Then there came a broad black blurr through the haze, which darkened and
hardened until we could see that it was a hundred men abreast, marching
swiftly towards us, with high fur hats upon their heads and a gleam of
brasswork over their brows. And behind that hundred came another
hundred, and behind that another, and on and on, coiling and writhing
out of the cannon-smoke like a monstrous snake, until there seemed to be
no end to the mighty column. In front ran a spray of skirmishers, and
behind them the drummers, and up they all came together at a kind of
tripping step, with the officers clustering thickly at the sides and
waving their swords and cheering. There were a dozen mounted men too at
their front, all shouting together, and one with his hat held aloft upon
his swordpoint. I say again, that no men upon this earth could have
fought more manfully than the French did upon that day.

It was wonderful to see them; for as they came onwards they got ahead of
their own guns, so that they had no longer any help from them, while
they got in front of the two batteries which had been on either side of
us all day. Every gun had their range to a foot, and we saw long red
lines scored right down the dark column as it advanced. So near were
they, and so closely did they march, that every shot ploughed through
ten files of them, and yet they closed up and came on with a swing and
dash that was fine to see. Their head was turned straight for
ourselves, while the 95th overlapped them on one side and the 52nd on
the other.

I shall always think that if we had waited so the Guard would have
broken us; for how could a four-deep line stand against such a column?
But at that moment Colburne, the colonel of the 52nd, swung his right
flank round so as to bring it on the side of the column, which brought
the Frenchmen to a halt. Their front line was forty paces from us at