e to watch
Charette, prevented the arrival of any succour from the Vendee. Hoche
took immediate measures to avert the danger. Having disposed a part of
his forces so as to overawe Brittany, he proceeded with 7000 men to the
peninsula of Quiberon, and drove back the royalists to their intrenched
camp near Fort Penthievre. Here the royalist troops were shut up by the
forces of Hoche; and while in this situation an open rapture took place
between the emigrants and Chouans. Desertions became frequent, no new
royalist troops arrived, and nothing was heard of the forces that had
been promised from Jersey, the Elbe, and the English coast. But had all
these forces arrived simultaneously it would have been to no purpose,
as Hoche and Caudaux had collected such immense forces, and had cast, up
such strong intrenchments on the heights of St. Barbe, which commanded
the sandy isthmus of La Falaise, that no hope could be entertained of
dislodging them. On the 15th of July the English convoy arrived with
some royalist troops from the mouth of the Elbe, under the Count de
Sombreuill; but their total number did not exceed 1100 men, which did
not make up for the recent losses by desertion. Yet, encouraged by their
arrival, before they had well landed, Puissaye detached Vauban with
12,000 Chouans to make a diversion on the right of Hoche's camp, to
effect a junction with some other insurgents, said to have been gathered
behind the heights of St. Barbe; while Puissaye himself marched from
the narrow promontory, crossed the sandy desert, and boldly attacked the
republicans in front. But all their efforts were fruitless: after some
desperate fighting the royalists once more were compelled to retreat to
their intrenched camp on the isthmus of La Falaise. There was treachery
in that camp. In Puissaye's army there were Frenchmen who had enrolled
in it merely for the chance of escaping from England, and these now
settled with the republicans, to desert and put them in possession of
Fort Penthievre. This dark deed was done on the dark and stormy night
of the 20th of July, when a detachment of republican grenadiers having
approached near to the spot, some of these sham royalists who were
on guard betrayed the fort, and assisted in slaughtering their own
comrades. All was lost; the storm prevented the British fleet from
approaching the coast; hundreds perished in the waves, and thousands by
the sword of their own countrymen. Early on the morning of t