them; and he always regarded the tumultuous outbreak of March, the
result of no ripened design, as a fatal error. That is the reason why
the gentry hung back at first, and were driven forward by the
peasants. It seemed madness to fight the Convention without previous
organisation for purposes of war, and without the support of the far
larger population of Brittany, which had the command of the coast,
and was in touch with the great maritime Power. Politics and religion
had roused much discontent; but the first real act of rebellion was
prompted by the new principle of compulsory service, proclaimed on
February 23.

The region which was to be the scene of so much glory and so much
sorrow lies chiefly between the left bank of the Loire and the sea,
about 100 miles across, from Saumur to the Atlantic, and 50 or 60 from
Nantes towards Poitiers. Into the country farther south, the Vendeans,
who were weak in cavalry and had no trained gunners, never penetrated.
The main struggle raged in a broken, wooded, and almost inaccessible
district called the Bocage, where there were few towns and no good
roads. That was the stronghold of the grand army, which included all
that was best in Vendean virtue. Along the coast there was a region of
fens, peopled by a coarser class of men, who had little intercourse
with their inland comrades, and seldom acted with them. Their leader,
Charette, the most active and daring of partisans, fought more for the
rapture of fighting than for the sake of a cause. He kept open
communication by sea, negotiated with England, and assured the
Bourbons that, if one of them appeared, he would place him at the head
of 200,000 men. He regarded the other commanders as subservient to the
clergy, and saw as little of them as he could.

The inhabitants of La Vendee, about 800,000, were well-to-do, and had
suffered less from degenerate feudalism than the east of France. They
lived on better terms with the landlords, and had less cause to
welcome the Revolution. Therefore, too, they clung to the nonjuring
clergy. At heart, they were royalist, aristocratic and clerical,
uniting anti-revolutionary motives that acted separately elsewhere.
That is the cause of their rising; but the secret of their power is in
the military talent, a thing more rare than courage, that was found
among them. The disturbances that broke out in several places on the
day of enrolment, were conducted by men of the people. Cathelineau,
one of t