about six o'clock in the evening
The roads , or rather lanes , are all lined by avenues of limes and beeches . The fields are small , and surrounded by lofty hedges , which are also , in a great measure , composed of large trees , and the whole country in July , when the foliage is at the thickest , has almost the aspect of one continued forest . Westerman had obtained guides to show him the road to Clisson . It was about six o'clock in the evening when the advanced portion of his army , consisting of three thousand men , had proceeded about a league from Amaillou . He was himself riding nearly at the front of the column , talking to his aide-de-camp and one of the guides , when he was startled by hearing a noise as of disturbed branches in the hedge , only a few feet in advance of the spot in which he was standing ; he had not , however , time to give an order , or speak a word on the subject , before a long sudden gleam of fire flashed before his eyes ; it was so near to him that it almost blinded him : a cannon had been fired off close to his face , and it was easy to track the fatal course of the ball ; it had been directed right along the road , and was glutted with carnage before its strength was spent . Nor did the cannon shot come alone : a fearful fire from about five hundred muskets was poured from the hedge on either side , directly into the road : the assailants were within a few feet of their enemy at the moment they were firing , and every shot took effect . Out of the four hundred men who headed the column , above half were killed , or so badly wounded as to be incapable of motion .