"What ails you, friends?" said he; "did you never never see a man
stumble before? Come, the passage is free; now at length we will quench
our thirst in Saumur," and taking his sword in his left hand, he again
attempted to make good his ground.
M. d'Elbee had seen the Vendeans retreating back towards the bridge, and
knowing that victory with them must be now or never (for it would have
been impossible to have induced the peasants to remain longer from their
homes, had they been repulsed), he determined to quit his post and to
second de Lescure at the bridge. The firing from the town had ceased,
for the republicans and royalists were so mixed together, that the men
on the walls would have been as likely to kill their friends as their
enemies; and as the first company, fatigued, discouraged and
overpowered, were beginning to give way, d'Elbee, with about two
thousand men, pushed across the bridge, and the whole mass of the
contending forces, blues and Vendeans together, were hurried back
through the gateway into the town; and de Lescure, as he entered it,
found that it was already in the hands of his own party--the white flag
was at that moment rising above the tricolour on the ramparts.
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