nate. They ought to have created an
impregnable fastness on the high ground above the Loire; but they had
no defensive tactics, and when they occupied a town, would not wait
for the attack, but retired, to have the unqualified delight of
expelling the enemy. Above all, they ought to have been backed by
England. D'Elbee's first letter was intercepted, and four months
passed before the English government stirred. The _emigres_ and their
princes had no love for these peasants and stay-at-home gentry and
clergy, who took so long to declare themselves, and whose primary or
ultimate motive was not royalism. Puisaye showed Napier a letter in
which Lewis XVIII. directed that he should be put secretly to death.

England ought to have been active on the coast very early, during the
light winds of summer. But the English wanted a safe landing-place,
and there was none to give them. With more enterprise, while Charette
held the island of Noirmoutier, Pitt might have become the arbiter of
France. When he gave definite promises and advice, it was October, and
the day of hope had passed.

In the middle of October Kleber, largely reinforced, advanced with
25,000 men, and Bonchamps made up his mind that the time had come to
retreat into Brittany. He posted a detachment to secure the passage of
the Loire at St. Laurent, and fell back with his whole force to
Cholet, whilst he sent warning to Charette of the decisive hour.
There, on October 16, he fought his last fight. D'Elbee was shot
through the body. He was carried in safety to Noirmoutier, and still
lingered when the Republicans recovered the island in January. His
last conversation with his conqueror, before he suffered death, is of
the highest value for this history. Lescure had already received a
bullet through the head, and at Cholet, Bonchamps was wounded
mortally. But there had been a moment in the day during which fortune
wavered, and the lost cause owed its ruin to the absence of Charette.
Stofflet and La Rochejaquelein led the retreat from Cholet to the
Loire. It was a day's march, and there was no pursuit. Bonchamps was
still living when they came to the river, and still able to give one
last order. Four thousand five hundred prisoners had been brought from
Cholet; they were shut up in the church at St. Laurent, and the
officers agreed that they must be put to death. At first, the
Convention had not allowed the men whom the royalists released to
serve again. But these amen