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their mournful cries. It was about the time I have just named, that the Enemy, having gained the orchard, commenced their desperate charges of cavalry, under cover of the smoke which the burning houses, &c. had caused; the whole of which the wind drifted towards us, and thus prevented our observing their approach. At this period the battle assumed a character beyond description interesting, and anxiously awful. Buonaparte was about to use against us an arm, which he had never yet wielded but with success. Confidently relying upon the issue of this attack, he charged our artillery and infantry, hoping to capture the one, and break the other, and, by instantly establishing his own infantry on the heights, to carry the Brussels road, and throw our line into confusion. These cavalry, selected for their tried gallantry and skill (not their height or mustachios), who were the terror of Northern Europe, and had never yet been foiled, were first brought up by the 3d battalion of the 1st regiment. Never was British valour and discipline so pre-eminent as on this occasion; the steady appearance of this battalion caused the famous Cuirassiers to pull up; and a few of them, with a courage worthy a better cause, rode out of the ranks, and fired at our people and mounted officers, with their pistols, hoping to make the face of the square throw its fire upon them, and thus become an easy prey: but our men, with a steadiness no language can do justice to, defied their efforts, and did not pull a single trigger. The French then made a sudden rush, but were received in such a manner, and with a volley so well di-› rected, as at once to turn them; they then made an attempt on the 2d battalion, and the Brunswickers, with similar success; and, astonished at their own failure, the cool intrepidity of their opponents, and the British cheers, they faced about. This same game was played in succession by the Imperial Horse Guards, and Polish Lancers, none of whom could at all succeed in breaking our squares, or making the least impression upon them whatever. During their attacks,, our cavalry rushed out from between the squares, and carried havock through the Enemy's ranks, which were nearly all destroyed. I cannot here resist relating an anecdote of Major Lloyd, of the Artillery, who, with another officer, (whose name I could not learn) was obliged to take refuge in our square at the time these charges were made, being unable to continue longer at their posts. There was a gun be

tween our battalion and the Brunswickers, which had been drawn back; this, Major Lloyd with his friend discharged five or six times at the French cavalry, alternately loading it and retiring to the square, as circumstances required. We could see the French knocked off their horses as fast as they came up, and one cannot refuse to call them men of singular gallantry; one of them, indeed, an officer of the Imperial Guards, seeing a gun about to be discharged at his companions, rode at it and never suffered its fire to be repeated while he lived. He was at length killed by a Brunswick rifleman, and certainly saved a large part of his regiment by this act of self-devotion. Thus discomfited, Buonaparté renewed his cannonade, which was destructive to a degree, preparatory to an attack of his whole infantry. I constantly saw the noble Duke of Wellington riding backwards and forwards, like the Genius of the storm, who, borne upon its wings, directed its thunder where to burst. He was every where to be found, encouraging, directing, animating. He was in a blue short cloak, and a plain cocked hat, his telescope in his hand; there was nothing that escaped him, nothing that he did not take advantage of, and his lynx's eyes seemed to penetrate the smoke, and forestall the movements of the foe. How he escaped, that merciful Power alone can tell, who vouchsafed to the allied arms the issue of this pre-eminent contest; for such it is, whether considered as an action by itself, or with regard to the results which it has brought about. Upon the cavalry being repulsed, the Duke himself ordered our second battalion to form line with the third battalion, and, after advancing to the brow of the hill, to lie down and shelter ourselves from the fire. Here we remained, I imagine near an hour. It was now about seven o'clock. The French infantry had in vain been brought up against our line, and, as a last resource, Buonaparté resolved upon attacking our part of the position with his veteran Imperial Guard, promising them the plunder of Brussels. Their artillery covered them, and they advanced in solid column to where we lay. The Duke, who was riding behind us, watched their approach, and at length, when within a hundred yards of us, exclaimed, " Up, Guards, and at them again!" Never was there a prouder moment than this for our country or ourselves. The household troops of both nations were now, for the first time, brought in contact, and on

