And forth marched the Old Guard...

The oracle echoed thundering vows, as salvo after salvo whizzed and flashed. They lit the aurora skies, as did some million candles set ablaze by a despondent heathen tide.
Molten metal ricocheting against steel, clinging onto mud and cleaving through flesh spewed all along the field, tiny personal graves for men and animal alike. To the dismay of the Britons that stood ground, on marched the old guard. Thrown into disarray with rest of the army having lost all quarter, on marched the imperial guard.
They had known no defeat; none of them fell defeated. Cause after cause the Little Corporal had them bent upon. Writhed and anguished beyond all human tolerance, as canisters thundered, with shrapnel wounds bleeding white with arson, on marched the invincible guard.
None had excruciated so great a pain on a troop so small. Distant history reflected the sundering horn calls of Hannibal's army as he crossed the Alps to face a mighty Roman foe, twice a thrice outnumbered. With smoke from collapsed shells disfiguring the slope and with bayonets locked and ribbons pinned, on marched Napoleon's guard.
Lined up as they took the first volley against a foe that spread thin along a single file, they fired on unison with no call to direct the fire. This was an army that bathed in the blood of not ordinary soldiers, but generals. As the first line reeled and fell, they marched ahead, save some who glimpsed Wellington stand up on his stirrup. On the cliff that perilously sloped downward, British heads popped up. Deceivingly Wellington had ordered a core to lie hidden behind the slope, spinning his final trap on the ever victorious guard.
Shot after shot ripped open a uniform, blurred vision, burnt a ribbon and pierced a heart that chivalrously held high France's true fighting spirit. All that was Napoleon, all that was left of the grand corporal, was now taking fire undaunted from a foe too numerous to counter. As the Prussians charged down, the surviving Guard turned back and on they marched towards Napoleon and to France.