The cure had arranged to send off one of the village boys, the moment that he heard that any party of the Blues were approaching; when the whole of the occupants of the village and the farms around it would be obliged to take to the woods, for it was evident that neither age nor sex was respected by Westermann's troops.
It was morning when Jean, Leigh, and Desailles arrived at Moulin.
They were warmly received by Rochejaquelein and Bonchamp, to whom Jean introduced Desailles as a new comrade.
"I know nothing of fighting," the latter said; "but, gentlemen, I shall do my best." "That is all that anyone can do," Rochejaquelein said heartily.

"We may say that none of us, with the exception of Monsieur Bonchamp and a few others, had any experience in fighting when we began; but we have done pretty well, on the whole." "Do you think that we have much chance of holding this place ?" Jean asked.

"They told us, as we came in, that at present there are not much more than eight thousand men here; and Westermann, they say, has about as many." "That is so," Bonchamp said, "and I do not expect that we shall beat them; but we must fight, or they will march through the country, wasting and destroying as they go.

It is only by showing them that we are still formidable, and that they must keep together and be prudent and cautious, that we can maintain ourselves.

A succession of blows, even of light ones, will break a rock." At two o'clock the enemy's forces approached, and the engagement soon became hot.