they rode over the famous cuirassiers, and how they were cut to pieces
before they could get back. From them, too, I learned all about the
successive assaults, and how the Belgians fled, and how Pack and Kempt
stood firm. But of my own knowledge I can only speak of what we saw
during that long day in the rifts of the smoke and the lulls of the
firing, and it is just of that that I will tell you.

We were on the right of the line and in reserve, for the Duke was afraid
that Boney might work round on that side and get at him from behind; so
our three regiments, with another British brigade and the Hanoverians,
were placed there to be ready for anything. There were two brigades of
light cavalry, too; but the French attack was all from the front, so it
was late in the day before we were really wanted.

The English battery which fired the first gun was still banging away on
our left, and a German one was hard at work upon our right, so that we
were wrapped round with the smoke; but we were not so hidden as to
screen us from a line of French guns opposite, for a score of round shot
came piping through the air and plumped right into the heart of us.
As I heard the scream of them past my ear my head went down like a
diver, but our sergeant gave me a prod in the back with the handle of
his halbert.

"Don't be so blasted polite," said he; "when you're hit, you can bow
once and for all."

There was one of those balls that knocked five men into a bloody mash,
and I saw it lying on the ground afterwards like a crimson football.
Another went through the adjutant's horse with a plop like a stone in
the mud, broke its back and left it lying like a burst gooseberry.