rrion crows, and
the yells of wild animals coming from the recesses of the woods to prey
upon the carcasses of the slain. At length a distant colume of fire,
widening and increasing as I approached, served me as a beacon. It was
the town of Mortagne in flames. When I arrived there, no living
creatures were to be seen, save a few wretched women who were striving
to save some remnants of their property from the general
conflagration."--_Les Memoires d'un Ancien Administrateur des Armees
Republicaines._

_Scenes at Marseilles and Lyons._

Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons, had declared themselves against the
Jacobin supremacy. Rich from commerce and their maratime situation,
and, in the case of Lyons, from their command of internal navigation,
the wealthy merchants and manufacturers of those cities foresaw the
total insecurity of property, and in consequence of their own ruin, in
the system of arbitrary spoliation and murder upon which the government
of the Jacobins was founded. But property, for which they were
solicitous, though, if its natural force is used in time, the most
powerful barrier to withstand revolution, becomes, after a certain
period of delay, its helpless victim. If the rich are in due season
liberal of their means, they have the power of enlisting in their cause,
and as adherents, those among the lower orders, who, if they see their
superiors dejected and despairing, will be tempted to consider them as
objects of plunder. But this must be done early, or those who might be
made the most active defenders of property, will join with such as are
prepared to make a prey of it.

Marseilles showed at once her good will and her impotency of means. The
utmost exertions of that wealthy city, whose revolutionary band had
contributed so much to the downfall of the monarchy in the attack on the
Tuilleries, were able to equip only a small and doubtful army of about
3000 men, who were despatched to the relief of Lyons. This
inconsiderable army threw themselves into Avignon, and were defeated
with the utmost ease, by the republican general Cartaux, despicable as a
military officer, and whose forces would not have stood a single
_engaillement_ of Vendean sharp-shooters. Marseilles received the
victors, and bowed her head to the subsequent horrors which it pleased
Cartaux, with two formidable Jacobins, Barras and Ferron, to inflict on
that flourishing city. The place underwent the usual terrors of Jacobin
purifaction, a