t horrible cloud which is called a battle.
This, which is true of all great armed encounters, is particularly applicable to Waterloo.
Nevertheless, at a certain moment in the afternoon the battle came to a point.
BOOK FIRST.-WATERLOO
CHAPTER VI
FOUR O''CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON
Towards four o''clock the condition of the English army was serious. The Prince of Orange was in command of the centre, Hill of the right wing, Picton of the left wing.
The Prince of Orange, desperate and intrepid, shouted to the Hollando-Belgians: "Nassau! Brunswick!
Never retreat!"
Hill, having been weakened, had come up to the support of Wellington; Picton was dead.
At the very moment when the English had captured from the French the flag of the 105th of the line, the French had killed the English general, Picton, with a bullet through the head.
The battle had, for Wellington, two bases of action, Hougomont and La Haie-Sainte; Hougomont still held out, but was on fire; La Haie-Sainte was taken.
Of the German battalion which defended it, only forty-two men survived; all the officers, except five, were either dead or captured.
Three thousand combatants had been massacred in that barn.
A sergeant of the English Guards, the foremost boxer in England, reputed invulnerable by his companions, had been killed there by a little French drummer-boy. Baring had been dislodged, Alten put to the sword.