ling. Captain
Clark Kennedy of the Dragoons took one. He was riding vehemently in
the early stage of the charge, when he caught sight of the cuirassier
officer carrying the eagle, with his covering men, trying to break
through the _melee_ and escape. "I gave the order to my men," he says,
"'Right shoulders forward; attack the colours.'" He himself overtook
the officer, ran him through the body, and seized the eagle. He tried
to break the eagle from the pole and push it inside his coat for
security, but, failing, gave it to his corporal to carry to the rear.
The other colour was taken by Ewart, a sergeant of the Greys, a very
fine swordsman. He overtook the officer carrying the colour, and, to
quote his own story, "he and I had a hard contest for it. He made a
thrust at my groin; I parried it off, and cut him down through the
head. After this a lancer came at me. I threw the lance off by my
right side, and cut him through the chin and upwards through the teeth.
Next, a foot-soldier fired at me, and then charged me with his bayonet,
which I also had the good luck to parry, and then I cut him down
through the head. Thus ended the contest. As I was about to follow
the regiment, the general said, 'My brave fellow, take that to the
rear; you have done enough till you get quit of it.'"

V. HORSEMEN AND SQUARES

"But yet, though thick the shafts as snow,
Though charging knights like whirlwinds go,
Though bill-men ply the ghastly blow,
Unbroken was the ring;
The stubborn spearmen still made good
Their dark impenetrable wood,
Each stepping where his comrade stood,
The instant that he fell.
No thought was there of dastard flight;
Linked in the serried phalanx tight,
Groom fought like noble, squire like knight,
As fearlessly and well."
--SCOTT.

Napoleon's infantry had failed to capture either Hougoumont or La Haye
Sainte, which was stoutly held by Baring and his Hanoverians. The
great infantry attack on the British left had failed, and though the
stubborn fight round the two farmhouses never paused, the main battle
along the ridge for a time resolved itself into an artillery duel.
Battery answered battery across the narrow valley, nearly four hundred
guns in action at once, the gunners toiling fiercely to load and fire
with the utmost speed. Wellington ordered his men to lie down on the
reverse of the ridge; but the French had the range perfectly, and
shells fel