The republicans are celebrating after the victory at Cholet, certain that the war has been definitively won and that the last Vendéens pushed off to the Loire will be easily destroyed.

On October 19 at 3 in the morning, the first detachment of hussards of captain Hauteville (second to Westermann) enters an astonishingly deserted Saint-Florent-le-Vieil.

All the Vendéens have managed to pass to the northern side of the Loire, which the republicans think to be an impossible feat in such little time.

Charles de Bonchamps had died four hours earlier and was buried at the Varades cemetery.

The republican prisoners are found quickly and Merlin de Thionville writes to the Committee of Public Safety that he has told the republican soldiers that they need not feel any recognition to the Vendéens, "enemies of the Nation", and hopes this episode will be forgotten in history.

Contrary to republican hopes, the war is not over.

A new campaign called the Virée de Galerne starts, aiming to spread the uprising north of the Loire to Brittany and Maine.