Observing this manoeuvre the Chouans set up a cry to warn their leader;
then, having fired on the Blues and their contingent with the gusto of
poachers, they boldly made a rush for them; but Hulot's men sprang
through the hedge which served them as a rampart and took a bloody
revenge. The Chouans then gained the road which skirted the fields and
took to the heights which Hulot had committed the blunder of
abandoning. Before the Blues had time to reform, the Chouans were
entrenched behind the rocks, where they could fire with impunity on
the Republicans if the latter made any attempt to dislodge them.
While Hulot and his soldiers went slowly towards the little wood to
meet Gudin, the men from Fougeres busied themselves in rifling the
dead Chouans and dispatching those who still lived. In this fearful
war neither party took prisoners. The marquis having made good his
escape, the Chouans and the Blues mutually recognized their respective
positions and the uselessness of continuing the fight; so that both
sides prepared to retreat.
"Ha! ha!" cried one of the Fougeres men, busy about the bodies,
"here's a bird with yellow wings."
And he showed his companions a purse full of gold which he had just
found in the pocket of a stout man dressed in black.
"What's this?" said another, pulling a breviary from the dead man's
coat.
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