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before his reinforcements could arrive. Leaving, therefore, the sixth corps to keep the Prussians in check, he brought forward the whole of the cavalry of his guard, and directed it on the centre of the British position. The shock was irresistible. The allied armies gave way, the heights were carried, and several of the guns were in the power of the French. But the Duke of Wellington was on the spot, and all was soon repaired. He placed himself at the head of some English and Brunswickers. He addressed to them a few sentences, which he well knew how to inflame their ardour, and led them against the enemy, who, flushed with success, were proudly advancing to the very rear of his lines. In a moment the victory was rescued from their grasp. The artillery which they had taken was abandoned in haste, and they fled with precipitation.
In the meantime the troops of Count Lohau had repulsed the advanced guard of the Prussians, and driven them again into the woods. Without weakening his first line, or disabling himself from continuing his murderous charges against the centre of the British, he had dispatched nearly one
hundred pieces of cannon, and the whole of the reserve of his right wing against the Prussians. Animated by this success, and at the same time sensible how necessary it was for him to avail himself of it, Napoleon caused it to be anonunced to his troops that General Grouchy approached, and would cut to pieces the few Prussians who were hovering on his right; then putting himself at the head of his guard, consisting of fifteen hundred
men, he made one last desperate effort on the centre of the British. He led them on till he came to a hollow part of the road, where he stopped
under a ravine, protected from the fire of the
