Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/77

Rh aspect of men engaged in a perfectly hopeless struggle. They were losing ground from the mere numerical superiority of their enemy. The Highlanders, however, were not to be beaten, and their battalions, shouting to each other in Gaelic, made such a mad onslaught on their foes that the French lines recoiled. The English Guards then charged the French flanks, and a bewildering medley of friends and foes, struggling in a fierce death grip, took place. This part of the battlefield fell into disorder. Positions were defended where destruction was certain, and others were abandoned when resistance might have been successful. Excitement seemed to have deprived most of those engaged of all power of deciding between the greater advantage of making a stand or of rushing forward in wild attack. The gallantry and dash of the British troops almost rose to the pitch of insane fury, and the enemy was bewildered and confused, as well as daunted by the splendid fighting qualities and magnificent valour of English and Scotch soldiers. It was Waterloo repeated, and had there been a Blücher at hand to have helped the handful of jaded British, England even then might have been saved. But it was not to be. The French saw that a supreme effort must be made if they would not lose the advantages they had already gained. Aides-de-camp galloped frantically to divisional generals with an order for a general charge, to be led by the Zouaves, who swept down with their bayonets fixed. They were met by a corps of Volunteer citizens, who delivered a deadly fire, and then broke away in mad disruption. The Zouaves were immediately followed by the whole French force, personally led by the Commander-in-Chief. Reinforcements had also come up, and the English were outnumbered almost ten to one. Still they disputed every inch of the way, and strewed the ground with the dead and dying of the enemy. Such an unequal struggle, however, could not last long; and, borne down by numbers, the English were driven out of the Park, and the French at once placed a large force in the Green Park.

In this great and decisive battle of Hyde Park, the British loss, including Volunteers, was four thousand killed, and nearly double that number wounded; while the French