In exceptional cases, when the military chest happened to be well
filled, the provisions acquired might be paid for, but as a rule
armies upon the march lived by foraging. The cavalry swept in the
flocks and herds from the country round. Flour, forage, and everything
else required was seized wherever found, and the unhappy peasants
and villagers thought themselves lucky if they escaped with the loss
of all they possessed, without violence, insult, and ill treatment.
The slightest resistance to the exactions of the lawless foragers
excited their fury, and indiscriminate slaughter took place. The
march of an army could be followed by burned villages, demolished
houses, crops destroyed, and general ruin, havoc, and desolation.
In the cases of towns these generally escaped indiscriminate
plunder by sending deputies forward to meet advancing armies, when
an offer would be made to the general to supply so much food and to
pay so much money on condition that private property was respected.
In these cases the main body of the troops was generally encamped
outside the town. Along the routes frequently followed by armies
the country became a desert, the hapless people forsook their ruined
homes, and took refuge in the forests or in the heart of the hills,
carrying with them their portable property, and driving before them
a cow or two and a few goats.
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