signiory belonging to the Prince of Isenghein. The recorded in the annals of history, is situate near the Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo, governor of the Netherlands, fortified it, and made it a city in 1666, changing its name to Charleroi, in honour of Charles II., king of Spain. In 1792, it again changed its name to Charles-sur-Sambre. It was given to France at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1668. In 1672, it was besieged by the Prince of Orange, who invested the place on the 13th of December, in order to draw the French from Holland; but the bravery of Comte de Montal, the governor, and a report of the King of France advancing in person with an army to succour the place, forced the prince to retire before he had opened the trenches. In 1677, the same prince invested it again with an army of sixty thousand men, but was soon compelled to retire. By the treaty of Nimeguen it was ceded to Spain; in 1693, it was taken by the French after the battle of Landen. In 1697 it was restored to Spain; by the peace of Utrecht it was ceded to the states-general; in the year 1716, it was given to the emperor by the barrier treaty, and, again in 1746, surrendered to France. It contains about four thousand inhabitants, and carries on a considerable trade in iron-works and founderies.

FLEURUS.

This village, remarkable in the campaign of Waterloo, is also celebrated for two other battles fought in its neighbourhood. The first on the 30th of August, 1622, between the troops of Spain, under Gonzales de Cordova, and some German troops under the Count of Mansfelt and the Duke of Brunswick: the latter were defeated with the loss of their cannon and baggage; the Duke of Saxe-Weimar was killed in the battle, and the Duke of Brunswick had his arm shot off; but they made good their retreat with four thousand cavalry, and three thousand infantry, and compelled the Marquis of Spinola to raise the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. The second battle was fought on the 1st of July, 1690, between the allies under the command of the Prince of Waldeck, and the French under the Duke of Luxembourg; in which the former were defeated with the loss of five thousand killed and four thousand prisoners, besides forty-nine pieces of cannon, eight pair of kettledrums, and ninety-two standards and colours. The French, however, suffered so severely in this engagement, that, notwithstanding their victory, they were unable to undertake any thing during the remainder of the campaign.

WATERLOO.

This village, which has been rendered for ever memorable, by its connexion with the most eventful battle

extremity of the forest of Soignies, in the direct road from Brussels, and ten miles and a quarter distant from that city. The village is of considerable extent; and the church, in particular, is an interesting object to strangers, not only from the neatness of the edifice, and the interesting view which it exhibits on approaching the place from the forest; but as it contains the ashes of many departed heroes; to whose memory several monuments have been erected by their brother-officers. In a house near the church, the gallant Earl of Uxbridge suffered the amputation of his leg, which is buried in the garden. The owner of the house considers it as a sacred relie which has fallen to his share, and kindly permits strangers to view the place where it is deposited. He had, at first, buried it behind the house, but as he wished to plant a tree upon the spot, he considered that, as the ground there was not his own, the tree might be injured, or destroyed by boys: he therefore removed the leg into his own garden, where it lies in a sort of coffin, beneath a mound of earth, about four feet in diameter. When our poetlaureate visited Waterloo, a tuft of Michaelmas daisies was in blossom upon this mound: this, however, was only a temporary ornament, which was shortly to give place to a weeping-willow. The owner of the house gave Mr. Southey a copy of an epitaph which he had prepared, and which he said was then in the stone-cutter's hands. The epitaph was in the French language, to the following effect:

"Here is interred the leg of the illustrious, brave, and valiant Lord Uxbridge, Lieutenant-general, and Commander-in-chief of the English, Belgic, and Dutch cavalry, in the memorable battle of Waterloo, on the 18th of June, 1815; who, by his heroism, contributed to the triumph of the cause of mankind, so gloriously decided by the brilliant victory of that day."

Opposite the church are two inns; at one of which Lord Wellington slept after the battle, and which he made his head-quarters. From this place Major Percy was sent off, after the close of the engagement, with the important despatches to England,

MONT ST. JEAN.

This village is about two miles from Waterloo, in the rear of the field of battle, and has nothing, in its general appearance, calculated to attract the attention of strangers. At the end of the village, the road is divided into two branches; that on the left leading to Gemappe, while that on the right conducts to Nivelles.

The farm-house of Mont St. Jean is a neat building, about half a mile in advance of the village, on the road to the farm of La Haye Sainte; and, as it was in

the rear of the British position, it has not sustained possession of the place. Had they succeeded in making any material injury. It was on this side the road, in themselves masters of the chateau, the whole of the advance of the farm-house, that Lord Wellington threw British lines would have been open to their fire. Both himself into the hollow square; and, on the same side parties were aware of this circumstance, and, therefore, of the road, not far from the Duke of Wellington's cri- the most unprecedented exertions were made on each tical position, General Picton fell, to rise no more. side.

