MARRIAGE A LA MORT.

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 14, 17 May 1845, Page 4

MARRIAGE A LA MORT.

(A Passage from the Annals oj the Reign of Terror.) BY W. E. BURTON. CHAPTER I.—THE KETREAT. Is the gray of the morning of Christmas Day, in the year 1793, a young man, m the ordinary costume of a French peasant, with a bright red handkerchief bound round his head, stepped cautiously from a bushy shelter on tne summit of a precipitous cliff that banked the current oj the river Loire. His attention had been aroused by a slight splashing of the water below, and he vainly endeavoured to distinguish in the rising mist the cause of his alarm. He poised a huge and rusty musket on his knee, drew his nail across the edge of the flint, and loosened the caked powder that filled the pan. In a few moments, a man was seen swimming in the river's brink, and endeavouring to find a foot : hold among the rocks; he had scarcely effected his hazardous landing, ere the watcher, having descended the cliff, hailed him in the rude patois of Bretagne. The swimmer paused, gazed anxiously around, and fell exhausted on the beach. 'Here, Jean Brive!' shouted the watcher, 'leave your hiding-place in the bush—crawl down, and help me to assist a brother unfortunate.' Another figure appeared descending the elm: a frightful wound deformed his youthful face, and streaks of gore stained his dress. The historical reader will at once perceive that our actors are fugitive Vendeans from the fatal battle of Savenai.

'Peste!' exclaimed the swimmer, as he revived under the exertions of his comrades,,' had the Loire been fifty yards wider, I should, by this time, have been feeding its fishes. 'Tis a perilous swim on a wintry day.' ' But why cross the river at this point, so far from the field of battle? We must travel along the northern bank, on our road to Nantes, to avoid the numerous streamlets that intersect this shore.'

' Why, then, are you here V said Raoul Moyse, the new comer. 'How were you enabled to cross the JLoire in the neighbourhood of Savenai, when our whole force were not sufficient to command the pass ?'

'We jumped into a ferry-boat that was leaving the shore, during the thickest part of the pursuit. We thought we were unobserved, but the cowardly blue-coats fired after us, although the rest of the passengers were women and children. One of the hired slaves of the Convention, a dragoon, dashed his hors? into the river, and swam some distance after the boat. We could easily have stopped his progress, but the girls pressed round us, and held our arms. The ruffian fired into the group, and killed a lovely creature—one who had been most earnest to save hii life. We fired in return, and the dragoon, and trie nobler brute, the horse, both sunk beneath the stream.'

' You were right, Andre Bezas, in crossing the river at your earliest chance. The northern shore swarms with legions of the blues. I have been hunted by the demons during the entire night; and when the first glimpse of light exhibited a body of die enemy in advance on the east, I resolved to attempt the passage of the Loire, dangerous as it was, rather than run the risk of failing into the hands of the butcher*.'

A consultation was then held by the trio, respecting the method of procedure," when it was resolved to throw away riieir muskets, to avoid the banks of the river, to make a detour to the south east, till they struck upon the only «■ reat road in the Bocage, * leading from ItocheTle to Nantes. A passage on this road, by unarmed peasants, would not be a suspicious event; but, in case the troops of the Convention were likely to be troublesome, a knowledge of the by-ways of the Bocage would enable the Vendeans in a few days to strike the river on the east of the city of Nantes, when, descending the stream in a market-boat, they could not be suspected of participation in a battle fought many miles to the west, should the authorities deem it necessary to interfere.

'I can promise you both shelter,'said Jean Brive, the man with the gash in his face, ' should we gam the city. My sister, Pernelle, inhabits a small house built on the ruins of the old ramparts. The remains of a covered way pass under the house to an unexplored extent • at all events, there is room for a couple of runaway Vendeans, and 111 be bound that Pernelle will not let us starve.'

/What reason can you assign for returning witnout your youngest sister, the pretty Benotte V 'Pernelle knows why Benotte followed our people into the field. Patriotism is a p-ettv ex cuse for the love of a dashing young officer Giulliaume Roland has received a violent hurt -Benotte hastened to attend his wounds: and if he is captured by the enemy, she will not hesitate to share his imprisonment.' The hardy Vendeans proceeded to put their plan into execution The wounds of Jean Brive were washed and bandaged~he had received the thrust of a pike ,n one of his cheeks, and a carbine bullet had gone through the flesh' of his arm-yet he scorned to complain, and cheerfully essayed the long and toilsome march A rough cross was erected by the river sideprayers were addressed to the Saviour, and the aid of the Virgin Mary claimed in their behalf A scant breakfast was extracted from the knapsack of Andre Bezas, and the trio set forth with cheerful and resolved minds. Their muskets were detained until they neared the great road when a farmer gladly filled their knapsacks wfth the best of provisions in exchange tor Warm? In due time they reached the city of NanSs'

or cross-road, which serve* 1„ t„, n 3 T , 4 b y-"'ay, °" a br °° k '

CHAPTER. II. —THE PRO CONSUL OP fn E CONVENTION. After the disastrous battle of La Mans and Savenai, which occurred within a few days of each other, the Vendean chiefs meditated a concentration at Nantes, and the discomfited royalists hastened to obey their leaders. ThU republican troops offered no opposition to the progress of the sons of the Bocage, and thousands of the fugitives gathered together in the capital of the old duchy of Bretagne. B ut the emissiries af the Convention had possession of the plans of the royalists, and the Nantese authorities gave up the control of the city to a pro-consul sent from Paris with power to punish and to slay. The Vendean fugitives were arrested, and the jails were crowded with their thousand victims.

(To be continued in our ?iext.)