ften obliged
to travel fifty or sixty in order to avoid passing through the
revolted country. Hence the impossibility of attempting any
expedition, however necessary or desirable, which required to be
executed without delay. The Vendeans would appear one day at a certain
point to the number of several thousand men; measures were concerted
for attacking them the next day, but before that arrived they were
eight or ten leagues distant from the place where they had showed
themselves the day before.

Thus were the republicans exposed to fruitless victories or disastrous
checks, which exhausted their men and resources. Masters of the field
of battle, they found, says one of their generals, nothing but wooden
shoes and some slain, never any arms or ammunition. The Vendean when
perceived, would either hide or break his gun, and in surrendering his
life, seldom left his weapon. Being well acquainted with the country,
and more dexterous than the republicans, they carried scarcely any
artillery with them, four or five pieces sufficed for an army of
thirty or forty thousand men; these were generally light field pieces.
Equally sparing of ammunition, they took but few waggons, one alone
served the pieces, as they well knew it was not artillery that would
procure them the victory; thence, when the republicans met with any
disastrous affair, they lost from twenty to thirty pieces of cannon,
and waggons in proportion; whereas when they gained a victory they
acquired only two or three pieces of cannon, with scarcely any
ammunition.

From this slight sketch of the nature of the country, so
disadvantageous to the invaders, and of the mode in which the Vendeans
carried on this unfortunate war, our surprise will cease at the
determined and protracted resistance made to the republicans by this
loyal and brave people. For many years they defended their beloved
country, and endured privations, and accumulated miseries, such
as human nature has seldom been exposed to. To use the words of a
republican general, "A girdle of fire enveloped the revolted country;
fire, terror, and death, preceded the march".

But the principal cause of the long resistance of the Vendeans must
be sought for in their moral character; they were most honourably
distinguished by an inviolable attachment to their party, and
unlimited and unshaken confidence in their chiefs; and an earnest,
warm, but steady zeal, which supplied the place of discipline. Their
invincib