The charge, such as it was, of the Imperial Guard at Waterloo was most firmly and gallantly met and repulsed. But it should never be forgotten that it was not the sort of charge which Napoleon was in the habit of making with his Guard; that it was, at best, a charge of 8 battalions out of 24,—of 12 guns out of 96,—and that no cavalry at all, light or heavy, supported the charging column. Made, as it was, without supports, except so far as Donzelot’s gallant infantry protected its right flank, it was a terrible mistake to make it. And it is all but certain that if proper care and skill had been expended on the preparations and accompaniments of the movement,—if, in a word, Ney had kept his head cool and his hand steady, as did the Duke,—Piré’s lancers and Bachelu’s division would have given abundant employment to the whole of Adam’s brigade, and a few squadrons of horse could have protected the advance on the right. This is not, we submit, going too far in the region of conjecture. Bachelu and Piré, at any rate, were close at hand, and under Ney’s command, and were, so far as we know, doing nothing at the time when the charge was ordered. Ney, in fact, contributed apparently little, except his example of desperate courage, to the success of the day. But courage, though indispensable, does not take the place of judgment and presence of mind.[777] Ney failed most unmistakably to make the most of his resources; he lost sight, practically, of one of the two corps under his orders; he used up all his cavalry; and he neglected to make even the preparations and arrangements which were yet feasible to second the attack of the Guard. It is impossible not to contrast his conduct with that of Wellington, whose admirable forethought and coolness gave him the control of the situation, and enabled him to utilize fully all the resources which at the close of this trying day still remained to him. 5. We have not thought it necessary to do more than to call attention to the fact that the Duke of Wellington retained some 18,000 men of Colville’s division at Hal and Tubize throughout this perilous and bloody day. The best English authorities[778] unhesitatingly condemn the Duke’s action in this regard. Says Sir James Shaw-Kennedy:—[779] “Wellington certainly ought to have had Colville, with the force under his command, on the field of battle at Waterloo. There was no cause whatever for his being kept in the direction of Hal. It would have been a gross error on the part of Napoleon to have detached any important force on that road, and Colville should, early on the morning of the 18th, have been ordered to march to Waterloo, if he had no information of the advance of the enemy on Hal.”