Duke of Wellington had occupied this house, as also the garden and wood, with a part of Major-General Cooke's division of the Guards, and a regiment of the troops of Nassau: it was a post of the utmost importance; for while it was held, the enemy could not approach our right. Buonaparte also saw the importance of that position, and the necessity which there was for his getting possession of it: he sent orders to Marshal Ney, who commanded the left wing of his army, to direct such a force upon Hougomont as should at once take possession of it.

It was now eleven o'clock, and every thing seemed to indicate that the awful contest was about to commence. The weather had cleared up, and the sun shone a little as the battle begun, and the armies within 800 yards of each other, the Duke of Wellington, with his usual quickness, had soon perceived the nature of the attacks that would be made upon his line; and when the troops stood to their arms in the morning, he gave orders that they should be formed into squares of half battalions, and in that state to await the enemy's attack.

Marshal Ney, as soon as Buonaparte's order was communicated to him, directed the division of infantry commanded by Jerome Buonaparte, to advance upon Hougomont; and about half past eleven o'clock, the first columns of this division made their appearance upon the ravine, or rather hollow ground, which leads down from the public-house of La Belle Alliance to the Chateau. The two brigades of artillery belonging to General Cooke's division had taken up a position on the ridge of the hill in front of the line of infantry, and the moment the enemy made his appearance, our nine-pounders opened upon his columns. The artillery officers had got the range so accurately, that almost every shot and shell fell in the very centre of his masses; so great was the effect produced by these few guns, that all Jerome's bravery could not make his fellows advance, and in a moment they were again hid by the rising ground from under cover of which they had but just emerged. This, which was the commencement of the action, was considered a very favourable omen by our brave fellows who witnessed it; and for a short time they were much amused with the

manoeuvres of Jerome's division, and the cautious manner in which it seemed to emerge from its hiding-place.

This state of things, however, did not continue long, as other great movements were observed to be preparing throughout the enemy's line. A powerful artillery was brought to bear upon our guns that had so annoyed his first advance, and General Jerome's troops gained the outskirts of the wood, where they became engaged with our light troops. By mid-day. the cannonade was general.

The great road from Brussels to Charleroi ran through the centre of the British position. Upon the right of this road, and upon the declivity of what is properly called the height or Mount of SaintJohn, there is a large farm-house with offices, called La Haye Sainte, which are surrounded by a high wall. The garden attached to this house, which has only a brush-wood fence, runs for about fifty yards into the plain: this formed another covering point of importance, which the Duke had taken care to occupy with a considerable force of the light troops of the King's German Legion.

The great object of Buonaparte, in this important battle, was evidently to force our centre, and at the same time turn our right flank; so that by surrounding and taking prisoners, as it were, one half of our line, he might completely paralyse and destroy the effect of the other half. Unfortunately, our centre was the weakest part of our position, and upon that part he directed his first grand attack to be made about noon.

An immense mass of infantry, followed by a column of upwards of twelve thousand cavalry, advanced upon the points occupied by the 3d and 5th divisions, and the left of the Guards, covered by a fire from upwards of one hundred pieces of artillery. These columns, which seemed to advance with a certainty of success, were led by Count d'Erlon in person. They advanced almost to the muzzles of our muskets; but here they soon found they had Britons to contend with; our fellows gave them a volley-and, cheering, rushed on to the charge, which they did not stand to receive, and our cavalry emerging from the hollow ground where they had hitherto been concealed from the enemy's view, passed through the openings between the squares,

and charging the enemy's cavalry, succeeded completely in dispersing them, and driving them back upon their own line.

In this conflict, which was dreadful while it lasted, the enemy was baffled in all his attempts, and, besides the killed and wounded, lost several thousand prisoners and an Eagle; but the British army had also to lament the loss of its brightest ornaments, and His Majesty, one of his best Officers. The gallant Sir Thomas Picton fell, mortally wounded, in leading on the 5th division. He had only joined the army on the 15th. His exertions contributed greatly to the success of the 16th, when his division was engaged singly for several hours with the troops under Ney. Though severely wounded, he concealed it from every one but his servant, and went through all the fatigues of the 17th. On the 18th, as the Duke of Wellington has feelingly expressed it in the public Dispatch, "he fell gloriously, leading his division to a charge with bayonets, by which one of the most serious attacks made by the enemy upon our position was defeated.".