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the issue of their struggle the greatest of stakes was placed. The Enemy did not expect to meet us so soon; we suffered them to approach still nearer, and then delivered a fire into them, which made them halt; a second, like the first, carried hundreds of deaths into their mass; and, without suffering them to deploy, we gave them three British cheers, and a British charge of the bayonet. This was too much for their nerves, and they fled in disorder. The shape of their column was tracked by their dying and dead, and not less than three hundred of them had fallen in two minutes to rise no more. Seeing the fate of their companions, a regiment of tirailleurs of the Guard attempted to attack our flank; we instantly charged them, and our cheers rendered any thing further unnecessary, for they never awaited our approach. The French now formed solid squares it their rear, to resist our advance, which, however, our cavalry cut to pieces. The Duke now ordered the whole line to move forward; nothing could be more beautiful. The sun, which had hitherto been veiled, at this instant shed upon it departing rays, as if to smile upon the efforts we were making, and bless them with success. As we proceeded in line down the slope, the regiments on the high ground on our flanks were formed into hollow squares, in which manner they accompanied us, in order to protect us from cavalry-the blow was now struck, the victory was complete, and the Enemy fled in every direction: his déroute was the most perfect ever known; in the space of a mile and a half along the road, we found more than thirty guns, besides ammunition waggons, &c. &c. Our noble and brave coadjutors, the Prussians, who had some time since been dealing out havock in the rear of the Enemy, now falling in with our line of march, we halted, and let them continue the pursuit. Buonaparté fled the field on the advance of the Prussians, and the annihilation of his Imperial Guard, with whose overthrow all his hopes perished. Thus ended the day of "Waterloo." The skill and courage of our Artillery could not be exceeded. The brigade of Guards, in Hougoumont, suffered nothing to rob them of their post: every regiment eclipsed its former deeds by the glories of to-day; and I cannot better close this than by informing you, that when we halted for the night, which we did close to where Buonaparté had been during a great portion of the battle, and were preparing

our bivouac by the road side, a regiment of Prussian lancers coming by, halted, and played "God save the King," than which nothing could be more appropriate or grateful to our feelings; and I am sure I need scarcely add, that we gave them three heartfelt cheers, as the only return we could then offer."

Extract from a Letter by an Officer in the Guards.

"On the evening of the 15th, we heard that the French were passing the frontiers, and we received orders to hold ourselves in readiness to march; at two o'clock we received our orders to march, and were off at three. We passed through Braine-leComte, and proceeded to a bivouac near Nivelles. While we were setting ourselves down, an order came to move immediately to the left through Nivelles-having passed it, we heard the firing very close, and soon met many wounded Belgians coming in. At five o'clock, General Maitland galloped up, and ordered the Grenadiers to drive the French out of a wood, and in about half an hour we perfectly cleared it. When we opened at the end of the wood, the Enemy threw in a most tremendous fire of round and grape shot, from which we found it necessary to retire. We got out of the wood in another part, and they immediately advanced columns to attack us, which deployed very regularly, and drove us a short way back. However, we advanced again; and they gave way, and retired to their guns. They then advanced upon us, and having driven us back a second time, their cavalry attempted to charge; but a square of Black Brunswickers brought them up, while we were nimbly slipt into the wood on our right, lined the ditches, and paid them handsomely. Our loss was very severe, and we found great difficulty in forming our line again. At last we effected it with the third battalion of our regiment, and then we drove every thing before us. We kept possession of the wood all night. The Prussians and French had been engaged from two o'clock in the morning, in the position of Fleurus; and the former had been driven back. The French then tried to get possession of the road to Brussels. They had a severe contest with the Dutch, and one of our divisions, and had succeeded in driving the Dutch out of a wood, (Bossu, I think it is called). We arrived at the very moment the French skirmishers were appearing. We dashed in and cut them up properly, though

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our loss was severe. Out of 84, I had only 43 left in my company.* At night the remains of the battalion bivouacked at the head of the road, and during the night we received a strong reinforcement. They call this the action of Quatre Bras (where two high roads cross). In the morning of the 17th, the Enemy made no further attempt against us; and as the Prussians had retired during the night, we did the same very leisurely, about 11 o'clock, taking up a position in front of a village called Waterloo, at a point where the high road or chaussée to Brussels crosses that from Nivelles to Namur. Here we remained quiet through the night, except that it rained more furiously than ever I experienced, even in Spain. We were quite wet through, and literally up to the ancles in mud. The cavalry were considerably engaged during the day of the 17th, but the Hussars could not make much impression against their heavy armed opponents. The Life Guards behaved most nobly, and carried every thing before them. The morning of the 18th dawned full of expectation of something decisive being done.

"But first I must give you some idea of our position. It ran from the Brussels chaussée to the right, about a mile and a half in length, and then turned very sharply to the right and crossed the chaussée from Nivelles to Namur, which two chaussées cross each other, so that we wero nearly in a quarter-circle (like an open fan, the two outside sticks being the chaussées).

"At the turn and at the bottom of a slope was a farm and orchards, called Hougoumont. This was the key of our positions, and in front of our centre. On this point the most seririous attack was made.

"At twelve o'clock the columns of the Enemy moved down from the heights which they had occupied during the night, and our artillery began to cannonade them most furiously, which their artillery returned; and it is said that 300 pieces were in use that day. The British infantry were drawn up in columns under the ridge of the position. We were at the turn or knuckle with two battalions of Brunswickers. The Third Regiment of Guards were in columns in front of the turn, and the Cold

It appears by the Gazette, that the first regiment of Guards lost, in this affair, five officers killed and eight wounded: no official return has yet been made of the men; but report states, that regiment to have lost 500 killed and wounded in this battle, exclusively of the action on the 18th.

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