Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/65

 by the Carabineers and the King's Dragoon Guards, which, dashing in splendid style at the enemy, drove him to flight. The French infantry was immediately charged by the whole body of British dragoons. Squares were formed, and their file fire was well maintained, but the weight and size of the British troop horses bore down their resistance. On the English side the feeling was predominant that the reverse on the Union Canal must be revenged, while the French, on their part, were beginning to lose confidence at the disaster which had befallen their cavalry, and the steadiness of the infantry was shaken, and something very like a panic occurred, when, in their desperation, the English hurled themselves against the squares, and broke them. The splendid valour of the English was not destined, however, to be of much service; for French Cuirassiers and lightly-mounted Hussars swept down on the British flanks. Then a regiment of Zouaves, with their peculiar savage yell, rushed forward with fixed bayonets, while the other French infantry divisions followed them silently and sedately in close columns on the right and left of the British line, which commenced to retreat in good order. They were not charged, but a regular fire was kept upon them which they returned. The French were amazed that a numerically weaker army, that had already suffered defeat, and which was now practically surrounded, should thus show such stubborn and dogged resistance. Then occurred what perhaps never before occurred in the history of warfare. The two opposing armies, one being nearly treble the strength of the other, were actually moving in parallel lines and yet the weaker one not only showed no signs of surrendering, but continued to keep its foes at bay.

No greater devotion, no more splendid courage, and no more magnificent military skill have ever been displayed than this extraordinary march of the English; and it certainly atones for the errors made at Edinburgh. Late in the afternoon the English reached the Solway Frith, and instantly a number of fishermen placed themselves at the head of the British columns to conduct them across by means of the sand-banks, with which they were well acquainted. The tide was rising, and a few inches of water sufficed to obliterate the traces of their winding course. The French