hilating him; and requested to know what he should do to elude its destructive fire, "Carry it!" was the reply-and he turned his back on the Aide-de-Camp.

A wounded English officer, was brought before him. He made some inquiries of him, and amongst others: "What was the strength of their army?" The officer replied, Very considerable, and had just been reinforced by 60,000 Prussians-" So much the better," he answered; "the more there are, the longer we shall fight." He sent off several expresses towards France, and repeatedly exclaimed, in a tone of distraction, to his Secretary, "Above all, fail not to say the victory is mine!"

At this juncture, and at the moment when all his attempts proved abortive, it was announced to him, that powerful bodies of Prussians were opening on our right flank, and threatening our rear: but. he treated the news as an idle tale, and then answered, that they had kept a bad look-out, for those pretended Prussians were nothing but Grouchy's corps. Several of the Aides-de-camp who came to report this news he even abused, and dismissed them with ill-humour." Be off!" said he, "you are frightened; ride up to the columns that are deploying, and you will find they are Grouchy's."

After so peremptory an answer, many of them, ashamed to have been mistaken, advanced heedlessly towards the Prussian jagers, and, notwithstanding the lively fire directed against them, got near enough to be either killed or taken. He was, however, obliged to yield to evidence, when these columns commenced a serious attack on our right wing. A part of the 6th division was sent to sustain this new shock, till those of Marshal Grouchy, on whom the greatest dependance was placed, should arrive; and it was even announced through the army that they were absolutely in line.

It appears from the reports, that a part of Marshal Blucher's army, which from the 16th concentrated itself in the environs of Wavres, had eluded the vigilance of Marshal Grouchy, and being joined by the 4th Prussian corps, under General Bulow, had rapidly joined the English line, to co-operate with Lord Wellington.

Marshal Grouchy had, in reality, briskly pursued the Prussians during their retreat to Wavre, and attacked in that place the

portion of the Enemy which remained there. He was, therefore, engaged at the same moment we were, against a small division, which he mistook for the whole of the Prussian army, and over which he continued to obtain signal advantages: but, favoured as they were by the difficulties of a hilly country, intersected with woods and ravines, these corps made a sufficiently obstinate resistance, if not to stop his march, at least to impede it very considerably. Thus they succeeded in holding him in play at a distance from the principal seat of action.

He could not, therefore, be of any assistance to us; and hence it was that the English received a considerable reinforcement, whose concerted intervention put them in a situation no longer to fear our most vigorous attacks; but, on the other hand, to resume the offensive, and presently to overpower us. Confidence was restored amongst them, and, calculating their manoeuvres by the favourable circumstances that occurred, they resisted our efforts with all their force, and with an ardor that seemed to redouble itself.

It is evident that this operation had been preconcerted by the two Generals in Chief, and that the English defended their positions with such invincible tenacity, only to give the Prussians time to effect that combined movement, on which the success of the battle depended, and the signal of which was waited for from one moment to the other.

Buonaparté, whose resolutions nothing could change, thought the moment was arrived to determine the day: he formed a fourth column of attack, almost entirely composed of his Guard, and led on the charge upon Mount St. John, after directing his orders on every point to second this movement, on which fate seemed to hang. Those old warriors entered the plain with their accustomed intrepidity, and courage was restored through the whole line. The Guard made several charges, but was constantly repulsed, crushed by a terrible artillery that each minute seemed to multiply. These invincible grenadiers beheld the grape-shot make day through their ranks; they closed promptly and coolly their shattered files; nothing intimidates them; nothing stops them but death or mortal wound; but the hour of defeat had sounded! Enormous masses of British infantry, supported by an immense cavalry we had nothing to oppose to (for our own had already met its destruction,) descend in fury, sur

"The Guard never

No more

round, and cry out to them to surrender.
surrenders: if called on, it dies!" was the reply.
quarter is given, almost the whole fall fighting in desperation.

This tremendous massacre continues as long as their resistance. At length, the fragment that remained, quit their ranks, and rush in utter confusion towards their first positions, doubtless in hopes to rally there.

Meanwhile the Prussians arrived on our right, advance, and charge what troops remain on that point. The cannonade, and a brisk fire of musketry, were heard in the rear of that line, as it approached, louder and louder. Our troops endeavoured to maintain the combat, but gradually lost ground. At last, our right wing, evidently fell back, and the Prussians, who out flanked it, were on the point of opening on the road, when the report ran that the Guard was repulsed, and when its scattered and maimed battalions were seen to rush back in confusion; an universal panic seized the army, which disbanded itself on every point, and sought safety in instant flight. In vain Buonaparté, for a last effort, collected some battalions of the old and young Guard, which had been least engaged, and led them on. All in vain! Intimidated by the scene, and pulverized by the cannon, this feeble reserve was presently overthrown.

