who had throughout looked calmly on the accident to the bridge, attributed the mistake to an order badly carried out. He sent for the officer in command of his corps of engineers, and in twenty-four hours communication between the two banks of the river was re-established, the enemy being meanwhile kept at bay by the bold front THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 257 shown to them by Kleber and Bernadotte. The former general, in reporting on the incident, wrote : " The disaster is repaired. Where I had expected prostration I found nothing but energy of spirit. By such means all reverses can be set aright." The day following the destruction of the bridge, Marceau wrote to Jourdan. The following extract from this letter will help to remove, if that be any longer necessary, the burden so unjustly trans- ferred, as we have said, on to Marceau's shoulders : " The raising of the blockade, my general, has been carried out in such a manner that the enemy never knew of it, and in consequence did nothing to disquiet us. Yesterday, the 26th Vendemaire (19th October), during the morning, all the troops should have passed the Rhine, but for this unfortunate accident of which you already know the circum- stances. Dejected in mind, heavy at heart, and with my nerves wound up to an indescribable pitch, I am unable to write to you at any length now. I have employed my time in repairing what the premature and heedless execution of an otherwise wise order might have turned into a serious evil. Although in this matter I had nothing to reproach myself for, I would have paid with my life for the faults of another. Not of another, properly speak- ing, but of those whom he employed under him. The placid Austrian has not wished it to be so, nor has he discovered our position. To-day, all is in the state of order it ought to have been in before." After obliging Jourdan to recross the Rhine and return to his cantonments on the left bank of that S 258 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. river, the Imperial army of Clerfayt turned its attention to Mayence, blockaded on the left bank by the French, first under Kleber, and then under Schaal, more or less closely since the beginning of the year. Marceau and his division occupied the country between Obervvesel and Coblentz. He had been relieved of the defence of the tete de pofit of Neuwied and of the fortified islands above Coblentz shortly before they fell into the hands of the Austrians, who were thus once more entire masters of the right bank of the Rhine between Mayence and Diisseldorf. CHAPTER V. Etjiira comes to raise fresh hopes — In the defiles and gorges of the Htendsriick — Kreusnach — fourdan's advance — Alar- cean's defeat on the Gla?tn and Nahe — Victory of Stdtzbach — Negotiations with Kray — The armistice. ONCE more in cantonments, with the great river between him and the enemy, Marceau enjoyed a few days of rest and leisure. We have seen under what circumstances he had met his sister Emira, and how the latter was the instrument of his reconcihation with Kleber, a reconciliation effected in the face of a grave danger which might have proved fatal to both. Emira had once or twice before visited her brother on the Rhine, and, on this occasion, had come to meet him at Neuwied, where she had been awaiting him two days before Kleber arrived. Emira came to announce to her brother an event which touched his dearest interests. This was the separation that had been mutually agreed upon between the Count and Countess of Chateaugiron, the parents of his bride-elect. Marceau had con- tinued to write to Agathe through her mother, and their long separation had not been able to diminish the love they bore each other. The count, who 26o BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. had been all along aware of his wife's projects and of this secret correspondence, had not so far obtruded his objections. But, when other plans for the disposal of his daughter's hand presented them- selves, he emphatically declared to his wife that, while acknowledging his gratitude to Marceau, nothing would induce him to disgrace his ancestral house, with its royal traditions, by an alliance with a bourgeois general of the Republic. The countess refused to give way, and so the pair parted com- pany, the count remaining in the country with Hippolyte, while the countess came and established her home in Paris with Agathe. The news must have been all the more gratifying to Marceau, as it contained the assurance that Agathe, who would soon be of age, was fully in accord with her mother, and in obeying her was following the dictates of her own heart by marry- ing the man they both loved and considered worthy of her. Coming, as it did, soon after the affair of the bridge of Neuwied, the assurance must have been as balm to the bruised soul of the young warrior who had suffered so much during the last few months, and whose hopes had reached so low an ebb. And so Marceau poured out his whole soul to Emira. She listened attentively, and humoured him, at least for the present, " while under his tent, and to the far-off accompaniment of the great river, this fearless soldier, this leader of armies, painted for her, with strokes of tender emotion, the new life that awaited him, a life of labour still, but THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 26I sweet and tranquil in itself, a life bound up with that of an adorable companion, who would bring to him the happiness that true love alone can insure." In her heart Emira objected strongly to the union, which was in her eyes an unnatural one, and inadvisable in the face of the count's opposition, and though she listened patiently to her brother now, she did not fail to use all her influence and persuasion afterwards, in order to put an end to the engagement in the interests of both parties. We have paused, however, to dwell on this scene between brother and sister, because it is the last time the clouds part asunder for Marceau, and show the eternal blue of heaven that should have environed the whole life of one whom nature had made for the appreciation of the sweets of love and the blessings of peace. Because, again, Marceau was at this period in the very prime and vigour of his life, when, in spite of defeat and disaster, hope still beat strong in his breast. We pause because, hereafter, the heavens will smile no more for him, and the hope, like the full young life, will be cut off and perish. Clerfayt, having driven Jourdan once more across the Rhine, turned towards Mayence and the French lines of investment on the left bank of the river. On the 29th October, the same day as the attack on the islands above Coblentz and on the tcte de pont of Neuwied, the French army of investment was utterly defeated in its lines, and the blockade of Mayence raised. As a first result of this defeat, 262 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Marceau found his right flank exposed to the attack of Clerfayt's army, while Jourdan rightly considered he might be cut off from Treves and Luxembourg, should the Austrians elect to advance in force towards the Moselle. On the first news of the disaster to Schaal's corps, Jourdan, who did not yet know its extent, detached Marceau with 8,ioo men into the Hunds- riick, not so much to impose on the enemy and create a diversion in favour of the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle, as to protect his own canton- ments, now threatened by the Imperial army. Marceau's orders were to advance on to the Nahe if possible, otherwise to cover Treves and Luxem- bourg, and to defend the line of the Moselle at all costs. The Hundsriick, through which he was ordered to operate, is a difficult mountainous tract of country, a prolongation, in fact, of the Vosges, and lying between the Moselle, the Rhine and the Nahe. The enemy held in force all the passes leading into this region and outwards to Treves. The task assigned therefore to Marceau's small force, so small in comparison with the enemy's that he could not hazard the risk or the loss of pitched battles, was arduous enough and needed the greatest caution on his part. In spite of this and the severity of the season, he entered on the cam- paign, if not with a light heart, yet with all his usual enthusiasm and ardour. The march began towards the end of October. On the last day of that month he defeated the THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 263 enemy at Bacharach, and encamped on the heights of Lambschied, where he awaited reinforcements which had been promised by Jourdan. These came, however, from an unexpected direction, for soon after, Poncet, with six battalions of the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, on being driven back from Mayence, retreated towards Stromberg, and effected a junction with Marceau, who was thus placed in command of 14,000 to 15,000 men. Poncet's troops were located between the Rhine and Marceau, and effectually prevented any attempt being made on his left flank by the enemy from the direction either of