Cavalry could not break a steady square. A horse will not throw itself onto a hedge of bayonets, and infantry formed in a hollow square — four faces, every man's musket pointing outward, the front rank kneeling with butts grounded and blades angled up at a horse's chest — presented nothing but points whichever way a rider turned. The discipline was everything: if the men held, the square was nearly invulnerable; if it wavered and a gap opened, the cavalry poured in and destroyed it in seconds. At Waterloo, Marshal Ney's squadrons charged the British squares for the better part of two hours on the afternoon of June 18, 1815, and broke not one of them.

The figure kneels in campaign dress — the blue-grey overall trousers with red side-piping, bearskin with red plume, full pack on his back — the musket-butt grounded and the bayonet angled up to take a horse in the chest. This is the front rank of a square. Stand a French Imperial Guard Standing Defending at his shoulder and a second Standing Defending behind to build the rear rank, then add another front-rank kneeler — a French Imperial Guard Kneeling Defending No.2 — to complete a face of the square bristling against cavalry.

W. Britain model 36201. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.