“Unhappily, whether by orders, or by the instinct of the soldier, the Guard deploys, in order to reply to the musketry which decimates it from moment to moment; and, by this movement, it masks the two batteries which have followed it, which have taken position on the crest of the plateau, and whose fire has, up to this instant, protected its flanks.”
But what the leading battalions of the Guard needed at the moment when they were being destroyed by the superior fire of the brigade of English guards was not so much the continued effect of the fire of artillery upon the brigade as the prompt advance of cavalry, which would have compelled Maitland to throw his regiments into squares.
Failing this, the best thing for the Guard would have been a flank attack on Maitland’s brigade by troops of the 1st Corps; but this was averted by the gallant and skilful conduct of Sir Colin Halkett and Colonel Elphinstone in bringing the remains of Halkett’s brigade, which had suffered terribly during the past hour, to the left of the English guards, and thus protecting them in their contest with the Imperial Guard.[745] In fact the attack on Halkett’s brigade by Donzelot’s troops at this time was very sharp, and at one time caused great confusion. It was a critical moment; for, if Halkett had been beaten, Donzelot’s troops would have flanked Maitland’s brigade, and, attacked as it then would have been, on front and flank, it would have been forced to retire, and perhaps even routed. Donzelot’s troops did their best to gain a foothold on the plateau; they did gain a temporary success; they knew the importance of the task assigned to them, and gallantly strove to support the charge of the Guard. On the other hand, the intelligent appreciation of the emergency on the part of Halkett and his subordinates, and their obstinate and courageous maintenance of their exposed position deserve the highest commendation.
If this attack of the Imperial Guard had been supported on the right by cavalry, this resistance on the part of Halkett’s and Maitland’s commands could not have been encountered.
It seems probable that the failure of the attack of the Guard upon Maitland’s brigade involved in confusion both the 3d and 4th regiments of grenadiers (Old Guard), the four (or, more probably, three) battalions of which were the leading battalions in the whole column. This, however, is by no means certain. All we know is, that those troops which were not swept off the field by the charge of Maitland’s guards, among which assuredly were the 3d and 4th regiments of chasseurs (Middle Guard), ignorant, probably, of the fate which had befallen their comrades, steadily pursued their way towards the right centre of the English position. As the eight (or, more probably, six) battalions of the original column were formed in échelon, the right in advance, it is plain that the march of the four (or, more probably, three) rear battalions would bring them on a part of the English line to the English right of the position of Maitland’s brigade,—in fact, “towards that part of” the English “position which had been vacated by the second brigade of Guards, when it moved to Hougomont.”[746] In this direction, then, these remaining battalions of the Imperial Guard advanced. To all intents and purposes they now constituted a second column. As a second column they must have appeared not only to the men of Maitland’s brigade, when their pursuit of the leading and defeated battalions brought them on a line with the left échelons of the original formation, but also to the troops of the brigade of Sir Frederick Adam, who, having been lying behind a ridge, a little to the north of Hougomont, were now advanced, and found the French guard in full march for the summit of the acclivity.
The initiative seems to have been assumed without a moment’s hesitation by Sir John Colborne, the lieutenant-colonel of the 52d regiment, who brought his command into line parallel to the flank of the Imperial Guard, and at once opened fire. This action was approved on the spot by General Adam, who ordered the other regiments of the brigade to support the 52d. The French column was obliged to halt, and to deploy to its left, in order to return the fire, and for a few minutes the action was very heavy on both sides.[747] But the other British regiments coming up, and the French, who were acting at a manifest disadvantage in being thus compelled to halt when half way up the slope, and resist an unexpected and resolute attack on their flank while they were exposed also to the fire from the enemy’s batteries in front, becoming evidently uneasy, Colborne ordered a charge, which broke the column up completely. He followed the disintegrated and demoralized battalions without an instant’s hesitation even across the Charleroi turnpike.
In this attack, the Imperial Guard was supported on its left flank neither by cavalry nor by the infantry of Reille’s Corps. Had either been employed, the disaster could not have happened. A charge of cavalry would have forced the 52d to form square; an advance of Bachelu’s division, or a part of it, would have engaged all the attention of Adam’s brigade, and permitted the Guard to pursue its way unmolested to the crest of the hill.
What would have succeeded the repulse and defeat of the Imperial Guard had the Prussians not interposed, no one of course can tell. But while these movements were going on, about 7.30 P.M., the van of Zieten’s Corps reached Papelotte;[748] and the division of Steinmetz, supported by cavalry and artillery, turning at once the right of the 1st Corps and the left of the 6th, advanced upon the field of battle, spreading terror and confusion throughout the right wing of the French army. Durutte’s and Marcognet’s divisions abandoned their positions; Lobau retired towards Planchenoit; while the immense success which the English had obtained over the French left in routing the Imperial Guard was instantly improved by Wellington in ordering his two remaining and as yet untouched cavalry brigades, those of Vivian and Vandeleur, to charge. These bodies of horse, which had been, in the latter part of the afternoon, brought over from the English left to the rear of their centre, were now launched upon the troops of Donzelot and Quiot, and the remains of the French cavalry; and then the Duke, seeing that the battle was won, ordered the whole line to advance. (See Map 12.)
There was no resistance of any consequence made, except by the scattered regiments of the Imperial Guard, and by the 6th Corps under the Count de Lobau, which held Planchenoit against the renewed assaults of Bülow’s Corps, supported now by two divisions of the corps of Pirch I. until the retreat of the army beyond that point was assured. The Emperor did what he could; he exerted himself in every way;[749] his headquarters-cavalry charged the English light horse; but the army was too much exhausted to make any extraordinary exertions; and, attacked both in front and flank as the French were, nothing but extraordinary exertions could possibly suffice to check the victorious enemy, superior in numbers as well as in position. Hence with the exception of the 6th Corps, whose task was a definite one, and undoubtedly comprehended by every soldier in it, and of which one of the most courageous and efficient officers in the French army had charge, no resistance on a large scale was offered. The 1st Corps was hopelessly disorganized, and necessarily so; the 2d Corps could no doubt have effected an orderly retreat on Nivelles,[750] but Reille did not see the necessity of this course, and perhaps could not have been expected to do so. Most of the battalions of the Guard preserved their organization, and resisted heroically to the last. The Emperor was finally forced to take refuge in one of the squares of the Guard, and in its midst he was safely borne off his last field of battle.[751]
The French army was routed; but its condition was made exceptionally bad because only one avenue of retreat was followed, and also because this avenue was practically blocked at Genappe by the supposed necessity of crossing the Dyle on a single bridge.[752] Had the army been able to spread itself over an open country, it is not likely that the rout would have been so complete, and it is quite certain that the captures of artillery would not have been so great. But the Prussian cavalry took up the pursuit which neither the Prussian nor the British infantry were sufficiently fresh to maintain; and in the exhausted condition of body and bewildered state of mind in which the mass of the French soldiers were when the catastrophe came, little was needed to complete their demoralization. At Genappe over a hundred pieces of cannon were abandoned, and from that point on no attempt was made to keep up even a semblance of order.