“The troops were full of ardour. We estimated the force of the English army at eighty thousand men. We supposed that the Prussian corps, which might be in line towards the right, might be fifteen thousand men. The enemy’s force, then, was upwards of ninety thousand men; ours less numerous. “At noon, all the preparations being terminated, prince Jérôme, commanding a division of the second corps, and destined to form the extreme left of it, advanced upon the wood of which the enemy occupied a part. The cannonade began. The enemy supported, with thirty pieces of cannon, the troops he had sent to keep the wood. We made also on our side dispositions of artillery. At one o’clock, prince Jérôme was master of all the wood, and the whole English army fell back behind a curtain. Count d’Erlon then attacked the village of Mont-St.-Jean, and supported his attack with eighty pieces of cannon, which must have occasioned great loss to the English army. All the efforts were made towards the ridge. A brigade of the 1st division of count d’Erlon took the village of Mont-St.-Jean; a second brigade was charged by a corps of English cavalry, which occasioned it much loss. At the same moment, a division of English cavalry charged the battery of count d’Erlon by its right, and disorganized several pieces; but the cuirassiers of general Milhaut charged that division, three regiments of which were broken and cut up. “It was three in the afternoon. The Emperor made the guard advance, to place it in the plain upon the ground which the first corps had occupied at the outset of the battle; this corps being already in advance. The Prussian division, whose movement had been foreseen, then engaged with the light troops of count de Lobau, spreading its fire upon our whole right flank. It was expedient, before undertaking anything elsewhere, to wait for the event of his attack. Hence, all the means in reserve were ready to succour count de Lobau, and overwhelm the Prussian corps when it should be advanced. “This done, the Emperor had the design of leading an attack upon the village of Mont-St.-Jean, from which we expected decisive success; but, by a movement of impatience so frequent in our military annals, and which has often been so fatal to us, the cavalry of reserve having perceived a retrograde movement made by the English to shelter themselves from our batteries, from which they suffered so much, crowned the heights of Mont-St.-Jean, and charged the infantry. This movement, which made in time, and supported by the reserves, must have decided the day, made in an isolated manner and before affairs on the right were terminated, became fatal.