CHOUANS (a Bas-Breton word signifying screech-owls), the name applied to the royalist insurgents in the west of France, at the time of the Revolution. It has been suggested that the name arose from the cry they used when approaching their nocturnal rendezvous; but it is also maintained that it was derived from a nickname applied to their leader Jean Cottereau. Originally a contraband manufacturer of salt, Cottereau had been seized in a scuffle with the Government officers, and condemned to death, but his mother’s entreaty gained his pardon from Louis XVI., and he never forgot his benefactor. He then became a soldier but deserted, and was imprisoned; on his release he settled down in a legal occupation, and joined the national guard. On the outbreak of the Revolution he gathered round him a band of royalist peasantry with whom he retired to the wood of Misdon, where they lived in huts and subterranean chambers. From Lower Maine the insurrection soon spread to Brittany, and throughout the west of France. In 1793 Cottereau joined Laval with some 500 men; and the band grew rapidly and swelled into a considerable army, which assumed the name of La Petite Vendée. Cottereau greatly distinguished himself by his personal bravery and his military ability. But after the decisive defeats at Le Mans and Savenay, he retired again to his old haunts in the wood of Misdon, and resumed his old course of guerilla warfare. Misfortunes here increased upon him, until through treachery he fell into an ambuscade and was mortally wounded. He died among his followers, July 28, 1794. Ignorant as he was, he appears to have been a man of no slight ability. His gratitude was intense; and his magnanimity was such that he is said on several occasions to have spared those who had most deeply injured ...