peasants' hands--the latter providing them with breakfast
before they started, early next morning, rejoining Cathelineau's
force two hours later. These had been apprised, some hours before,
by one of the mounted gentlemen who had accompanied the column, of
the success that had attended the operation; and they were received
with great joy by their comrades, on their arrival.

Cathelineau, with General Bonchamp and a small escort of cavalry,
had ridden towards Saumur to examine the positions occupied by the
enemy, and to discuss the plan of attack. They now felt confident
of success; unless, indeed, Biron should come up in the course of
the day with the Paris brigade at Tours, together with its guns.
The description that Leigh had given, of the confusion and want of
discipline in the garrison, showed that it could not be relied upon
for hard fighting; and as it was certain that the failure of
Salomon to get through to its assistance would be known, in Saumur,
early in the day, it could not but add to the dismay produced by
the advance against the town.

This was indeed the case. As artillery had not been employed on
either side, the sound of the conflict did not reach the town.
However, as the officer who had taken the order to Thouars returned
at seven o'clock; saying that Salomon was preparing to march, and
would assuredly arrive some time in the evening, the anxiety
increased hour by hour and, by midnight, the conviction that he
must have been attacked by the enemy, and had failed to get
through, became a certainty, and spread dismay through the town.

At five in the morning a mounted messenger brought a despatch from
Salomon, saying that he had fought for four hours near Montreuil,
against a large force of the enemy; and that, another column of
these having fallen on his rear, he found it necessary to retire,
as a panic was spreading among the National Guard, and a serious
disaster would have happened, had he continued his attempts to push
on. In the evening Generals Coustard and Berthier, who had been
sent by Biron to act under Menou's orders, arrived in the town; and
Santerre, the brewer of Paris, who had been the leader of the mob
there and was now a general, arrived next morning.

Cathelineau's army was astir early. The leaders had been gladdened
by the arrival, at five o'clock, of a messenger from Pierre, saying
that one of his messengers had come in from Tours, and that, up to
seven o'clock in the evening,