had joined them at Thouars, and who called himself,
though without a shadow of right, the Bishop of Agra, was appointed
president. He was an eloquent man, of commanding presence, and the
leaders had not thought it worth while to inquire too minutely into
his claim to the title of bishop; for the peasants had been full of
enthusiasm at having a prelate among them, and his influence and
exhortations had been largely instrumental in gathering the army
which had won the battle of Fontenay.

But although he was appointed president, the leading spirit of the
council was the Abbe Bernier, a man of great energy and intellect,
with a commanding person, ready pen, and a splendid voice; but who
was altogether without principle, and threw himself into the cause
for purely selfish and ambitious motives.

It was on the sixteenth of May that Fontenay was won, and on the
third of June the church bells again called the peasantry to arms.
The disaster at Fontenay had done more than all the representations
of their generals to rouse the Convention. Seven battalions of
regular troops arrived, and Biron, who had been appointed
commander-in-chief, reached Niort and assumed the command.

He wrote at once, to the minister of war, to say that he found the
confusion impossible to describe. There was an absence of any
organization, whatever. The town was crowded with fugitives who,
having distinguished themselves by the violence of their opinions
and the severity of their measures, before the insurrection broke
out, were forced to take refuge in the cities. The general reported
that he had caused the assembly to be sounded again and again,
without more than a tenth part of the troops paying the slightest
heed to the summons.

The army was without cavalry, without waggons for carrying
supplies, without an ambulance train--in fact, it was nothing but a
half-armed mob. Biron himself was at heart a Royalist, and when he
in turn had to meet his fate by the guillotine, openly declared
himself to be one; and the repugnance which he felt on assuming the
command against the Vendeans--which he had only accepted after a
long delay, and after petitioning in vain to be allowed to remain
at his former post--was heightened when he discovered the state of
affairs, and the utter confusion that prevailed everywhere.

When sending the order for the bells to ring on the first of June,
the superior council of the Vendeans issued a proclamation, which
was to be