was unhorsed and severely
bruised in a furious charge of cavalry, but the Prussians retired in
good order towards Wavre, north of the battlefield.

Had Ney been in a condition to obey an urgent message from Napoleon, and
to envelop the Prussian right and rear, this defeat would have been
overwhelming in its effect. But while the battle of Ligny was raging,
another battle was going on at Quatre Bras, six miles distant, in which
the French sustained a serious check. Happily for the British, Ney
failed to bring up his divisions for an attack on Quatre Bras until two
o'clock in the afternoon, when the Dutch and Belgians under the Prince
of Orange were still his only opponents. The news for which Wellington
had been waiting did not reach him until just before the memorable ball,
given by the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels on the night of the 15th,
which he nevertheless attended, hurrying off his troops to Quatre Bras.
They arrived just in time to reinforce the Prince of Orange and save the
position; but Ney, too, was receiving fresh reinforcements every hour,
the Duke of Brunswick was killed, and a fearful stress fell on Picton's
division and the Hanoverians, who alone were a match for Ney's splendid
infantry and Kellermann's cuirassiers.

These made a charge like that which had borne down the Austrians at
Marengo, but the British squares were proof against it, and when a
division of guards came up from Nivelles, the French in turn were put on
the defensive and retreated to Frasnes. The loss on the British side was
4,500 men; that on the French somewhat less. It is not difficult to
imagine what the issue of the battle must have been if D'Erlon's corps
had been brought into action. This corps was occupied in marching and
countermarching, under contradictory orders from Napoleon and Ney,
between the British left and the Prussian right during the whole of this
eventful day. Its appearance in the distance just when Napoleon was
about to launch his guard against the Prussians at Ligny, caused him to
hesitate long, and lose the decisive moment for demolishing his enemy.
Its failure to appear at Quatre Bras, and to roll up the wavering
Dutch-Belgians, before Picton took up the fighting, enabled Wellington
to hold his ground at first, to repulse Ney afterwards, and on hearing
of Bluecher's defeat at Ligny, to fall back in good order on Waterloo.
Even then, something was due to good fortune. Had Napoleon joined Ney
and marched dir