"You can understand that
under the circumstances, such precautions must be necessary. The day
after tomorrow we start on our march, and you shall ride close to
myself. When Clisson and Durbelliere are in ashes, you shall be free to
take your own course; in the meantime, no indignity shall be offered to
you."
On the day named by Santerre, the whole republican army started from
Angers, and commenced their march towards the Bocage. They proceeded on
their route for several days without finding any enemy to contend with.
They kept on the northern shore of the Loire till they reached Saumur,
where they remained a couple of days, and employed themselves in
punishing the inhabitants in whose houses the leaders of the Vendeans
had been entertained. It was in vain that these poor men pleaded that
they had not even opened their doors to the royalists till after the
republican General had capitulated; that they had given nothing which
they had been able to refuse, and, in fact, that they had only sold
their goods and let their rooms to the Vendeans, when they could not
possibly have declined to do so.
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