The Blues and the Brigands. Being the recollections of Étienne-Marie Carraud, Nantais, 1789-94

Front matter

THE BLUES AND THE BRIGANDS NEW 5/- BOOKS. Crown Svo, Cloth gilt, Illustrated. BY THE NORTH SEA: or, The Protector's Grand-daughter. By Mrs. Emma Marshall. Illustrated by W. Miller-Smith. Fifth Thousand. THE TWO ALTHEAS. By Edith E. Horsman. Illustrated by G. Demain Hammond. Second Edition. UNDER THE WHITE ENSIGN: or, For Queen and Empire. By A. Lee Knight. With 23 Illustrations by J. B. Greene. THE VOYAGE OF THE "AVENGER" : or, In the Days of the Inquisition. By Henry St. John. With 25 Illustrations by Paul Hardy. A MODERN PUCK. By Agnes Giberne, Author of " Sun, Moon, and Stars," &c. With 50 Illustrations by Florence M. Cooper. BY THE DEEP SEA. By E. Step, Author of " Wayside and Woodland Blossoms," &c- A Popular Introduction to the Wild Life of the British Shores. With 122 Illustrations by Philip H. C.OSSE.

Second Edition. THE EVERY DAY BOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY. By J. Cundall and Edward Step, Author of" Wayside and Woodland Blossoms." With 64 Beautiful Illustrations by Alfred Parsons and others. LONDON JARROLD & SONS, 10 and n, Warwick Lane. And of all Booksellers. R.TtmcK.RAr Bedmcf.ld f.'jsi'i "Come, then !" one of these furies cried to me, " we go to tear down the Bastille ! "—p. 59- The Blues and The Brigands BEING THE RECOLLECTIONS OF ETIENNE-MARIE CARRAUD, NANTAIS, 1789—94 BY M. M. BLAKE ni Author of " The Siege of Noi-wich Castle," " When the Century was Young," 6fc, &c. illustrated by r. t. bedingfield LONDON JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C. [All rights reserved] CONTENTS.

Book I

— LA VENDEE. CHAP. PACE I. WHITE LILACS AND A YOUNG GIRL ... ... II II. FOI DE GENTILHOMME ... ... ... 30 III. WITH THE RATS ... ... ... ... 47 IV. A BRAVE SERGEANT-MAJOR ... ... ... 68 V. THE CARRIAGE OF M. LACROIX ... ... 83 VI. LA COCARDE BLANCHE ... ... ... 97 VII. AT THE "CADRAN BLEU " ... ... ... 108

Book II

—MESSIEURS LES MOUCHOIRS ROUGES. I. MARIE-JOSEPH DIES FOR THE NATION ... ... 127 II. BABETTE CHATTERS... ... ... ... I43 III. NORT ... ... ... ... ... 159 IV. A l'eau LES BRIGANDS ... ... ... 176 V. AN INDULGENT ... ... ... ... 193

Book III

— LE PACIFICATEUR DE LA VENDEE. I. CITOYENNE CARRAUD ... ... ... 215 II. CARRIER'S BLOODHOUNDS ... ... ... 229 III. RIVERS AND NIGHT... ... ... ... 246 IV. DE PROFUNDIS ... ... ... ... 260 V. A COMRADE IN ARMS ... ... ••• 273 VI. CONCLUSION ... ... ... ... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PACE SHALL I EVER FORGET THAT DAINTY FIGURE, WHICH REMINDED ONE OF A PAINTING BY GREUZE ? 18 " COME, THEN ! " ONE OF THESE FURIES CRIED TO ME, "WE GO TO TEAR DOWN THE BASTILLE!" 59 SHE HELD OUT HER HAND, WHICH I KISSED AS IF IT HAD BEEN THAT OF THE QUEEN HERSELF IOO I TRIED TO PULL HIM TO HIS FEET. "IT IS USELESS," HE GROANED. " THAT HAS HAPPENED WHICH I FORE- TOLD TO YOU" 170 DE MEAUPREAU BURST INTO A LOW CHUCKLE. " EXCEL- LENT ! " SAID HE. "THEY WILL CHOKE THEMSELVES, BLIND THEMSELVES, AND WE CAN RUN DOWN THE PASSAGE AT OUR EASE!" 245 " I CANNOT YET SAY THAT I RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE "

