d by the enemy.

On the seventeenth, their whole force being now concentrated there,
they were about to move forward towards Beaupreau; when the
advanced guard was hotly attacked and, in a short time, the combat
became general. For a time the Vendeans bore down all opposition,
but as the whole of the Republican force came into action, their
advance was arrested.

The battle began soon after one o'clock. It raged without
intermission till nightfall. No decisive advantage had been gained
on either side, and the result was still doubtful, when a panic
took place among the multitude of noncombatants in the rear of the
Vendeans. The cry was raised, "To the Loire!"

The panic spread. In vain the leaders and their officers galloped
backwards and forwards, endeavouring to restore confidence, and
shouted to the men that victory was still in their grasp. In the
darkness and din they could only be heard by those immediately
round them, and even these they failed to reanimate; and the men
who had for seven hours fought, as Kleber himself reported, like
tigers, lost heart.

Lescure had fallen in the fighting on the fourteenth. Bonchamp and
d'Elbee were both desperately wounded at the battle at Chollet, and
were carried off by their men. La Rochejaquelein, with whom Jean
Martin and Leigh were riding, had made almost superhuman efforts to
check the panic; and they fell back, almost broken hearted, with a
band of peasants, who held together to the last. On the previous
day Leigh had escorted Patsey to Beaupreau, and it was to this town
that the fugitives made their way, arriving there at midnight.

"Thank God that you are both alive!" Patsey said, bursting into
tears as her husband entered the room in which she was established.

"We can hardly believe it ourselves," Jean said. "It has been a
terrible day, indeed. Our men fought nobly, and I firmly believe
that we should have won the day, had not an unaccountable panic set
in. What caused it I know not. We were doing well everywhere, and
had begun to drive them back and, could we have fought on for
another half hour it was likely that, as usual, a panic would have
seized them.

"However, Patsey, they would have gathered again stronger than ever,
and it must have come to the same thing, in the long run. Now put on
your disguise, at once. We will lie down for two hours, and see you
off before daybreak. I do not know whether la Rochejaquelein, who
must now be considered in comman