Their arguments were of no avail; they
were thrown into prison as criminals, and left for trial by the
revolutionary tribunal.
Although Saumur had so lately been besieged and taken by the royalists,
there was hardly a vestige of the conquerors left in it. Their attempt
to place a garrison in the town had proved entirely a failure; the
peasants who had undertaken the work had left the place by scores at a
time, and before a fortnight was over, the commandant found himself with
about twenty-five men, and consequently he marched back into La Vendee
after his army. The town was perfectly tranquil when the republicans
entered it, but the citizens were afflicted and out of spirits; their.
shops were closed, and their goods hidden; the bakers had no bread, the
butchers no meat, and the grocers had neither oil nor sugar. They knew
well what it was to sell their merchandise to the troops of the
Convention, and to be paid for them by the government in assignats.
Many of those who had formed the former garrison of Saumur, were now
with the army; men whom Chapeau and his assistants had shaven, men still
bald, and smarting from the indignity to which they had been subjected.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457