Nivelles and Namur. The fifth division of the British army, with the corps of the Duke of Brunswick Oels, left Brussels about 2 A. M. on the 16th, and advanced towards the position where the whole army was ordered to assemble.

One brigade of the Dutch troops, which was in advance towards Charleroi, had been attacked, when the Prussians fell back on the 15th, and driven from its advanced position near Frasnes; but the Prince of Orange having moved up another brigade of the same army, they were able to repulse the enemy, and in the evening they regained the greater part of the ground which had been lost throughout the day. On the morning of the 16th, Prince Blucher, who was determined to meet Buonaparte with all his strength, had posted the army under his command on the heights between the villages of Brie and Sombref, and to some distance beyond Sombref. In front of this line, he occupied the villages of St. Amand and Ligny with a very considerable force.

The enemy was delayed in his advance for some hours, on the morning of the 16th, in passing the Sambre with the remainder of his troops. But as soon as that was accomplished, Buonaparte made his dispositions for attack, while he carried the great body of his force against the Prussian line. Marshal Ney, who had joined the army on the evening of the 15th, and who had been appointed to command the left wing, was directed to advance by Gosselies and Frasnes, and attack the British position. The force under Marshal Ney, consisted of the 1st and 2d corps of infantry,, and four divisions of cavalry.

The 3d, 4th, and 6th corps, with the guard in reserve, were ordered to attack the Prussian position in front, while the fifth corps under Grouchy, and a division of cavalry, were detached towards Sombref, on the Namur road, with the view of manoeuvring on that flank.

On debouching from Fleurus, Buonaparte had an opportunity of reconnoitring the position of Marshal Blucher with more precision. He immediately placed the 1st corps belonging to the left wing, under Ney, with two divisions of heavy cavalry, behind the

the village of Frasnes, on the right, and at a little distance from the Brussels road, where it was to form a reserve, that could be brought up to support either his attack upon the Prussians, or Ney's attack upon the British. The 3d corps was ordered to advance in column to carry the village of Saint Amand, while the 4th corps, supported by the guard and the cavalry, was ordered to attack Ligny.

The enemy advanced in overpowering masses upon Saint Amand, where the action first commenced, on the morning of the 16th. The brave Prussians defended this part of their advanced position with great firmness, and it was not till after a long and sanguinary conflict, that they were obliged to yield for a time to superior numbers. The 4th corps commenced its attack upon the village of Ligny about mid-day, and by one o'clock P. M. the action may be said to have become general throughout the whole of the extended line of the Allied British and Prussian armies. Grouchy by that time had attacked the extreme left beyond Sombref, and Ney had come in contact with the advance of the army under the Duke of Wellington, near Frasnes. But it was in the villages of St. Amand and Ligny, that the greatest struggle for victory took place, between the contending armies. There the battle continued for five hours, it may be said, almost in the villages themselves, as the movements forwards and backwards, during that period, were confined to a very narrow space. Fresh troops were constantly moved up on both sides; and as each army had immense masses of infantry behind that part of the village which it occupied, these served to maintain the combat, as they were continually receiving reinforcements from the rear. Upwards of 200 pieces of cannon were directed against the villages, and they were frequently on fire in many places.

About 4 o'clock, Prince Blucher placed himself at the head of a battalion of infantry, and charged with them into the village of St. Amand. After a dreadful struggle, he gained possession of the greater part of it. The enemy were panic-struck, and the victory seemed so doubtful, that Buonaparte was obliged to send in all haste for the 1st corps, which he had left in reserve near Frasnes; at the very moment too, that it had become equally necessary to Marshal

Ney, whose columns, having been repulsed by the 5th division of British infantry, were retiring in great confusion.

The advantage which Blucher had so nobly gained, was of little importance to the general action in which his troops were engaged. At Ligny, the battle still raged with unabated vigour; and though the evening was far advanced, the victory remained undecided. The badness of the roads, and the difficulties which Gen. Bulow had to encounter in his march, prevented his corps from getting up on the 16th; so that Blucher had only three corps of his army in position; and though they had repulsed every attack which had been made upon them, the danger was becoming urgent, as all the divisions were engaged, or had already been so, and there was no reserve at hand.

As the night advanced, the enemy, favoured by the darkness, made a circuit round the village of Ligny, with a division of infantry on one side; and, without being observed, got into the rear of the main body of the Prussian army, at the same moment that some regiments of cuirassiers forced their passage on the other side of the village. This movement decided the day, and Field-Marshal Blucher was obliged to commence his retreat; yet his brave columns, though surprised, were not dismayed. They formed themselves into solid masses, and, repulsing every attack which the enemy made upon them, retired in perfect good order to their original ground, upon the heights above the village, and from thence continued, unmolested, their retrograde movement upon Tilly.

The badness of the roads obliged the Field-Marshal to abandon some of his artillery, during this retreat; but, except the badly wounded, the enemy made very few prisoners. At one time the veteran warrior had a very narrow escape from being taken prisoner himself. Wherever the battle was hottest, there Blucher was to be found; and wherever it was of importance to carry a point, he led his troops to the charge in person. During his retreat, a charge of cavalry which he had led, having failed, the enemy were vigorously pursuing his broken squadrons, when a musket-ball having struck his horse, it bounded forward with increased velocity for a moment, then suddenly dropped dead. The Field-Marshal, stunned with the fall, lay

entangled under his horse, and a whole regiment of cuirassiers galloped past him. Immediately afterwards, the Prussian cavalry having formed, charged the enemy, and were in turn victorious; and the same regiment of cuirassiers, in their flight, again galloped past the Field-Marshal, who then, and not till then, was relieved from his perilous situation, and enabled to mount a horse belonging to one of his own dragoons.

The Duke of Wellington, having given orders for the army under his command to concentrate on the left, proceeded with the fifth division and the Duke of Brunswick-Oels' corps, in the direction of Charleroi. About two o'clock on the afternoon of the 16th, the head of the British column reached the farm of Quatre Bras, so named from its standing near where the roads from Brussels to Charleroi, and from Nivelles to Namur, cross each other. The advance of the enemy under Ney, who had again driven the Dutch troops from their position near Frasnes, had nearly reached the same spot; and General Kempt's brigade had scarcely time to deploy from the great road, before it was attacked by the enemy's cavalry, supported by heavy masses of his infantry. Nothing could exceed the daring intrepidity of the French troops at this moment; their success on the 15th, and confidence in their leader, added to the natural bravery of the troops, made them advance with almost a certainty of victory. The sudden appearance of overwhelming masses of cavalry, and the rapidity with which they charged our infantry, before they had time to throw themselves into squares, created some little confusion in one or two regiments. Indeed, so daring were the French cuirassiers, that a regiment actually cut into the square of the 42d Highlanders; but they paid dear for their temerity, as few ever returned to their lines; and the Highlanders had ample revenge for the loss of their brave Colonel Sir Robert Macara. The 3d battalion of the Royal Scots, 28th, and 1st battalion of the 95th, were warmly engaged for several hours on the left of the Brussels road; while General Pack's brigade, consisting of the 44th, 79th, and 92d regiments, with the 42d already mentioned, succeeded completely in repelling the enemy on the right, after an equally arduous contest. About 4 o'clock, the first division under Major-General Cooke,

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