Bingen or Mayence. In the first days of November Marceau pene- trates as far as Simmern, taking possession of the outlets and gorges of the Hundsriick in his im- mediate front. Before pushing on to the Nahe he has to await horses and reinforcements promised by Jourdan for he has no remounts for his cavalry, and the enemy are three times more numerous in this arm than the French. As for the division of the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle covering Luxembourg, he finds it consists of an isolated force of only 2,000 men, and yet his capability of maintaining himself on the Nahe will depend abso- lutely on this division holding out at Kirn ; other- wise the enemy will occupy the line of the Saar and push on to Treves, and he will be obliged to abandon even the Hundsriick. In view of this eventuality he makes inquiries as to his means of retreat, and finds that the only bridge over the Moselle by which he could effect his retreat, that 264 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. at Trarbach, has been demolished. He writes to Jourdan, pointing out how he is situated, and im- pressing on him the necessity of re-establishing this bridge and another at Miihlheim. As soon as the promised hussars arrived, Mar- ceau took possession of Kirn and formed a cordon of outposts along the Simmern, which falls into the Nahe below that town. He hoped by this move to be able to meet any attempt the enemy might make on Treves between himself and the division of the Moselle Army. But his position was a dangerous one at best, and the season so severe that his troops suffered horribly. On the 8th November he wrote to Kleber : " Two days hence at latest I shall hazard an engagement, not so much to drive these gentlemen away from the left bank of the Nahe as to discover for certain their strength and their designs, and to disturb their moral superiority, if Dame Fortune should smile on me." He has long had a presentiment, he goes on to say, that he will never be happy again ; the events of the last year confirm this view of his existence. " Nevertheless," he adds, " I have found you again my friend, and I am less miserable since I made this discovery. And yet, how far from happiness am I not under the present condi- tions ? " On the loth November, Marceau took possession of the gorges and steep heights of Stromberg, a strong position defended by .numerous guns, and drove the enemy beyond the Nahe. The troops of his left wing were engaged all day, and behaved gal- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 265 lantly ; animated by him, they charged the enemy defending the successive gorges, and would have cut them to pieces but for some woods which facihtated their retreat. Marceau, although victorious, wrote to Jourdan after the battle, pointing out his critical position in the presence of a foe twice as numerous : " The nature of the country," he says, " the astonish- ing number of openings and defiles, and the difficulty of communicating between the different points require, if the line of the Nahe from Bingen to Kirn is to be successfully held, a force of at least fifteen to eighteen thousand infantry and four or five thcusaiiu >javalry." Then there is always the chance of the Moselle division being beaten, in which case he vvill have to throw troops into Treves and retreat as best he can across the Moselle, which is not spanned by a single bridge. He will, however, do all that depends on him, only he asks Jourdan to cast a glance at his situation and to give him the benefit of his advice. Jourdan himself was too much discouraged and too sick at heart, at this time, to come to his friend's assistance, and thus Marceau was allowed to remain isolated on the Nahe, opposed by an enemy who might have risen and crushed him and his entire force in the gorges of Stromberg and the hills and ravines of the Soonwald. It was not to be supposed that Marceau would be left in peaceable occupation of the banks of the Nahe. On the nth November, the day following the victory in the gorges, he was in his turn attacked by the enemy. The contest was even more severe 266 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. than that of the previous day. The Republicans, though far inferior in numbers, were entirely suc- cessful. Not only was the enemy driven across the Nahe with a loss of 400 men, but Marceau, in spite of the determined resistance of the two brigades forming its garrison, gained possession of the im- portant outpost of Kreuznach, a small town on the left bank of the Nahe, The defeated garrison of this town being rein- forced the same day by eighteen battalions of foot and thirty squadrons of horse under Wartensleben, Marceau, in face of such overwhelming numbers, thought it prudent to abandon Kreuznach. The retreat was commenced at dawn of the day follow- ing the capture of the town, and was carried out under Marceau's personal supervision with the greatest precision and order. " The brigades of Riesch and Sohn," writes Jomini, in commenting on this retrograde movement, " under the orders of General Burghach offered a stubborn resistance to Marceau, and although he succeeded in dislodging them from Kreuznach, he thought it prudent to evacuate that post at the dawn of day ; a resolution all the less blameable as the enemy lost no time in arraying far more formidable forces against him," The central position occupied at this time by Clerfayt and Wurmser enabled them both to cover the siege of Mannheim and to prevent the junction of the Republican armies of Pichegru and Jourdan. The embarrassment of the latter general was con- siderably increased by the loss of the bridge of Neuwied and by the daily increasing want of THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 26/ provisions, in a country whose devastated area widened around him. Doubtful as to the result of a strong demonstration on the Nahe, Jourdan resolved to reinforce his right wing at Simmern and then await the orders of his government. Leaving Kleber at Coblentz and Neuwied, and Hatry at Diisseldorf, he moved his headquarters and five divisions towards Simmern, thus preventing the Austrians from taking any advantage of Marceau's isolated position. As for Pichegru, on the 14th November he was defeated at Frankenthal and compelled to retreat behind the lines of the Queich. On the receipt of the news of this disaster, the Directory sent press- ing orders to Jourdan to arrest the progress of the enemy by all the means in his power, and to take what steps he could to relieve the pressure on Mannheim. Jourdan's army was with difficulty organized. At length, on the 26th November, he put himself at the head of 40,000 men and ad- vanced from Simmern, through the Soonwald and Hochwald, to the Nahe, in the midst of most incle- ment weather. The advance-guard of this expedi- tionary force was commanded by Marceau and cov^ered a front of some fifteen miles from Martin- stein to Birkenfeld. Marceau had already put himself in motion. On the 23rd November he occupied Kirn and Ober- stein on the Nahe, driving back the Austrians all along the line. This was followed by the occu- pation of Birkenfeld and the forcing of the terrible gorges of Oberstein, by which the grand road to 268 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Trarbach was secured against the enemy. But the weather was most severe and the country rude and rugged. " What a country ! what a situation ! " writes Marceau to Jourdan, " he who has not seen either does not know how disagreeable war is. We can devise nothing for connecting the different corps, nor is there any certain means of communi- cation." Later he writes from Birkenfeld : " All day it has been as cold as Hades is hot, and the soldiers have suffered infinitely. The hope of coming victory has alone enabled us to put up with all our inconveniences." His reconnaissances are fruitless, " so much snow has fallen and I have come back frozen." All the columns of Jourdan suffered terribly during their difficult march to the Nahe. " The season was most severe," writes Jomini, " the roads broken up and impassable. A cruel scarcity prevailed. To add to other embarrassments, the rising of the waters of the Nahe rendered the construction of a flying bridge across that river, under the fire of the enemy, a much more difficult and almost impossible task." Jourdan's object in thus advancing will be better understood from the following extract of a letter addressed by Marceau, before the passage of the Nahe, to Gouvain Saint-Cyr, who commanded at the time the left wing of Pichegru's Army of the Rhine : " The Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse," wrote Marceau from Birkenfeld, on the 29th November, " numbering more or less 40,000 men, will advance to-morrow to Kreuznach, Lauterecken, and Meisenheim. General Jourdan's aim is to try THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 269 and cut off the enemy's communication with Mayence, or, at least, to compel him to raise the siege of Mannheim, if, as I am assured, this place has not already