At five o'clock fresh guns and cavalry reinforced Ney, and his
infantry again advanced in great force through the wood of Bossu. The
British squares were decimated by the fire of the artillery, and
several batteries were advanced to comparatively short range, and
opened with destructive effect.
Stoutly as the eight thousand British had fought--deserted though they
were by their allies--against Ney's overpowering numbers, they could
not much longer have stood their ground, when at the critical moment
General Alten's division came up by the Nivelles road to their aid.
Halket's British brigade advanced between the wood of Bossu and the
Charleroi road; while the Hanoverian brigade took up ground to the
left, and gave their support to the hardly-pressed British.
Ney now pushed forward every man at his disposal. His masses of
cavalry charged down, and falling upon the Sixty-ninth, one of the
regiments just arrived, cut it up terribly, and carried off one of its
colors. The Thirty-second, however, belonging to the same brigade,
repulsed a similar attempt with terrible slaughter. The French
infantry, supported by a column of cuirassiers, advanced against the
Hanoverians, and driving them back approached the spot where the
Ninety-second were lying. Major-General Barnes rode up to the
Highlanders taking off his hat, and shouted: "Now, Ninety-second,
follow me!"
The Highlanders sprang from the ditch in which they were lying, the
bagpipes struck up the slogan of the regiment, and with leveled
bayonets they threw themselves upon the French column.
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