They came on silently, steadily, irresistibly. “Their officers,” adds one of Victor’s staff, “kept up all the time the old custom of striking with their canes those of the men who fell out of the ranks. Our own non-commissioned officers,” he adds, “placed as a supernumerary rank, crossed their muskets behind the squads, thus forming buttresses which kept the ranks from giving way. Several of the French officers, also, picked up the muskets of the wounded, and flung themselves into the gaps made in the ranks of the men.”
“I saw the English line,” describes Colonel Roussillon again, “at sixty paces continuing to advance at a slow step without firing. It seemed impossible to stop them; we had not sufficient men.”
Apparently he then caught sight of General Graham, leading the British line.
“Under the influence of a sort of despair, I urged forward my charger, a strong Polish horse, against an English mounted officer who seemed to be the colonel of the nearest regiment coming on at us. I got up to him, and was about to run him through with my sword, when I was held back by a sense of compassion and abandoned the murderous thought. He was an officer with white hair and a fine figure, and had his hat in his hand, and was cheering on his men. His calmness and noble air of dignity irresistibly arrested my arm.”
Such is the lieutenant-colonel’s own account. But did he really get quite close to the general? Graham was the last man in the world to let him get back unfought!
“I then,” as Vigo-Roussillon continues, “quickly galloped back to my own men, and was riding along the line, telling them to meet the enemy with our bayonets, and drive them back, when a bullet from an English marksman broke my right leg.
“I managed to dismount and tried to pass through in rear of the line, but it was impossible to walk. The ground was covered with thick bushes, and I was crippled and in great pain. All I could do was to sit down where I was, calling on the men to fire again. A moment later I was enveloped in smoke; and at the same instant the English charged in among us.
“I called out my loudest, cheering on my men; and now two soldiers tried to lift me up and carry me. But both were shot down.
“For the time we held our own, and kept the enemy back; but some of the English got round us. Seeing themselves outflanked, the battalion began to give ground. Then came a second furious charge from the English, and that broke us.”
“FIGHTING WITH THEIR FISTS”