CHAP. XXV.] CAVALRY UNDER NAPOLEON. 



415 



of the farm of La flaye Sainte, by a force of 2j,000 men, 

 under Ney and D'Erlon, in four massive columns, power- 

 fully supported by artillery and cavalry. This enormous 

 force, aided by the fire of seventy-four guns, moved on 

 in perfect order and soon swept away the allied first line, 

 which fled in confusion through the intervals of the 

 second ; but in that second line stood the fiery General 

 Picton, the gallant old soldier who had led his troops to 

 victory on so many fields, with two small brigades drawn 

 up in a thin line only two deep. He had only 3,000 

 men, and the advancing columns in his front were four 

 times his strength, but he firmly awaited the attack. 

 The French approached closely and began to deploy. 

 Picton seized the opportunity, poured in a deadly volley, 

 and, with a fierce hurrah, the English soldiers dashed in 

 with the bayonet. The brave old soldier, while gallantly 

 leading this charge sword in hand, was shot through the 

 head and expired instantly. The French however recoiled 

 in confusion, and then the English cavalry brigade, under 

 Ponsonby, dashing through the openings of the infantry, 

 burst upon the French columns with a fury that nothing 

 could withstand. The whole mass was broken, dispersed, 

 and routed, 2,000 prisoners and two eagles were taken in 

 a few minutes, while the victorious horsemen, carried 

 away with their success, and supported by Vandeleur's 

 brigade on their left, charged the guns in rear, captured 

 twenty-four pieces, cutting the traces and the throats of 

 the horses and so rendering them useless for the remainder 

 of the action. 



Still pushing on, these English horsemen charged a 

 third line of cannon and lancers, driving them back in 

 utter rout. Napoleon, seeing the confusion, instintly 

 ordered -.ip Milhaud's cuirassiers from the second line, 

 and these fresh horsemen, clad in steel, coming upon 

 Ponsonby's broken and disordered squadrons, easily over- 

 threw them with serious loss. Ponsonby was killed, and 

 scarcely one-fifth of his men regained their lines. 



This charge however, though disastrous to the English 

 horsemen, was a great success when the results are con- 

 sidei'c-> for be.ddes destroying a column of 5,000, 



