Thus each Battalion of the Regiment had, on this day, its two senior officers disabled by wounds. When the last attack was made upon Hougoumont, Adam’s brigade, with the 2nd Battalion and the two companies of the 3rd, was withdrawn, first to the crest, and subsequently to the reverse slope, so as to be in some measure protected from the cannonade directed against it. At seven o’clock a column of the Imperial Guard advanced against this part of the position. It was covered by a cloud of skirmishers; and in order to check them, a company of each of the regiments of Adam’s brigade was thrown out in skirmishing order. The enemy’s advancing column suffered so severely from the English guns, that a body of cuirassiers were sent forward to endeavour to silence these guns. The gunners ran in in rear of the infantry, and the cuirassiers not only drove in the skirmishers of the 2nd Battalion, but came upon Adam’s brigade, then in line. The Duke was then with them, and the 52nd, the regiment most threatened, came to the ‘Prepare to receive cavalry.’ But the cuirassiers did not face them, and their further attempts were checked by some English cavalry sent against them. The Riflemen were then on the road leading along the crest of the ridge. [Illustration: _Pl. II._ WATERLOO 18^{TH} JUNE 1815 8.30 to 9 p.m. _E. Weller, lith., London._ _London: Chatto & Windus._ ] As the column of the Guard came forward, Sir John Colborne, in command of the 52nd, at once wheeled up its right shoulder, so as to throw it on the flank of the column. The Duke, who was present, approving of this movement, immediately ordered up the 2nd Battalion on its left; the 71st moved up to its right, and the two companies of the 3rd Battalion formed the extreme right of the line. These owing to the rapidity of the movement were not quite in line, but a little retired from the alignment of the 52nd. The attacking column of the Imperial Guard, having Maitland’s brigade of Guards in its front, was evidently staggered by finding Adam’s brigade on its flank. It halted, and wheeling up its left sections, began to fire. Colborne also halted the 52nd and fired into the column, and the 2nd Battalion coming up at that instant on the left, poured a deadly fire into the Guard. Then Colborne checked the fire, and calling out ‘Charge! Charge!’ led his men against the column. The 2nd Battalion joined vigorously in this charge; which, as Siborne observes, ‘was remarkable for the order, the steadiness, the resoluteness, and the daring by which it was characterised.’ The Imperial Guard wavered, reeled, and then breaking up, fled in inextricable confusion, in spite of attempts made by its officers and some brave men in its ranks to stem its flight. But they were swept away in the torrent of fugitives; and the brigade continuing its triumphant march across the field, and bringing its left shoulder, the 2nd Battalion, rather forward, halted near the Charleroi road, with the left of the 2nd