Brest was the very focus of Jacobinism--the close proximity of La Vendee gave this city reason to apprehend the counter-revolution that constantly threatened them--the presence of the fleet, commanded by officers suspected of favouring the aristocratic part--a population greatly composed of strangers and sailors, accessible to corruption, and capable of being readily excited to crime--rendered this city more turbulent and more agitated than any other port in the kingdom.

The clubs constantly strove to work on the sailors to mutiny against their officers, whilst the revolutionists mistrusted the navy, as that was far more independent of the people than the army, for the court could at a moment change the station of the fleet, and turn their cannon against the constitution, and the feeling of discipline, of aristocracy, and of the colonies, were all contrary to the new school of ideas; and for this reason the Jacobins had for some time striven to disorganise the fleet.

The appointment of M.de Lajaille to the command of one of the vessels destined to carry assistance to San Domingo, caused an outbreak of the suspicions infused into the minds of the inhabitants of Brest, and of the officers of the navy.

M.de Lajaille was designated by the clubs as a traitor to the nation, who was about to introduce the counter-revolutionary feeling in the colonies.

Attacked at the moment he was about to embark, by a crowd of nearly three thousand persons, he was covered with wounds, stretched senseless on the ground, and would have been killed, but for the heroic devotion of a workman, who shielded him with his own body, and defended him until the arrival of the civic guard.