x
(Lynch) was at the head of a loyal association, comprehending the chief
inhabitants of that great city, and already in communication with the
Marquess of Wellington, who, however, felt it his duty to check them on
this occasion, lest the progress of events should render their efforts
fruitless to Louis, and fatal to themselves. La Roche Jacquelein (a name
already so illustrious in La Vendee) had once more prepared that
faithful province for insurrection. Saintonge had been organised by the
Abbe Jaqualt; Perigord by Messieurs de la Roche Aymon; and in the
countries about Nantes, Angers, and Orleans, great bands, consisting
partly of Buonaparte's own refractory conscripts, were in training under
the Counts De L'Orge, D'Antichamp, and Suzannet. The royalist gentlemen
of Touraine, to the number of 1000, were headed by the Duke of Duras;
those of Brittany were mustering around Count Vittray, and various
chieftains of the old Chouans; and Cadoudal, brother to Georges, was
among the peasantry of Varnes. These names, most of them well-known in
the early period of the Revolution, are of themselves sufficient to show
how effectually the Buonapartean government had endeavoured, during
thirteen years, to extinguish the old fire of loyalty. It had all the
while glowed under the ashes, and it was now ready to burst forth
shining and bright. The Bourbon princes watched the course of events
with eager hope. The Duke of Berri was already in Jersey, Monsieur (now
Charles X.) in the Netherlands, and the Duke D'Angouleme about to make
his appearance at the headquarters of Wellington, in Bearn, the cradle
of his race. The republicans, meanwhile,--those enthusiasts of the
Revolution who had in the beginning considered Buonaparte's consulate as
a dictatorship forced on France by the necessities of the time, and to
be got rid of as soon as opportunity should serve--and who had long
since been wholly alienated from him, by his assumption of the imperial
dignity, his creation of orders and nobles, his alliance with the House
of Austria, and the complete despotism of his internal government--these
men had observed, with hardly less delight than the royalists, that
succession of reverses which darkens the story of the two last
campaigns. Finally, not a few of Napoleon's own ministers and generals,
irritated by his personal violence, and hopeless of breathing in peace
while that fierce and insatiable spirit continued at the head of
affairs, were w