e a mob of fugitives scattering in all
directions, and leaving behind them sixteen cannon, and all the
munitions of war they had captured.

La Rochejaquelein who, after he had visited Lescure at Clisson, had
rejoined the army with a party of gentlemen, covered the retreat with
desperate valour; charging the enemy's cavalry again and again and,
before falling back, allowing time for the fugitives to gain the
shelter of the woods. The loss of men was therefore small, but the fact
that the peasants, who had come to be regarded as almost irresistible
by the troops, should have been so easily defeated, raised the Blues
from the depth of depression into which they had fallen; while the blow
inflicted upon the Vendeans was correspondingly great. It was some
little time before the peasants could be aroused again.

Small bodies, indeed, kept the field and, under their leaders,
showed so bold a face whenever reconnoitring parties of the Blues
went out from Fontenay, that the troops were not long before they
again began to lose heart; while the generals, who had thought that
the victory at Fontenay would bring the war to a conclusion, again
began to pour in letters to the authorities at Paris, calling for
reinforcements.

On the side of the Vendeans, the priests everywhere exerted
themselves to impress upon their flocks the necessity of again
joining the army. Cathelineau himself made a tour through the
Bocage, and the peasants, persuaded that the defeat was a
punishment for having committed some excesses at the capture of
Chataigneraie, responded to the call. In nine days after the
reverse they were again in force near Fontenay, and in much greater
numbers than before; for very many of them had returned to their
homes, as soon as Thouars had been captured, and their strength in
the first battle was but little greater than that of the
Republicans.

Burning with ardour to avenge their defeat, and rendered furious by
the pillage of all the houses of the patriots at Chataigneraie--to
which town Chalbos with seven thousand troops had marched--it was
against him that the Vendeans first moved. Chalbos, who had
occupied his time in issuing vainglorious proclamations, and in
writing assurances to the Convention that the Vendeans were so
panic stricken that the war was virtually over, only saved his army
by a long and painful night march back to Fontenay. Here the troops
lay down to sleep, feeling certain that there could be no attac