guard against surprise. Their order of battle was generally in
the form of a crescent, their wings being composed of the most expert
marksmen, who never fired without taking aim, and seldom ever missed.
Their retreat was so precipitate that it was difficult to come up
with them, as they dispersed themselves through rough fields, hedges,
woods, and bushes, knew all the bye-roads, secret escapes and defiles,
and were acquainted with all the obstacles which could obstruct their
flight, and the means of avoiding them. Their mode of warfare was
according to the locality of the country, well calculated to prolong
the struggle and waste the strength of the forces sent to oppose them.
In the district of les Sables, intersected by canals, rivulets, and
salt marshes, where there were scarcely carriage roads, but chiefly
bye-ways, and raised paths, a species of natural fortification was
every where formed: this rendered any attack against them dangerous,
and consequently it was most favourable for defence, particularly to
the inhabitants. The canals are in general from thirty to forty feet
wide on the upper extremity of the banks. The Vendean, carrying his
musket in a bandoleer, and leaning upon a long pole, leaped from one
bank to the other with amazing facility. When the pressure of the
enemy would not admit of his doing this, without exposing himself to
their fire, he threw himself into a niole, (a kind of small boat,)
very flat, and light, and crossed the canal with great rapidity, being
always sufficiently shut up to hide himself from his pursuers: but he
soon appeared again, and firing at his enemy, again disappeared. The
republican soldier to whom this mode of fighting was unknown, was
obliged to be continually upon his guard, to march along the shores of
the canals, and to follow slowly their circuitous track, supporting at
the same time frequent skirmishes, while it took him several hours
to traverse a space which the Vendean commonly accomplished in a few
minutes.

Among the difficulties which the execution of all military plans met
with in La Vendee, the nature and degree of which may be judged of
from the local dispositions and the kind of warfare carried on by the
royalists, there was one which was invincible, and which singularly
retarded the operations of the republicans. Whenever they were
desirous of sending an order from head quarters to a division at the
distance of twelve or fifteen leagues, the messenger was o