416 



A HISTORY OP CAVALRY. [pbbiod iv. 



II 1 



capturing 2,000 prisoners, and rendering useless for the 

 remainder of the day as many as eighty pieces of cannon, 

 it had checked a powerful and dangerous uttack, and for 

 the time restored the fortune of that portion of the field 

 to the British army. 



At the same time Napoleon pressed on the attack on 

 La Haye Sainte, and soon carried it and moved on against 

 Wellington's lines beyond it. Milhaud's cuirassiers 

 charged and destroyed a Hanoverian battalion, when, 

 being charged m turn by the English household cavalry, 

 they were routed with great loss ; but the English horse- 

 men pressed on with reckless impetuosity, the reserves, 

 carried away with enthusiasm, joined in the rn^Ue, and 

 being charged by the French lancers while disordered by 

 their success, were at once driven back in confusion to 

 their lines. The 12th and 16th English regiments of 

 cavalry now coming up charged the lancers in turn and 

 drove them back to the foot of the valley.' 



Napoleon then determined to make a desperate eflfort 

 with his cuirassiers to break through the allied left and 

 sweep it from the field. Wellington's dispositions to 

 meet this attack were very skilfully conceived. He 

 placed his infantry in squares, en ^chiquier, with the 

 artillery in the intervals, and so awaited the attack. 

 The French opened with a tempest of shot and shell, to 

 avoid which the English laid down. When the cavalry 

 approached they rose and poured in volleys of musketry 

 from the faces of the squares. The cannon in front of 

 the lines were worked to the last moment by the British 

 gunners, who sent a storm of grape and canister into 

 the advancing horsemen and then took refuge in the 

 squares. These cannon repeatedly fell into the hands of 

 the cuirassiers, who valiantly charged over and over 

 again in the hope of driving back the British lines. 

 After every repulse, however, the gunners rushed out and 

 poured the most destructive volleys into the retiring 

 squadrons. 



Nearly the whole of Napoleon's splendid cavalry was 

 destroyed in these fruitless but gallant charges, on the 



^ Beamish, 74. 



