'Artois, between the priests and the politicians.
The clergy restrained Charette and Stofflet from uniting with Puisaye
and his questionable allies, whom they accused of seeking the crown of
France for the Duke of York; and they promised that, if they waited a
little, the Count d'Artois would appear among them. They effectively
ruined their prospects of success; but Pitt himself had contributed
his share. Puisaye declined to bring English soldiers into his
country, and his scruples were admitted. But, in order to swell his
forces, the frugal minister armed between 1000 and 2000 French
prisoners, who were republicans, but who declared themselves ready to
join, and were as glad to escape from captivity as the government was
to get rid of them. The royalist officers protested against this
alloy, but their objections did not prevail, and when they came to
their own country these men deserted. They pointed out a place where
the republicans could pass under the fort at low water, and enter it
on the undefended side. At night, in the midst of a furious tempest,
the passage was attempted. Hoche's troops waded through the stormy
waters of Quiberon bay, and the tricolor was soon displayed upon the
walls.

The royalists were driven to the extremity of the peninsula. Some, but
not many, escaped in English boats, and it was thought that our fleet
did not do all that it might have done to retrieve a disaster so
injurious to the fame and the influence of England. Sombreuil defended
himself until a republican officer called on him to capitulate. He
consented, for there was no hope; but no terms were made, and it was
in truth an unconditional surrender. Tallien, who was in the camp,
hurried to Paris to intercede for the prisoners. Before going to the
Convention, he went to his home. There his wife told him that she had
just seen Lanjuinais, that Sieyes had brought back from Holland, where
he had negotiated peace, proofs of Tallien's treasonable
correspondence with the Bourbons, and that his life was in danger. He
went at once to the Convention, and called for the summary punishment
of the captured _emigres_.

Hoche was a magnanimous enemy, both by character and policy, and he
had a deep respect for Sombreuil. He secretly offered to let him
escape. The prisoner refused to be saved without his comrades; and
they were shot down together near Auray, on a spot which is still
known as the field of sacrifice. They were six or seven hundred.