The second attack was delivered at 1.30 by D’Erlon, against the left and centre, with the whole of his corps, first in four great columns, and finally, as the right-hand column split in two against the farms, into five. But though they temporarily gained Papelotte and the gardens of La Haye Sainte, the only tangible success on the French side was the retreat in some haste of Bylandt’s Brigade. One of the main causes of the failure of the attack was the vigorous offensive taken by Ponsonby’s and Somerset’s Brigades. It was during this period that Picton, who had been wounded at Quatre Bras and concealed it, fell dead while cheering on Kempt’s Brigade; and Sergeant Ewart of the Greys, and Captain Clarke of the Royal Dragoons, each by the capture of an eagle in the charge, gained for those regiments the distinction of the eagle badge on their appointments. The charge of the Heavy Brigade, too, must have recalled mediæval days, for, meeting the French Cuirassiers, the clash of weapons upon armour was, as Lord Somerset said, “like so many tinkers at work.” When the French fell back to re-form, La Haye Sainte, the real key of the position, was reinforced, but only by two companies, and the 92nd Regiment had by then been reduced to less than 300 strong. The French cavalry attack began at 4 p.m. on the right centre. The fierceness of the attack had lulled for a while; there had been no effort of a serious nature against the right during the second phase. The cannonade continued there, as it did equally on the left after D’Erlon fell back. But now there was to be a change in the method of attack, and Milhaud’s Cuirassiers, forty squadrons strong, crossing from the right, advanced into the gap between La Haye Sainte and Hougomont,--a frontage of about 1000 yards only,--to attack in lines of columns the British and other regiments opposed to them, which threw themselves into squares. Thrice Milhaud attempted to break them, and, failing, was driven back by the British cavalry to re-form. Then, at 5 p.m., those who were left, together with Kellermann and Guyot, seventy-seven fresh squadrons in all, made the same desperate effort. But by six o’clock this too had failed. The ground was strewn with the bodies of horses, lancers, cuirassiers, carbiniers, chasseurs, horse grenadiers, hussars, light and heavy dragoons, and the mighty mass of horsemen was practically destroyed, and that mainly by infantry and artillery fire.