Notwithstanding their dreadfully exhausted and enfeebled state, and their knowledge that a body of fresh troops was advancing against them, a body, too, which they knew was almost invariably employed whenever some great and decisive blow was to be struck, they evinced not the slightest symptom of irresolution, but, on the contrary, were animated by the most inflexible courage. The sun had gone down, shrouded in heavy clouds, and rain having set in, the battlefield would speedily be enveloped in darkness; hence the Prussians felt that it required but a little more perseverance in their exertions to enable them to counterbalance their deficiency of numbers upon any point of their Line by a stern and resolute resistance, sufficient to secure for the entire of their Army the means of effecting a retreat, unattended by those disastrous consequences which a signal defeat in the light of day might have entailed upon them. The 21st Regiment of Infantry boldly advanced against the French Column, with a determination to check its further progress; but soon found itself charged in flank by Cavalry that had darted forward from the head of a Column which, by the glimmering of its armour, even amidst the twilight, proclaimed itself a formidable body of _Cuirassiers_. It was, in fact, MILHAUD's whole Corps of that description of force, which had effected its passage on the other side of the village. The 9th Regiment of Infantry fought its way through a mass of Cavalry, whilst Major WULFFEN, with two weak Squadrons of the 1st Westphalian Landwehr Cavalry, made a gallant charge against the French Infantry, which received it with a volley at a distance of twenty paces. The Prussian Infantry compelled to evacuate Ligny, effected its retreat in Squares, in perfect order, though surrounded by the Enemy, bravely repelling all further attacks, made in the repeated but vain attempts to scatter it in confusion.