two in the afternoon before
To end this most distressing scene I had in some instances to use a roughness which it still afflicts me to remember . Yet in actual time it was soon overhand dawn scarcely breaking when the Morays with the other regiments of Pack 's brigade filed out of the park and fell into stride on the road which leads southward to Charleroi . In this record it would be immaterial to describe either our march or the since-famous engagement which terminated it . Very early we began to hear the sound of heavy guns far ahead and to make guesses at their distance ; but it was close upon two in the afternoon before we reached the high ground above Quatre Bras , and saw the battle spread below us like a picture . The Prince of Orange had been fighting his ground stubbornly since seven in the morning . Ney 's superior artillery and far superior cavalry had forced him back , it is true ; but he still covered the cross-roads which were the key of his defence , and his position remained sound , though it was fast becoming critical . Just as we arrived , the French , who had already mastered the farm of Piermont , on the left of the Charleroi road , began to push their skirmishers into a thicket below it and commanding the road running east to Namur .