five in the morning
This was indeed the case . As artillery had not been employed on either side , the sound of the conflict did not reach the town . However , as the officer who had taken the order to Thouars returned at seven o'clock ; saying that Salomon was preparing to march , and would assuredly arrive some time in the evening , the anxiety increased hour by hour and , by midnight , the conviction that he must have been attacked by the enemy , and had failed to get through , became a certainty , and spread dismay through the town . At five in the morning a mounted messenger brought a despatch from Salomon , saying that he had fought for four hours near Montreuil , against a large force of the enemy ; and that , another column of these having fallen on his rear , he found it necessary to retire , as a panic was spreading among the National Guard , and a serious disaster would have happened , had he continued his attempts to push on . In the evening Generals Coustard and Berthier , who had been sent by Biron to act under Menou 's orders , arrived in the town ; and Santerre , the brewer of Paris , who had been the leader of the mob there and was now a general , arrived next morning . Cathelineau 's army was astir early . The leaders had been gladdened by the arrival , at five o'clock , of a messenger from Pierre , saying that one of his messengers had come in from Tours , and that , up to seven o'clock in the evening , no troops had left that city .