to know, that two-thirds of the whole were killed, wounded, or prisoners; among the latter are Generals Monton, Duhesme, and Compans. Up to this time about 300 cannon, and above 500 caissons, are in our hands. Few victories have been so complete; and there is certainly no example that an army, two days after losing a battle, engaged in such an action, and so gloriously maintained it. Honour be to troops capable of so much firmness and valour! In the middle of the position occupied by the French army, and exactly upon the height, is a farm, called La Belle Alliance. The march of all the Prussian columns was directed towards this farm, which was visible from every side. It was there that Napoleon was during the battle; it was thence that he gave his orders, that he flattered himself with the hopes of victory; and it was there that his ruin was decided. There, too, it was, that, by a happy chance, Fieldmarshal Blücher and Lord Wellington met in the dark, and mutually saluted each other as victors. In commemoration of the alliance which now subsists between the English and Prussian nations, of the union of the two armies, and their reciprocal confidence, the Field-marshal desired that this battle should bear the name of La Belle Alliance. By the order of Field-marshal Blücher, General GNEISENAU. [N. B. The Prussians lost 33,120.-Editor.] PROCLAMATION Addressed by Field-marshal Prince Blücher to the Army of the Lower Rhine, to be read at the head of every Battalion. "Brave Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Lower Rhine"You have done great things, brave companions in arms. You have fought two battles in three days. The first was unfortunate, and yet your courage was not broken. "You have had to struggle with privations, but you have borne them with fortitude. Immoveable in adverse fortune, after the loss of a bloody battle, you marched with firmness to fight another, relying on the God of battles, and full of confidence in your Commanders, as well as of perseverance in your efforts against presumptuous and perjured enemies, intoxicated with their victory. "It was with these sentiments you marched to support the brave English, who were maintaining the most arduous contest with unparalleled firmness. But the hour which was to decide this great struggle has struck, and has shown who was to give the law, whe ther an adventurer, or Governments who are the friends of order. Destiny was still undecided, when you appeared issuing from the forest which concealed you from the enemy, to attack his rear with that coolness, that firmness, that confidence, which characterise experienced soldiers resolved to avenge the reverses they had experienced two days before. There, rapid as lightning, you penetrated his already shaken columns. Nothing could stop you in the career of victory. The enemy in his despair turned his artillery upon you; but you poured death into his ranks, and your progress caused in them disorder, dispersion, and, at last, a complete rout. He found himself obliged to abandon to you several hundreds of cannon; and his army is dissolved. "A few days will suffice to annihilate these perjured legions, who were coming to consummate the slavery and the spoliation of the universe. "All great commanders have regarded it as impossible immediately to renew the combat with a beaten army: you have proved that this opinion is ill founded; you have proved that resolute warriors may be vanquished, but that their valour is not shaken. "Receive, then, my thanks, incomparable soldiers-objects of all my esteem. You have acquired a great reputation. The annals of Europe will eternise your triumphs. It is on you, immoveable columns of the Prussian monarchy, that the destinies of the King and his august house will for ever repose. Never will Prussia cease to exist while your sons and grandsons resemble you. your (Signed) "BLUCHER." RUSSIAN ACCOUNT. Letter from General Pozzo di Borgo to his Excellency Prince Wolkonsky. (First published in this Work.) "I have had the honour of giving your Excellency an account of the advantageous action which the Duke of Wellington_had fought on the 4-16 of June, at the place called Les Quatre Bras. The movement of Prince Blücher having induced his Grace to remove his head-quarters to Waterloo on the 5-17, he took a position in advance of that place, at a point where the great causeway from Brussels to Namur crosses that which leads to Braine-laLeud. Though the ground is open, and without any remarkable feature, it rises almost insensibly upon this point to the distance of half a league. At the right extremity of the front of this elevation there is a farm, consisting of a stone house, of a surrounding wall, and of a wood intersected by natural hedges and ditches. It was upon this ground that the Duke resolved to expect the enemy: he placed his batteries, occupied the farm and the garden, and drew up his army along the eminence, protected by its height from the enemy's fire. "The army being composed of different troops, he took the precaution to support each of them by English infantry, all disposed in such a manner as to be able to succour the point threatened. "On the 6-18, towards noon, the French army, commanded by Buonaparte, began the attack; his first efforts were directed against the farm, of which I have made mention: after several attempts he succeeded, at about half-past one o'clock, in dislodg ing a part of the troops from it. The Duke hastened to the spot, and ordered two battalions to retake it, and to defend themselves there to the last extremity. His orders were punctually executed. "The enemy then directed two strong columns against our centre. The Duke of Wellington, in person, led some battalions of infantry against these columns, and Lord Uxbridge conducted the cavalry. They attacked at the point of the bayonet; the French were overthrown, and their cavalry broken (culbutée). In this charge, one eagle, a standard, and about 1200 prisoners, were taken. The victorious troops instantly returned to their positions, and reformed their line. "The attack on the farm did not cease; the enemy penetrated to it, but was never able to establish a footing there. "Buonaparte, seeing that he could not obtain any advantage, manoeuvred with all his cavalry, and a part of