[Sidenote: GIVING UP THE GUNS AND HORSES] From the presence of Napoleon the captive army passed to the scene of the act of final humiliation: to the place where, midway between the lines of bayonets of the troops of Ney and Marmont, they were to lay down their colours and ground their arms. The colours were first surrendered, a French General, Andréossi, formerly Napoleon’s Ambassador in London, receiving them, with half a dozen staff officers and orderlies, who deposited the flags one by one in two commissariat wagons drawn up close by. It was a moment of the deepest and keenest anguish for proud and gallant soldiers. All round them on the hillsides most of the French, overcome by excitement over the unprecedented and amazing spectacle, were by that time almost beside themselves, rending the air with exulting shouts and cheers. Under the cruel stress of the ordeal, as the supreme moment came on, the self-possession of some of the Austrians, tried beyond endurance, gave way. The men of the Cavalry and Artillery bore themselves throughout with well-disciplined steadiness. As they came to the appointed place where groups of French cavalry troopers and gunners, told off to take over their horses and guns, were standing near the roadside awaiting them, they dismounted at the word of command from their own commanders and stood back. With hardly a murmur from the ranks the Austrian troopers unbuckled their swords and carbines and pistols, and dropped them in heaps at the places pointed out to them. With quiet dignity the officers relinquished their gold-embroidered banners into the enemy’s hands. In grim silence they saw the victors--who there at any rate behaved with courtesy and soldierly consideration for the feeling of the vanquished--step forward to take possession of their horses and their cannon. Many of the Austrians had tears running down their cheeks; some stood trembling with suppressed passion;--but all preserved order and behaved with complete decorum as became disciplined soldiers.