Yet Ney, losing his head completely, led another cavalry charge! Again ran the gunners away from the batteries, and again the cavalry broke on the squares. In fact, the wounded and dead were piled so high in front of the squares that each had a hideous breastwork before it which made it almost impossible for the French to reach the English. Inasmuch as the Emperor had decided to support Ney in his cavalry charges, it seems strange that neither he nor Ney used the infantry. The 6,000 men of the Bachelu and Foy division were close by, watching the cavalry charges and eager to support them. As Ney was personally leading the cavalry, it is easy to understand how he came to forget everything else; but the Emperor’s failure to send in this infantry is not readily understood. Only after the fourth charge of the cavalry had been repulsed, did Ney call in the infantry. But he was too late; the English batteries tore this closely packed body of men to shreds, and in a few minutes 1,500 had fallen and the column was in retreat. It was now six o’clock. La Haye-Sainte was at length taken, with great loss of life on both sides. From this point of vantage Ney assailed the English lines. The sand pit was again abandoned by the enemy, and Ney used this and a mound near La Haye-Sainte to pour a destructive fire upon the center of Wellington’s line. The French infantry charged, drove the English, captured a flag, and there was now a gap in the very center of the English line. Wellington was in a critical condition, and had the Old Guard charged _then_, neither Blücher nor night might have come in time. Ney saw the opportunity and sent to the Emperor for a few infantry to complete the work. “Troops?” exclaimed Napoleon to the officer who brought Ney’s message. “Where do you expect me to get them? Do you expect me to make them?” At the same moment, one of Wellington’s lieutenants sent for reinforcements. “There are none,” he said. Suppose that at this moment Napoleon could have hurled on the English line the 16,000 men who were holding back the Prussians! Yet the fact is that the Emperor had in hand fourteen battalions which had not been engaged, and what amazes the civilian is that, after refusing to take advantage of the impression Ney had made upon the enemy’s line, Napoleon organized another general advance against Mont-Saint-Jean an hour later. * * * * *