etter; astonished at so stout a stand, where they looked
to find only a few last despairing efforts, they fell into faltering
groups.

"As to the so-called charges," says Basil Jackson, "I do not think
that on a single occasion actual collision occurred. I many times
saw the cuirassiers come on with boldness to within some twenty or
thirty yards of a square, when, seeing the steady firmness of our
men, they invariably edged away and retired. Sometimes they would
halt and gaze at the triple row of bayonets, when two or three
brave officers would advance and strive to urge the attack,
raising their helmets aloft on their sabres--but all in vain, as
no efforts could make the men close with the terrible bayonets,
and meet certain destruction."[516]

After the fire of the rear squares had done its work, our cavalry fell
on the wavering masses; and, as they rode off, the gunners ran forth
from the squares and plied them with shot. In a few minutes the
mounted host that seemed to have swallowed up the footmen was gone,
the red and blue chequers stood forth triumphant, and the guns that
should have been spiked dealt forth death. Down below, the confused
mass shaped itself for a new charge while its supports routed our
horsemen.

In this second attack Ney received a powerful reinforcement. The
Emperor ordered the advance of Kellermann and of Guyot with the heavy
cavalry of the Guard, thus raising the number of horsemen to about
10,000. At the head of these imposing masses Ney again mounted the
slope. But Wellington had strengthened his line by fresh troops,
ordering up also Mercer's battery of six 9-pounders, to support two
Brunswick regiments that wavered ominously as the French cannon-balls
tore through them. Would these bewildered lads stand before the wave
of horsemen already topping the crest? It seemed impossible. But just
then Mercer's men thundered up between them with the guns, took post
behind the raised cross-road, and opened on the galloping horsemen
with case-shot. At once the front was strewn with steeds and men; and
gunners and infantry riddled the successive ranks, that rushed on only
to pile up writhing heaps and bar retreat to the survivors in front.
Some of these sought safety by a dash through the guns, while the
greater number struggled and even laid about with their sabres to hew
their way out of this _battue_.

Elsewhere the British artillery was too exposed to