fallen. He has communicated his project to General Pichegru, who, informed of the date of our movements, will no doubt himself make one to support us." Marceau, having forced the passage of the Nahe at Kirn, now advanced to the Glann, where he occu- pied Meisenheim and Lauterecken, while Jourdan and Bernadotte drove the Austrians from Kreuz- nach. But the flooding of the Nahe prevented Jourdan from throwing bridges across it to enable his wings to advance, at the same time that Marceau, in attempting to gain the Alsenz, was assailed by the enemy with an overpowering force of cavalry, and not only driven back, but obliged to abandon Lauterecken, retaining, however, the gorges that command it. Jourdan, far from losing heart, was now about to press the enemy by a bold and simultaneous ad- vance, when the news of the capitulation of Mann- heim reached him. This event had really taken place on the 22nd November, and in consequence Clerfayt was reinforced on the Nahe and the Glann by thirty-six battalions of infantry and several regi- ments of cavalry. Jourdan wisely resolved to retire before such formidable combinations, but his reso- lution was taken almost too late to prevent the de- struction of his entire advance-guard under Marceau, who was still confronting the enemy on the Glann. Clerfayt directed his right on Bingen, and his 2/0 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. corps de bataille on Kreuznach and Alsenz, while Kray was ordered to penetrate to Meisenheim and Nauendorf to Birkenfeld and Baumholder. Already at the beginning of December, Marceau reports that the enemy is in force at Kaiserlautern and Wolfstein, and he is afraid of his communica- tions in rear, as the hordes of the hostile cavalry are masters of all the great roads. On the 3rd December a skirmish takes place, followed by a severer one the next day ; the enemy is soundly beaten on both occasions, and loses heavily around Alsenz, where the attack was concentrated. Mar- ceau cannot yet see what the enemy's object is in making these frequent attacks ; he reports certain suspicious movements the next day, and thinks the Austrians are manoeuvring on his right so as to cut off his advance-guard. He gives orders accordingly to reconstruct the bridges of Standenheim and Sobernheim, so as to establish communications with Jourdan, and in order to secure his retreat to Birken- feld in the event of his being hard pressed. Their frequent reverses, added to their absolute destitution, had for some time broken the spirit of the Republican armies on the Rhine. Numbers de- serted and returned to their homes, and no troops were sent to replace them or to fill up casualties. Discipline could no longer be maintained among those who remained, and pillage and outrage were the order of the day. The little Army of the Hundsriick, more and more hemmed in and menaced, was all the more affected by this in that its numbers were every day diminished by the almost hourly con- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 2/1 flicts with a foe whose ranks were replenished in proportion to the RepubHcan losses. We find Marceau so dejected and disgusted with the state of affairs, that, as he said in his letter to Jourdan, nothing in the world would prevent him from quitting the army and his command were it not for his honour and his friendship for his chief Never before had he been so deeply pained and affected by what took place around him, and, not- withstanding all his efforts, the shameless pillage by the soldiery, the indifference of the officers, the insubordination of both, and the absence of all arrangements for the supply of clothing, provisions, and ammunition. In spite of this dejection of spirit, Marceau does not abate his efforts. He is all day, and often all night on horseback, he shows the enemy as bold a front as the circumstances and his numbers will permit, so disposing his troops as to deceive the enemy and mask his own weakness. But the climax approaches. On the 7th December Marceau reports to Jourdan that the enemy has on that day made a reconnaissance along his entire front, though without attempting to come to close quarters, and that he has himself seen considerable reinforcements arrive to them at Lauterecken, and behind the stream of the Alsenz. He is anxious as to the result of an attack, as he occupies a bad position and his line is too extended. The attack was* delivered by the Austrians the very next day. Clerfayt had discovered the isola- tion and feebleness of Marccau's division. Early 272 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. on the morning of the 8th December the Repubh'can advance-guard was repulsed, and its route to Kirn cut off, and Marceau, assailed on the Glann by the combined forces of Kray and Nauendorf, amount- ing to 26,000 men, effected his retreat across the Nahe at Sobernheim with difficulty, and with the loss of 900 men and three field guns. The action is best described in the words of Marceau's report to Jourdan, written from Sobern- heim on the night of his defeat : " Cut off from my advance-guard from 7 o'clock in the morning, my right overthrown as soon as it was, so to speak, attacked, I saw myself simultaneously assailed on my wings and in rear by 15,000 men. I continued to fight till 2 o'clock p.m., when I was forced to retire both by the frequency and the force of the several attacks of the enemy. I arrived behind Standernheim at 5 o'clock in the afternoon with- out a single cartridge, and without any ammunition for the greater portion of my artillery. I cannot yet say what my losses have been. ... If anything could console an unfortunate general it would cer- tainly be the conviction that he has done all that was necessary and possible to delay the march of events. There would also be the pleasure he has experienced of seeing his troops obedient to his orders, fighting with determination, and arresting at each step the progress of a superior foe." Marceau had exposed himself freely during the whole day encouraging or leading his troops. His horse was killed under him, and on one occasion, being cut off from his troops, he was obliged to open THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 2/3 a passage for himself, sword in hand, through the enemy's hussars. Though compelled to retreat, his defence had been such as to make the Austrians more circumspect in their advance, thus giving time to Jourdan's army to retire undisturbed from the line of the Nahe, The attack also served to show to Jourdan that the aim of the Austrians was to cut him off, by out- flanking him on the right, from Treves and the Moselle. Seeing this, Jourdan fell back behind the Soonwald, and lined the left bank of the Moselle from Treves to Trarbach with Bernadotte's division ; at the same time, knowing that he could not hold out in this savage and devastated country, he pre- pared to retire himself behind the Moselle, and commenced the construction of an intrenched camp at Trarbach. This was all the more necessary as Clerfayt was now threatening to cross the Lower Rhine at Coblentz and was pushing reconnaissances towards Muhlheim and Birkenfeld. In fact, the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, inferior in numbers and wanting in everything, found itself in the most difficult position possible. Retreat was inevitable, but, in order that it might be carried out honourably and otherwise than disastrously, Jourdan ordered Marceau, with his own and Poncet's divisions, to attack the enemy once more and drive back the swarms of cavalry that menaced the right flank of his army. Marceau surprised theenemyonthe morningof the 17th December, in the villages of Sultzbach, Stips- T 274 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. hausen, and Proschied, took 400 prisoners and three guns, drove the enemy back in great disorder to the banks of the Nahe, and compelled them to withdraw all their outposts from Rosbach and Muhlheim. Two or three days later the Austrians withdrew altogether from the roads and gorges leading into the Moselle valley, and left only some light troops on the left bank of the Nahe. Marceau's victory gave the French the navigation of the Moselle and assured them the possession of Treves and Trarbach. But its results extended even further than this, for it led almost immediately to the conclusion of an armistice between the conflict- ing armies. In the negotiations Marceau played the part of intermediary for the French, while the Austrians were represented by Baron Kray, the general who had been opposed to him in the field. Marceau had often had occasion to communicate with the Austrian generals Kray and Nauendorf, more especially as to the exchange and treatment of prisoners of war, and they had learned to respect a fbe whom they found to be not only worthy of their steel but one whose humanity shone out clear above the stress of war and the rage and animosity of battle. " I am jealous of winning the esteem even of my enemies," wrote Marceau to Nauendorf, " and I shall neglect nothing to convince them that in