forward through the tangle as
far as they could, opened fire on the enemy, as they strove to push
their way through the obstacle.

For a quarter of an hour the fight went on. Then the assailants,
having with great loss succeeded in passing over or pulling aside
the brushwood, began to pour through. The moment they did so,
Leigh's horn sounded; and at once the defenders rushed up the hill,
pursued by the Blues, with exulting shouts. But few shots were
fired, for the assailants had emptied their muskets before striving
to pass through the obstacle.

Leigh and his men had run but a hundred yards into the wood when
they met the main body of the peasants, rushing down at full speed.
Turning at once, his party joined them, and fell upon the advancing
enemy. Taken wholly by surprise, when they believed that victory
was won, the two or three hundred men who had passed the abattis
were swept before the crowd of peasants like chaff. The latter,
pressing close upon their heels, followed them through the gaps
that had been made.

The panic of the fugitives spread at once to those who had crossed
the river, and were clustered round the openings, jostling in their
eagerness to get through and join, as they believed, in the
slaughter of those who had caused them such heavy loss; and all
fled together. The peasants were at their heels, making deadly use
of their pitchforks, axes, and knives, and drove the survivors
headlong into the river. The horn again sounded and, in accordance
with the strict orders that they had received, they ran back again
to their shelter; a few dropping from the scattered fire that the
troops on the other side of the stream opened against them, as soon
as the fugitives had cleared away from their front.

Scarcely had the peasants gained the shelter when six pieces of
cannon, that had been placed on the opposite slope while the fight
was going on, opened against them.

Leigh at once ordered the main body back to their former position,
scattering his hundred men with guns along the whole line of
abattis, whence they again opened fire on the troops on the
opposite side of the river. These replied with volleys of musketry;
but the defenders, stationed as they were five or six yards apart,
and sheltering behind the trees, suffered but little either from
the artillery or musketry fire; while men dropped fast in the ranks
of the Blues.

The cannon were principally directed against the trees blocking the
roa