"The Duke has done all this-it was the severest | It is believed that Jerome Buonaparte is killed. How and most bloody action ever fought, and the conduct truly fortunate I have been in having escaped this day! of the British infantry has even surpassed its former I had my horse killed, and several shot through my fame. The contest began about eleven o'clock, and clothes." lasted till nearly the same hour at night, when the British troops were halted, and the Prussians, who had come up, were sent forward in pursuit, and Marshal Blucher has followed them to the Sambre. Our headquarters will be to-day at Nivelles. This victory has saved Europe: it was frequently very doubtful; but the Duke, by his extraordinary perseverance and example, gained the day.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER, FROM A GERMAN PAPER. Brussels, July 19, 1815. "I have visited the field of battle. The sleep of the dead is sound. On the spot where this day month thousands thronged and fought, where thousands sank and bled, and groaned and died, there is now not a living soul, and over all hovers the stillness of the grave.

"We have already taken upwards of one hundred pieces of cannon, and immense numbers of ammunition-waggons; and Blucher has just sent in word that "In Ligny, two thousand were buried. Here fought his road is actually choaked up with the artillery, bag- the Westphalian and Berg regiments. Ligny is a, vilgage, &c. which we have taken. The rout of the lage built of stone, and thatched with straw, on a small French has been complete, and there are several thou-stream which flows through flat meadows. In the vilsand prisoners and many generals killed and taken of the enemy. Some runaways from the early skirmishes spread, I fear, some alarm at Brussels; but, thank God, not one man of the British infantry was found in the rear! Our cavalry made several most brilliant charges, and the Household brigade have particularly distinguished themselves. Lord Uxbridge's conduct throughout the day was most animating, and he unfortunately received his wound nearly at the conclusion, when the enemy were in full retreat.

"No language can do justice to the extraordinary merit and talent which the duke displayed during the whole of the action. Our infantry were mostly formed in squares, and the enemy's cavalry were five or six, or even ten, times during the day upon our ground and round our squares, but one of which they never penetrated. I never have seen or heard of a field of battle so covered with dead and wounded. The duke was all day every where in the thickest of it, and his place of refuge was in one of the squares when the enemy's cavalry charged. At six in the evening, the duke ordered the attack. We had, till then, been on the defensive, and, in less than half an hour, we routed the first line, and threw them on their second, and then the rout was general, The Guards (Adam's, Pack's, and Kempt's, brigades,) and the old German Legion, behaved nobly. The duke, I pray to God, may be spared to us, as, without him, we can do nothing.

"Our loss since the 16th must have exceeded five thousand. I have never seen so many British killed and wounded. The fire of artillery and musketry was terrible. The duke intends moving immediately, to enter France. The French officers say that Buonaparte put himself at the head of the Imperial guards during the last charge, and charged'with them up the hill.

lage are several farm-houses, enclosed with walls and gates. Every farm-house the Prussians had converted into a fortress. The French endeavoured to penetrate through the village by means of superior numbers. Four times they were driven out. At last they set on fire the farm-houses in the upper end of the village with their howitzers. But the Prussians still kept their ground at the lower end. A whole company of Westphalian troops fell in the court-yard at the church; on the terrace, before the church, lay fifty dead.

"In the evening the French surrounded the village. The Prussians retired half a league: the position was lost; and it is incomprehensible why the French did not follow up the advantage they had obtained, and again attack the Prussians in the night. This was on the 16th. The same day a French column marched by the high road of Charleroi to Brussels.

"At Quatre Bras they found the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Orange. Here the battle was as hot as at Ligny. The duke suffered himself to be carried away by his ardour into the fire of small-arms; a musket-ball went through his bridle-hand, and entered the belly; the liver was penetrated; he fell, and breathed his last in ten minutes. His sufferings were short.

