[64] The unpublished documents of this Department are preserved in the archives of the Préfecture at Nantes, and through the courtesy of their custodians I was enabled to examine them freely. These documents deal with all the revolutionary changes in church and state consequent upon the breaking down of the old _régime_, and with the enrollment of volunteers and the dispatch of armed forces to centers of disturbance throughout that district. The present manuscripts are said to represent but a fraction of those which originally existed, the archives having been subjected to repeated raids, thefts, and wanton destruction by fire and other means. The most important have been listed and published by the Government in summary form under the title, _Les Archives du Département de la Loire Inférieure, 1790-1799_, Série L. (Nantes, 1909). [65] During the Revolution Jean Audubon always added to his signature the cabalistic sign of three dots between parallel lines, which possibly stood for the three watchwords of the Republic—"_Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité_." [66] In the published orders and correspondence of the royalist General Boulart the following letter, given here in translation, is addressed to Citizen Audubon: "I give you notice, Citizen, that my aide-de-camp will arrive immediately from Niort. I beg you to do all in your power to come this evening to confer with me, since I have something to ask you of the utmost importance. I also inform you that there has arrived at Les Sables Citizen Anguis, the people's representative. Perhaps it would be more advantageous that you should see him this evening, and that tomorrow early we attempt to bring all three together. You could depart in the morning for Nantes." [Signed] "THE GENERAL BOULART." Jean Audubon filed this letter from the enemy with his Department, but his answer is not given. See Ch. L. Chassin, _Etudes Documentaires sur La Révolution Française: La Vendée Patriote, 1793-1800_, vol. ii, p. 306, t. 1-4 (Paris, 1894-1895). [67] _Délibérations-Arrêtés de Directoire du Département._ In MSS. pp. 107-108. [68] Jean was actually in command of this war vessel in March of that year, as shown by a document given in full in Chapter IV (p. 59). [69] These records are on file in the archives of the Department of Marine at Paris, but access to them will doubtless be denied until peace is restored in Europe.