everything I am worthy of them." On the 19th December Kray wrote to Marceau asking for an interview with him at the outposts. The meeting took place on the following morning, when Kray for the first time proposed the armistice. THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 275 the terms of which, Jourdan having meanwhile authorized the negotiation, were discussed a few days later at a second meeting. The clauses regu- lating the truce were finally agreed upon between the generals at Kirn. All hostilities were forthwith suspended, and the signatures to the convention were formally exchanged on the first day of the year 1796. The armies on the Upper Rhine, that is, the forces of Pichegru and Wurmser, were included in the armistice. The Simmern and the Nahe were fixed as the boundaries between Clerfayt, and Jourdan. Hostilities were not to be resumed until ten days after the denunciation of the truce by either side. A line of demarcation was drawn between the con- tending parties, and both armies went into winter quarters on the left bank of the Rhine. This repose did not come a day too soon, for the army of the Sambre-and-Meuse was suffering cruelly from famine and disease and had already been reduced to the last expedients. By advancing boldly beyond the Nahe it had effected the purpose of the Directory. But in drawing the superior forces of Clerfayt on itself it had been severely handled and might have been annihilated, or at least cut off from the Moselle, but for the strategic skill of its generalissimo and the unhesitating valour of the young officer who commanded its advance-guard. Jourdan, with Joubert and the other representa- tives, hailed with delight the prospect of a truce, and considered it to be the best as well as the most fortunate result of the victory of Sultzbach. 276 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Onthe i5thDecemberJoubert wrote to a colleague: " We are continually overreached by a numerous enemy, to whom we can present but an unequal front. . . . The evil increases from day to day, and, together with the uncertainty of our plans, adds considerably to the misfortunes of an army situated like that of the Sambre-and-Meuse." Jourdan, in reporting the armistice to the Direc- tory, wrote : " You will, I have no doubt, approve of the negotiation imposed on us by the hardships of our troops, their destitution, the absence of horses, and the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition to renew the campaign with advantage." We cannot but agree with Jourdan and the repre- sentatives as to the happy results of Marceau's actions on the Glann and the Nahe, his victory at Sultzbach, and his clever conferences with Kray. His efforts both as diplomatist and general were crowned with complete success. But whatever the claim to distinction he may be allowed in either capacity, we are quite certain, from a scrutiny of all that bears on the transactions in which he was engaged, that Marceau was guided, principally if not wholly, by the dictates of humanity and by the strong desire to bring to a close a cruel system of warfare, in which he was compelled to take a lead- ing though an unwilling part. CHAPTER VI. lilarceatt^s occupations during the truce — Prepa7-ations for marriage — The armistice denounced — Marceau is placed in comtna?id of the right wing — His several tasks during the advance of the French armies — His attitude towards the people — Retreat offourdan and junction of the right wing with the jnain army on the Lahn. THE armistice that had brought to a temporary- close the sanguinary conflicts on the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Nahe, and put an end to the awful sufferings of the troops, was disapproved of by both governments. The Aulic Council of the Empire disgraced Clerfayt, while Jourdan and Joubert were both summoned to Paris to justify themselves before the Directory, Kleber being left in command of the Army of the Sambre-and- Meuse. The truce lasted five months notwithstanding, during which Marceau, with his headquarters at Treves, busied himself with the civil administration of the country, and at the same time prepared his division for the coming struggle. The Directory, zealous as a new government, meditated important projects, and sought to place its armies on a better footing. Its object was to 278 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. push these forward into Germany by the valleys of the Maine and Neckar, and, by transferring the theatre of war to the hereditary dominions of Austria, to alienate the Confederate princes from the Empire. In the campaign of 1795 the most fortunate cir- cumstances had combined to favour the French, but the stupid instructions of the Committee of Public Safety, and the treason of Pichegru, had prevented their profiting by them. As no shadow of doubt could be cast on the patriotism of Jourdan, that general returned to his command, but Pichegru was replaced by Moreau. The Directory saw the necessity of re-organizing its armies, and large numbers of fresh troops were sent to the Rhine from western and southern France. But the Executive overlooked the question of supplies, and of transport and cavalry remounts, without which the mere addition to the numerical strength of the armies, occupying an exhausted country, was a doubtful advantage. Added to this that Carnot, elected member of the Directory, resumed the conduct of the war, and prepared a vicious plan of campaign, in the execution of which the two armies on the Rhine all but perished. The Aulic Council, on the other hand, though it replaced Clerfayt by Prince Charles, took no active steps, and gave time to the Republicans to recover from their shattered condition and to regain their courage, shaken by the defeats of the previous year. On the whole, the opposing armies on the Rhine commenced the campaign of 1796 with equal ad- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 2/9 vantages, and it was only the great military genius of the Archduke Charles that outweighed the balance, and brought victory to the Imperial arms in the end. Meanwhile, until the truce was denounced, the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse prepared itself for the coming fray. Jourdan guarded the Hundsriick and the left bank of the Nahe with the divisions of Marceau, Poncet, Bernadotte, and Championnet, and Bonnard's reserve of cavalry. Works had been commenced on the Moselle to cover the bridges of Muhlheim, Trarbach, Treis, and Aiken, and the heights of Trarbach and Treves had been in- trenched. The execution of the greater portion of these works was entrusted to Marceau, who made a systematic study of the defence of the Moselle. In addition, he had to attend to the remounting of his cavalry, and to the equipment and armament of his troops generally. He established, as officer com- manding the advance-guard, a line of cantonments, which served as a thick screen to prevent the enemy from gaining any intelligence of his prepara- tions, or defences, and organized an intelligence corps to penetrate the enemy's camp, and keep him informed of all their designs and movements. Hating red tape, as all capable active-minded men must hate it, he yet submitted to its rule, and applied the orders of the Minister of War with the utmost rigour and precision of detail. The armistice was fully approved of by the Directory after it had learnt, from the mouths of Jourdan and Joubcrt, the miserable plight of its 28o BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. armies. The convention not being, however, quite complete, Marceau was directed to see Kray again. The generals met twice at Birkenfeld, and it was during these and the previous interviews that the older general learnt to respect the sagacity and admire the patriotism of the younger, and to love him for the great qualities he found in his character. Marceau carried the further negotiations to a success- ful issue, the principal clause added to the truce being the stipulation that ten days' notice should be given byeither belligerent before resuminghostilities. Marceau had something pleasanter, during this period, to occupy him at Treves than the prepara- tion for a war of which he sincerely desired to see the end. His sister, Emira, had visited him last, as we know, at Coblentz. Since that time she had, in all her letters, never ceased to dissuade him from the projected alliance with the aristocratic house of Chateaugiron. She now renewed her visits at Treves, where the subject was again discussed, and Emira might, perhaps, have succeeded in shaking her brother's purpose, had not his friend Kleber, who was assured of the sentiments of both Madame Lepretre and her daughter, stepped in to revive fresh hopes in Marceau's breast. He persuaded him to wait until Agathe had attained her twenty- first year, when she would be free to assume her husband's name, and to prove her devotion to him. Marceau at first concealed his newly-awakened hopes from his sister, but all was finally revealed, and she withdrew her opposition. Sergent (Emira's husband) records that all the details for the mar- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 28 1 riage were arranged about this time. The Execu- tive, he says, had promised Marceau leave to visit Paris, the ceremony was to have taken place at Argenteuil, and it was only the sudden renewal of hostilities that postponed what Marceau's death for ever made impossible. Agathe knew of Emira's objection to the mar- riage, and after Marceau's death wrote to her a pathetic letter on the subject. " You do not know me, madame," she half complains, " and, therefore, you are unable to judge of the feelings that drew me towards him." She speaks of Marceau as the " friend of my heart," and goes on to say how she bad followed his career step by step, glorying in his deeds, but anxious only for the day when her hero would return to her and claim her. And so we must work up the tragedy to its end. " While the rose-crowned torches of Hymen," writes Sergent, " are being made ready in France, the mortal remains of Marceau are brought back to the banks of the Rhine to the accompaniment of funeral march and dirge." The Aulic Council, alarmed at the success of Napoleon in Italy, and in order to create a diversion on the Rhine, at last denounced the armistice. In a letter to Kray, acknowledging the receipt of despatches relating to this rupture, Marceau thus expresses himself on the subject : " It grieves me as deeply as it does you that the governments we serve have remitted to the fortune of arms the decision of their respective claims, as to the validity of which I am no judge. I groan for humanity 282 BIOGRArHY OF MARCEAU. when I think of the evils which follow the flail of war, and I shall never cease to hope for a speedy- peace, when two nations, meant for mutual esteem, will be reconciled." Alas, for humanity ! the year 1796 was to inaugurate the era of Napoleon, the flail of all Europe, and the most terrible citizen that ever scourged a state. The truce was denounced on the 2 1st May, and ten days later the fifth cam- paign of liberty was opened. Carnot's vicious plan involved a repetition of last year's blunders. The two Republican armies were to advance in parallel lines into Germany, the one along the valley of the Maine, the other along that of the Neckar, and to attack the flanks of the Imperial army. This army occupied a central position, and could at any time concentrate to overwhelm either Jourdan or Moreau, and this is what actually happened before the close of the year. The Austrian army, 150,000 strong, after the departure of Wurmser, had their centre at Mayence. On the left Latour observed the Upper Rhine, with his back to the Black Forest, and Prince Wurtem- berg, on the right, the Lower Rhine as far as its tributary, the Sieg. At the moment of the rupture of the armistice the bulk of the army of the Lower Rhine, under the archduke himself, was encamped before Mayence near Baumholder, and Mercandin was detached with a considerable corps to the neighbourhood of Kreuznach to cover its left and rear. The strength of the French armies, including garrisons, exceeded 152,000, of which Jourdan com- manded about one half, his right wing (subsequently THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 283 under Marceau) resting on the Nahe, and his left, under Kleber, on the Rhine as far as Dusseldorf. Marceau did not take part in the advance of the armies to the Danube. He was selected to guard the line of the Rhine, to maintain touch between the two armies, and to prevent any movements in their rear. His task was therefore none the less a difficult and dangerous one, especially as the forces placed at his disposal were always inadequate, and, until the retreat of the archduke, he was liable to be crushed by a sudden concentration of the enemy, when neither Jourdan nor Moreau could have saved him. Jourdan, as we have seen, guarded the ap- proaches to the Hundsriick, observing the arch- duke with four divisions, including Marceau's. It was a part of Carnot's plan that Jourdan should cross the Rhine at Neuwied and Dusseldorf tO' attract to himself the principal attention of the enemy, and so facilitate the passage of the Upper Rhine by Moreau. He was also instructed to organize his right wing into a separate corps, to defend the position on the Nahe, and maintain touch with Moreau. The corps, when organized, consisted of the divisions of Marceau, Poncet, and Bernadotte, with Bonnard's cavalry, making up a total of 29,950 men. It was placed under the com- mand of Marceau. It was intended that it should act, for the present, merely as a corps of observa- tion, cover the bridge of Neuwied, watch Mayence, and support when required the operations of either army. 284 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. Hostilities were resumed on the 31st May, a day of advance-posts and reconnaissances in force on the Nahe and the Blies, to feel the enemy and unmask his movements. At the very outset the Austrians tried to cut Marceau off from Jourdan on his left, and Saint-Cyr on his right. But he boldly assumed the offensive, and inflicted rude lessons on the enemy. Everywhere he was successful, on the heights around Birkenfeld, on the Blies, and on the Seltz, and Joubert had nothing but praise for the young general in all his reports. The state of his troops was, however, far from satisfactory. On the ist June he wrote to Jourdan, complaining he was without supplies, and that four battalions had had no bread for two days. " I would rather," he indignantly writes, " live in obscurity, than be compelled to see the fruit of five years' labour, and of an unflinching desire to do the utmost for my country thrown away, because of the mismanagement of the administration." So great was the neglect of this department, that we find him obliged to levy a contribution of four loaves of bread from each of the inhabitants of Treves and Saarburg. Marceau was soon, however, to be relieved of the pressure of overwhelming forces. On the 31st May Kleber left the camp at Diisseldorf and advanced to the Sieg, where he defeated Wurtemberg, and again on the heights of Altenkirchen. Prince Charles, hearing of the defeat of his right wing, hastened to its aid with reinforcements. He with- drew from the Nahe on the 8th June, leaving only THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 285 20,000 men in Mayence, and a screen before Mar- ceau and Saint-Cyr. Jourdan, on his part, hearing of the departure of his adversary, crossed the Rhine hastily at Neuwied, and marched across the moun- tains of Fulden on Wetzler to take up a position on the Lahn. Marceau was left with 20,000 men to observe the camp of Mercandin and the garrison of Mayence. Although left without orders by Jourdan, and kept in the dark as to the movements of Moreau, Marceau did all that the circumstances permitted. He occupied Kreuznach and made a strong recon- naissance along the Seltz. Of his position in advance of Kreuznach he writes : " I am every day on horseback, and, heavens knows ! long enough at a stretch, too ! When is this going to end, and when, if at all, do these gentlemen intend bringing matters to an issue by a great and glorious battle ? " His exertions were destined to be fruitless of result, for on the 15th June the archduke defeated Jourdan at Wetzler, and on the following day the entire army of the Sambre-and-Meuse was in full retreat. Marceau soon felt once more the pressure of the Imperial troops ; the enemy is reinforced and becomes more and more audacious, but he still shows a bold front, and purposes, if attacked, to risk the chances of a battle on the banks of the Nahe. To Jourdan he writes, at this time, words of sympathy and advice, and the only complaint he has to make is against the conduct of the peasants, who, he says, constantly betray his sol- 286 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. diers, and lead them by false reports into ambushes and surprises. Jourdan was now compelled to fall back to his first position behind the Rhine. On the 19th June Kleber sustained an unequal action at Ukerath, and on the following day the entire army was once more behind the line of the great river. The Imperialists, having successfully opposed Jourdan on their right flank, now renewed their manoeuvres on the Nahe. On the arrival of rein- forcements an attempt was made to force Marceau's line on the Seltz. The attempt was frustrated, and the enemy was content with constructing intrenched camps facing Marceau's, in order to prevent his further advance. Marceau's position had once more become a pre- carious one, and he was ill at ease, especially as Moreau had withdrawn all his troops from his neighbourhood. At this juncture he had to com- plain, too, of the misconduct of some of his officers, especially of those of the 4th Regiment of Hussars, who had allowed themselves to be surprised. " Neither reprimands," he writes to Jourdan, " nor the frequent exercise of authority has any effect on their habits. All they can think of is drink and sleep. I say this with