But the battalion was too canny to take the bait. Instead they jeered insults at the French. Some of the horsemen trotted away to find another square, hoping their discipline would be poorer. The great cavalry assault had reached stalemate. The cavalry, too proud to retreat, were unable to charge, and so they stood their horses just out of effective volley range and tried to bluff the infantry into firing. Hundreds of Frenchmen were dead or dying, yet thousands remained in the saddle, enough to keep alive the desperate hope of victory. Sometimes an officer managed to spur a group into a full-blooded charge and the muskets would spit their flames again, more horses would go down again, and then the stalemate resumed.
“Hold your fire! Hold it!” d’Alembord was suddenly shouting at the square’s rear face. “Open ranks!”
Three horsemen had spurred across the field and now took shelter among the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers. Sharpe, turning in his saddle, saw the Duke of Wellington nodding a curt greeting at Ford who frantically began polishing his lenses. Sharpe looked back to the front where the horsemen still stood threateningly, but did not charge. Two of the Lancers, frustrated and embittered by the stalemate, threw their lances like javelins, but the missiles fell harmlessly short of the front rank. The redcoats jeeringly invited the horsemen to come and get their toys back. 1 Another Lancer jabbed his lance point at a cannon’s blackened vent, and achieved nothing.
“Wasting their time.” The Duke’s voice sounded just behind Sharpe.
Sharpe turned to see that the Duke was talking to him. “Yes, sir.”
The Duke’s face betrayed neither hope for his army’s survival, nor despair for its defeat. He had lost most of his cavalry to a foolish charge, many of his allies had run away, and he was left with scarce half the men he had paraded at the day’s beginning, but he looked calm, even detached. He offered Sharpe the ghost of a smile; an acknowledgement of how many battlefields the two men had shared across the years. A more perceptive man than Sharpe might have read some message in the Duke’s seeking the companionship of a veteran soldier, but Sharpe merely felt his usual awkwardness when he was in the company of his old commanding officer. “So what do you make of the man?” the Duke asked.
“The man` was clearly the Emperor. “I’m disappointed,” Sharpe answered shortly.
The reply amused the Duke. “He might please you yet. He’s throwing bits and pieces at us to see what we’re made of, but doubtless he’ll put a real attack together sooner or later.” The Duke looked at the closest enemy horsemen, a mix of Cuirassiers, Hussars and Lancers. “Fine-looking devils, aren’t they?”
“They are, sir.”
The Duke suddenly astonished Sharpe by giving his great whoop of a laugh; `I was in another square over there and a major was telling his men to make faces at the rogues! “Pull faces,” he shouted!
Can you believe it? Pull faces! We shall have to add that order to the drillbook.” He laughed again, then shot a look at Sharpe. “Is Orange keeping you busy?”
“He’s dismissed me, sir.”
The Duke stared disapprovingly for a heartbeat, then gave another neighing laugh which made the nearest redcoats look round in astonishment at their Commander-in-Chief. “I always thought he was a fool to pick you. I told him you were an independent-minded rogue, but he wouldn’t listen. At his age they always think they know best.” The Duke looked back to the French horsemen who still showed no inclination to close on the square. “If those rascals don’t intend to charge, I might make a run for it.”
“Your Grace?” Sharpe could not.resist a question as the Duke turned his horse away. “The Prussians, sir?”
“Their cavalry picquets are in sight.” The Duke spoke very calmly, as though he had not been racked all day by fears of a Prussian betrayal. “I fear it will be some time before their infantry can close on us, but at least their picquets are in sight. We just need to hold fast.” The Duke raised his voice so that the whole square could hear his confidence. “We just have to hold fast now! I thank you for your hospitality, Ford!”