The Xth Corps had marched from Grand Lucé to the westward in the morning, to gain the high road from Tours to Le Mans, but slippery roads again delayed its march, so that it only reached Teloche in the afternoon.
The cannon thunder heard to the northward left no doubt that General von Alvensleben was engaged in arduous fighting. The orders sent at noon from the Army Headquarter in St. Hubert sped to General Voigts-Rhetz; but that officer rightly judged that his appearance would now have a more telling effect on the enemy's flank than on the field where the IIIrd Corps was engaged. So in spite of the exhausted state of his men, who had had no opportunity to cook on the way, he at once pushed forward without halting.
To protect himself against Curten's Division on the watch for him from Château du Loir, he despatched a battalion to Ecommoy. It was received with firing from the houses, surrounded on all sides in the darkness, and compelled to withdraw from the place; but it then kept the road clear in the rear of the corps.
The head of the 20th Division found Mulsanne but feebly defended, and drove the detachment back beyond the cutting of La Monnerie.
The nature of the country which here had to be traversed greatly favoured the enemy. Ditches and fences afforded his marksmen complete cover, farmsteads and copses furnished excellent defensive positions. Only eight guns could at first be brought to bear against the enemy's artillery; but nevertheless four Westphalian and Brunswick[69] battalions steadily repelled the French, and by nightfall reached Point du Jour. The fight first became stationary on the cattle-path in front of Les Mortes Aures. Here the French swept the whole foreground with a continuous rolling fire from tiers of shelter-trenches rising one above the other.
The fight swayed to and fro for a long time, but finally the German left gained ground. The 1st Battalion of the 17th Regiment rushed on the enemy, who delivered his fire at point blank range and then made for the wood. And when now the 1st Battalion of the 56th Regiment advanced from Point du Jour, its drums beating the charge, the French carried away their mitrailleuses and evacuated Les Mortes Aures.
This battalion had received orders from the Commanding General to settle the business with the bayonet. Captain von Monbart led it on locked up close at the charging pace; all the detachments at hand joined it, and in spite of a heavy fire from the wood La Tuilerie was reached by half-past eight; and here the 40th Brigade deployed, while the 37th stood ready to support it in front of Mulsanne. The enemy drifted away in the darkness. The constant roll of wheels, the noise of departing railway trains and the confusion of cries indicated a retreat. Yet the prisoners who were constantly being brought in, with one accord reported that a strong force was still encamped in the forest. Numerous watch-fires blazed there through the night, and instead of resting, it seemed evident that the hostile troops were preparing to engage in fresh attempts. At half-past ten the outposts reported the approach of a strong force from Pontlieue.
Hitherto it had been only the little-to-be-relied-on National Guards under General Lalande at this point with whom the German troops in this quarter of the field had had to deal; but the Admiral now sent Bouëdec's Division against La Tuilerie, and ordered General Roquebrune to support his advance.
For a full hour the Prussian battalions in first line were scourged with rifle fire in front and flank, and pelted by a hail-storm of projectiles, but no serious attack occurred.
According to French reports, the officers strove in vain to bring forward their troops; but the latter constantly hung back. A later assault made by Gardes-Mobiles was equally fruitless.