Heres a good long extract from Maudit, once more from the disintegration of the French army and last squares of the 1er.
The growing confusion as darkness fell and the enemy approach to the squares are dramatically described by Maudit:
“Each of our sides were marked by hundreds of soldiers of all ranks and arms, searching everywhere for a point of support or of refuge. The interior of our two squares were already full of general officers and others whose own soldiers had perished or had not rallied. We soon faced the necessity of denying entry to all to prevent ourselves becoming the victims of our own compassion…
The drummers were ordered to beat the la grenadiere in order to offer the army a point on which to rally. But at this signal of friend and protector, our unfortunate comrades rushed from all sides from Planchenoit or from la Belle Alliance, almost all dropping from fatigue before our front rank. They were followed closely by innumerable English and Prussian squadrons that a great number could not reach us and were massacred just a few yards from our square!!...
One of our friends, today a retired captain in Nanterre, appeared before us. We hardly had the time to open a file and close it after him, when Major Combes ordered us to prepare to fire on a large column of English cavalry that, already at 150 paces, was ready to fall on us. ‘Those are French hussars, do not fire!’ shouted some grenadiers. The darkness prevented us from identifying who they were, but all doubt disappeared when we heard the cries of our unhappy artillerymen who were a hundred paces from one of the angles of our square when they were sabred without pity by these squadrons, inebriated by such a complete and unexpected victory.
Such a spectacle was all the more heart-rending for us because of the impossibility of taking a single step to support them, as we were ourselves fixed in our position during the whirlwind.
This 12-pounder battery of the Guard, that had fired at Bulow’s corps, vomiting death in its ranks and preventing it from manoeuvring on this point for more than two hours, was completely destroyed under our eyes. All the gunners died gloriously rather than abandon their guns and seek refuge in our square as was the English way.
‘No quarter! No quarter!’ Such was the cry of these savages; but many, at least, did not enjoy their success for long, for they broke themselves against our bayonets and their bodies were scattered on the approaches to our square. Stopped short by a well sustained fire, these squadrons soon swirled around us and, in less than ten minutes, were all brushed away from before us.
Like ours, this square [the 1st Battalion’s] was full of generals and officers of all ranks and arms. But more than these, it enclosed at this critical moment, the most precious relic of the imperial era, Napoleon himself!!! What a trophy for Lord Wellington!!... But it would not be easy to take him from us; we would all prefer to be dead, including the Emperor, than allow him to fall alive into the hands of the enemy!”
