“And your wife, Charles, and Marie! you will
not leave them in the chateau?”
“If your father and Agatha will receive them,
they shall go to Durbelliere.”
“There you are right,” said Henri.
“Whatever may be the danger, let us have them
together; we shall then at any rate be able to feel
that we know the point which is to be defended most
closely.”
“We will start tomorrow, Henri; tomorrow evening.
May God grant that that may be time enough. Westerman
cannot collect his men so as to force a march as far
as Clisson tomorrow; but before a week is over, I know
that the chateau will be a ruin.”
“Will you leave the furniture?” said Henri.
“Yes,” answered de Lescure; “furniture,
horses, cattle, corn—everything but my
wife and child. Let everything go: am I not
giving it to my King?”
De Lescure had calculated wrongly with regard to Westerman’s
return. It was true that he could not have again
put his ten thousand men in marching order, and have
returned with his whole force the next day from Bressuire
as far as Clisson, but Westerman himself did not go
back beyond Amaillou, and he detained there with him
a small detachment of mounted men, whom he had commanded
at Valmy, and whom he well knew. He kept no officers
but one cornet and two sergeants, and with this small
force he determined, if possible, to effect that night
what his army of ten thousand men had so signally
failed in accomplishing.
About half a mile from Amaillou there was a large
chateau, the owner of which had emigrated; it had
been left to the care of two or three servants, who
had deserted it on the approach of the republican army,
and when Westerman and his small troop rode up to the
front gate, they found no one either to admit them
or to dispute their entrance. Here he bivouacked
for an hour or two, and matured his project, which,
as yet, he had communicated to no one.
He had entrusted the retreat of the army to General
Bourbotte, who, in spite of their quarrel at Angers,
was serving with him; and without staying even to
ascertain what was the amount of loss he had sustained,
or to see whether the enemy would harass the army as
it retreated, he had separated from it at Amaillou,
and reached the chateau about ten o’clock in
the evening. He had with him a couple of guides,
who knew the country well, and accompanied by these,
he resolved to attack Clisson that night, to burn
the chateau of M. de Lescure, and, if possible, to
carry back with him to Bressuire the next morning the
two Vendean chiefs, whom he knew were staying there.
