Eighty thousand people were there collected in and around St. Florent,
men, women, and children; the old and infirm, the maimed and sick, the
mutilated and the dying. Poor wretches who had gotten themselves dragged
thither from the hospitals, in which they feared to remain, were lying
in every ditch, and under every wall, filling the air with their groans.
Everything was in confusion; no staff existed competent to arrange their
affairs, and to husband the poor means at their disposal. Food was
wasted by some, while hundreds were starving. Some houses in the town
were nearly empty, while others were crowded almost to suffocation.
There was very much to be done, yet every one was idle.
The great work to be accomplished was to transport the Vendean multitude
over to the other side of the Loire. It had been at first feared by some
that the men of Brittany would be unwilling to receive the beaten
royalist army, flying from the bloody vengeance of the republicans, but
their neighbours did not prove so unhospitable.
Pages:
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699