Book I La Vendee Chapter

I. WHITE LILACS AND A YOUNG GIRL. They say that country is the most prosperous which has no history. By analogy, the first nineteen years of my life must have been happy, for I can think of nothing concerning them which appears worthy to be written down. On the other hand, the six years following, which were so full of incident, certainly brought me most poignant anguish. All the same I would not have bartered the joys they contained to escape the pain ! Perhaps this is also true of France. She is most proud of the periods that cost her most in lives and gold. Is it not so ? The greater number of men can look back to some point in their lives when they first found it necessary to take their own part in the battle of existence, to choose their course, to become, in fact, men. This crisis came to me, Etienne-Marie Carraud, in my twentieth year.

As I was born in 1768, this is to say in 1788, a year which brought searchings of heart and new departures to many. I was at the time acting as private secretary to M. le Vieomte de la Chatelleraye and Brie, a noble gentleman of La Vendee. It came about in this way. My father, Jean-Marie Carraud, was a shipowner at Nantes. He was not in the Guinea trade, which he abhorred, and with reason ; for so demoralizing was the dealing in men that merchants were not content to kid nap and enslave their African brothers, but must needs over-insure them, and contrive that they should not survive the voyage. So callous were the perpetrators of these infamies, that they actually boasted themselves more humane than the English and Dutch in the same trade, who, said they, when wanting to be quit of the negroes, made them walk the plank or threw them over board, while, themselves, they did but drop a trifle of corrosive sublimate into the victuals of the poor devils, who sickened and died without knowing what hurt them !

My father had a soft heart, and was besides a good Catholic, and he would never soil his fingers by touching the traffic, though he might have made more money by a single black cargo than he earned in all his life fitting out vessels for the North-American Cod fisheries ; money was a consideration with him too, for he had a hungry squad of five sons, of whom I was fourth. Three of my brothers were smitten with that passion for the sea which seizes so many young lads who live near it ; but as for me, I was a student, and Marie- Joseph, our cadet, had very early the vocation to be priest. This was a great joy to our mother, who was herself devote. Perhaps the romance of the ships coming and goin° to and from far-off countries, bringing home strange beasts and birds, outlandish wares, and men with bronzed faces, who spun stories of yet stranger things to be seen by those who went over-sea, would have taken my fancy also, had there been fewer slavers at Port Launai ; but the idea of these made my gorge rise.

I hated their swaggering crews. Desperadoes with rings in their ears and pistols in their belts, always ready to insult a woman or get into a brawl with a man. It was instinct with me from my earliest boyhood to detest bullies of every kind, and I always made myself the champion of the oppressed ; a trait which was fostered by my excellent mother. It came to me then to choose my friends at school and college among the more studious, and I developed in this way a taste for the sciences, particularly that of chemistry, into which the works of Messieurs D'Alibard, Fourrier and Coulomb had at that time infused fresh vigour. Judge then my irritation, when, after throwing all my energies into my papers, and arriving after much labour at the head of my classes, I found that I was only eligible for the second prize, the first being given, without exam ination, to the son of a nobleman.

It was unjust ! I had studied much more earnestly than he, and I am convinced that he could not possibly have answered the questions put to me. Of course it was right for birth to have its privileges, but, in a matter depending solely on intelligence and industry, I thought honour ought to be to the one who showed the greater capacity! It was then that I first realized the value of equality ! Amongst my fellow-students was a clever young fellow, Silvain Bonnechose, who sympathized with me entirely in my disappointment. We became very close friends. He said that the time was coming when such injustice would not be borne ; people were beginning to see that the nobles had more than their share of the good things of the world, and we others did not intend to allow ourselves to be treated any longer like the live cargoes on the Guinea ships.

