was on the right, and on the morning of 19 March it attacked a large body of the enemy occupying a strong position at Vic Bigorre, with the result that Picton drove the French before him and encamped the same evening three miles beyond the town. On the following day a general movement was made by the allies on the whole of the French line, Picton's division and the fourth division moving on Tarbes, while three other divisions advanced on Rabastens. Tarbes was quickly occupied, and the enemy forced to cross the river and ascend the heights in its rear. The allies bivouacked upon the ground which they had won, and on the morning of the 21st found that Soult, under cover of the night, had fallen back on Toulouse.
On 29 March Picton halted his division at Plaisance, about five miles from Toulouse. By 4 April a bridge was thrown across the Garonne, and the third, fourth, sixth, and light divisions had crossed. When night set in a storm of wind and rain caused such a swell in the river that, to save the pontoons, it was necessary to remove them and dismantle the bridge. The allied army was thus divided by a wide and impassable river, and Picton, as senior, was in command of the force which had crossed. It was not until the 8th that the remainder of the army was able to join him. Soult had neglected to seize the opportunity of this accident, and on the 9th Wellington made his dispositions for attack, Picton taking up his position with the third division on the lower part of the canal, with orders to threaten the tête de pont. On 10 April (Easter Day) 1814 the battle of Toulouse was fought with desperate valour and great carnage on both sides. The victorious allies entered Toulouse on the 13th, Soult having evacuated the city on the previous evening. The news of the abdication of Napoleon arrived, and an armistice was agreed upon.
On the break up of the third division the officers subscribed 1,600l. to present Picton with a service of plate. Peerages were conferred on Sir William Beresford, Sir Thomas Graham, Sir Rowland Hill, Sir John Hope, and Sir Stapleton Cotton, and Picton and his friends were much disappointed that he, who was second to none of these officers, was left unrewarded. Picton observed: ‘If the coronet were lying on the crown of a breach, I should have as good a chance as any of them.’ Some correspondence took place in the newspapers, and it was stated that these honours had only been bestowed on those officers who had held ‘distinct’ commands. On 24 June 1814 Picton was somewhat solaced in his disappointment by receiving, for the seventh time, the unanimous thanks of the House of Commons, delivered to him personally by the speaker. Picton retired to his place in Wales, and devoted himself to the improvement of his estate. Upon the extension of the order of the Bath, at the commencement of 1815, Picton was promoted to be a knight grand cross.
When Napoleon escaped from Elba, Picton was called upon to join Wellington in the Netherlands. He hesitated, until he had the duke's assurance that he should be employed immediately under his own orders. On 11 June 1815 he left London, and the same day was entertained at Canterbury at dinner by the inhabitants. He had a strong presentiment that this campaign would be his last. He arrived at Ostend, where he held a levée, on the 13th, and at Brussels on the 15th.
He was appointed to the command of the fifth division and the reserve—about ten thousand men. Before daybreak on the 16th the fifth division marched to the support of the army of the Netherlands, and Picton himself left Brussels with Wellington immediately after daylight. He was just in time, by pushing his division forward, to support the Belgians, and had no sooner taken up his position in the afternoon than he was engaged in a fierce fight with Ney's columns at Quatre Bras. After repulsing the French infantry he had barely time to form squares when the French cavalry were upon him. Another furious onset was made by the French lancers, which was also repulsed; and then Picton, seeing that the enemy were giving way, himself led his men to the charge. The French cavalry were in superior numbers both before and behind him; but, despising the force in his rear, he charged and routed those in front, which created such a panic among the others that they galloped back through the intervals in his division, seeking only their own safety. During the fight Picton was hit by a ball, which broke his ribs; but, determined to lead his division to the end, he kept the knowledge of the wound from all but his servant, who assisted him to bind it up. At night the allies were left in undisturbed possession of the field, where they lay down to sleep among the wounded and the dead. On the morning of the 17th June, in consequence of the defeat of the Prussians at Ligny, Picton fell back on Waterloo, and by night the allied army was formed up on the plains of Waterloo, and slept on their arms.
On the morning of the 18th Picton's wound had assumed a serious aspect, but not a word escaped him. He posted his division on the Wavre road, behind the broken hedge between La Haye Sainte and Ter la Haye.
