This letter, which I take a pleasure in quoting, to prove what was the language of the men of the 20th of March, was not without effect. The Duke of Bourbon directed his aide-de-camp to have an interview with Colonel Noirot and it was determined, that his Highness should quit la Vendée, and embark at Nantes for England.
For reasons with which I am unacquainted, the prince did not fulfil his engagements. In fact, he quitted Beaupréau, but still roamed about the coast some time with a fictitious passport, and under a borrowed name. General--[86] recognised him, but respected his disguise. The Emperor approved this deference, and gave orders, that he should merely be obliged to depart: the father of the Duke of Enghien was become sacred to him, and to France.
[Footnote 86: I regret, that I did not learn his name.]
Of all the family of the Bourbons the Duke and Duchess of Angoulême alone persisted in struggling against their ill-fortune.
She was at Bordeaux at the time of the landing. The entrance of Napoleon into Paris, the flight of the King, and the general defection of the army, did not abate her courage. She made the national guard take up arms: she hastened to the barracks, to harangue the soldiers, and remind them of what they owed to their oaths and to their King. Numerous battalions of volunteers were instantly formed, and directed by her orders, to defend the avenues to the city, intercept all communication, and prevent popular commotions.
General Clausel, however, appointed by the Emperor head commandant of the 11th division, had advanced as far as St. André de Cubsac, six leagues from Bordeaux, at the head of about five and twenty gendarmes collected on the road, and of a hundred and fifty men from the garrison of Blayes, who, informed of his arrival by his emissaries, had come to meet him.
On his approach, a battalion of volunteers, posted at Cubsac with two pieces of cannon, retreated hastily to St. Vincent, and there joined some other volunteers, to defend with them the passage of the Dordogne.
The soldiers of General Clausel attempted to seize the flying bridge, and were saluted with several discharges of artillery and small arms, which they received without returning. Their chief, desirous of avoiding a civil war, requested, that some person might be sent, to hold a parley with him. The Bordelese having deputed their commandant, M. de Martignac, for this purpose, he charged this officer, to make known to them, that he had no design of making any attempts against their persons or property; and that he conjured them, in the name of their country, not to spill the blood of Frenchmen to no purpose.