Behind the first battalion men were hurriedly forming into two squares as the Russian cavalry formed line to counter-charge. As the helpless men of the first battalion scattered and ran for their lives, Bessières and his horsemen broke through the rush of fugitives and bore down on the nearest square. Meanwhile, the horse guns jingled across the slope in front of Vandamme’s men and began to deploy, their teams loading them with case shot and waiting for a clear target.The Russian infantry, closed up, presented a dense front of gleaming bayonets and no amount of urging could persuade any of the French mounts to throw themselves into the enemy square.Volleys flashed out from each side, unseating the passing cavalry and bringing down several horses, who pitched forward and rolled as their iron-shod hooves lashed out. Bessières quickly realised that his men were being cut down uselessly as they surged about the squares, and ordered the recall. Strident notes carried above the noise and the French cavalry drew off, trotting back up the slope to form on their standards.

There was a brief lull as the last of Bessières’s men hurried clear of the enemy squares, and the French gunners and the Russians stared at each other over ground strewn with dead and wounded men and horses.Then the captain in charge of the battery bellowed the order to fire and the six guns bucked in recoil as they spat lethal cones of lead balls into the closely packed enemy.The case shot ripped bloody holes through the Russian lines, which were quickly filled as the sergeants dressed their ranks. But no men, no matter how brave, could withstand such carnage for long and after several rounds from each of the guns, when hundreds of Russians lay heaped about the squares, those left began to waver, instinctively backing away from the French. This time there was nothing that the officers could do to rally their men and the formations broke as the Russians fled down the slope, straight towards their own cavalry.