The army then spontaneously, and all at the same time, left its posts, and spread like a torrent in all directions. The cannoneers abandon their guns. The waggon-train cut their traces; infantry, cavalry, all arms mingled in utter confusion, fly along the road and through the fields. Equipages of all sorts that had been arranged in park along the highway, and withdrawn in disorder, choak the road, and render it impassable.

However, the cry of " Sauve qui peut," was no where heard; and this general rout was the consequence of a spontaneous movement, whose causes remain to this moment unknown, or for which it would be very difficult to assign any other than the knowledge the soldiery had acquired of the perils of our situation; for the French soldier is never, like those of almost all other nations, wholly passive. He observes, he reasons, and never under any circumstances places in his chiefs so blind a confidence as may prevent him from submitting their operations to his own judgment.

No order nor route had been given. The Commanders, swept

along by the flying torrent, were separated from their corps; not a single file of men to rally to; no arrangements dreamt of, for an orderly retreat. The Guard, heretofore Invincibles, fled foremost of the multitude. Night came on, and added to the confusion.

The Enemy detached a numerous cavalry in pursuit of the fugitives. A part of them took possession of the whole hospitaltrain on the road, while formidable columns advanced on each flank. All the household carriages of Buonaparté fell first to the Prussians, with mountains of other baggage. All the cannons were taken in the batteries where they had served, along with the caissoons and trains. In a word, the whole matériel of our army disappeared in less than one half hour.

The English and Prussian Commanders, having completely effected their junction, met at the farm of La Belle Alliance. The British cavalry being greatly fatigued, that of the Prussians was sent forward, and did not give us a moment's repose.

Arrived at Genappe, they barricaded the entrance, and threw up all possible obstacles, in hopes to pass there the night. Presently a few shots fired by the Prussian cavalry, who were by this time close at their heels, spread the alarm; the bivouac is raised, and all in a flight again more confused than before.

No one knew what was become of Buonaparté, who had disappeared. According to some he had perished in the strife; and this account being brought to a well-known general officer, he exclaimed, as Megret did after the death of Charles XII., at Frederickstadt, "Voilà la pièce finie." Others reported he had been unhorsed and made prisoner. The same incertitude prevailed respecting the fate of Marshal Ney, of the Major-general, and of the principal number of the general Staff.

The former, who was Commandant-in-chief of the 1st and 2d corps, had directed in person the different attacks made on the centre, and was constantly seen in the thickest of the action. It appears that until the moment there was a certainty of its not being Grouchy's division which approached from the right, but a body of Prussian troops, he had considered that affairs were in a good way, and conceived the liveliest hopes of a fortunate issue; but when he saw Buonaparté maintain against demonstration, that Grouchy was forming into line, and ostentatiously circulate this falsehood through the ranks, he supposed it was his pur

pose to deceive the whole army in order to inspire it with a fatal confidence.

From that time his opinion changed, and he no longer acted with the same coolness and self-collection; but it must be avowed that not one reproach was made against him by the army on his change of conduct, and his bravery was never suspected; he merely partook the general anxiety and discouragement. It was indeed obvious that from the opening of the campaign he appeared profoundly dissatisfied, but dissimulated his feelings in presence of the public. There subsisted between him and Buonaparté a certain misunderstanding, and a kind of reciprocal distrust, very difficult to fathom, but not the less evident. There is every reason to believe too, that he entertained a jealousy of Marshal Grouchy, which Buonaparté himself seemed manifestly to adopt. Such dissentions between the principal chiefs, must necessarily have cramped the course of their operations, and disturbed the unity of their plans.

A great number of persons affirmed they had seen Buonaparté in the midst of the crowd, and perfectly distinguished him by his short grey cloak and dappled horse.

This last story was the true one. When the last battalions of the Guard were overthrown, Buonaparté was hurried away with them, surrounded on all sides by the Enemy, into a cyder orchard, belonging to the farm of La Belle Alliance. There he was met by two cavaliers of the Guard, who conducted him cautiously through the Prussian parties that were scouring the country, but who, fortunately for him, were all employed in stopping and plundering the equipages. He was known and recognized in many places, and often heard the whisper run: "The Emperor!-the Emperor!"-words of alarm which caused his instant removal from the spot wherever heard.

After a flight harassed by the Enemy through the whole night, the sad relics of our army reached at the point of day, part of them Charleroi, and the rest Marchienne, where they hastened to repass the Sambre. The remaining equipages, meanwhile, impeded by their gradual accumulation on the ro roads which lead to the bridges of Charleroi and Marchienne, were overtaken by the Prussians, abandoned by their train and drivers, and thus the last cannon and military carriage fell into the power of the Enemy, who made at the same time a great number of prisoners.