"The first time we charged, the first brigade of cavalry on our right charged at the same moment, and having received the fire of their square of infantry before we did ours, they wheeled about and charged as we advanced: so great was the confusion that the General commanding them rode up against me, I being on the left of our brigade, and he in the centre of his.
"I said 'Bad work this.' He shook his head, which I construed into 'It's all over with us.' Just as this occurred, the French square opposite to us fired, and a great many of both brigades fell. This reminded me of an old Scotch poacher who always waited till two partridges 'clipt' before he fired, by clipt he meant, came so near that their wings touched each other.
"At the conclusion of the last of these charges the Earl of Uxbridge was shot in the leg; we saw him lifted off his horse and carried off the field by six men, Captain H. Seymour walking at their head. At this time the action was evidently all against us, the enemy's infantry were steady in their squares; but their heavy cavalry was as much reduced in number as our own: they however sent out their skirmishers, who rode close up to us and fired their pistols in our men's faces, who at last got in some degree unmanageable, and fired their carbines in return over their horses' heads at the French, and it was with some difficulty that we prevailed upon them to put up their carbines. At this moment one of our men was shot dead. We retired about twenty yards, the dead man at the same time being left sitting on his tired horse, quite upright, yet completely dead. Fearing that such a spectacle might have a bad effect upon the men, he was taken off his horse and carried to the rear; but I shall never forget his singular and horrible appearance while he remained in the position in which he was killed.
"During the evening we repeatedly retired to the bottom of the hill, and as we supposed out of the reach of the fire of the enemy: but even here, towards the close of the battle, we had men killed and wounded: a pretty strong proof that the enemy had gained the summit of the hill, and therefore crowned our position! Why they did not advance further I cannot say; but it may be presumed that they were without any further order, and that probably their superior officers were killed or wounded, and the other officers that they had fulfilled their orders having gained the top of our position.
"As it got dusk we could plainly perceive the flashes of the Prussian guns in the rear of the French army as we looked over it towards the left. This may give a tolerably good idea of the time at which the French retired: it was eight o'clock, and the victory to all appearance was then quite undecided.
"During nine hours we had been exposed to a fire, which had, by this time, reduced our brigade from about fifteen hundred strong in the morning to a mere skeleton of thirty-three officers and men, the number we mustered when we encamped for the night!
"It was after nine o'clock at night when the French gave way, and our whole line advanced: we, as well as the first brigade of cavalry, were now such mere handfuls, that, of course, we could do nothing, but followed slowly in the rear of others. We heard firing, but it was too dark to see anything clearly: we heard also huzzas as the different charges were made by our light cavalry upon the retreating enemy. We continued to advance along the right of the road by which the French retired, and passed by many cannon and waggons which they had abandoned, when I heard some English voices calling out 'Are these the Dragoons?' Upon which I answered 'Yes.' 'Then' continued the voice 'here is Captain —— of the Dragoons badly wounded,' upon which I immediately sent one of the men of his regiment, and one of the men of my own, with him to Brussels. I heard nothing more of him for four years, further than that he had got quite well, till going to visit some of my relations at * * * in the east of Scotland, I found him quietly settled there, and in the belief that his life had been saved by a French officer.
"When we halted for the night I was sent with a Cornet of the regiment to the village of Waterloo to collect the stragglers, and bring them up the next day. On my way to Brussels I overtook on the road Captain P—— of the horse artillery, and rode with him into the town. He was so kind as to inform a cousin of mine in the same corps that I was safe; and thus my friends heard through him, that I was neither killed nor wounded.
"Upon entering into a large house at Waterloo we found every room in it filled with either the dead or the dying. I was glad to get a chair, and sat down at a table in a large room, in every corner of which were poor creatures groaning. The master of the house having brought us a piece of bread and a bottle of wine, we began to talk over the events of the day: and as he had been for years a soldier of Buonaparte's himself, we found no lack of subjects for conversation. After we had finished our bread and wine, which we enjoyed very much notwithstanding the room was full of poor wounded human beings, we retired to a hay loft for the night, which we passed in profound repose. In the morning we saw the Belgians completing the plunder of a number of baggage waggons, which stood in the yard of the house. Here some of our men joined us, and my private servant came up from the rear to look for my body, he having been informed by two different officers of the brigade whom he met on their way to Brussels the evening before, that I was killed, assuring him that they had seen me lying on the field of battle before they left it.
"I saw on my left, during one of the many times that we were in some confusion, a soldier of the —— Dragoons whose cheek, just as I looked at it, opened, while I felt a ball pass close to my lips,—the man immediately fell off his horse and I saw no more of him.