Page:Memoirs of Baron Hyde de Neuville; outlaw, exile, ambassador; (IA memoirsofbaronhy01hyde).pdf/63

Rh of set purpose; hence, only the principal events were allowed to be made public. Many sublime details, then unknown, have since given to this struggle its admirable character, Still, my head and my heart were fired with enthusiasm on hearing of the heroic deeds worthy of another age.

I would gladly have flown to these heroes to share their dangers, if not their glory; and assuredly, I should have done so, had not perils, less glorious, but no less real, kept everyone at home. I could have wished to find similar transports of courage and devotion ; but even in the most generous nation, heroes are the exception. Nor let it be thought that the feelings | express belonged only to a young and ardent soul like mine. Everywhere, the weight oppression made itself cruelly felt, by people of all ages, in every class and every position in life.

It is all very well for modern writers on the Revolution, for those who look at it only from a distance, whence they see the form of its great shadow rising; it is all very well for them to throw into relief the parts of the picture where the light falls, to bring out its grand outlines; but anyone who has passed through those days of upheaval knows well what constant malediction—hardly stifled by fear—lay hidden in the depths of every French heart.

When I became acquainted with the generals of that noble land of the Vendée, the first leaders had perished; those who survived were still heroes; but the saints of the Vendée had gone, Cathelineau, La Rochejaquelein, Lescure, were no more.

I would gladly sketch some features of their history, but I am not calm enough. I should, even now, be carried away by my admiration for those brave knights, who were the first to take up arms to combat anarchy, and to restore the throne and the altar. But, although my feelings have not changed, my heart is less ardent, and I have cast off the illusions of party