In leading this charge, lord Edward Somerset lost his cocked hat, and went to the charge bare-headed. On his return, whilst looking for his hat, a cannon-ball took off the flap of his coat and killed his horse. During the rest of the day he appeared in a life-guard’s helmet.
Lambert’s brigade was now brought forward to reinforce the remains of Kempt’s division.
Captain Siborne, in the following spirited manner, concludes his narrative of the attack and defeat of the enemy, upon our left and centre, between half-past one and three o’clock:
“Thus terminated one of the grandest scenes which distinguished the mighty drama, enacted on the ever-memorable plains of Waterloo: a scene presenting in bold relief genuine British valour, crowned with resplendent triumph; a scene which should be indelibly impressed upon the minds as well of living British warriors, as of their successors in ages yet unborn.
“Britons, before other scenes are disclosed to your view, take one retrospective glance at this glorious, this instructive spectacle. Let your imagination carry you to the rear of that celebrated position, and a little to the left of the Charleroi road. Behold, in the foreground on the right, a British line of cavalry advancing to the charge, exulting in the consciousness of its innate courage, indomitable spirit, and strength of arm. Whilst you are admiring the beautiful order and steadiness of their advance, your eyes are suddenly attracted by the glittering of a line of horsemen in burnished coats of mail, rising above the brow, and now crowning the summit of the ridge.
“They are the far-famed cuirassiers of France, led on by a Kellermann: gallant spirits, that have hitherto overcome the finest troops that could be brought against them, and have grown grey in glory. Trumpets sound the charge; in the next instant your ears catch the low thundering noises of their horses’ hoofs, and your breathless excitement is wound to the highest pitch as the adverse lines dash together with a shock, which at the moment you expect must end in their mutual annihilation. Observe the British, how they seem to doubt for a second in what manner to deal with their opponents.
“Now they urge their powerful steeds into the intervals between the necks of those of the cuirassiers. Swords brandished high in air gleam fitfully in rapid succession throughout the lines, here clashing together, there clanging against helmet and cuirass, which ring under their redoubled strokes. See, the struggle is but a moment doubtful: the cuirassiers, seemingly encumbered by their coats of mail, are yielding to superior strength, dexterity and bravery combined; men and horses reel and stagger to the earth: gaps open out in their line; numbers are backing out, others are fairly turning round; their whole line now bends and breaks asunder into fragments: in the next moment they appear, as if by a miracle, to be swept from off the crest of the position, and being closely and hotly pursued by the victors, the whole rushing down the other side of the ridge, are snatched from your view. Your attention is now irresistibly drawn to that part of the foreground immediately facing you, where you have barely time to catch sight of a line of British infantry just as it forces its way through the hedge that runs along the crest of the ridge, to charge a column advancing up the other side.
“At the moment the shouts that proclaim its triumph reach your ear, you are struck by the majestic advance, close to your left, of another line of British horsemen. These halt just under the brow of the ridge. In their left front your eye now also embraces a line of British infantry moving quickly up the steep; whilst at the same time you see the heads of two hostile columns issuing through the hedge, and crowning the ridge amidst shouts of Vive l’Empereur! The one nearest to you, finding no immediate opposition to its farther advance, is rapidly establishing itself on the height; the other is met by the advancing line of infantry. A struggle ensues; the farther column is concealed from your view by the smoke by which it is suddenly enshrouded: but, at the very moment when doubts arise in your mind as to the result, the cavalry rushes forward, and passing through intervals opened out for it by the infantry, charges both those heads of columns, cutting them up, as it were, root and branch; and then bounding through the hedge, the whole disappears as if by magic.
“Now let your imagination, keeping pace with the intensity of feeling excited by such a scene, carry you up to the summit of the ridge. Behold, at once, the glorious spectacle spread out before you; the furious impetuosity of their onslaught overcomes all resistance: the terror-stricken masses, paralyzed by this sudden apparition of cavalry amongst them, have neither time nor resolution to form squares, and limit their defence to a feeble, hasty, straggling fire from their ill-cemented edges: a flight, commencing from the rearmost rank, is rapidly augmented by the outward scattering, occasioned by the continually increasing pressure upon the front; the entire slope is soon covered with the dispersed elements of the previously attacking force: parties of infantry are hurrying over the brow of the ridge to aid others of the cavalry in securing their prisoners; three thousand of these are swept to the rear, and two eagles are gloriously captured. From the momentary contemplation of these trophies, your eyes instinctively revert to the course of the victors, whom you now perceive in the middle distance of the view; a broken line of daring horsemen rushing up the opposite height.