seven o'clock before
As they were about to start , one of Andre 's messengers arrived , with the news that an officer and three troopers had arrived at the town ; and that , ten minutes later , the trumpets were sounding the assembly . `` It is well that we got your news first , '' Monsieur de Lescure said to Leigh , `` for otherwise we could hardly have got our forces together , and been ready for a start , until it was too late to intercept Salomon . '' The route of the column was by a byroad , between Doue and Montreuil . It was seven o'clock before they approached the town . Then , striking off the road , they marched through the fields until a mile and a half to the east of it , when they halted in a thick wood . They were now divided into three columns , of equal strength . That under Monsieur de Lescure occupied the wood on one side of the road , that under Monsieur Bonchamp the other side .