The Cure had no scrupulous compunction in
using his sacerdotal authority as a priest, when the temporal influence
of Larochejaquelin, as landlord, was insufficient to induce a countryman
to leave his wife and home to seek honour under the walls of Saumur. The
peasants were all willing to oppose the republican troops, should they
come into their own neighbourhood to collect conscripts; they were ready
to attack any town where republican soldiers were quartered, providing
they were not required to go above a day's march from their own homes;
but many objected to enrol themselves for any length of time, to bind
themselves as it were to a soldier's trade, and to march under arms to
perform service at a distance from their farms, which to them seemed
considerable. With such men as these, and with their wives and sisters,
Henri argued, and used his blandest eloquence, and was usually
successful; but when he failed, the Cure was not slow in having recourse
to the irresistable thunders of the church.
No one could have been fitter for the duties of a recruiting-sergeant
than Jacques Chapeau; and to his great natural talents in that line, he
added a patriotic zeal, which he copied from his master.
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