"Be Senectute:' 219 



busy to think, we were doing picket and patrol duty all 

 during the battle of Quatre Bras, and all night, and next 

 day we had to clear the road, which was blocked with carts 

 and waggons and guns, on the 17th, for the army to retire 

 on Waterloo, and our regiment protected the rear for the 

 passage of the army at Genappe. There was a ford there, 

 and the way was very narrow, and we were attacked by 

 French cavah-y and were ordered to charge them. They 

 were Lancers, but only one troop of ours could get at them 

 at a time, and we could not move them ; and I can see and 

 hear Lord TJxbridge now and could swear to what he said, 

 ' Get back, 7th, for God's sake ! — threes about ; ' and we 

 were re-formed, though we lost our major (Hodge) and 

 adjutant (Mears), and as we were clear, we let the 1st Life 

 Guards through, and saw them go at the French cavalry ; 

 and they regularly crashed into them with sheer weio-ht 

 and having once broken them they cut them to pieces, or 

 took them prisoners. The Life Guards went aU fresh and 

 excited as they saw us driven back, and they went at them 

 like madmen. Most of the French soldiers were drunk, as 

 they had sacked the liquor stores at Genappe. Well, to go 

 on to the Battle of Waterloo. We we on the Mont St. 

 Jean side of Hougoumont on the morning, but we had 

 been mostly on patrol duty and picket at night, as there 

 were so few light cavalry, and the Belgians did not do 

 what was expected of them, and we had to snatch a bit of 

 sleep and get a bit of bread and biscuit and a drop of 

 spirits as we could. The first shot, which reached us on 

 the 18th, was a round shot, and I can see her now ; mv 

 next man was a tailor, and a good soldier too, and he 

 laughed and said, ' What do you think of that, Jim ? ' but 

 the next shot took Sergeant Haslop's horse and thigh, and 

 I asked him, ' What do you think of that, then ? ' As you 

 know we did our bit that day, protecting the guns and 



