usters of guns and the
outposts. The French army, on the other side, was a magnificent
spectacle, gay with flags, and as many-coloured as a rainbow. Eleven
columns deployed simultaneously, and formed three huge lines of serried
infantry. They were flanked by mail-clad cuirassiers, with glittering
helmets and breast-plates; lines of scarlet-clad lancers; and hussars,
with bearskin caps and jackets glittering with gold lace. The black
and menacing masses of the Old Guard and of the Young Guard, with their
huge bearskin caps, formed the reserve. As Napoleon, with a glittering
staff, swept through his army, the bands of 114 battalions and 112
squadrons poured upon the peaceful air of that June Sunday the martial
cadences of the Marseillaise, and the "Vive l'Empereur!" which broke
from the crowded host was heard distinctly by the grimly listening
ranks of the British. "As far as the eye could reach," says one who
describes the fight from the French ranks, "nothing was to be seen but
cuirasses, helmets, busbies, sabres and lances, and glittering lines of
bayonets."

As for the British, there was no tumult of enthusiasm visible among
them. Flat on the ground, in double files, on the reverse side of the
hill, the men lay, and jested in rough fashion with each other, while
the officers in little groups stood on the ridge and watched the French
movements. Let it be remembered that many of the troops had fought
desperately on the 16th, and retreated on the 17th from Quatre Bras to
Waterloo under furious rain, and the whole army was soddened and
chilled with sleeping unsheltered on the soaked ground. Many of the
men, as they rose hungry and shivering from their sleeping-place in the
mud, were so stiff and cramped that they could not stand upright.

II. HOUGOUMONT

"The trumpets sound, the banners fly,
The glittering spears are ranked ready,
The shouts o' war are heard afar,
The battle closes thick and bloody."
--BURNS.

The ground was heavy with the rains of the night, and Napoleon lingered
till nearly noon before he launched his attack on the British lines.
At ten minutes to twelve the first heavy gun rang sullenly from the
French ridge, and from the French left Reille's corps, 6000 strong,
flung itself on Hougoumont. The French are magnificent skirmishers,
and as the great mass moved down the slope, a dense spray of
tirailleurs ran swiftly before it, reached the hedge, and broke into