The Twenty-eighth also repulsed the enemy.
"What do you think of it now, Conway?" Captain O'Connor asked as the
French retreated.
"I feel all right now," Ralph said; "though I thought just now that it
was all over with me. A big Frenchman was just dealing a sweeping cut
at me when a musket shot struck him. Still this is a thousand times
better than standing still and being pounded by their artillery. I
confess I felt horribly uncomfortable while that was going on."
"I dare say you did, lad."
The Duke of Wellington had, upon the fall of their commander, in vain
endeavored to rally the flying Brunswickers. As he was so engaged the
cavalry column swept down upon him. He put spurs to his horse and
galloped to the spot where the Ninety-second were lying behind a ditch
bordering the road. The French were close to his heels. He shouted to
the men of the Ninety-second in front of him to throw themselves down,
and setting spurs to his horse leaped the ditch and the men behind it,
and instantly the Highlanders poured so terrible a volley into the
French cavalry that a hundred saddles were emptied.
The cavalry recoiled for a moment in confusion, but then reformed and
retired in good order. Some of the leading squadrons, however, had
galloped on into the village, and cut down some stragglers there; but
the Highlanders closed round them, and, being pent up in a farmyard
from which there was but one outlet, scarce a man who had entered
escaped.
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