The nobles should be made to comprehend that we also were men, and often better men than they. We would claim equality and freedom. That seemed to me good sense ! How often we walked arm-in-arm along the fine quays beside the Loire, enjoying the summer evening under the shade of the trees, and discussing such questions as we went ; or leaned over the parapet of one of the many bridges of Nantes, our eyes fixed on the flowing river, and our seething young brains at work as if they were mill wheels turned by the water as it ran ! Bonnechose lent to me the works of Franklin and Rousseau, and persuaded me to join a reading society, the members of which held meetings to discuss various subjects respecting methods of government, fiscal reforms, police abuses, and other political matters. This was not altogether to the taste of my father, who feared that I was getting into mischief.

My excellent mother was absolutely alarmed, for she said the sentiments I expressed were enough to turn the country upside down ; an opinion in which, as events proved, she was not wrong. It was about this time that my father met a gentleman who had been kind to him when a boy, and now held a high command in the Royal Navy. They began talking of old times. With this gentleman was Mon sieur le Vieomte de la Chatelleraye, who, hearing my father speak of his large interests in the American fishing, remarked that he had been in that country. " Yes," said the officer, " I tell him that he should write a book about it." " That would be too troublesome a task," answered the Vieomte. "The trouble might be lessened by dictating to a secretary," suggested the other. The result was that M. le Vieomte accepted the suggestion and chose me to fill the post.

My father was delighted with the chance of getting me away from Nantes, which he said was becoming a hotbed of sedition. Like most young people, I desired of all things change, and an opportunity to see the world, and was well content to exchange my stool in a mer chant's office for the position of private secretary to a noble. I should have been more enraptured if the part of the world I was to see had been Paris instead of Poitou, but what would you have ? One must make a beginning. Perhaps M. le Vieomte might take me to the capital one day. The Chateau of La Tourbiere, to which I was to accompany M. le Vieomte, was situated in La Vendee, on the edge of the district known as the Bocagc, and quite in the wilds. M. le Vieomte made the journey in his carriage, which was drawn by four large mules.

I rode upon a wiry Breton nag, which he was so liberal as to provide for my use. Sometimes he would have me with him in the carriage, letting my nag be led by one or other of the outsiders. He then talked to me very agreeably, and it was, of course, an honour; but I preferred riding, which was a novelty to me, and, besides, afforded me greater facility for looking about me. The season was early spring, when all the pears and apples were a-bloom, and the land was, for the most part, set with seed; though here and there we would pass a farmer ploughing behind his team of four or even six red oxen. We were scarcely on the southern side of the Loire before I was struck with the well-being of the people, who were better clad, better housed, and seemed a finer race than our Breton folks. This M. le Vieomte was kind enough to explain to me was chiefly owing to their living under the Metayer system, by which the Seigneur did not lease out his land, but shared the produce with the farmer, losing and gaining with him, some nobles having in this way twenty or thirty tenants; M. le Vieomte himself had twenty-seven.

The fields were all divided by hedge-rows, and the lanes so deeply sunk between them that at times you could see nothing but the bushes on each side of you, and only those acquainted with the district could have made their way; it seemed a network of such lanes all exactly like each other. In some places were great stretches of forest; some times of fir, then again of oaks and maples and other trees; and here we saw stags often, or sometimes a grunting wild-boar, and M. le Vieomte said they had also excellent sport with wolves. In favoured spots, vineyards sloped to the sun, the bushes growing roughly and untrained, and just then budding with little brown leaves. Ah, how charming is youth ! All this gave me the most exquisite pleasure, because I had not seen its like before. M. le Vieomte would have me sit beside him in his carriage as we drove into the village adjoining the chateau.

Ah, what enthusiasm ! Every door flew open; men, women and children flocked out to welcome their Seigneur, and ask the good God and the Blessed Virgin to shower benefits on his head, or promised candles to this saint or that in gratitude for his safe return. It brought the tears into one's eyes ! What questions ! what chatter ! Notwithstanding the greatest show of respect, they asked the Vieomte about every detail of his journey, and told him all that had taken place in his absence, as if they were absolutely of his family; and he appeared full of delight to be amongst them again. The gateway to the chateau was handsome, and the arms of the Chatellerayes were emblazoned above it. The approach was by a long avenue of limes, with thicket behind, and then an open drive through the grounds to the courtyard.