regret, and, though there can be no pleasure in inflicting punishment, yet I shall not be able to put up with it any longer if these men are not expelled from our midst, and an example made of those who disgrace us daily. I would rather vegetate in some quiet hamlet with my pure intentions and clear conscience, than be THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 28/ compelled to submit to, and to suffer for the in- capacity and bad faith of men for whom duty is a chimera and honour a meaningless word." Towards the people of the country he maintained the same attitude of forbearance and humanity. On the renewal of hostilities he had advanced his headquarters to Birkenfeld, and thence to Kreuz- nach. He was obliged to levy contributions, but he spared this town. " The town of Kreuznach," he wrote to Jourdan, " has suffered so much that I have not dared to levy any imposition on it." The horizon, however, soon cleared. On the 24th June Moreau effected his celebrated passage of the Rhine at Strasbourg. Two days later the news reached Marceau, who transmitted it to Jourdan. In the same letter, such was the good- ness of his heart, he says a good word for the com- mandant of hussars whom he had suspended, because, as he says, he is an old soldier, and has long served his country. " We need young men, full of honour, to put the machine in motion again." During his severe vigil on the banks of the Nahe and the Seltz, Marceau was attacked by a cruel malady contracted in La Vendee. He was obliged to keep to his bed, but his vigilance never ceased, and he issued orders and maintained discipline as before. On the 30th June, and again on the ist July, the enemy attacked his position in con- siderable force, but retreated each day towards Mayence, after engaging him for a few hours. It became clear to him that his foes were drawino- 2S8 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. closer round Mayence, and thence crossing the river and passing to the Upper Rhine, where Moreau had been disturbing the Imperial left wing. Prince Charles had, in fact, already quitted the centre with 25,000 men to assist Latour, but there were still 36,000 troops on the Lahn and 27,000 before Mayence. The Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse retired behind the Rhine, was only awaiting the news of Moreau's crossing to resume the offensive. Accord- ingly, on the 27th June, Kleber once more advanced to the Sieg, and on the 2nd July Jourdan himself, after drawing on Marceau for reinforcements, re- crossed the Rhine at Neuwied. We do not purpose to follow either Jourdan or Moreau in their bold march into the heart of Ger- many. We are concerned only with the right wing of the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse under Marceau, to whom a number of duties was assigned, varying with the advance of the armies. The corps left on the Rhine under his orders numbered 28,550 men, consisting of the brigades of Hardy and Daurier, and the divisions of Bonnaud and Poncet, To Poncet was entrusted the investment of Ehrenbreitstein, whose garrison would have in- tercepted the communications and destroyed the bridge of Neuwied, Poncet was ordered to draw his forces closely round the fortress, and to watch over the safety of the bridge with its covering re- doubts, and the depots of war material established at Montabauer and Limburg, Besides Ehrenbreit- stein, Marceau had to lay siege to the fortress of THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 289 Konigstein, to hold in check on both banks of the river the Imperial troops shut up in Mayence, to blockade Cassel, to garrison Frankfurt, and escort all convoys from the Lahn to the Maine, and from thence up to Wurzburg. He was responsible also for the civil administration of the country, and for the levying of the contributions of war decided upon by the so-called representatives of the people. He placed Hardy before Mayence on the left bank of the Rhine, Daurier opposite Cassel, while Bonnaud's division took charge of Frankfurt and the country between the Maine and the Rhine. Marceau's activity everywhere supplied the place of numbers. " Vigilance and supervision," he wrote to Brigadier-General Frant, " will protect us from everything." These are his watchwords and his means of.success. He was, however, not well pleased with his part in the campaign, and would rather have accom- panied Jourdan. " I long to join you," he wrote, " if only to be rid of these administrators, collectors, bailiffs et hoc germs ovine, who beset me here. . . . Heavens, what a brood ! and how it does increase and multiply ! " One of this brood was the national agent, Dreysen. How Marceau dealt with him and his pretensions the following extract will tell : " I do not know, citizen, to what I owe this long and pompous display of your rights, or this assertion of your independence. As I have never had any deal- ings with you, and have not even the pleasure of your acquaintance, you have, it seems, nothing to complain of against me. Whenever it is a question U 290 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. of the service of the RepubHc, you may be sure I shall not be behindhand in the discharge of my duty. As for yourself, if you will only act as you ought to do, you will find no difficulty in winning the esteem of all Republicans, and you will never have to fear that your authority is being ignored or opposed by the military." Certainly, under a general less zealous, a body of troops so out of proportion to the numbers of the enemy, and to the requirements of the task assigned to it, would soon have found itself in inextricable difficulties. But Marceau's wise dispositions, as well as his activity, made up for numbers. Every- where fieldworks were constructed, a bridge of boats thrown across the river at Russelsheim, and all the material for river transport collected on the Rhine near Winckel, so as to facilitate the communications between the different portions of his corps of obser- vation. The garrisons of Ehrenbreitstein,Mayence,Cassel, and Konigstein, allowed themselves to be invested with a facility quite unexpected. As for Konig- stein, the French engineers, having discovered the pipes by which water was supplied to that fortress, at once cut off the supply, and compelled the gar- rison to surrender at discretion. Marceau entered the place at the head of his troops on the 20th July, and was rewarded with the capture of twenty cannon and a considerable store of small arms and ammunition. On the 1 6th July the city of Frankfurt was sur- rendered to Jourdan. It was as leniently dealt THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 29I with as the Directory would allow, and Marceau was enjoined to collect the contributions. He showed great moderation towards the magistrates taken as hostages in allowing them their liberty and some grace in the payment of their security money. For this act of humanity he was denounced to the Minister of War by the politicians who were with his army, and he was very nearly being de- prived of his command and recalled to Paris. In the summer of this year, Marceau's corps occu- pied the whole of the Nassau-Usingen district, and on the 2ist July we find him established at Wies- baden. Here, again, we read of the same attitude towards the unhappy people whose country was being devastated by war. The archives of Wies- baden contain several proofs of his policy, — if we can call that so which proceeds unprompted and unpremeditated from the heart, — of humanity and moderation. Later in the year the German people complained of the abuses and requisitions of the French commissaries of war. On the President of the Regency, Von Kruse, forwarding these complaints to Marceau, the latter at once authorized the issuing of a proclamation which would deliver the country from the exactions complained of. On the 17th August, to cite another instance, Marceau had occa- sion to write to Jourdan, forwarding to him the plenipotentiaries from the Prince of Nassau for the -conclusion of an armistice and a treaty of peace. He urges on Jourdan to negotiate with the prince, and win over one more friend to the Republic from 292 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. among her enemies, and he drives his argument home in words full of compassion and generous large-heartedness : " If it were not within your well-known principles to wish for all nations a peace that would enable them to enjoy their own, and were you not already acquainted with the trials of the peasant, on whom falls the burden of war, I would paint a picture for you of what this country has suffered from the continuous incursions of the rival armies. The people sigh only for peace, and are ready to sacrifice all to obtain it. I cannot conceal from you that the cQuntry is exhausted, and that nothing but a little corn can now be ob- tained from it. My dear general, take this as your guide for the contribution that you might exact. Having witnessed the misery of these poor people, and knowing their eagerness to supply