"At the inn by the cross-roads at Quatre Bras, the contest was the hottest. Here are the most graves. The wounded reeled into the inn-yard, leaned against the walls, and then sank down. There are still the traces of the blood on the walls, as it spouted forth from the wounds with departing life. Where the battle was, the fields are completely trodden down for a circuit of about a league. On both sides of the high road, ways are made about one hundred feet broad, and you can still follow the march of the battalions in all directions through the fine fields of maize

of battle, but witnessed, on an opposite height, the combat between Bulow and the French reserve, and could give a very good description of it. He carried me to the key of the position opposite Fritschermont. He told me that the peasant who guided Bulow's army, resolved not to come out of the wood at Fritschermont, but to descend into the valley lower down, and to penetrate by Planchenoir, nearly in the rear of the French reserves. Then,' said he, we shall take them all.' The period was truly most critical when the Prussians came to the attack. Wellington was hard pressed, all his reserves were in action, and he was already com

"On the 18th, the battle was renewed four leagues nearer Brussels, on both sides of the high road. The spot is a plain sprinkled with hillocks. The diameter of the field of battle may be about a league and a half. Buonaparte placed himself near the farm-house of Mont St. Jean, on a rising ground, whence he could overlook the whole. Beside him was one La Coste, a Walloon, who now lives near the hamlet of La Belle Alliance, and who was employed as a guide. This man told me as follows:-When the Prussians came out of the wood of Fritschermont, Buonaparte observed them with his glass, and asked one of his adjutants who they were; the latter, upon looking through his glass, re-pelled to withdraw some of his artillery. Buonaparte plied, They are the Prussian colours.' That moment his face assumed a chalky whiteness, as if the ghost of the sainted queen of Prussia had appeared to him, whom he persecuted to death. He said nothing, but merely once shook his head. When he saw that the battle was lost, he rode off with his general staff and the above guide. He had told La Coste that he wished to be conducted by a bye-road to Charleroi.

"Gemappe is an open market-town, a league and a half from the field of battle, through which runs the Dyle, a small stream. At the lower end of Gemappe lies an iron forge, which it drives. A quarter of a mile lower lies the village of Ways, at which there is a bridge. An officer had arrived at Gemappe about five in the afternoon with orders to withdraw the baggage. He had already considered the battle as lost, because the reserves had been brought into the fire. When the flight became almost universal, the military waggons were driven sixteen a-breast on the causeway. In the narrow of Gemappe they were wedged in together, and La Coste relates that it took an hour and a half to get through them. It was half-past twelve at night before they got out of the town, with one hundred and fifty horses of the staff. I asked him why he did not take Buonaparte by the bridge of Ways, where nobody passed; he replied, 'I was not aware of this road.'

"Thus with all the maps of the war-depot, with all the engineer-geographers, who with repeating circles can set off the geographical position of places even to a second, and with a large staff, Buonaparte here depended on the ignorance of a peasant, who did not know that there was a bridge over the Dyle at Ways. People talk a great deal of military skill and military science, while often in decisive moments the whole depends upon the knowledge of a very common man.

"In the village of Planchenoir, the fourth of a league from La Belle Alliance, the guards were posted. The principal house in the village is nearly burnt down. It is inhabited by a very intelligent farmer of the name of Bernhard. He, like all others, had fled on the day

was probably only waiting for the moment when, with his guards, he could decide the day. We shudder when we reflect, that at this important moment all depended on the local knowledge of a single peasant. Had he guided wrong, had he led them into the hollow way through which the cannon could not pass-had Bulow's army come up an hour later, the scale had probably descended on the other side. Had Buonaparte been victorious, and advanced to the Rhine, the French nation would have been intoxicated with victory, and with what they call the national glory; and a levy en masse would have been effected throughout all France."

EXTRACT OF A LETTER DATED OSTEND, AUGUST 15. "The barges take you from hence to Ghent for about ten shillings; the diligence, from thence to Brussels, seven shillings and sixpence; a fiacre for the day, to Waterloo and back, twenty shillings. Opposite the inn, at a cottage where the Earl of Uxbridge was carried, you are shewn a neat garden; and in the centre of four paths, a little hillock with a flower planted thereon shews the sepulture of his lordship's leg. In an inclosure, further behind this cottage, are interred several English officers; one only, Colonel Fitzgerald, of the Life-Guards, has a stone with an inscription over him: many have been taken up and transmitted to England: you then proceed to Waterloo, the residence of Jean Baptiste La Coste, from whom I obtained the following particulars:

"About five in the morning, he was taken prisoner, to serve as guide, and conducted with his hands tied behind him (that he might not escape as a former man had done) to another house belonging to him, opposite to which Buonaparte had slept. Observing the French soldiers plundering and destroying this house, he wept. Buonaparte asked what he cried for? Because your soldiers are destroying all my property, and my family have no where to put their head.' Buonaparte said, Do you not know that I am emperor, and can recom

6

means now so horrid an appearance as I have seen in some places in Spain after an action.

