Marshal Ney accompanied the first column for some part of the way, riding by the side of Drouet d’Erlon.
As they crossed the intervening ground below, the death-dealing British guns fired down on them incessantly, but in spite of all, they stoutheartedly moved forward, without checking their pace. It was terribly toilsome work in places: now they had to plough laboriously over sodden and slippery ground; now to trample their way through cornfields with standing grain-crops nearly breast-high, or, where trodden down, tangling round the men’s feet.
Quiot’s brigade turned off to attack La Haye Sainte, but the rest of the division, Bourgeois’ men and the three other columns, held on their way, moving in dense phalanxes of gleaming bayonets up the slopes.
The second column, Donzelot’s, reached the top a little in advance of the others, and was met by Kempt’s brigade of Picton’s troops, which charged it and forced it to yield ground.
A moment later Marcognet’s column reached the British line, coming up over the crest of the hill immediately in front of Picton’s Highland Brigade.
Received with a furious outburst of musketry from all along the extended British line, Marcognet’s leading files were thrown into some confusion by the hail of bullets. They were, however, veterans, and though their ranks were shaken, they still pressed on, amid a tumult of fierce cries and shouts of “Vive l’Empereur!” and the wild clash and rattle of their drums.
But they got no farther. The British brigadier on the spot, Sir Dennis Pack, called on the nearest Highland regiment, the 92nd, to charge them with the bayonet. A moment after that, all unexpectedly, the cavalry of the Union Brigade were on them.
THE HIGHLANDERS DASH FORWARD
The Highlanders dashed forward with exultant cheers and levelled bayonets, taking the French volley that met them without firing back a shot. They did not, however, get up to the French, nor actually cross steel on steel. As the Highlanders got within a dozen yards the column suddenly stopped short, and some of the men in front seemed suddenly to be panic-stricken. A moment before all were madly yelling out: “Forward!” “Victory!” Now they began to turn their backs in disorder.
It was not, though, at the sight of the bayonets. They had seen and heard something else. The thundering beat of approaching horse-hoofs shook the ground.