e o'clock Napoleon discovered the
Prussians advancing.

He sent off a despatch to Grouchy ordering him to move straight upon
the field of battle; but that general did not receive it until seven
in the evening, when the fight was nearly over. It was just two when
the columns poured down the hill, their attack heralded by a terrific
fire upon the British line opposed to them. The slaughter among
Picton's division was great; but although the Dutch and Hanoverians
were shaken by the iron hail, they stood their ground. When the
columns reached the dip of the valley and began to ascend the slopes
toward the British division they threw out clouds of skirmishers and
between these and the light troops of the allies firing at once began,
and increased in volume as the French neared the advanced posts of La
Haye Sainte, Papelotte, and La Haye.

The division of Durette drove out the Nassau troops from Papelotte;
but reinforcements arrived from the British line, and the French in
turn were expelled. The other three French columns advanced steadily,
with thirty light guns in the intervals between them. Donzelat's
brigade attacked La Haye Sainte, and, in spite of a gallant resistance
by the Germans, made its way into the orchard and surrounded the
inclosures. Another brigade, pushing along on the other side of the
Charleroi road, were met by the fire of two companies of the rifle
brigade who occupied a sandpit there, and by their heavy and accurate
fire checked the French advance. The other two divisions moved
straight against that part of the crest held by Picton's division.

The men of the Dutch-Belgian brigade, as soon as fire was opened upon
them, lost all order and took to their heels, amid the yells and
execrations of the brigades of Kempt and Pack behind them, and it was
with difficulty that the British soldiers were kept from firing into
the fugitives. The Dutch artillery behind them tried to arrest the
mob; but nothing could stop them--they fairly ran over guns, men, and
horses, rushed down the valley and through the village of Mount St.
Jean, and were not seen again in the field during the rest of the day.
Picton's division was now left alone to bear the brunt of the Frenoh
attack. The battle at Quatre Bras had terribly thinned its ranks, and
the two brigades together did not muster more than three thousand men.
Picton formed the whole in line, and prepared to resist the charge of
thirteen thousand infantry, beside heavy