the wants of the troops, I am allowed to plead their cause, which is that of humanity, and will find an echo in your heart as it has already in mine." Towards the end of August the Regency again complained, this time against the French Inspector- General of Forests and Game Reserves. Marceau promptly issued an order placing a limit on this official's rapacity and powers, and making the exer- cise even of his admitted rights subject to the super- vision of the general in command of the district. The man, who was so careful of the property of others, and might at this time have enriched him- self, was poor, and remained so to the end of his days. In June, Marceau wrote to Emira to say that in case he had an arm or a leg the less, she THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 293 alone must support him. At another time he could scarcely collect twenty-five louis to send to his mother, who had been robbed. On the ist August he wrote to Commissary Robert : " I am quite ruined. There remain to me my cloak and sword, honour, and life. The latter, upon my word, becomes a burden when it no longer holds out any prospect of happiness. I leave it to time, the master of all things, to improve my lot." Marceau's troops, once firmly established in in- trenched positions, had only skirmishes with the several Austrian garrisons they hemmed in. That of Mayence alone executed two sorties of at all a serious nature, and these were repulsed by the French after the enemy had obtained a partial success. The garrison of Ehrenbreitstein was sum- moned by Marceau, but it refused to yield to his terms. Dispositions were therefore made to lay regular siege to the place, but the works were not far advanced when Jourdan began his retreat, and it was only after this had commenced that the Government consigned some of the troops of the Army of the North to assist in the blockade of the fortress, as well as that of Mayence. This assistance arrived too late to be of much service to Jourdan or Marceau. The Archduke Charles had gradually retired to- wards Ratisbon before the armies of Jourdan and Moreau, drawing these further away from their base, and lengthening their line of communications at every step. By the middle of August Jourdan had reached the Naab, and Moreau had already de- 294 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. bouched into the Danube valley. But the archduke was only waiting his opportunity. That opportunity came after the battle of Neresheim. Leaving a screen of 37,000 men before Moreau, he took his departure on the i6th August with twenty-four battalions and fifty squadrons to crush Jourdan^ now beyond the reach of any timely assistance from Moreau. Jourdan was defeated, his route to Nurem- berg intercepted, and his army only reached Velden at the end of August, after a disastrous retreat of eight days. Arrived at Schweinfurt, he was anxious to hazard a battle before finally retreating beyond the Rhine, and the Directory left him no choice when it ordered him to maintain his ground in Franconia at any cost, so as not to uncover Moreau, now advancing to the gates of Munich. The great battle, on which depended the fate of the two Republican armies, was fought at Wurzburg on the 3rd September. The Archduke Charles was completely victorious, and Jourdan had to fall back on the Lahn, where Marceau, after abandoning the investment of all the fortresses, amalgamated his forces once more with those of his commander-in- chief. So long as the French had been victorious, and had continued their onward march, their com- munications had remained open. From the day^ however, that they began to fall back the inhabi- tants of Franconia took up arms, assailed the escorts,, pillaged the convoys, and intercepted the routes. Marceau was completely cut off from Jourdan. In vain, after the battle of Wurzburg, did the latter try THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 295 to inform the former that he must raise the blockade of Mayence and regain the Lahn with all available forces. None of the despatch bearers reached their destination, and Marceau continued to hold his positions some time after the main army reached the Upper Lahn. On the 6th September a small column that Marceau had sent out to clear the forest of Spessart, infested with armed peasants and deserters, fell un- expectedly on Prince Charles's advance-guard at Bembach. A warm engagement followed, in which the French troops experienced heavy losses, and were almost cut to pieces. It was now that Marceau believed the reports brought to him from time to time by fugitives ; he only now realized that the Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse had been beaten, and was in full retreat. Marceau's situation became once more one of extreme danger. The archduke was master of the communications between Wurzburg and Frankfurt, and could compel Marceau to raise the blockade of Mayence, and prevent him from joining the main army. Jourdan was well aware of this, and hence his anxiety to communicate with his right wing. But Marceau was not slow in realizing the situa- tion, and probably saved by his prompt action both Jourdan's army and his own corps from disaster. He at once destroyed the bridge at Russelsheim, recalled the troops of Bonnaud, and ordered Hatry to retire behind the Nahe. On the 8th September he re-united the divisions of Bonnet (who had re- placed Bonnaud) and Daurier, 12,000 strong, on the 296 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. plateau of Dotzheim, near Wiesbaden, and began his march to the Lahn, Poncet's division still con- tinuing to lay siege to Ehrenbreitstein. The next day the garrison of Mayence tried to disturb the retreat, but was repulsed after a short but severe engagement, in which, according to the archduke's memoirs, the French lost two guns. Marceau's troops marched in three columns, arriving on the loth September at Nassau, Dietz, and Limburg respectively. The junction with the main army, which had crossed the Lahn on the 9th, was effected the same day. Under the tardy orders of the Directory Beurnon- ville had directed a corps of 6,000 men of his Army of the North on Ehrenbreitstein to relieve the troops of Poncet, and to commence the regular siege of that fortress. This corps, under the orders of Castel- verd, reached its destination on the loth September, in time only to take part in the general defence of the Lahn, behind which Jourdan had determined to offer a stubborn resistance. On the nth Jourdan and Marceau met at Lim- burg, and organized the defence of the Lower Lahn, which was entrusted to Marceau. Two and a half brigades of infantry, and 100 horse of Marceau's troops were detached to relieve the division of the Army of the North before Ehrenbreitstein, while another half-brigade passed to Bernadotte's division on Marceau's right. The four remaining brigades formed a division under Poncet. This division occupied Dietz, that under Castelverd Nassau and the river to its junction with the Rhine ; they con- THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 297 stituted the right wing, and were placed under Marceau. The French line stretched from Giessen to the Rhine. The united Republican forces on the Lahn exceeded 50,000, but the cavalry arm was propor- tionately weak, and the artillery was deficient in ammunition and means of transport, while the army generally was suffering from want of food and from neglect. It was impossible for Jourdan to take the offensive. He had already sent one of his staff to Paris to tender his resignation ; receiving no reply, he had resolved to keep meanwhile on the defen- sive, without, however, letting his adversary know of his resolution. The greater portion of his forces was concentrated towards Wetzlar. It was very neces- sary, however, to guard Limburg, the other great approach to his position and nearest to his line of retreat. Bernadotte and Bonnaud were ordered to establish themselves here. They occupied the heights of Offheim, their right resting on Marceau and their left on the village of Runkel. Further up the Lahn, Championnet's division crowned the heights of Altenberg behind Wetzlar, where Jourdan had fixed his headquarters, and Klein, with a strong force occupied Weilburg, both to defend this out- let and to support Bernadotte. Lefebvre, with the advance-guard, was posted on the left bank of the Lahn and on the heights in front of Wetzlar, while Grenier's division defended Giessen and the ex- treme left of the line. Marceau's corps de bataille occupied, as we have seen Dietz (Poncet) and Nassau (Castelverd) ; he 298 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. had also a strong line of outposts in advance of these towns on the left bank of the Lahn and on the heights of Minsfelden. The position was an extended one, but a defen- sive attitude did not allow of any contraction. It will be seen that had Jourdan made no change in his first dispositions, he would have been able to repulse the attacks of the archduke at all points. The archduke entered Frankfurt on