About 4.3o P.M. Billow at last engaged. Lobau's men were grad ually overpowered and forced back into Plancenoit, the village was stormed, and the Prussian round shot reached the main road. To set his right flank free the emperor called further on his reserve, and sent Duhesme with the Young Guard to Lobau's support. Together, these troops drove Billow out of Plancenoit, and forced him back towards the Paris wood. But the Prussians had not yet changed the fate of the day.
Napoleon now ordered Ney to carry La Haye Sainte at whatever cost, and this the marshal accomplished with the wrecks of D'Erlon's corps soon after 6 P.M. The garrison (King's German Legion) had run out of rifle ammunition and the French bursting in seized the post. This was the first decided advantage that Napoleon had gained during the day. The key of the duke's position was now in Napoleon's hands, Wellington's centre was dangerously shaken, the troops were exhausted, and the reserves inadequate. But the Iron Duke faced the situation unmoved. Calmly he readjusted his line and strengthened the torn centre. Happily for him, Pirch I. and Zieten's corps were now at hand. Pirch I. moved to support Billow; together they regained possession of Plancenoit, and once more the Charleroi road was swept by Prussian round shot. Napoleon, therefore, had to free his right flank before he could make use of Ney's capture. To this end he sent two battalions of the Old Guard to storm Plancenoit. The veterans did the work magnificently with the bayonet, ousted the Prussians from the place, and drove them back 600 yards beyond it. But Napoleon could not turn now on Wellington. Zieten was fast coming up on the duke's left, and the crisis was past. Zieten's advent permitted the two fresh cavalry brigades of Vivian and Vandeleur on the duke's extreme left to be moved and posted behind the depleted centre. The value of this reinforcement at this particular moment can hardly be overestimated.
The French now fiercely attacked Wellington all along the line; and the culminating point of this was reached when Napoleon sent forward the Guard, less 5 battalions, to attack Wellington's centre. Delivered in three echelons, these final attacks were repulsed, the first echelon by Colin Halkett's British Brigade, a Dutch-Belgian battery, and a brigade of Chasse's Dutch-Belgian division; the second and third echelons by the Guards, the 52nd, and the Royal Artillery. Thus ended the fifth phase.
As the Guard recoiled (about 8 P.M.) Zieten pierced the north-east corner of the French front, and their whole line gave way as the allies rushed forward on their now defenceless prey. Three battalions of the Guard indeed stood their ground for some time, but they were finally overwhelmed. After wards, amidst the ruins of their army, two battalions of the 1st Grenadiers of the Guard defied all efforts to break them. But, with the exception of these two battalions, the French army was quickly transformed into a flying rabble. Billow and Pirch I. now
finally overpowered Lobau, once more recaptured Plancenoit, and sealed the doom of the French army. But Lobau's heroic efforts had not been in vain ; they had given his master time to make his last effort against Wellington ; and when the Guard was beaten back the French troops holding Plancenoit kept free the Charleroi road, and prevented the Prussians from seizing Napoleon's line of retreat.
When Wellington and Bllicher met about 9.15 P.M. at "La Belle Alliance," the victorious chiefs arranged that the Prussians should take up the pursuit, and they faithfully carried out the agreement. Pushing on through the night, they drove the French out of seven successive • bivouacs and at length drove them over the Sambre. The campaign was virtually at an end, and the price paid was great. The French had lost over 40,000 men and almost all their artillery on June 18 ; the Prussians lost 7,000, and Welling ton over 15,00o men. So desperate was the fighting that some 45,00o killed and wounded lay on an area of roughly 3 sq.m. At one point on the plateau "the 27th (Inniskillings) were lying literally dead in square"; and the position that the British infantry held was pininly marked by the red line of dead and wounded they left behind them.
A few words may now be bestowed on Marshal Grouchy, commanding the right wing. The marshal wrongly determined on the i8th to continue his march to Wavre in a single column, and he determined, still more wrongly, to move by the right bank of the Dyle. Breaking up from bivouac long after dawn, he marched forward, via Walhain. Here he stopped to report to the emperor some intelligence which turned out to be false, and he remained for breakfast. Hardly had he finished when the opening roar of the cannonade at Water loo was heard. Grouchy was now urged by his generals, especially by Gerard, to march to the sound of the firing, but he refused to take their advice, and pushed on to Wavre, where he found the Prussians (Thielemann's corps of 16,000 men) holding the pass ages across the Dyle. A fierce fight (called the Action of Wavre) began about 4 P.M., in which the Prussians were for long vic torious. Instead of concentrating his force upon one bridge over the swampy and unfordable Dyle, Grouchy scattered it in attacks upon several; and when the emperor's despatch arrived, saying Billow was in sight, the marshal was powerless to move westward. Towards the end of the day Colonel Vallin's Hussars stormed the Limale bridge, and a large part of Grouchy's force then promptly gained the left bank. The action continued till about I I P.M., when it died out, to recommence shortly after dawn. Thielemann was at length overborne by sheer weight of numbers, and towards II A.M. he was forced to retire towards Louvain. The losses were considerable, about 2,40o men on each side.