had landed a
hundred yards higher up. It was a joyful meeting, indeed, between
him and Patsey.

"Jean tells me it is all your doing that we have been got out," she
said. "I felt sure you would manage it, somehow."

They had already arranged their plans. Jean, with his wife and
father and his twelve men, was to start at once for Parthenay,
where Lescure was in command. Leigh had determined to join
Cathelineau, with as many of his band as chose to accompany him.
Desailles would go with Jean.

The boys, on the choice being given them, almost all decided to
accompany Leigh. They were excited at the success that had attended
them, and the tremendous roll of fire round the town showed how
fiercely their countrymen were fighting, and they longed to join in
the conflict.

Saying goodbye to those who were going, Leigh and his party towed
one of the boats a mile up the river, and then crossing, soon
joined the party engaged. The Vendeans had already advanced some
distance, but every house and garden was fiercely contested. Hour
after hour passed, and the troops were beginning to be discouraged.
It was broad daylight now, and the Vendeans pressed forward at all
points, more hotly than ever.

The troops were falling into disorder, and would soon have become a
disorganized mass; when a musket ball, fired from a window, struck
Cathelineau in the breast as, with his officers, who had been
considerably increased in number owing to the many gentlemen who
had joined him at Saumur, he was leading on his troops.

A cry of dismay rose from those who saw him fall, and the news
spread like wildfire among the peasants, who regarded him with an
almost superstitious reverence, and had a firm belief that he was
protected by Heaven from the balls of his enemies. His loss seemed
to them an irretrievable misfortune. The fierceness of their attack
diminished. Their ardour was gone, and the Blues, gaining courage
as their assailants ceased to press them, took the offensive.

They met with but little opposition. The Vendean army, lately on
the point of being victorious, was already breaking up and, ere
long, was scattered over the country, its retreat being undisturbed
by the enemy, who could scarcely believe their own good fortune at
having succeeded, when all had seemed lost.

Cathelineau was carried off; but died, a fortnight later, from the
effects of the wound. His death was a terrible blow to the cause.
The failure to take Nantes had,