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.

The third column were posted in rear of the wood, and were to thickly line the hedges that bordered it.
It was just dusk when the force from Thouars came along.

It consisted of three thousand six hundred men, with four pieces of cannon.