It is plain from this account that the head of the French column consisted of some 70 (or 75) men, as we have pointed out would be the case if the leading battalion was in column with a two company front; and that the fire of Maitland’s brigade, which must have had a front of about 450 men, added to that of a part of Halkett’s brigade, to that of Napier’s battery, and to that of the Dutch-Belgian battery of Van der Smissen,[742] which General Chassé had most opportunely brought up, destroyed this leading battalion and one or more of those in _échelon_ with it on its left and rear. It is also clear from this account that the pursuing troops soon found themselves flanked by the other battalions of the Imperial Guard, which they took to be a separate column, and were obliged to fall back. It is very unlikely, by the way, that they advanced as far as the end of the orchard of Hougomont, a quarter of a mile from their position. It may be that the rear battalions of the Guard inclined in their advance, by accident or oversight, more to their left than they should have done, and thus presented the appearance of a separate column. General Maitland says:—[743] “As the attacking force moved forward, it separated; the chasseurs inclined to their left. The grenadiers ascended the acclivity towards our position in a more direct course, leaving La Haye Sainte on their right, and moving towards that part of the eminence occupied by the 1st brigade of Guards.” He also speaks of the effect of the fire of the batteries which accompanied the Guard:— “Numerous pieces of ordnance were distributed on the flanks of this column. The brigade suffered by the enemy’s artillery, but it withheld its fire for the nearer approach of the column. The latter, after advancing steadily up the slope, halted about twenty paces from the front rank of the brigade. “The diminished range of the enemy’s artillery was now felt most severely in our ranks; the men fell in great numbers before the discharges of grape shot and the fire of the musketry distributed among the guns.” General Maitland goes on to describe the repulse of the French attack:— “The smoke of the [French] artillery happily did not envelop the hostile column, or serve to conceal it from our aim. “With what view the enemy halted in a situation so perilous, and in a position so comparatively helpless, he was not given time to evince. “The fire of the brigade opened with terrible effect. “The enemy’s column, crippled and broken, retreated with the utmost rapidity, leaving only a heap of dead and dying men to mark the ground which it had occupied.” The attempt of some of the rear battalions to deploy, noticed by Captain Powell, is thus mentioned by Charras:—[744]