Page 561 - les-miserables
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CHAPTER X
THE PLATEAU OF
MONT-SAINT-JEAN
The battery was unmasked at the same moment with the
ravine.
Sixty cannons and the thirteen squares darted lightning
point-blank on the cuirassiers. The intrepid General Delort
made the military salute to the English battery.
The whole of the flying artillery of the English had re-
entered the squares at a gallop. The cuirassiers had not had
even the time for a halt. The disaster of the hollow road
had decimated, but not discouraged them. They belonged
to that class of men who, when diminished in number, in-
crease in courage.
Wathier’s column alone had suffered in the disaster; De-
lort’s column, which Ney had deflected to the left, as though
he had a presentiment of an ambush, had arrived whole.
The cuirassiers hurled themselves on the English
squares.
At full speed, with bridles loose, swords in their teeth
pistols in fist,—such was the attack.
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