housand strong, their drums sounding the _pas de
charge_, the men shouting 'Vive l'Empereur!' were within sixty yards of
us." The sudden appearance of the long red line of the British Foot
Guards rising from the ground seems to have brought the French Guard to
a momentary pause, and, as they hesitated, along the whole line of the
British ran--and ran again, and yet again--the vivid flash of a
tremendous volley. The Guard tried to deploy; their officers leaped to
the front, and, with shouts and waving swords, tried to bring them on,
the British line, meanwhile, keeping up "independent" firing. Maitland
and Lord Saltoun simultaneously shouted the order to "Charge!" The
bayonets of the British Guards fell to level, the men came forward at a
run, the tramp of the charging line sounded louder and louder, the line
of shining points gleamed nearer and yet nearer--the bent and
threatening faces of the British came swiftly on. The nerve of the
French seemed to fail; the huge battalion faltered, shrank in upon
itself, and tumbled in ruin down the hill!

But this was only the leading battalion of the right segment of the
great column, and the left was still moving steadily up. The British
Guards, too, who had followed the broken battalion of the French down
the hill, were arrested by a cry of "Cavalry!" and fell back on the
ridge in confusion, though the men obeyed instantly the commands of the
officers. "Halt! Front! Re-form!" Meanwhile the left section of the
huge column was moving up, the men as steady as on parade, the lofty
bearskins of the Grenadiers, as they mounted the ridge, giving them a
gigantic aspect. The black, elongated shadows, as the last rays of the
setting sun smote the lines, ran threateningly before them. But the
devoted column was practically forcing itself up into a sort of
triangle of fire. Bolton's guns crossed its head, the Guards, thrown
slightly forward, poured their swift volleys in waves of flame on its
right shoulder, the 52nd and 71st on its left scourged it with fire,
beneath which the huge mass of the French Guard seemed sometimes to
pause and thrill as if in convulsion.

Then came the movement which assured victory to the British. Colborne,
a soldier with a singular genius for war, not waiting for orders, made
his regiment, the 52nd, bring its right shoulder forward, the outer
company swinging round at the double, until his whole front was
parallel with the flank of the French Guar