t hand--D'Erlon's rearguard early on that morning
being still near Thuin--and, secondly, the Marshal heard at 10 a.m.
that Prussian columns were marching westwards from Sombref, a move
that would endanger his rear behind Frasnes. Furthermore, the approach
to Quatre Bras was flanked by the extensive Bossu Wood, and by a
spinney to the right of the highway. Reille therefore counselled
caution, lest the affair should prove to be "a Spanish battle where
the English show themselves only when it is time." When, however,
Reille's corps pushed home the attack, the weakness of the defence was
speedily revealed. After a stout stand, the 7,000 Dutch-Belgians under
the Prince of Orange were driven from the farm of Gemioncourt, which
formed the key of the position, and many of them fled from the field.

But at this crisis the Iron Duke himself rode up; and the arrival of a
Dutch-Belgian brigade and of Picton's division of British infantry,
about 3 p.m., sufficed to snatch victory from the Marshal's
grasp.[493] He now opened a destructive artillery fire on our front,
to which the weak Dutch-Belgian batteries could but feebly reply.
Nothing, however, could daunt the hardihood of Picton's men. Shaking
off the fatigue of a twelve hours' march from Brussels under a burning
sun, they steadily moved down through the tall crops of rye towards
the farm and beat off a fierce attack of Pire's horsemen. On the
allied left, the 95th Rifles (now the Rifle Brigade) and Brunswickers
kept a clutch on the Namur road which nothing could loosen. But our
danger was mainly at the centre. Under cover of the farmhouse, French
columns began to drive in our infantry, whose ammunition was already
running low. Wellington determined to crush this onset by a
counter-attack in line of Picton's division, the "fighting division"
of the Peninsula. With threatening shouts they advanced to the charge;
and before that moving wall the foe fell back in confusion beyond the
rivulet.

Still, the French drove back the Dutch in the wood, and the
Brunswickers on its eastern fringe, killing the brave young Duke of
Brunswick as he attempted to rally his raw recruits. Into the gap thus
left the French horsemen pushed forward, making little impression upon
our footmen, but compelling them to keep in a close formation, which
exposed them in the intervals between the charges to heavy losses from
the French cannon.

So the afternoon wore on. Between 5 and 6 o'clock our weary troo