manoeuvre consisted in either deploying into line to resist the
attack of infantry, or falling back into square when the cavalry
advanced--performing those two evolutions under the devastating fire
of artillery, before the unflinching heroism of that veteran infantry
whose glories had been reaped upon the blood-stained fields of
Austerlitz, Marengo, and Wagram--or opposing an unbroken front to the
whirlwind swoop of infuriated cavalry;--such were the enduring and
devoted services demanded from the English troops, and such they
failed not to render. Once or twice had temper nearly failed them,
and the cry ran through the ranks, "Are we never to move
forward?--Only let us at them!" But the word was not yet spoken which
was to undam the pent-up torrent, and bear down with unrelenting
vengeance upon the now exulting columns of the enemy.

It was six o'clock: the battle had continued with unchanged fortune for
three hours. The French, masters of La Haye Sainte, could never advance
further into our position. They had gained the orchard of Hougoumont,
but the chateau was still held by the British Guards, although its
blazing roof and crumbling walls made its occupation rather the
desperate stand of unflinching valor than the maintenance of an
important position. The smoke which hung upon the field rolled in slow
and heavy masses back upon the French lines, and gradually discovered to
our view the entire of the army. We quickly perceived that a change was
taking place in their position. The troops which on their left
stretched far beyond Hougoumont, were now moved nearer to the centre.
The attack upon the chateau seemed less vigorously supported, while the
oblique direction of their right wing, which, pivoting upon Planchenoit,
opposed a face to the Prussians,--all denoted a change in their order of
battle. It was now the hour when Napoleon was at last convinced that
nothing but the carnage he could no longer support could destroy the
unyielding ranks of British infantry; that although Hougoumont had been
partially, La Haye Sainte, completely, won; that although upon the right
the farm-houses Papelotte and La Haye were nearly surrounded by his
troops, which with any other army must prove the forerunner of defeat:
yet still the victory was beyond his grasp. The bold stratagems, whose
success the experience of a life had proved, were here to be found
powerless. The decisive manoeuvre of carrying one important point of
the enemy's