Among the difficulties which the execution of all military plans met with in La Vendee, the nature and degree of which may be judged of from the local dispositions and the kind of warfare carried on by the royalists, there was one which was invincible, and which singularly retarded the operations of the republicans.  Whenever they were desirous of sending an order from head quarters to a division at the distance of twelve or fifteen leagues, the messenger was often obliged to travel fifty or sixty in order to avoid passing through the revolted country.  Hence the impossibility of attempting any expedition, however necessary or desirable, which required to be executed without delay.  The Vendeans would appear one day at a certain point to the number of several thousand men; measures were concerted for attacking them the next day, but before that arrived they were eight or ten leagues distant from the place where they had showed themselves the day before.

Thus were the republicans exposed to fruitless victories or disastrous checks, which exhausted their men and resources.  Masters of the field of battle, they found, says one of their generals, nothing but wooden shoes and some slain, never any arms or ammunition.  The Vendean when perceived, would either hide or break his gun, and in surrendering his life, seldom left his weapon.  Being well acquainted with the country, and more dexterous than the republicans, they carried scarcely any artillery with them, four or five pieces sufficed for an army of thirty or forty thousand men; these were generally light field pieces.  Equally sparing of ammunition, they took but few waggons, one alone served the pieces, as they well knew it was not artillery that would procure them the victory; thence, when the republicans met with any disastrous affair, they lost from twenty to thirty pieces of cannon, and waggons in proportion; whereas when they gained a victory they acquired only two or three pieces of cannon, with scarcely any ammunition.

From this slight sketch of the nature of the country, so disadvantageous to the invaders, and of the mode in which the Vendeans carried on this unfortunate war, our surprise will cease at the determined and protracted resistance made to the republicans by this loyal and brave people.  For many years they defended their beloved country, and endured privations, and accumulated miseries, such as human nature has seldom been exposed to.  To use the words of a republican general, “A girdle of fire enveloped the revolted country; fire, terror, and death, preceded the march”.