Young bloods

Fitzroy glanced round at the British line, two men deep. 'Sir? Shall we pull in the flank companies?'

'Why?'

'To firm up our centre, sir. The men will not be able to hold when that column attacks.'

'They won't have to,' Arthur replied calmly. 'It won't come to that. There are perhaps five or six thousand men out there. But not more than a hundred of them will be able to bring their muskets to bear on us, Fitzroy. In return, every one of the men in the brigade will be able to fire. And we can reload much faster than they. I doubt they'll even get close enough to use the bayonet.'

Captain Fitzroy looked at his friend in surprise. The colonel seemed utterly sure of himself, as if the conclusion of the coming fight was foregone. There had been a hint of arrogance in the man's tone that had gone beyond his usual aristocratic haughtiness and there was an icy touch to the back of the captain's neck as he sensed that he, his friend and most of the redcoats standing so still and silent might well be dead before the morning was over.

'Arthur…'

'Quiet! I think the enemy is about to make his move.'

A sharp cry rang out from the French column, and an instant later the drums boomed out from close behind the leading companies. An officer, his uniform trimmed with fabulously gaudy gold braid, drew his sword and swept it in an arc so that its point ended up in line with the heart of the British brigade.

Arthur had mounted his horse and with his staff officers around him and the colours raised behind him, fancied that the Frenchman's sword was pointing directly at him. He smiled, and muttered, 'Well, let them just try.'

At once the French column rippled forward, bayonets lowered below the grim faces of the men in the front rank. The pace was slow, as it had to be with the poor level of training that was a feature of most of the revolutionary army. Arthur was aware that what they lacked in training they made up for in spirit, and that was why they must be brought to a halt before they could charge home. At the same time, given the short supply of ammunition, every British volley had to count. That would mean holding fire to the last possible moment, in order to maximise the impact of the hail of British lead and ensure that every bullet had the best chance of finding its target. It would be a close-run thing, he decided. He drew a deep breath and cupped a hand to his mouth.

'On my order, brigade will prepare to fire! Front rank: make ready!'

All along the line the company commanders moved back behind their men and the dark barrels of the Brown Bess muskets swept forward and were trained on the head of the advancing enemy column. At the sight the leading Frenchmen seemed to pause for an instant before the officer gave a shrill cry of encouragement and flourished his glinting blade at the redcoats once again. The column lurched forward again, no more than a hundred yards away now.

Arthur forced himself to sit still and regard the oncoming enemy with no hint of an expression on his face. Inside he felt his pulse pounding with excitement and terror. And yet for all the tension and danger, he was surprised to find that he was supremely content and happy. Right now, there was no place on this earth that he would rather be. An image of Kitty Pakenham flashed into his mind and there was some small satisfaction that if he died today, the pain of his loss might be a small revenge on her for refusing to marry him. He dismissed the thought at once.

'Cock your weapons!'

A chorus of clicks sounded along the line as the men thumbed back the musket firing hammers; the sound almost drowned out by the crashing roll of the French drums beating out the pas de charge. They were only eighty yards away now and Arthur could see the taut expressions on the faces of the leading men. Even as he watched, one of them raised his musket and fired at once. A flash, a puff of smoke and a whipping sound as the ball passed some distance above Arthur's head. Beside him, Fitzroy flinched.

'Give the order, Arthur.'

'Not yet.'

The column tramped forwards, and now the redcoats could see the endless mass of blue uniforms stretching out behind until the enemy ranks were swallowed up by the mist. Arthur was thankful that the rest of them were hidden from his men's view. More shots were fired from the head of the column and the first casualty of the engagement gave a sharp cry and toppled back a short distance from Arthur.

'Steady lads!' he called out as calmly as possible. 'Hold your fire.'

When the enemy had closed another ten yards Fitzroy could no longer contain himself.

'For pity's sake, Arthur! Give the order.'

'Quiet, damn you!' he hissed back. 'Control yourself, man!'

He waited a moment longer, then raised his arm stiffly. 'Ready!'

The cry echoed along the line. There was a brief moment of silence as even the French braced themselves for the first volley.

'Fire!'

In little more than a second, hundreds of firing hammers slammed down on to their firing pans and ignited the charges in the long musket barrels. Orange flashes spat out from the muzzles and a swirling white blanket engulfed the space immediately in front of the British line. From his vantage point atop his horse, Arthur stood in his stirrups and saw the front ranks of the French column disintegrate as men were struck down in a broad swathe, and those behind stopped dead. By some miracle the heavily braided officer survived the volley, but his cockaded hat was snatched off his head and carried back ten paces before it struck the ground. For a moment he was too stu

No time had been wasted on the British side and as soon as the first volley was discharged the men in the front rank began to reload their muskets. They snatched out a paper cartridge, biting the end off and saving a fraction of the powder for the firing pan before the rest went down the barrel, and was rammed home. Then the ball was inserted and packed down on top.The veterans were quickest and held their arms ready in less than twenty seconds.

'Rear rank ready!' Arthur called out, and waited for the order to be repeated down the line. 'Fire!'

The second volley crashed out and once again stopped the French column dead, no more than twenty-five yards away – so close that Arthur could see every detail as a ball struck a man in the face; his head snapping back amid a red haze. Arthur instantly dismissed the image and bellowed out his next order.

'Fire by companies!'

The shattering impact of the first two massed volleys now gave way to rolling fire that rippled along the British line with almost no interval and the heavy musket balls progressively shredded the foremost ranks of the enemy column. Only a handful of shots were fired in return and Arthur was glad to see no more than a score of his men were down.

'Keep it up lads!' Fitzroy was yelling close by, his voice tight with excitement. 'Keep it up!'

Over the acrid cloud of burned gunpowder, Arthur saw that the road ahead of him was heaped with blue-uniformed bodies. And still the enemy officer survived, even though a ball had creased his scalp and a sheet of blood flowed down his face and spattered the white facings on his uniform. He was screaming at his men to charge home, but as each wave of men struggled to clamber over the growing tangle of French bodies, they in turn were struck down and added to the obstacle. More than a hundred men were already dead and dying, and still they came on, shouting with foolhardy courage as they threw themselves at the muzzles of the redcoats' muskets. Arthur could only wonder at the suicidal valour of the revolutionaries. They had to be mad, he told himself. Only madness could make men take such punishment. And still they came on. Still they died, dozens at a time.