In this position, PICTON's Division sustained repeated assaults of the French Cavalry, which attacked the Squares simultaneously, and in every direction: as a portion rushed upon one Square, other Squadrons passed on to assail the next; some parties, taking advantage of sinuosities of the ground, awaited, like birds of prey, the favourable moment for pouncing upon their victims; no sooner was one attacking Squadron driven back and dispersed by a stream of musketry from the face of a Square, than a fresh party would rush from its cover upon the same ranks, in the vain hope that the means of breaking its onset had been expended; but a reserved fire never failed to bring down upon it a similar fate. Viewed from a little distance, the British Squares could at times be scarcely discerned amidst the surrounding Cavalry; and as the latter was frequently observed flying back from sudden discharges of musketry, a spectator might easily have imagined the Squares to be so many immense bombs, with every explosion scattering death and confusion among the masses that rushed so daringly into their fatal vicinity. The French Cavalry, by its repeated failures to make any impression on the British Infantry by the manner in which it had passed through and through the intervals between the Squares, and in which the charging Squadrons when dispersed had got intermingled, was now in great disorder--Lancers, _Chasseurs_, and _Cuirassiers_, were mixed together and crossing one another in every direction, seeking out their respective Corps. To retire and reform had therefore become with them an absolutely necessary measure; but this afforded no respite to the devoted Squares, against which the Batteries upon the French Heights now played with terrific effect. * * * * * During the French attack of the British Squares on the eastern side of the Charleroi road, a considerable body of _Cuirassiers_ advanced along the latter, with the evident design of making another attack upon the Anglo-Allied Centre at Quatre Bras. The Belgian Cavalry, which was again ordered forward, endeavoured to check this movement, but with no better effect than that which attended its former attempt; in fact, it retired sooner, charged and pursued by the _Cuirassiers_, against whom a rapid fire was now opened from the 92nd Highlanders, who still lined the ditch of the Namur road, close to Quatre Bras, a fire so destructive in its effects that the steel clad warriors were completely staggered, and the order of their advance so thoroughly shaken that they were compelled to retire in confusion. * * * * *