cut through everything in their way, and gallantly attacked whole regiments
of infantry; but eventually they came upon a masked battery of twenty
guns, which carried death and destruction through our ranks, and our
poor fellows were obliged to give way. The French cavalry followed
on their retreat, when, perhaps, the severest hand-to-hand cavalry fighting
took place within the memory of man. The Duke of Wellington was perfectly
furious that this arm had been engaged without his orders, and lost
not a moment in sending them to the rear, where they remained during
the rest of the day. This disaster gave the French cavalry an opportunity
of annoying and insulting us, and compelled the artillerymen to seek
shelter in our squares; and if the French had been provided with tackle,
or harness of any description, our guns would have been taken. It is,
therefore, not to be wondered at that the Duke should have expressed
himself in no measured terms about the cavalry movements referred to.
I recollect that, when his grace was in our square, our soldiers were
so mortified at seeing the French deliberately wa1king their horses
between our regiment and those regiments to our right and left, that
they shouted, "Where are our cavalry? why don't they come and pitch
into those French fellows?"


THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S OPINION OF THE FRENCH CAVALRY


A day or two after our arrival in Paris from Waterloo, Colonel Felton
Hervey having entered the dining-room with the despatches which had
come from London, the Duke asked, "What news have you, Hervey?" upon
which, Colonel Felton Hervey answered, "I observe by the Gazette that
the Prince Regent has made himself Captain-General of the Life Guards
and Blues, for their brilliant conduct at Waterloo."