his infantry, against our right, tried to out-flank it with 17,000 cavalry, and began by a most vigorous attack. The Duke made his dispositions in consequence; the cavalry of both armies charged; the squares of infantry remained immoveable, and repulsed every attack: this attempt of the enemy was baffled. At last, about six o'clock, he repeated another attack upon our centre, and succeeded in getting as far as the eminence. The Duke caused him to be attacked, overthrew him, pursued him, and the rout became general. "Prince Blücher had announced that he would march against the right of the French. On the advance, the two Field-marshals met each other, about half-past eight in the evening. "The army of Lord Wellington did not exceed 50,000 actually engaged. The enemy was far superior, especially in cavalry. The Prince Royal of Orange is wounded in the shoulder; it is hoped that he will recover. Lord Uxbridge has had a thigh fractured. Sir Thomas Picton is killed. The Duke's head quarters will be at Nivelles this evening. He is gone to Brussels to make up his dispatches (pour faire son expédition). "P.S. Just as I am going to seal my letter, news is brought that 300 cannon are already taken, and also the equipages of Buonaparte, and prisoners innumerable." AUSTRIAN ACCOUNT.* Head-quarters of the Allied Sovereigns, General Baron Vincent having been disabled from writing, in consequence of the Wound he received in the Battle of Waterloo, the Austrian Government gave publicity to the following Account of the Military Events on the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, in the Netherlands, and of the great Victory obtained over Buonaparte and the French Army by the Duke of Wellington and Prince Blücher. "On the 12th of June, in the morning, at three o'clock, Napoleon Buonaparte left Paris, and, taking the road by Soissons, Laon, and Avesnes, arrived at Maubeuge on the 13th, in the evening. Soult, as Major, went before him on the 9th, by the way of Lille; as also Jerome Buonaparte, Marshal Mortier, and the Guards. All the disposable troops between the North Sea and the Maese were collected in five corps d'armée, between the Sambre and the Meuse; 150,000 men, of whom 25,000 were cavalry, with 60 batteries of cannon,† were destined to a grand attack, which was to force Marshal Blücher over the Meuse, and the Duke of Wellington towards Flanders. Even the corps of General Girard, which was stationed about Metz, was made to approach by way of Sedan, in order, in case of need, to serve as a reserve. "It was, evidently, the internal situation of France that induced Buonaparte to the hazardous step of staking the very flower of his strength against two generals who were fully equal to him. In the first place, it was only on the field of battle that he could become again perfect master of the army, whose creature he was become, and which combined in itself many discordant elements; in the second place, the first, as unimportant, as tumultuous sittings of the new representatives of France, which are before the public in the journals, showed the internal contradiction and * First published in this Work. + Carnot's report to the Chamber of Representatives, on the 14th of June, officially states, that the French artillery consisted in all of 100 batteries, completely organised, and in the line with the different armies. the danger of his position so very clearly, that he could no longer hesitate to remove his throne from the capital to the camp. "Thus it happened that he opened the campaign just at the moment when the Russian troops had entered into the line of the great force collected upon the Rhine, and when, therefore, no connected system of resistance was possible, except from the centre of France, and when the most fortunate result of his attacks could have no other effect than that of removing him still further from the solution of the problem which was, in fact, before him. "According to accounts just received from the Netherlands, hostilities began there on the 15th instant. The enemy, who had in the last few days collected all his forces between the Sambre and the Meuse, and had assembled five corps d'armée, put his columns in motion on the 15th upon both banks of the Sambre, hoping to surprise the Prussian army in its cantonments, and by a rapid advance, perhaps, to hinder the different corps from concentrating themselves, and also to prevent the union of the Prussian army under Prince Blücher with that under the Duke of Wellington. As the two armies were cantoned, with all their troops, at the extreme frontiers of the enemy, their union was not practicable in any point, except in the neighbourhood of Brussels. To keep in view this main object, namely, mutual union, and to direct their operations accordingly, was the determination of the two illustrious commanders; and it was happily attained on the 17th, amidst continual and very bloody battles, by the valour of their troops, and by fresh proofs of their talents. The following, according to the statements of the couriers, who have just arrived, is a summary of these events. "On the 15th, at half-past five in the morning, the posts of the Prussian first corps, under General Von Ziethen, upon both sides of the Sambre were attacked, and the points of Thuin and Charleroi were taken, after an obstinate resistance from the troops which were stationed there. This General, according to his instructions, retreated fighting, and took a position at Fleurus. Field-marshal Prince Blücher, who had his head-quarters at Namur, assembled at Sombref the second corps, which was lying in the neighbourhood. The Duke of Wellington assembled his troops about Soignies and Braine-le-Comte. The enemy pushed his posts, this day, to Genappe, in order to interrupt the communication between the two armies. This induced the Duke of Wellington to place his reserve, on the morning of the 16th, at Quatre Bras, in order to approach on his side the Prussian army, and, by thus forcing the enemy to employ a part of his force against the English army, to afford all the aid he could to Prince Blücher. The three corps of the Prussian army, collected on the forenoon of the 16th, had the following position. On the right wing, the village of Brie; before the front, St. Amand; on the |