"Halt!" said he to his men.
"Fire!" screamed Jenkins, with eagle swiftness; but the guns of the
National Guard not being loaded, did not in consequence go off. The
hussars gave a jeer of derision, but nevertheless did not return to the
attack, and seeing some of the Legitimist cavalry at hand, prepared to
charge upon them.
The fate of those carpet warriors was soon decided. The Millefleur
regiment broke before Concombre's hussars instantaneously; the
Eau-de-Rose dragoons stuck spurs into their blood horses, and galloped
far out of reach of the opposing cavalry; the Eau-de-Cologne lancers
fainted to a man, and the regiment of Concombre, pursuing its course,
had actually reached the Prince and his aides-de-camp, when the
clergymen coming up formed gallantly round the oriflamme, and the
bassoons and serpents braying again, set up such a shout of canticles,
and anathemas, and excommunications, that the horses of Concombre's
dragoons in turn took fright, and those warriors in their turn broke and
fled. As soon as they turned, the Vendean riflemen fired amongst them
and finished them: the gallant Concombre fell; the intrepid though
diminutive Cornichon, his major, was cut down; Cardon was wounded a la
moelle, and the wife of the fiery Navet was that day a widow.
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