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.