General
Quetineau accepted the present of his liberty, and soon as he was free,
he returned to Paris; he was immediately sent to the revolutionary
tribunal and tried for his life; and as he himself had predicted, was
guillotined by the Convention for the cowardice of the troops, whom he
had been called upon to take under his command. In the old days of
Greece, when the Kings sinned, the people suffered for it: this law was
reversed under the first French Republic; when the soldiers ran away,
the Generals were beheaded.
The joy of the Vendeans, when they found themselves masters of Saumur,
knew no bounds, but they were grotesque rather than unruly in their
demonstrations; they plundered nothing from the poor people, or even
from the shopkeepers; the money that was found in the republican chest
was divided among them, but as this consisted almost entirely of
assignats, it was of but little value. The shopkeepers were surprised
at the liberality of their enemies and conquerors, who were willing to
dispose of these assignats for anything they would fetch--a little wine,
or a few ounces of tobacco; whereas, their own friends, the republicans,
had insisted that they should be taken at their nominal value as money,
for all goods exposed for sale.
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