Great Britain—tenacious, firm and impassive!
Wellington under the elm-tree, calmly scanning the horizon while bullets whiz past around his head, and ordering his troops to hold on to the last man!
The Emperor on horseback under a hailstorm of shot and shell and bullets riding from end to end of his lines!
Ney and his division of cuirassiers and grenadiers of the Old Guard had just obeyed the Emperor's last orders which had been to take La Haye Sainte at all costs: and the intrepid Maréchal now, flushed with victory, had sent his urgent message to Napoleon:
"More troops! and I can yet break through the English centre before the arrival of the Prussians."
"More troops?" cried the Emperor in despair, "where am I to get them from? Am I a creator of men?"
And from far away the rumour: "Blücher and the Prussians are nigh!"
"Stop that rumour from spreading to the ears of our men! In God's name don't let them know it," adjures Napoleon in a message to Ney.
And he himself sends his own staff officers to every point of the field of battle to shout and proclaim the news that it is Grouchy who is nigh, Grouchy with reinforcements, Grouchy with the victorious troops from Ligny, fresh from conquered laurels!
And the news gives fresh heart to the Imperial troops: