The moment looked black for the Marshal: he himself confesses in his _Mémoires_ that if Harispe’s infantry had given way the battle might have been lost[34]. But he had still a reserve: he sent back orders to Palombini to bring up Saint Paul’s four Italian battalions into the gap, and rode himself to the two squadrons of the 13th Cuirassiers which had not yet advanced into the fight. They were only 350 sabres, but the regiment was a fine one, and had won, at Margalef and other fields, a great confidence in its ability to face long odds. They were launched straight at the victorious Spanish cavalry, whose main body was advancing in great disorder, and with its line broken by the groves of carob-trees, while the remainder had turned inward against the French infantry. The cuirassiers went straight through the squadrons opposed to them, and swept them away: whereupon even those units of the Spanish horse which had not been attacked wheeled round, and retreated hastily toward the Picador ravine and its bridge. The cuirassiers followed, upsetting everything in their front, and only halted on the edge of the ravine, where they were checked by the fire of the battery attached to the Valencian reserve, and the skirmishers of that body, who had lined the farther edge of the depression[35]. Both the Spanish brigadiers, Loy and Caro, had behaved very gallantly; both were severely wounded, while trying to rally their men, and were left on the field as prisoners. [34] _Mémoires_, ii. p. 185. [35] This account of the charge of the cuirassiers comes from the _Mémoires_ of Colonel de Gonneville, who commanded their leading squadron. There is a curious point to be settled here. Marshal Suchet says (_Mémoires_, ii. p. 185) that he rode in person to the head of the regiment, and harangued it shortly on Margalef and other ancient glories, before bidding it charge. While speaking he was struck by a spent ball on the shoulder. But de Gonneville (who had read Suchet’s book, as he quotes it in other places) says distinctly (p. 208 of his _Souvenirs militaires_) that he received no orders, and charged on his own responsibility. ‘N’ayant là d’ordre à recevoir de personne, mais comprenant la nécessité d’arrêter cette masse de cavalerie qui arrivait à nous, &c. ... je donnai le signal.’ Was Suchet romancing about his little speech? Or was de Gonneville, who wrote his _Mémoires_ forty years later, oblivious? Either hypothesis is difficult.