"An officer who accompanied me in this inspection said, that, about an hour before the termination of the battle, an aid-de-camp came to the Duke of Wellington, telling him that the fifth division was reduced from four thousand to four hundred, and that their keeping their post was wholly ineffectual, I cannot help it,' said the chief, they must keep the ground with myself to the last man. Would to God the night or Blucher would come!' Near an hour after, the fire was heard by the British in the rear of Buonaparte's right flank— We shall beat them yet,' cried he. The charge was sounded, the most dreadful havoc commenced, and a victory closed the 18th day of June, which established a British generalship and the British army as the first in Europe.

"On the left of all, the Brunswickers, in a firm

gade next. A brigade of Hanoverian Landwehr on their right, forming their square awkwardly, Colonel Cameron, of the ninety-second, who was killed after

pense you a hundred times as much?' He was placed on a horse immediately between Buonaparte and his first aid-de-camp, his saddle being tied to the saddle of a trooper behind him, that he might not escape. They proceeded a little beyond La Belle Alliance, and Buonaparte took the ground on a small eminence on the opposite side; a sort of body-guard of twelve pieces of artillery, very light, surrounding them. From this spot he could command both lines. He asked La Coste the particulars of every house, tree, wood, rising ground, &c.; with which he seemed well informed, holding a map in his left hand, and intent upon the action all the day, incessantly taking snuff from his waistcoat-pocket, in large pinches, of which he violently snuffed up about half, throwing the other half from him with a strong exertion of the arm and thumb and finger, as if from vexation; this was all the refreshment he took for fourteen hours; he frequently placed his left hand upon the neck of La Coste's horse, to speak to the aid-square, made a breastwork of carnage; the Scots bride-camp on the other side of him. Seeing La Coste frinch at the shower of shot, he replied, 'Do not stir, my friend, a shot will kill you equally in the back as the front, or wound you more disgracefully.' About half-wards, called to them to form as they did, which they past five, hearing the fire of the Prussians on the right of his rear flank, leaning his hand on the neck of La Coste's horse, and seeing the British cavalry, from their right and left flanks, making a tremendous charge that would have encircled his personal position, he retreated, with all his staff, about forty yards along the road; and within about twenty yards of the house, La Belle Alliance, he halted, and, putting the glass to his eye, saw the British cavalry intermingled, pele mele, and furiously cutting the French troops in pieces. He and all the cavalry then commenced a gallop till they got about three leagues beyond Charleroi, where they halted, and pitched a tent upon a grass-plat, about nine at night. A fire was kindled, and refreshment placed upon a chair, which Buonaparte took, the first for fourteen hours, standing with his back to the fire, with his hands generally behind him, conversing with a circle of nine persons, whose horses La Coste had been ordered to hold, till the party, about two in the morning, broke up, when each taking his horse, the servant of the last gave La Coste a Napoleon d'or, which he exchanged, after a fast of twenty-four hours, to refresh himself and family.

"La Coste is a very intelligent peasant, lives near the shattered house Belle Alliance, shews the place where the Prince of Waterloo and Blucher shook hands, and conducts visitors all over the ground, describing every particular. The observatory, he says, was erected before the action, and had nothing to do with it. The ground is mostly ploughed up, and there is by no

obeyed, and stood; the next, a Dutch brigade, by not forming alertly, were cut to pieces.

"The French cavalry, in proof armour, repeatedly charged our squares, their cannon opening chasms; but the British infantry, though greatly diminished, were inflexible and impenetrable to the last. At Salamanca, our heavy cavalry, with no armour, charged their squares, and totally routed them with most horrid carnage, for having, after they had called for and received quarter, on the cavalry retiring, taken up their pieces and fired on them.”

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM AN OFFICER OF THE
EIGHTEENTH HUSSARS.

"On the morning of the 18th, Major-general Vivian, who commanded the sixth cavalry brigade, consisting of the first Hanoverian Hussars, the tenth Royal, and the eighteenth Hussars, made us take a few hours repose in a little copse on the borders of the forest of Soignies, and close to a village forming the left of the British line, and in correspondence with General Bulow. At four o'clock in the morning, a Prussian officer arrived, who informed Major-general Vivian that he left Ohain at twelve o'clock, and came with the utmost speed to inform the Duke of Wellington, that Marshal Blucher had commenced his march, and that he hoped to be up by one o'clock in the afternoon (but the roads were so bad, that he did not open fire until four); and that General Bulow was marching from Ohain on our left, to operate agreeably to the promise made to Lord