Hi Bernard,

After reading about Marshal Ney’s disastrous and wasteful cavalry charges in Waterloo, you mentioned that Napoleon simply observed all this from his HQ. The French artillery and skirmishers didn’t support the attacks upon British squares until much later into this stage of the battle. Why didn’t Napoleon act much earlier? Is it because (depicted rightly or wrongly in the film of 1971) that he suffered from ill health and returned to command only to find Ney’s tragic folly in full swing? Too late to rectify as regards rock-paper-scissors tactics? As you mentioned in the book, between cavalry charges, French artillery began to take a bloody toll on the British squares (who dared not form line due to presence of such enemy cavalry). Had Napoleon and/or Ney underestimated discipline of the British infantry to stand firm under fire?

Robert Douglas