Then the Column again ascended the ridge, and advanced to attack the Battery; but on this occasion their pace scarcely exceeded a walk, or at most a gentle trot, too many obstacles lying in their way to admit of more rapid movement without confusion. Experience having shown the Gunners the destructive effects of a close fire, they allowed the leading Squadrons to attain about half the distance between the brow of the slope and the narrow road in their front before they commenced. The result, as may be readily imagined, was precisely similar to that of the former attack, which has already been detailed. Again the French horsemen fell into confusion, and again for several minutes were they exposed to a deliberate and an unerring fire of case shot, within a distance of not more than twenty yards, so that the pile of killed and wounded, left on the ground immediately in front of the Battery, before great, was now enormous. Other Batteries along this part of the position were equally successful in repelling the attacks of the Enemy's _Cuirassiers_, who were assembling in considerable numbers at the foot of the exterior slope, close to the Hougomont inclosures, apparently with the object of cutting off the direct communication with that Post, and forcing the Right of the Allied Front Line. The moment seemed favourable for such a project. Several of the Allied guns had by this time become completely disabled; the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd British Guards, awfully reduced, had been driven into the hollow way in rear of the Orchards of Hougomont; the young Brunswick Infantry had suffered severe losses; and the supporting Cavalry had become greatly exhausted by its repeated charges.