with them, as we took all that we could find, at Chollet and Vihiers. I think that, with its aid, you will be able to have a good view of what is going on."
In twenty minutes, Leigh had taken up his post in the belfry of the village church that Cathelineau had indicated. Andre and Pierre, whose party had returned an hour before, were with him. The rest of the band were in the story below them, from which a view was also obtainable. The three most severely wounded had started for their homes, early that morning. The others were fit for duty.
The fight began by a discharge of the guns of the assailants. Leigh could see that the defenders' guns had been somewhat withdrawn from their position on the top of the rising ground, where they would have been too much exposed to the enemy's fire; and their muzzles now only showed over the brow. During the course of the morning an earthwork had been thrown up, to afford protection to the men serving them. They did not return the fire until the enemy were within a distance of a quarter of a mile, then they commenced, with deadly effect.
The Blues halted, and Leigh could make out that a considerable number of men in the rear at once turned and ran. In order to encourage them they had been informed, just before they marched, of the plot that had been arranged to silence the guns; and this unexpected discharge caused the greatest consternation among the young levies. A body of cavalry were at once sent off in pursuit, and drove the fugitives back to their ranks, the troopers using the flats of their swords unstintingly.
Then the advance was resumed, covered by the fire of the guns and by volleys of musketry. These were answered but feebly by the firearms in the peasants' hands, and the Blues pressed on until, just before they reached the foot of the slope, the peasants charged them with fury.
The regular troops and a regiment of gendarmes had been placed in front. These stood firm, poured heavy volleys into the peasants as they approached, and then received them with levelled bayonets.
In vain the Vendeans strove to break through the hedge of steel. Cathelineau and his officers on one side, and the French generals on the other, encouraged their men, and for a quarter of an hour a desperate conflict reigned. Then the peasants fell back, and the Blues resumed their advance.
Three times Cathelineau induced his followers to renew the attack, but each time it was unsuccessful. The Blues mounted the hill, the cannon were captured, and the Vendeans fell back into the town. Here the ends of the streets had been barricaded and, in spite of the artillery and the captured guns now turned against their former owners, the assailants tried in vain to force their way into the town.
From every window that commanded the approaches, the men with muskets kept up an incessant fire. The mass of the peasants lay in shelter behind the barricades, or in the houses, until the enemy's infantry approached to within striking distance; and then, leaping up from these barricades, and fighting with an absolute disregard of their lives, they again and again repulsed the attacks of the enemy.
Berruyer, seeing that in spite of his heavy losses he made no way, called his troops from the assault and, forming them into two columns, moved to the right and left, and attacked the town on both sides. Here no barricades had been erected and, in spite of the efforts of the peasants, an entrance was forced into the town. Every street, lane, and house was defended with desperate energy; but discipline gradually triumphed, and the Blues won their way into the square in the centre of the town, where the principal church stood. As they entered the open space, they were assailed with a rain of bullets from the roof, tower, and windows.
As soon as the flanking movement began, Monsieur Bonchamp, seeing that the town was now certain to be taken, had hurried, with the greater portion of the men armed with muskets, to the church; which had already been prepared by him, on the previous day, for the defence. A great number of paving stones had been got up from the roadway and piled inside the church and, as soon as he arrived there with his men, the doors were closed, and blocked behind with a deep wall of stones.
Berruyer saw that the position was a formidable one and, ignorant of the number of the defenders, sent back for his guns, and contented himself for the time by clearing the rest of the town of its defenders. These, however, as they issued out, were rallied by Cathelineau and his officers. They assured the peasants that the day was not yet lost, that the church would hold out for hours, and that d'Elbee would soon arrive, with his force from Chollet, to their assistance.
Leigh, anxiously watching the progress
of the fight, had sent messenger after messenger along the road by which d'Elbee would come. His heart sank, as he heard the guns open in the centre of the town, and knew that they were directed against the church. Still, there was no abatement of the fire of the defenders. An incessant fire of musketry was maintained, not only from the church itself, but from every window in the houses around it.