The Sun. — 1833-09-26 (London, England)

VENDEAN WARFARE.  The peculiar nature of Vendean warfare is thus graphically described by General Dermoncourt, in his publication entitled The Duchess de Berri in La Vendee:—" A Vendean, as I have already stated, confounds every strategic calculation of the military art, especially those made for open plains, As for the army, which you expect every moment to encounter, it vanishes like smoke; fur, in truth, it has no existence. When a day is fixed to strike a blow, at day-break, or even during the night, the tocsin is sounded in the village fixed on as the point of union. The neighbouring villages reply in the same manner; the villagers quit their cottages if it be in the night, or their ploughs if in the day, throwing upon their shoulder the gun, which they scarcely ever quit, stuff cartridges into their belt, tie their handkerchief round a broad-brimmed hat, which shades their sunburnt countenance, stop at their church to utter a short prayer, then wend their way from all parts of the country to the common centre, inspired with a twofold faith in God, and in the justice of their cause. Then come their Chiefs, who acquaint them with the cause of their being assembled; and if it is to attack some patriot column they state the road which the column vi ill pursue, and the hour it will pass. Then, when this information is well understood by all, the Chief in command gives them the plan of the battle in the followin, words :—" Scatter yourselves, my flue fellows !" Then each breaks, not from the ranks but from the group, marches off his o n way, proceeds onward with precaution and in silence, and in a short time every tree, every bush, every tuft of furze bordering either side of the high road, conceals a peasant with a gun in one hand, and supporting himself with the other, crouched like a wild beast, without motion, and scarcely breathing. Meanwhile the patriot column, uneasy at the thought of some unknown danger, advances towards the defile, preceded by scouts, who pass without seeing, touch without feeling, and are allowed to go by scathless; but the moment the detachment is in the midst of the pass, jammed in between two sloping banks, as if it were in an immense rut, and unable to deploy either to the right or to the left, a signal is given at one extremity, and is repeated along the whole line of ambuscade, to signify that each is at his post; then a human cry succeeds—one of war and of' death. In an instant each bush, each tuft of furze, glares with a sudden flash, and a shower of balls strikes whole files of soldiers to the earth, with• out their being able to perceive the enemies who slaughter them. The dead and wounded lay piled upon each other on the road ; and if the column is not thrown into disorder, and the voices of the officers are heard above the firing —if, in short, the troops attempt to grapple body to body with their assailants, who strike without showing themselves--if they climb the slope, like a glacis, and scale the hedge, like a wall, the peasants have already had time to retire behind a second en• closure, whence the invisible firing recommences as murderous as before. Should this second hedge be stormed, in the same manner, ten, twenty, a hundred similar intrenchments offer successive shelter to this destructive retreat; for the country is thus divided for the security of the children of the soil, which seems to show a maternal solicitude for their preservation, by offering them a shelter everywhere, and their enemies everywhere a grave."  The Duke of Richmond is on his return to Goodwood, where his Grace has invited Sir James Graham and a few other distinguished friends for the pheasant shooting season. The Admiralty yacht will convey the Right Hon. Baronet from Cowes to Shoreham or Chi(+e, er.