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324 accordingly ascended the slopes on the duke's right, and rode forward with dauntless courage against the batteries of the British artillery in that part of the field. The artillery-men were driven from their guns, and the cuirassiers cheered loudly at their supposed triumph. But the duke had formed his infantry in squares, and the cuirassiers charged in vain against the impenetrable hedges of bayonets, while the fire from the inner ranks of the squares told with terrible effect on their own squadrons. Time after time they rode forward with invariably the same result: and as they receded from each attack the British artillery-men rushed forward from the centres of the squares, where they had taken refuge, and plied their guns on the retiring horsemen. Nearly the whole of Napoleon's magnificent body of heavy cavalry was destroyed in these fruitless attempts upon the British right. But in another part of the field fortune favoured him for a time. Donzelot's infantry took La Haye Sainte between six and seven o'clock, and the means were now given for organising another formidable attack on the centre of the Allies.

There was no time to be lost—Blucher and Bulow were beginning to press upon the French right; as early as five o'clock Napoleon had been obliged to detach Lobau's infantry and Domont's