CHAPTER V
DE LESCURE.
De Lescure with his sister returned on the following morning to Clisson;
for so was his chateau called. Clisson is about two leagues south of the
town of Brassiere, in the province of Poitou, and is situated in the
southern part of the Bocage. M. de Lescure owned the chateau and a
considerable territory around it. He was a man of large property in that
country where the properties were all comparatively small, and was in
other respects also by far the most influential person in the
neighbourhood. He had married a lady with a large fortune, which gave
him more means of assisting the poor than most of the gentlemen resident
in the Bocage possessed. He took a deep interest in the welfare of those
around him; he shared their joys, and sympathized with their grief, and
he was consequently beloved, and almost adored.
He had now undertaken to join with his whole heart the insurgents
against the Republic, and he was fully determined to do so; he had made
up his mind that it was his duty to oppose measures which he thought
destructive to the happiness of his countrymen, and to make an effort
to re-establish the throne; but he did not bring to the work the
sanguine hope of success, the absolute pleasure in the task which
animated Larochejaquelin; nor yet the sacred enthusiastic chivalry of
Cathelineau, who was firmly convinced of the truth of his cause, and
believed that the justice of God would not allow the murderers of a
King, and the blasphemers of his name to prevail against the arms of
people who were both loyal and faithful.
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