The chateau was an irregular building, in four teenth century style, surrounded on three sides by a dark stagnant moat, but open on the south to a nobly laid-out pleasaunce, overlooked by a stately terrace. On our arrival, M. le Vieomte gave orders that refresh ment should be served to me, and that I should be conducted to my apartments, and himself hastened to join his family. B The servants, with assiduity and good humour, pressed upon me white wine and galette of fine wheaten flour, for which my journey had given me a good appetite. Before I had ended this light repast, however, a lackey came to inform me that M. le Vieomte desired my presence on the terrace, as Madame la Vicomtesse wished to see me. You will imagine that I felt decidedly shy as I followed the man, for, to my raw inexperience, Madame la Vicomtesse appeared as awe-inspiring as a princess of the blood royal !

Having taken me to the steps of the terrace, the lackey withdrew, and I advanced alone, feeling detest ably awkward and self-conscious, the more so as my coat and face were dusty and travel-stained. Nor was my bashfulness decreased when the Vieomte and Vicomtesse, who were standing at the further end of the terrace, were joined by a young girl, carrying in her hands a great bunch of white lilacs. This, I afterwards learned, was Mdlle. Egerie, the Vicomte's only daughter. Shall I ever forget that dainty figure, which reminded one of a painting by Greuze ? Mademoiselle de la Chatelleraye wore a robe of the colour of almond blossoms ; a wide-brimmed hat under which her luxuriant hair was puffed in rich masses ; her cheeks were pink and white as an apple-blossom ; her dark eyes were bright as those of a little bird, brimming over with innocent mirth.

She was the incarnation of Spring ! Seeing her, two of the peacocks, of which there were a number sunning themselves on the balustrades, swept towards her with their long tails lifted about a foot from Shall I ever forget that dainty figure, which reminded one os a paintir byGreuze? — /. iS. the ground, and their gorgeous green necks outstretched, pecking at the flowers as if they supposed that Mademoi selle had brought them provender. At this she laughed gaily, a silver peal of laughter that rings in my ear still, and, taking a bloom in her right hand from the bouquet in her left, teased the birds with it, using it as a mimic hammer and dealing them soft blows ; they, all the while, striving, to pick it ; she, enjoying to thwart them, her dark eyes dancing and white teeth gleaming — a perfect picture of young delight.

" Regardez done, ma mere!" she cried. " These droll birds would make the salad of my lilacs ! " Then the stately, superb mother, her soft velvets sweeping the white terrace like the jewelled tails of the peacocks as she moved forward, with a sudden, graceful movement, detached a light scarf from her shoulders and cast it over the neck of the gaudy fellow nearest to her, holding him prisoner. He, much astonished, struggled free, fluttering his short, dusky-brown wings, and, having regained his liberty, made off with an air of offended dignity, crying as he went in his harsh voice, " Peacoque ! Pea — coque ! " while his companion, pleased to see him discomfited, spread a splendid fan and strutted around. The Vieomte, seeing me approach, came a few steps to meet me in the kindest manner, and made me known to the Vicomtesse and Mademoiselle, the former greeting me with a gracious courtesy which set me at my ease at once.

She was a tall and strikingly handsome lady, and had spent some years at the Court of Versailles. It was, therefore, not surprising that she knew exactly the best method of receiving an awkward young man, like myself. It was easy to see whence Mademoiselle had inherited her fair face, for the Vieomte was rather homely in appearance, being short and rather stout, and having a round florid countenance ; his eyes, however, were dark and keen. Mademoiselle did not possess the perfect features of her mother, but, to be brief, I never could see any faults in her, whether of person or disposition, and the moment I beheld her my boyhood was over, and feelings were aroused in me to which I had hitherto been a stranger. At that moment, or at any time since, it would have been an ecstasy to me to give my life to save her from evil, — and this I may truly say I have proved to be no figure of speech !

