第31章

"At eighteen years of age, the period of her marriage, Mademoiselle de la Chanterie was a young girl of delicate complexion, brown in tone with a brilliant color, graceful in shape, and very pretty.Above a forehead of great beauty was a mass of dark hair which harmonized with the brown eyes and the general gaiety of her expression.A certain daintiness of feature was misleading as to her true character and her almost virile decision.She had small hands and small feet; in fact, there was something fragile about her whole person which excluded the idea of vigor and determination.Having always lived beside her mother, she had a most perfect innocence of thought and behavior and a really remarkable piety.This young girl, like her mother, was fanatically attached to the Bourbons; she was therefore a bitter enemy to the Revolution, and regarded the dominion of Napoleon as a curse inflicted by Providence upon France in punishment of the crimes of 1793.

"The conformity of opinion on this subject between Madame de la Chanterie and her daughter, and the daughter's suitor, was one of the determining reasons of the marriage.

"The friend of the husband had commanded a body of Chouans at the time that hostilities were renewed in 1799; and it seems that the baron's object (Madame de la Chanterie's son-in-law was a baron) in fostering the intimacy between his wife and his friend was to obtain, through her influence, certain succor from that friend.

"This requires a few words of explanation," said Monsieur Alain, interrupting his narrative, "about an association which in those days made a great deal of noise.I mean the 'Chauffeurs.'[*] Every province in the west of France was at that time more or less overrun with these 'brigands,' whose object was far less pillage than a resurrection of the royalist warfare.They profited, so it was said, by the great number of 'refractories,'--the name applied to those who evaded the conscription, which was at that time, as you probably know, enforced to actual abuse.

[*] /Chauffeurs/.This name applies to royalists who robbed the mail-coaches conveying government funds, and levied tribute on those who bought the confiscated property of /emigres/ at the West.When the Thermidorian reaction began, after the fall of Robespierre, other companies of royalists, chiefly young nobles who had not emigrated, were formed at the South and East under various names, such as "The Avengers," and "The Company of Jehu," who stopped the diligences containing government money, which they transmitted to Brittany and La Vendee for the support of the royalist troops.

They regarded this as legitimate warfare, and were scrupulous not to touch private property.When captured, however, they were tried and executed as highwaymen.--TR.

"Between Mortagne and Rennes, and even beyond, as far as the banks of the Loire, nocturnal expeditions were organized, which attacked, especially in Normandy, the holders of property bought from the National domain.[*] These armed bands sent terror throughout those regions.I am not misleading you when I ask you to observe that in certain departments the action of the laws was for a long time paralyzed.

[*] The National domain was the name given to the confiscated property of the /emigres/, which was sold from time to time at auction to the highest bidder.--TR.