n its right to the farm and
straggling village of La Haye Sainte on its left. He had some grounds
for his confidence of success. On either side the forces numbered
between seventy and eighty thousand men: but the French were superior in
guns and cavalry, and a large part of Wellington's force consisted of
Belgian levies who broke and fled at the outset of the fight. A fierce
attack upon Hougomont opened the battle at eleven; but it was not till
midday that the corps of D'Erlon advanced upon the centre near La Haye
Sainte, which from that time bore the main brunt of the struggle. Never
has greater courage, whether of attack or endurance, been shown on any
field than was shown by both combatants at Waterloo. The columns of
D'Erlon, repulsed by the English foot, were hurled back in disorder by a
charge of the Scots Greys; but the victorious horsemen were crushed in
their turn by the French cuirassiers, and the mass of the French
cavalry, twelve thousand strong, flung itself in charge after charge on
the English front, carrying the English guns and sweeping with desperate
bravery round the unbroken squares whose fire thinned their ranks. With
almost equal bravery the French columns of the centre again advanced,
wrested at last the farm of La Haye Sainte from their opponents, and
pushed on vigorously though in vain under Ney against the troops in its
rear.

But meanwhile every hour was telling against Napoleon. To win the battle
he must crush the English army before Bluecher joined it; and the English
army was still uncrushed. Terrible as was his loss, and many of his
regiments were reduced to a mere handful of men, Wellington stubbornly
held his ground while the Prussians, advancing from Wavre through deep
and miry forest roads, were slowly gathering to his support,
disregarding the attack on their rear by which Grouchy strove to hold
them back from the field. At half-past four their advanced guard
deployed at last from the woods; but the main body was far behind, and
Napoleon was still able to hold his ground against them till their
increasing masses forced him to stake all on a desperate effort against
the English front. The Imperial Guard--his only reserve, and which had
as yet taken no part in the battle--was drawn up at seven in two huge
columns of attack. The first, with Ney himself at its head, swept all
before it as it mounted the rise beside La Haye Sainte, on which the
thin English line still held its ground, and