Greeks of old, the men took up their ground, thinking only of standing by each other, and doing their duty; and hardly any sound was heard from the vast array but the rolling of the guns and occasional word of command from the officers. Napoleon had been afraid that the English would retreat during the night, and expressed the utmost joy when their squares appeared in steady array next morning, evidently with the design of giving battle. He anticipated the speedy overthrow of the English oligarchy, and resurrection of France, more great and powerful

* "Thus, by their leaders' care, each martial band

Moves into ranks, and stretches o'er the
land;

With shouts the Trojans, rushing from afar,
Proclaim their motions and provoke the

war:

So when inclement winters vex the plain With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain,

than ever. "I have them, these English!" said he. "They exceed us by a quarter of their forces: but, nevertheless, nine chances out of ten are in our favour.” “ 'Sire," replied Soult, "I know these English: they will die on the ground on which they stand before they lose it."

8. The British army on the ground amounted to sixty-seven thousand six hundred men,t of whom twelve thousand five hundred were cavalry; the French to eighty thousand:‡ but the superiority of the latter in artillery, and the quality of all the troops, § ex

To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, With noise and order, through the midway sky;

To Pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,

And all the war descends upon their wing.
But silent, breathing rage, resolved and
skilled,

By mutual aids, to fix a doubtful field,
Swift marched the Greeks."
POPE'S Homer, iii. 1-8.

Rank and file of the English army that fought at Waterloo, according to Siborne, exclusive of those detached at Hall :

Siborne makes the effective strength of the French at Waterloo as follows:

The comparative numbers of the two armies having been the subject of vehement dispute between the British and Continental writers, and being withal a matter upon which it is extremely difficult to arrive at a satisfactory result, it seems proper to observe that the statement in the text is founded on the following grounds :

I. The British force is accurately known from the morning state of the very day of the battle; it amounted on the field, after deducting the troops absent at Hall, to 67,655 men, and, including officers, &c., 69,686.-See Appendix F, Chap. XCIV.

II. The loss of the French official returns after the battle renders it impossible to arrive at the French force otherwise than by approximation. But, taking the data which they themselves have given, it is possible to arrive very near the truth:

1. Napoleon, in Book ix. Mém., gives the French force which crossed the
Sambre, as

Gourgaud states the loss at Ligny, p. 65, at 6,800

122,404 men and 350 guns.

At Quatre Bras, p. 1, at

4,140

10,940

Grouchy had with him (Fragm. Hist. 27), 31,370

42,310 men and 98 guns.

Total at Waterloo,

80,094

252

III. Napoleon stated in his account of the battle, within two days after it was fought: -"We estimated the force of the English army at 80,000; we supposed that the Prus

cept the British, King's German Legion, and Brunswickers, was still greater. Napoleon had two hundred and fifty guns, Wellington a hundred and fiftysix, of which half were English; and of the French array no less than fifteen thousand eight hundred were splendid horse. The allied army was drawn up in the following order :-The right, under Hill, extended behind Hougomont towards Braine la Leude; the chateau, garden, and wood of Hougomont were strongly occupied by General Byng's brigade of Guards, as was the farm of La Haye Sainte by a battalion of the King's German Legion; Picton's division, with Perponcher's Belgian division, Best's Hanoverian brigade, and Vivian's and Vandeleur's horse stood on the left of La Haye Sainte, along the line of the rugged hedge; Alten's, Cooke's, and Clinton's divisions were in the right wing, with Chassé's Belgians; the German and Hanoverian brigades of Ompteda and Kilmansegge being in the centre. The cavalry, except Vivian's and Vandeleur's brigades, were all in the second line: Ponsonby on the left, and Somerset, Dornberg, Arentschildt, and Grant, on the right of La Haye Sainte. The reserves consisted of Collaert's DutchBelgian cavalry division, the Brunswick corps under Olfermann, and Lambert's British brigade. The left was uncovered except by a deep ditch impassable for artillery, which, however, proved such an impediment, that no serious attack was made on that extremity. The artillery was arranged along the whole front of the position, and swept the gentle slope which descended from it to the low ground which separated the two armies, wholly unbroken by enclosures or impediments of any kind. Great pains had been taken to separate the Belgian troops from each other, and mingle them in detached bodies through the British

and Hanoverians; for their bad conduct at Quatre Bras had rendered it more than doubtful whether they could be prevented from joining the enemy. The French artillery was in like manner placed along the summit of their ridge, in a semi-circular form, directly fronting the British guns, at the distance of from a half to three-quarters of a mile; and their army was divided into the eleven columns already mentioned. D'Erlon, with the first corps, was on the French right of the chaussée of La Belle Alliance: Reille, with the second, on the left: Jerome's division being on the extreme left, in front of Hougomont. Lobau, with the sixth corps, except one division absent under Grouchy, was in the second line. The cavalry, both light and heavy, was behind the infantry: Milhaud on the right, Subervie and Domont in the centre; Kellerman on the left. The Guards were in the rear beside the great road. "Never," says Napoleon, "had the troops been animated with such spirit, or taken up their ground with such precision. The earth seemed proud of being trodden by such combatants."

