Also there is scarcely a field without a
number of old apple-trees, the fruit being used for cider, which kill
the vegetation wherever their branches cover the ground. Now, if the
reader will reflect on the small extent of open ground within these
hedges and large trees whose hungry roots impoverish the soil, he will
have an idea of the cultivation and general character of the region
through which Mademoiselle de Verneuil was now passing.
It is difficult to say whether the object of these enclosures is to
avoid all disputes of possession, or whether the custom is a lazy one
of keeping the cattle from straying, without the trouble of watching
them; at any rate such formidable barriers are permanent obstacles,
which make these regions impenetrable and ordinary warfare impossible.
There lies the whole secret of the Chouan war. Mademoiselle de
Verneuil saw plainly the necessity the Republic was under to strangle
the disaffection by means of police and by negotiation, rather than by
a useless employment of military force. What could be done, in fact,
with a people wise enough to despise the possession of towns, and hold
to that of an open country already furnished with indestructible
fortifications? Surely, nothing except negotiate; especially as the
whole active strength of these deluded peasants lay in a single able
and enterprising leader.
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