Now the Prussian army was fully _en évidence_. As early as 4.30, Bülow’s corps from Wavre had reached the field, and had so hotly engaged the French that Lobau’s corps and the cavalry division of Subervie and Daumont had been detached to oppose him; and by six o’clock they had to be reinforced, from Napoleon’s last reserve, by eight battalions of the Guard, or one-third its total strength, when Blucher had developed on, and in rear of, the French right flank, 29,000 infantry and 64 guns. The second attack on the centre by Ney occurred between five and six. It was mainly directed on La Haye Sainte, which was carried after desperate fighting, and the poor remnants of the King’s German Legion, who had fought magnificently until they were short of ammunition, were almost annihilated. Hougomont and the whole of the right centre had meanwhile been again assaulted, though without result; but when La Haye Sainte fell, the English centre was, for a brief space, broken. The French, pressing in, inflicted heavy losses on the brigades on either side of the Charleroi road, especially those of Ompteda and Kielmansegge. Between Halkett’s brigade on the west of the Charleroi road, and Kempt’s on the right, there was a great gap. So dire had been the slaughter, that at one time the duke, pointing to a mass of killed and wounded men of the 28th and 73rd, asked what square that was so far in advance. It was a critical moment in the battle. But here Wellington’s coolness in the ordering of a battle stood him in good stead. Says Kennedy: “This very startling information he received with a degree of coolness, and replied to in an instant with such precision and energy as to prove the most complete self-possession, and left on my mind the impression that his Grace’s mind remained perfectly calm during every phase, however serious, of the action; that he felt confident of his own powers of being able to guide the storm which raged around him; and from the determined manner in which he then spoke, it was evident that he had resolved to defend, to the last extremity, every inch of the position which he then held. His Grace’s answer to my representation was in the following words, or very nearly so:--‘I shall order the Brunswick troops to the spot, and other troops besides. Go you and get all the German troops of the division to the spot that you can, and all the guns that you can find.’” So the gap was filled and the danger ceased; but, “most fortunately, Napoleon did not support the advantage his troops had gained at this point by bringing forward his reserve, proving that he did not exert that activity and personal energy in superintending and conforming to the progress of the action, which he ought to have done.”