the 8th September, and thence advanced his troops in three columns towards the Lahn, the right against Giessen and Wetzlar, the centre, under Hotze, upon Limburg, and the left towards the Lower Lahn. On the nth, Marceau wrote the following letter to Castelverd, a letter which has become historic^ and must be borne in mind when we come to consider the events of the i6th and 17th. September : "You will take up a position with your six battalions on the heights before Nassau. , . . You will retire to the right bank of the Lahn the moment you see the enemy is superior to you. After placing your troops in position on the heights of Hinterlahnstein and Nassau, you will defend the two approaches with the utmost obstinacy, and you must not think of retreating until your position has been completely forced, or until you have received the order to do so." On the day this letter was despatched Marceau and Bernadotte had met and prepared together THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 299 a combined defence of Limburg and Dietz. Mar- ceau's intimacy with the future King of Sweden had been of long standing, there was mutual admiration and esteem, and the story of their quarrel when Bernadotte's division was temporarily placed under his friend's orders is pure fiction. The last efforts made by Bernadotte to save Marceau's troops in their retreat on Altenkirchen would alone suffice to dispel the idle inferences of the newsmongers of the day on the subject. The archduke had resolved not to allow the French army to establish itself firmly in its new positions, whence it could debouch again into the Maine valley. His plan was to feign to pass the Lahn at Wetzlar, but on arrival at Friedberg to change direction and come to Limburg and there force decisively the French line. This plan he now proceeded to carry into execution and to com- pel, by its success, the French army to quit the Lahn and recross the Rhine. On the .^ nth September Kray's light troops attacked Grenier's outposts and occupied Giessen. By this Lefebvre was induced to commence a general action, and his report had the effect of bringing Jourdan back to Wetzlar and of reinforc- ing his left at the expense of his right. On the fol- lowing day Marceau and Bernadotte made a com- bined reconnaissance, without, however, discovering the archduke's whereabouts. Jourdan had heard on this day, the 12th, that the archduke with his corps de bataille was at Friedberg. This confirmed him in his opinion that the enemy's main attack 300 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. would be directed against Wetzlar or Giessen, and induced him to withdraw Lefebvre to the right bank of the Lahn and abandon Wetzlar to the Austrians. On the morning of the 13th September, Marceau wrote the following brief note to Hardy, beyond the Nahe : " The army is in position on the Lahn. I comrhand two of its divisions. We are expecting a battle. We sJiall enter upon it fully determined to co7iquer or to make the enemy pay dear for victory. Do the same if you are attacked. With the troops you command the enemy need never be feared." A general who enters into action with such reso- lutions cannot fail to communicate some of his spirit to his troops, and to wrest a victory from even a superior and determined enemy. Marceau had not long to wait, for, on this day, while Klein sustained a vigorous action at Weilburg, the arch- duke operated his junction with Hotze at Mottau, and at once made a strong reconnaissance of the French position from Runkel downwards. Mar- ceau's advance-guard was attacked at Minsfelden, it held its ground tenaciously and gave time to Bonnaud and Bernadotte to march to its succour. Marceau took command of the fresh squadrons on their arrival, and immediately attacked the arch- duke's advance-guard. He led the charges in person, and compelled the Imperialists to retire be- yond Kirberg which he occupied, further pursuit being prevented by the arrival of Neu's division. Jourdan, ignorant of what was going on before THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 3OI Limburg, and fully persuaded that Prince Charles was still at Friedberg, now made a very grave error. In his report to the Directory he says he intends to make the most obstinate resistance on the Lahn, and to resume the offensive as soon as he has remounted his shattered artillery. He thinks he has learnt that the enemy are going to overwhelm his left ; he purposes, therefore, to concentrate the bulk of his army in that direction. Jourdan thus proceeded to pass troops from his right to his left. While his right was menaced by the principal forces of the enemy, he ordered Bonnaud to quit the environs of Limburg for Hasslar, and Bernadotte to abandon the heights of Offheim and approach Weilburg, and relieve Championnet who was to concentrate his division behind Wetzlar. On the 14th September, the Archduke Charles, who had by this time entirely effected his junc- tion with Hotze, made another attack on Mar- ceau and Bernadotte, the latter not yet having withdrawn to Weilburg. On the eve of this day Marceau wrote to Jourdan informing him that he and Bernadotte had been vigorously attacked by the enemy who had tried to force the fords of Villemar but were driven back behind the heights of Runkel and had likewise been defeated on the right. " We made a charge which was most successful. The enemy, though at that moment superior to us in numbers, retreated in the greatest disorder." He then goes on to warn Jourdan that the Archduke Charles is before him, and troops are filing past in great numbers to the right of the French position. 302 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. ■*' // will be in this direction that the greatest efforts will be made." He adds that he expects a battle to-morrow and suggests reinforcements. The news of what had taken place at Limburg •on the 14th reached Jourdan the same day. In spite of the assurances of the two generals that they had the archduke before them, he persisted in his error. Bernadotte's troops were withdrawn, and there now remained before Dietz and Limburg but the division of Poncet, 6,000 strong, to cope with the main attack of the Imperialists directed by the archduke in person. On the 15th, after Bernadotte had left, and Marceau had made a new disposition of his forces, the light troops of the archduke made a fresh recon- naissance. Marceau went out to meet them and drove them back on to Nieder-Brechen. His position on the eve of the i6th September was as follows : Castelverd's division defended the Lahn from its em- bouchure to Holtzappel, five battalions of Poncet's •division were posted around Dietz, while the remain- ing seven battalions guarded Limburg and carried on the line to Runkel. Marceau had only 900 cavalry, these he placed in reserve. It was in this position, and with these numbers, that he awaited the archduke's attack. It has been mentioned that Jourdan, disgusted at the unjust accusations brought against him, had already twice proffered his resignation to the Di- rectory. Instead of accepting it, that body offered to transfer him to the Army of the North, then commanded by Beurnonville, who should take his THE SAMBRE-AND-MEUSE. 303 place. At dawn of the great day of the i6th Sep- tember, Marceau, profoundly affected by the treat- ment meted out to Jourdan, and himself a prey to vague feelings of sadness and despondency, sat down and wrote to his general the following letter, which not only illustrates his outspoken sympathy, but shows in what a sublime spirit he went forth to do his duty on that day : " The change in the command of the army," he writes, " now makes an additional reason why I wish to return to my division. I ask you to grant me this favour as a proof of your friendship. I am not in the habit of boasting about my achievements, nor do I pursue any vain phantom of glory. To do my duty was always the height of my ambition. I owe it to myself therefore to seek at this moment what suits me best, and to give up a command which I only assumed in the hope of being useful to you and to the public service, but which I wish to retain only so long as the army is under your direction. I have heard with twofold pain both of your leaving the army and of the new command you are accept- ing. It is my opinion that after Jourdan has during three years led, from victory to victory, the army that he himself formed, he should not, because of a few reverses, leave us, and thus afford to the evil- minded the means of tarnishing his glory. I would far rather have seen you return to the bosom of your family, there to enjoy the repose you have earned and the regard you have already merited. You will forgive me my opinion on this subject; it is dictated, as you know, by the friendship I bear you. I can- 304 BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEAU. not fawn on any man, but I am jealous of the honour of my friends . . . As this letter leaves me the enemy is attacking. I go forth to the field of battle, and I will let you know the result." Kirn j^r%''"