Liébert's Division alone had up to now maintained its very strong position on the heights north of Casal. The amassing at Floing of a sufficient strength from the German Vth and XIth Corps could only be effected very gradually. After one o'clock, however, detachments began to climb the steep hill immediately in its front, while others went round to the south towards Gaulier and Casal, and yet others came down from Fleigneux. The complete intermixture of the troops prevented any unity of command; and a bloody contest was carried on for a long time with varying fortunes. The French Division, attacked on both flanks and also heavily shelled, at last had its power of resistance undermined; and the reserves of the VIIth Corps having already been called off to other parts of the battle-field, the French cavalry once more devotedly struck in to maintain the fight.
General Margueritte, with five regiments of light horse, and two of Lancers, charged to the rescue out of the Bois de Garenne. Almost at the outset he fell severely wounded, and General Galliffet took his place. The advance was over very treacherous ground, and even before the actual charge was delivered the cohesion of the ranks was broken by the heavy flanking fire of the Prussian batteries. Still, with thinned ranks but with unflinching resolution, the individual squadrons charged on the troops of the 43rd Infantry Brigade, partly lying in cover, partly standing out on the bare slope in swarms and groups; and also on the reinforcements hurrying from Fleigneux. The first line of the former was pierced at several points, and a band of these brave troopers dashed from Casal through the intervals between eight guns blazing into them with case-shot, but the companies beyond stopped their further progress. Cuirassiers issuing from Gaulier fell on the hostile rear, but encountering the Prussian Hussars in the Meuse valley, galloped off northward. Other detachments cut their way through the infantry as far as the narrow pass of St. Albert, where they were met by the battalions debouching therefrom. Others again entered Floing only to succumb to the 5th Jägers, who had to form front back to back. These attacks were repeated by the French again and again in the shape of detached fights, and the murderous turmoil lasted for half an hour with steadily diminishing fortune for the French. The volleys of the German infantry delivered steadily at a short range strewed the whole field with dead and wounded horsemen. Many fell into the quarries or down the steep declivities, a few may have escaped by swimming the Meuse; and scarcely more than half of these brave troops returned to the protection of the forest.