In this second attack Ney received a powerful reinforcement.  The Emperor ordered the advance of Kellermann and of Guyot with the heavy cavalry of the Guard, thus raising the number of horsemen to about 10,000.  At the head of these imposing masses Ney again mounted the slope.  But Wellington had strengthened his line by fresh troops, ordering up also Mercer’s battery of six 9-pounders, to support two Brunswick regiments that wavered ominously as the French cannon-balls tore through them.  Would these bewildered lads stand before the wave of horsemen already topping the crest?  It seemed impossible.  But just then Mercer’s men thundered up between them with the guns, took post behind the raised cross-road, and opened on the galloping horsemen with case-shot.  At once the front was strewn with steeds and men; and gunners and infantry riddled the successive ranks, that rushed on only to pile up writhing heaps and bar retreat to the survivors in front.  Some of these sought safety by a dash through the guns, while the greater number struggled and even laid about with their sabres to hew their way out of this battue.

Elsewhere the British artillery was too exposed to be defended, and the gunners again fled back to the squares.  Once more the cavalry surrounded our footmen, like “heavy surf breaking on a coast beset with isolated rocks, against which the mountainous wave dashes with furious uproar, breaks, divides, and runs hissing and boiling far beyond.”  Yet, as before, it failed to break those stubborn blocks, and a perplexing pause occurred, varied by partial and spasmodic rushes.  “Will those English never show us their backs”—­exclaimed the Emperor, as he strained his eyes to catch the first sign of rout “I fear,” replied Soult, “they will be cut to pieces first.”  For the present, it was the cavalry that gave way.  Foiled by that indomitable infantry, they were again charged by British and German hussars and driven into the valley.

Once more Ney led on his riders, gathering up all his reserves.  But the Duke had now brought up Adam’s brigade and Duplat’s King’s Germans to the space behind Hougoumont; their fire took the horsemen in flank:  the blasts of grape and canister were as deadly as before:  one and all, the squares held firm, beating back onset after onset:  and by 6 o’clock the French cavalry fell away utterly exhausted.[517]

Who is to be held responsible for these wasteful attacks, and why was not French infantry at hand to hold the ground which the cavaliers seemed to have won?  Undoubtedly, Ney began the first attack somewhat too early; but Napoleon himself strengthened the second great charge by the addition of Kellermann’s and Guyot’s brigades, doubtless in the belief that the British, of whose tenacity he had never had direct personal proof, must give way before so mighty a mass.  Moreover, time after time it seemed that the attacks were triumphant; the allied guns on the right centre, except Mercer’s, were nine or ten times taken, their front squares as often enveloped; and more than once the cry of victory was raised by the Emperor’s staff.