“No, Henri, I also will return home.  Charette is right.  We should but waste our time in Paris, and be in danger.  We shall probably be in safety in Poitou.”

“Perhaps not in safety,” said Henri.  “We may, I trust, soon be in action.”

“How in action?” said Fleuriot.  “What do you intend to do?”

“To follow any one who will lead me to assist in restoring the King to his throne,” replied Henri.  “Let us, at any rate, retire to our provinces; and be assured that the National Assembly will soon hear of us.”

The club was broken up; the young friends met no more in the Rue Vivienne.  Within a week from the 10th of August, the denizens of the municipality had searched the rooms for any relics which might be discovered there indicatory of a feeling inimical to the Republic; their residences also were searched, and there were orders at the barriers that they should not pass out; but the future Vendean leaders had too quickly appreciated the signs of the time; they had gone before the revolutionary tribunal had had time to form itself.  They were gone, and their names for a season were forgotten in Paris; but Henri Rochejaquelin was right—­before long, the National Assembly did hear of them; before twelve months had passed, they were more feared by the Republic, than the allied forces of England, Austria, and Prussia.

CHAPTER II

ST. FLORENT

Nothing occurred in the provinces, subsequently called La Vendee, during the autumn or winter of 1792 of sufficient notice to claim a place in history, but during that time the feelings which afterwards occasioned the revolt in that country, were every day becoming more ardent.  The people obstinately refused to attend the churches to which the constitutional clergy had been appointed; indeed, these pastors had found it all but impossible to live in the parishes assigned to them; no one would take them as tenants; no servants would live with them; the bakers and grocers would not deal with them; the tailors would not make their clothes for them, nor the shoemakers shoes.  During the week they were debarred from all worldly commerce, and on Sundays they performed their religious ceremonies between empty walls.

The banished priests, on the other hand, who were strictly forbidden to perform any of the sacerdotal duties, continued among the trees and rocks to collect their own congregations undiminished in number, and much more than ordinarily zealous, in their religious duties; and with the licence which such sylvan chapels were found to foster, denunciations against the Republic, and prayers for the speedy restoration of the monarchy, were mingled with the sacred observances.