into the greatest disorder; Vandeleur galloped forward, and with some of his own officers, and those of the Dutch-Belgians, did all in his power to restore order and encourage the men to hold their position. Colonel Morice (69th regiment) was killed, and sir Colin Halkett wounded, when the command of his brigade devolved on colonel Elphinstone, who, when it had reformed, posted the left of the brigade at the hedge-row, where the road curves forward, (near where the Lion now stands;) and advanced the right anew[65] to protect the left flank of our guards against an attack of Donzelot’s troops, who were again pushing on. The left of our guards was brought slightly forward, to be parallel with the left or second attacking column of the French guards[66], who, passing the eastern boundary of Hougoumont obliquely on their left, were saluted, _en passant_, by Hepburn’s skirmishers. Notwithstanding this, they pursued their onward course with the greatest sang-froid through the valley, towards the spot where their first column was so severely engaged; our artillery on the ridge, from the Nivelles road to the curve in our line, was in full play upon them; the fire of our guns fell with ruinous precision upon the dense mass, and made them suffer dreadfully: but the men who had often, in a doubtful field, wrested victory from the obstinate foe, advanced firmly, their front and flank, as usual, covered by a numerous body of daring skirmishers, the smoke of whose rattling fire concealed at times the advance of the column. The fire of our guns was so severe that some cuirassiers were sent to charge the batteries: this they did, and succeeded in driving the gunners away. They also drove in the skirmishers of Adam’s brigade: upon which, a squadron of the 23d light dragoons was sent down into the hollow near the orchard of Hougoumont. The cuirassiers advancing again, the 23d, under lieutenant Banner, charged them in flank, and drove them back upon their infantry columns, whose fire turned our dragoons about. They galloped back towards our lines, followed by some cuirassiers, most of whom, as well as their other cavalry, had, upon the advance of the Imperial guard, been drawn off and rallied on their own position between La Belle-Alliance and Hougoumont. Our officers on this part of the line were intently observing the movements of the enemy’s column; and our few fine fellows at the guns, disregarding the fire from the enemy, played incessantly with deadly aim into the close deep masses of infantry: changing, as the distance diminished, from round to grape and canister, and to double charges.