I tripped over him as he fell, and two others tumbling over me I was half smothered in the heap.

When at last I struggled out, and cleared my eyes, which were half full of powder, I saw that the column had fairly broken, and was shredding into groups of men, who were either running for their lives or were fighting back to back in a vain attempt to check the brigade, which was still sweeping onwards.

My face felt as if a red-hot iron had been laid across it; but I had the use of my limbs, so jumping over the litter of dead and mangled men, I scampered after my regiment, and fell in upon the right flank.
Old Major Elliott was there, limping along, for his horse had been shot, but none the worse in himself.

He saw me come up, and nodded, but it was too busy a time for words.

The brigade was still advancing, but the general rode in front of me with his chin upon his shoulder, looking back at the British position.
"There is no general advance," said he; "but I'm not going back." "The Duke of Wellington has won a great victory," cried the aide-de-camp, in a solemn voice; and then, his feelings getting the better of him, he added, "if the damned fool would only push on!"-- which set us all laughing in the flank company.
But now anyone could see that the French army was breaking up.
The columns and squadrons which had stood so squarely all day were now all ragged at the edges; and where there had been thick fringes of skirmishers in front, there were now a spray of stragglers in the rear.
The Guard thinned out in front of us as we pushed on, and we found twelve guns looking us in the face, but we were over them in a moment; and I saw our youngest subaltern, next to him who had been killed by the lancer, scribbling great 71's with a lump of chalk upon them, like the schoolboy that he was.