NAPOLEON FRANCIS CHARLES JOSEPH, DUKE OF REICHSTADT, ETC., ETC., SON
OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.]
The second division of the battle was the main attack on Wellington's
left by d'Erlon's corps. Between twelve and one a Prussian hussar was
captured with a message from Bluecher to Wellington announcing the
Prussian advance. At once the postscript was added to the second
despatch to Grouchy, already mentioned, and Napoleon made ready for
his great effort. Unable to sit his horse, he had dismounted, and,
seated at the table on which his map was spread, had been frequently
seen to nod and doze. Ney and d'Erlon, left to their own judgment, had
evolved a scheme of formation so complex that when tried, as it now
was, it proved unworkable. The confusion was veiled by a terrific,
continuous, and destructive artillery fire. After some delay, and a
readjustment involving preparations against the possible flank attack
of the Prussians, d'Erlon's corps advanced in four columns, under
Donzelot, Allix, Marcognet, and Durutte respectively. Opposed was
Picton's decimated corps, with Bylandt's Dutch-Belgian brigade, which
had been all along a target for the strongest French battery, one of
seventy-eight guns,[25] and was now to bear the first onset of the
French troops. Bylandt's men had stood firm under the awful artillery
fire, but their uniforms were like those of the French, and in a melee
this fact might draw upon them the fire of their own associates, as
later in the day at Hougomont it actually did, and they grew very
uneasy. Durutte, on the extreme right, seized Papelotte, but lost it
almost immediately. The conflict then focused about La Haye Sainte,
where the garden and orchard were seized by an overwhelming force. The
buildings had been inadequately fortified, but Major Baring, with his
garrison, displayed prodigies of valor, and held them.
[Footnote 25: Houssaye says eighty (1815, p. 338). See also
Ropes, p. 305.]