It was, nevertheless, far from either of us to dream what danger and suffering lay hidden in the future ! But I become tedious ! In effect, the chateau with its irregular masses of buildings, its tourelles and castel lated walls, its dovecots with their fluttering inhabit ants, its kennels and stables and many offices ; the terrace with its statues and peacocks and the orangery adjoining it, the pleasaunce with its fountains and the woods beyond, all setting off the gracious figures in the foreground, made a picture, the memory of which I shall carry to my grave. Figure to yourself, that to me, coming as I did from a merchant's office in busy Nantes, the whole disposition of life at the chateau appeared like an old-world dream. It was to me as if I had stepped back into the heart of the feudal ages, when the Seigneur was really as a father to his people.

M. le Vieomte had two sons, but neither lived at La Tourbiere. The elder, Monsieur Arnaud, the Baron de Brie, was an officer in the Gardes Francoises in Paris ; and Monsieur Alceste, the younger, had settled with his young wife at Clisteau, an estate belonging to the family, and not many miles distant. I found that hunting and sport of various kinds occupied the greater part of Monsieur le Vicomte's time. He kept an enormous number of dogs for this purpose ; wolf-hounds, stag-hounds, harriers, pointers, setters ! It was to me difficult to remember the names of the breeds, whereas he knew every dog by name. Every morning he rode out on his sturdy Breton horse, attended by a little army of beaters and gamekeepers, who, when he returned, would be well laden with game of many sorts. Besides this, he gave away a great quantity amongst the tenants and peasants, into whose houses he went freely, asking after such an old dame's rheu matism, or when such a young one's infant would be christened, or how soon such a sturdy fellow meant to bring home a wife.

The chase occupied such an important part in the life of the place, that when any large hunt was to be held, Monsieur le Cure would announce from his pulpit at what hour it was to commence, and the place of rendezvous. When he had ended his sermon, he would strip off his cassock, shoulder his gun, and go with the train as full of excitement as another. While his flock were busy as beaters, he would help the gentlemen to sill the bag. I found it amusing, this primitive method, at the outset, but after I had spent a few weeks at La Tourbiere, I also was eager to avail myself of the per mission M. le Vieomte had given me to join the chase. To say truth, I had little else to do. For a short time the Vieomte had kept me fairly occupied by the work he had engaged me to perform. He commenced his literary enterprise with a zeal that I feared would prove too hot to last.

Morning, noon, and night he was dictating his memoirs to me, marching about the room like a sentry on duty, and composing flowing periods which were not wanting in brilliancy of style or elegant description. He unhappily was never satisfied when I read them over. He would always declare them turgid, and cut and retrench till what had at first provided matter for a chapter, supplied in a finished form but a meagre sentence. It was regrettable. I, with the exuberance of youth, desired to add epithets to his unvarnished statements of facts rather than to prune them, and often tried to persuade him to leave what he had written and put in details which he would relate for my amusement, while declaring them too trivial to take up space in the book. When he found the progress so slow, as it necessarily was under these circumstances, he began to tire of his undertaking, and sometimes a whole day would pass without the Me'moires receiving any addition. - At first he would find some other work for me, for example, to copy or correct papers relating to the business of the estate, or duplicate a news-letter, but after a while he would ride out without having remem bered to give me any task at all.

I must mention here that although I was keenly in terested in all that the Vieomte told me in this manner of America and the great Washington, I generally differed from the conclusions he drew from what he had seen in that country. He did not return to France, like General Lafayette, imbued with Republican ideas ; on the con trary, he maintained that it was a mistake for us to have given aid to rebels against their sovereign, even to annoy our hereditary foes the English, while all that I gathered convinced me that the contrast between the condition of the Americans and our own people was greatly to our disadvantage. I did not find it amusing to have all my time on my hands, for I was not of an idle disposition. But for one consideration I should have wished myself back in Nantes. It was not good sense ; no !

What would you have ? Youth is youth all the world over ! Well, it was this : I found it a most keen delight to be under the same roof with Mademoiselle de la Chatelleraye — Mademoiselle Egerie. I loved to breathe her sweet name — was ever one more suitable ? Every day the joy might come to me of an acci dental meeting with her — on the stairs, or perhaps in the fine old hall, hung round with armour and the heads of stags and boars, accessories which seemed to enhance the delicacy of her loveliness ; or again in the avenue exercising her favourite hounds ; or in the village carrying some dainty to a sick peasant, for she was an angel of charity. It was true that I could expect to receive from her only a dignified saluta tion and a charming good wish for the day, or some equally conventional and simple politeness ; a favour slight and sweet as the honey in a blossom, a true butterfly's meal, but sufficient all the same to feed the ethereal amour who fluttered his rosy wings in my boyish heart.

