lines--though
it was a charge of 3000 men on a body four times their number--was
irresistible. The leading ranks of the French opened a hurried fire,
under which Picton himself fell shot through the head; then as the
British line came on at the double--the men with bent heads, the level
bayonets one steady edge of steel, the fierce light which gleams along
the fighting line playing on them--the leading battalions of the French
halted irresolute, shrunk back, swayed to and fro, and fell into a
shapeless receding mass.

There were, of course, many individual instances of great gallantry
amongst them. Thus a French mounted officer had his horse shot, and
when he struggled from beneath his fallen charger he found himself
almost under the bayonets of the 32nd. But just in front of the
British line was an officer carrying the colours of the regiment, and
the brave Frenchman instantly leaped upon him. He would capture the
flag! There was a momentary struggle, and the British officer at the
head of the wing shouted, "Save the brave fellow!" but almost at the
same moment the gallant Frenchman was bayoneted by the colour-sergeant,
and shot by a British infantryman.

The head of the French column was falling to pieces, but the main body
was yet steady, and the cuirassiers covering its flank were coming
swiftly on. But at this moment there broke upon them the terrific
counterstroke, not of Wellington, but of Lord Uxbridge, into whose
hands Wellington, with a degree of confidence quite unusual for him,
had given the absolute control of his cavalry, fettering him by no
specific orders.

IV. "SCOTLAND FOR EVER!"

"Beneath their fire, in full career,
Rush'd on the ponderous cuirassier,
The lancer couch'd his ruthless spear,
And hurrying as to havoc near,
The cohorts' eagles flew.
In one dark torrent, broad and strong,
The advancing onset roll'd along,
Forth harbinger'd by fierce acclaim
That, from the shroud of smoke and flame,
Peal'd wildly the imperial name!"
--SCOTT.

The attack of the Household and Union Brigades at Waterloo is one of
the most dazzling and dramatic incidents of the great fight. For
suddenness, fire, and far-reaching results, it would be difficult to
parallel that famous charge in the history of war. The Household
Brigade, consisting of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, and the Dragoon
Guards, with the Blues in support, moved first. Lord Uxbridge,
temporarily