From the commencement of the action, little manoeuvring was necessary in either army. The points which Buonaparte had first attacked, were again and again assailed with fresh troops, which obliged the Duke to move up reinforcements to Hougomont and to the centre. So overwhelming were the masses that were brought to bear upon these points, that victory sometimes seemed to hover over the Imperial Eagles; but the consummate judgment of Wellington, and the bravery of the British troops, overcame all the efforts of the enemy. About 3 o'clock, when Buonaparte found that Jerome's division could not drive the Guards from Hougomont, he ordered the Chateau to be set on fire. The shells from several mortars which were brought to bear upon the houses, soon had the desired effect but our troops, retiring into the garden, did not yield one inch of their ground; and the only thing which the enemy gained by this cruel measure, was the destruction of a few of our wounded, who were too ill to be removed, and who fell a prey to the flames. The troops in La Haye Sainte, having expended their ammunition, were obliged to retire for a moment from that point, and the enemy got possession of the house and garden; but as soon as a reinforcement of our troops VOL. II.

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could be moved up, he was driven from that as well as from every other point which he had attacked: and at no period during the day, nothwithstanding the heavy masses of infantry and cavalry which were advanced against our centre, time after time, was he ever able to force our position; and the possession of the advanced post of La Haye Sainte for a few minutes, may be said to have been the greatest advantage he ever gained. The battle continued to rage with unabated fury, and the number of brave men who were continually falling on both sides was very great, while the rapidity with which the columns of attack succeeded each other, seemed to indicate for a time, that the resources of the enemy were inexhaustible. The artillery on both sides was well served: but Buonaparte had upwards of two hundred and fifty pieces in the field; while the train of the Allied army under the Duke of Wellington did not exceed one hundred guns, nine-pounders and six-pounders. Notwithstanding our inferiority in this arm, which was still more apparent from the size of the enemy's guns (being 12-pounders) than from their numbers, ours were so well fought, that I believe it is allowed by all, they did equal execution.

About 2 o'clock, the Duke of Wellington dispatched an officer of his staff to the Head-quarters of Field-Marshal Blucher, to ascertain his movements, and to know when it was probable his advance would come in contact with the enemy. This officer found the Prussian General at the village of Lasnes, where he gained the information required.

I must now beg leave to direct the attention of the reader to the extraordinary movements of the gallant Prussian army; movements that have never been surpassed in the history of any war, and which clearly proved that the spirit of the great Frederick has not yet departed from them. On the 16th three corps of this army fought, and for a whole day defied the efforts of the enemy to drive them from their position. At night they were surprised, and obliged to retreat. On the evening of the 17th, the broken columns, whose loss had been immense, after having retired upwards of thirty miles, were completely re-organised; and at break of day on the morning of the 18th the whole advanced from Wavre to join the British army at Waterloo.

The 2d and 4th corps were directed, by Blucher, to proceed by Saint Lambert, and to attack the enemy, in the rear of his right flank near Frichermont. The first corps, with the Commander-inchief, moved by Ohain so as to unite with the left of the British line at Ter-la-Haye; while the 3d corps, which formed the reserve, was directed to follow in the rear of the first. General Bulow, who commanded the 4th corps, found great difficulty in passing the the defile of Saint Lambert, and his advance was considerably retarded; yet, true to the promise of his Commander-in-chief, two of his brigades were in the position assigned them on the enemy's right flank by four o'clock in the afternoon. Bulow commenced his attack almost immediately, but his numbers were too few to make any serious impression. About six o'clock, when Blucher was nearly in sight of the field of battle, he received intelligence that his reserve had been attacked by Marshal Grouchy, and was driven from its position near Wavre; this information made no alteration in the Field-Marshal's arrangements, as he well knew that the fate of Europe would be decided on the field to which he was advancing.

It was now half-past seven o'clock, and the issue of the battle was still doubtful. The greater part of Lord Hill's corps of the British army had been moved up at different periods to the support of the 1st corps. The whole of Bulow's corps, and part of the 2d corps of the Prussian army, had arrived at their position near Frichermont, and their attack in that direction was sufficiently powerful to oblige the enemy to give way on his right; which Buonaparte having observed, conceived that the moment was now arrived when he must put an end to the engagement. He informed his Generals that the firing on the right was occasioned by the arrival of Grouchy's corps. This gave fresh hopes to his troops already beginning to despair, and immediately he gave orders to form the last column of attack. This column was composed principally of the Guard, which had hitherto suffered but little; he gave directions for the whole of the line to second this effort, upon which he said the victory depended, and placing himself at their head, they advanced in double quick time.

These veteran warriors, so long esteemed the first troops in Europe, advanced across the plain which divided the two armies, with a firm