d. Gradually these were torn to pieces and, after an hour's
firing, were so far destroyed that a passage through them was
comparatively easy. Then the enemy again began to cross the stream.

As soon as they commenced to do so, Leigh called up the men with
muskets from each flank, and sent word to the main body to descend
the hill again, as the cannonade would cease as soon as the attack
began. Three times the assault was made and repulsed, the peasants
fighting with a fury that the Blues, already disheartened with
their heavy losses, could not withstand. As they fell back for the
third time, Leigh thought that enough had been done, and ordered
the peasants at once to make through the woods, and to proceed
by-lanes and byways to join Cathelineau; who, he doubted not, would
by this time have gathered a considerable force at Chemille.

By the time that the Blues were ready to advance again, this time
in overwhelming force, the peasants were well away. The wounded, as
fast as they fell, had been carried off to distant villages; and
when the enemy advanced they found, to their surprise, that their
foes had disappeared, and that only some thirty dead bodies
remained on the scene of battle.

Their own loss had exceeded three hundred, a large proportion of
whom were regular soldiers; and the National Guards, and the new
levies, were profoundly depressed at the result of the action.

"If," they said to themselves, "what must have been but a
comparatively small number of peasants have caused this loss, what
will it be when we meet Cathelineau's main body?"

There was no thought of pursuit. A regiment was thrown out in
skirmishing order, and advanced through the wood, the rest
following in column along the road. General Berruyer had joined
General Menou the evening before, with the force from Saumur and,
as they moved forward, the two generals rode together.

"This is a much more serious business than I had expected,"
Berruyer said. "I certainly imagined that, with such forces as we
have gathered round La Vendee, the campaign would be little more
than a military promenade. I see, however, that I was entirely
mistaken. These men have, today, shown themselves capable of taking
advantage of the wild character of their country; and as to their
courage, there can be no question, whatever. If this is a fair
sample of the resistance that we have to expect, throughout the
whole country, we shall need at least fifty thousand men to