9. The village clock of Nivelles was striking eleven when the first gun was fired from the French centre, immediately followed by a quick rattle of musketry from the left, as the weighty column commanded by Jerome, six thousand strong, approached the enclosures of Hougomont, which was defended by the light companies of both brigades of the Guards, under Colonel Macdonell and Lord Saltoun, and a Nassau battalion and Hanoverian rifle company in the wood and orchard. Byng's brigade of Guards was in support on the heights behind the buildings. The English light troops fought stoutly in the wood, and, slowly falling back, contested every tree, every bush, every sapling, until the fire became so

sian corps, which might be in line to the right, might be 15,000. The enemy's force, then, was upwards of 90,000 men-ours less numerous."-Bulletin of Waterloo; GOLDSMITH, vii. 301. When it is recollected that this is the language of a defeated general, fresh from the field of battle, it affords the strongest indication that his force was at the very least 80,000; and this acquires additional force from the circumstance, that his esti mate of the British force (S0,000) was including those detached at Hall (7000), who took no part in the action, not very far from correct. See a very able article on Waterloo, in Fraser's Magazine, Nov. 1841, p. 509.

site heights, which played over their heads as they advanced up the slope on the British side. Already the corps had moved to the front, when the Emperor perceived on his extreme right, in the direction of St Lambert, a dark mass in the openings of the wood. All glasses were immediately turned in that direction—“ I think," said Soult,

warm that almost every branch was cut through by numerous, some as many as twenty, shot. Thirty British guns opened their fire upon the wood; Napoleon immediately advanced Reille's and Kellerman's batteries to reply, and supported Jerome by Foy's division. Gradually, in spite of the utmost efforts of its defenders, the wood around the chateau was carried by the assail-"it is five or six thousand men, proants; but the garden and chateau, defended by a high brick wall, in which a double tier of loopholes had been struck out, presented an invincible resistance. Six companies of English Guards, under Colonel Woodford and Lord Saltoun, soon after regained the orchard, which they held for the rest of the day. Napoleon upon this or dered a battery of howitzers to play upon the building, which soon set it on fire; the flames burst forth with unquenchable fury, and the chateau was in part consumed. But the second and third Foot-Guards, under Colonel Woodford and Colonel Hepburn-who were all ultimately introduced into the post, their place in the rear being taken by the Brunswick infantry-with the light companies, under Colonel Macdonell and Lord Saltoun, still held the courtyard and remainder of the building with unconquerable resolution. The first of these brave officers, when a vehement onset had burst open the gate of the courtyard, and a party of the French, great part of whom were in the end slain or taken, had rushed in, actually, by a great exertion of personal strength, drove the survivors out, and closed it in the face of the French bayonets !

10. This assault, how vehement soever, was but a feint to conceal the real point of attack, which was in the left centre, and was intrusted to Marshal Ney, with d'Erlon's corps, nineteen thousand strong, who had not at all been yet engaged in the campaign. They were arranged in four massy columns, supported by the fire of eighty pieces of cannon, placed on the oppo

The Author counted twenty-two shotmarks in one tree, not six inches in diameter, at the south-east corner of the orchard, shortly after the battle.

bably part of Grouchy's army." Napoleon thought otherwise: he never doubted they were Prussians. Three thousand horse, consisting of Domont's and Subervie's light cavalry divisions, were detached to observe this corps, and an order was soon after despatched to Grouchy to hasten to the field of action. Meanwhile, the cannonade had grown extremely warm along the whole line; nearly four hundred guns on the two sides kept up an incessant fire; the tirailleurs along the front were warmly engaged; and in the midst of it, Ney received orders to direct his attack on the farm-house of La Haye Sainte, and the line on its left, in order to force back the British left, and interpose between it and the Prussians, who still remained stationary in the wood. It was now noon. Ney pushed forward his batteries to the most advanced heights, on his own side of the valley, and his troops in the four columns advanced to the attack. The divisions of Durutte, Alix, and Marcognet, forming part of d'Erlon's men, were on the right, and moved against the British left, stationed along the hedge of La Haye Sainte; Donzelot's division, which was very strong, formed the attacking column in the centre, and marched against the farm of the same name; and powerful bodies of cavalry advanced on the flank or rear of either column, to take advantage of any opening which might be effected.

11. Wellington no sooner perceived the formidable attack preparing against his left centre, than he drew up the fine brigade of horse, under Sir William Ponsonby, consisting of the 1st Royals, Scots Greys, and Inniskillens, close in the rear of Picton's division, and placed Vivian's and Vandeleur's light brigades of cavalry on the extreme British left.