Better still when she would sometimes come into the cabinet where I wrote to her father's dictation, and beg him to get her a book from the shelves of the library. M. le Vieomte would then perhaps do me the honour to ask my advice, and we would go, all three, into the sombre, unused room where the big volumes stood so solemnly, and after a lively discussion, which I by no means tried to cut short, I had the pleasant duty of getting the chosen volume down for her. They were sufficiently dry volumes, some of them, that I gave into her little white hands; the glimpses into her mind that I thus obtained filled me with fresh admiration, for they witnessed to considerable intellectual power, and a more solid education than falls to the lot of most noble young ladies. Often on fete-days, or on the occasion of a wedding taking place in the village, the peasants would be invited to dance in the courtyard or in the great barn.

That was my chance ! For then I had sometimes the unspeakable delight of leading out Mademoiselle as my partner. In that primitive country, though nowhere was greater respect shown to rank, the wives and daughters of the seigneurs would always dance with the peasants, and the young nobles chose their partners amongst the peasant girls. Ask yourself if I found any fault with this custom ? It was idyllic ! At such moments I felt in ecstasy with the existing system, and underwent a revulsion of feeling against my friends in Nantes who desired to upset it. At La Tourbiere I certainly saw its best development ■ everything moved forward as if on wheels, and those well-oiled ; no friction ; no question ; the divine right of the seigneur was accepted as naturally as the alterna tion of day and night, and, on his part, the seigneur would no more have forgot his duties to those under him than the sun would have forgot to shine.

There were, nevertheless, flies in my amber. I was sensible that an insurmountable barrier of class separated me from the object of my cult, and that I could never hope to feed my Cupid on food more solid than butterfly's fare. I had black moments, when I saw from the library windows which overlooked the gardens, young nobles of the neighbourhood, her equals in rank, and fit aspirants for her hand, seeking it openly and boldly. I laugh to recall how, on occasion, as I caught sight of my reflection in the tall mirrors that adorned the reception-rooms, I contrasted my appearance with the figures of those much-to-be-envied gallants. It arrived to me even to imagine, that, had I been able to sub stitute a well-made suit of some handsome colour, garnished with costly lace ruffles, and a rapier, for the villainous black coat entailed by my position, I could have borne comparison with the best of them.

I possessed, for example, tall, well-shaped limbs and a square, sharply-cut face, with level brows, deep-set blue eyes, and abundant light-brown hair ; I was of the fair Breton type — Briton type, I might say, for I had often been told by sailors that I was like an Englishman. Alas ! there were instants when I felt that I should have been less divided from Mademoiselle if I had worn the grey or blue serge jacket and the gaiters of a peasant ! These were follies, doubtless ; but, for the rest, I was a sufficiently solid fellow. My folly lasted but a few seconds ; on the return of common-sense, I would move from the window and labour at my desk with fury. I forgot to say that the reason I worked in the library was, that the Vieomte gave me so little to do on the Memoires, that I suggested to him that I might put in order a catalogue of his rather fine collection of books.

In this way I had spent more than a year at La Tourbiere — out of the world, without a care, provided for luxuriously. It was tranquil. Yes, but at twenty-one it is not tranquillity that satisfies the heart. What news of the progress of events reached me came chiefly through the Vieomte, who would now and then give me a journal to read — always such as had the sanction of the Government, and described events from the point of view taken by the haute noblesse. Sometimes he would invite me to be present when he read aloud to the Vicomtesse and Mademoiselle a letter from his son Arnaud or some other gentleman who wrote to him from Paris. I remember, Monsieur Arnaud alluded in several of his letters to a young grenadier for whom he had a liking, whose name was Lazare Hoche. He described him as a smart soldier, quick, obedient, and courageous, and using his spare time industriously.