The
republican troops of Lechelle and Thurreau were not long in making their
way to the devoted district, and tidings soon reached Chatillon that
they were devastating the country round Doue and Vihiers, and that
parties of them had advanced to the neighbourhood of Cholet.
It was then determined at Chatillon that the royalist army should
advance towards the republicans: that they should fight them on the
first field of battle on which they could meet them, and that if beaten,
they should cross the Loire into Britanny, and make their way to the
coast, to meet the succour which had been promised them from England.
Every day that the battle was delayed, hundreds of children and women
perished in cold blood, numberless humble dwellings were reduced to
ashes. The commands of Robespierre were being executed; the land was
being saturated with the blood of its inhabitants.
De Lescure and Larochejaquelin were both staying at Chatillon. But
Chatillon is but a league or two from Durbelliere, and one or the other
of them was almost daily at the chateau.
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