n to descend towards Ligny, Grouchy meanwhile
marshalling the cavalry to protect their flank and rear. Behind all
stood the imposing mass of the Imperial Guard on the rising ground
near Fleurus.

The fiercest shock of battle fell upon the corps of Vandamme and
Gerard. Three times were Gerard's men driven back by the volleys of
the Prussians holding Ligny. But the French cannon open fire with
terrific effect. Roofs crumble away, and buildings burst into flame.
Once more the French rush to the onset, and a furious hand-to-hand
scuffle ensues. Half stifled by heat, smoke, and dust, the rival
nations fight on, until the defenders give way and fall back on the
further part of the village behind the brook; but, when reinforced,
they rally as fiercely as ever, and drive the French over its banks;
lane, garden, and attic once more become the scene of struggles where
no man thinks of giving or taking quarter.

Higher up the stream, at St. Amand, Vandamme's troops fared no better;
for Bluecher steadily fed that part of his array. In so doing, however,
he weakened his reserves behind Ligny, thereby unwittingly favouring
Napoleon's design of breaking the Prussian centre, and placing its
wreckage and the whole of their right wing between two fires. The
Emperor expected that, by 6 o'clock, Ney would have driven back the
Anglo-Dutch forces, and would be ready to envelop the Prussian right.
That was the purport of Soult's despatch of 3.15 p.m. to Ney: "This
army [the Prussian] is lost, if you act with vigour. The fate of
France is in your hands."

But at 5.30, when part of the Imperial Guard was about to strengthen
Gerard for the decisive blow at the Prussian centre, Vandamme sent
word that a hostile force of some twenty or thirty thousand men was
marching towards Fleurus. This strange apparition not only unsteadied
the French left: it greatly perplexed the Emperor. As he had ordered
first Ney and then D'Erlon to march, not on Fleurus, but against the
rear of the Prussian right wing, he seems to have concluded that this
new force must be that of Wellington about to deal the like deadly
blow against the French rear.[490] Accordingly he checked the advance
of the Guard until the riddle could be solved. After the loss of
nearly two hours it was solved by an aide-de-camp, who found that the
force was D'Erlon's, and that it had retired.

Meanwhile the battle had raged with scarcely a pause, the French guns
working frightful havoc among