Footnote 52: They had at their head Generals Petit and Pelet de Morvan.[Back to Main Text.]
| Men. | |
| The general loss of the army of the Duke of Wellington, in killed and wounded, was about | 25,000 |
| And that of Prince Blucher | 35,000 |
| ——— | |
| 60,000 | |
| ——— | |
| That of the French may be estimated as follows: | |
| The 15th and 16th, killed and wounded | 11,000 |
| The 18th, killed and wounded | 18,000 |
| Prisoners | 8,000 |
| ——— | |
| 37,000 |
The loss of the French would have been greater, had it not been for the generous care taken of them by the inhabitants of Belgium. After the victory of Fleurus and of Ligny, they hastened to the field of battle, to console the wounded, and give them every assistance. Nothing could be more affecting, than the sight of a number of women and girls endeavouring to revive, by cordial liquors, the extinguished lives (la vie éteinte) of our unfortunate soldiers, while their husbands and brothers supported our wounded in their arms, stanched their blood, and closed their wounds.
The precipitancy of our march had not allowed us, to prepare conveyances and field hospitals, to receive our wounded. The good and feeling inhabitants of Belgium supplied the deficiency with eagerness. They carried our poor Frenchmen from the field of battle, and offered them an asylum, and all the attention necessary.
At the time of our retreat, they lavished on us proofs of their regard not less affecting, and not less valuable. Braving the rage of the ferocious Prussians, they quitted their houses, to show us the paths, that would favour our escape, and guide our course through the enemy's columns. When they parted from us, they still followed us with their eyes, and expressed from a distance how happy they were at having been able to save us.
When they knew, that a great number of Frenchmen remained prisoners with the conqueror, they were eager to offer, and to lavish on them, consolation and assistance. The Prince of Orange himself, as formidable in the heat of battle, as magnanimous after victory, became the protector of a number of brave fellows, who, having learned how to esteem him on the field of battle, had nobly invoked his support.
In fine, completely to acquit the debt of gratitude, at that period so painful to remember, when persecution, exile, death, compelled so many Frenchmen to flee their native land, the inhabitants of Belgium, always tender-hearted, always benevolent, opened their hospitable doors to our unfortunate proscribed countrymen, and more than one brave man, already preserved by them from the vengeance of foreigners, was a second time saved by their generous hands from the fury of enemies still more implacable.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 54: I say fifty thousand men, for more than ten thousand of the guard took no share in the action.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 55: This circumstance was told to me, but the following I witnessed myself. A cuirassier, in the heat of the battle, had both his arms disabled with sabre wounds: "I will go and get myself dressed," said he, foaming with rage: "if I cannot use my arms, I'll use my teeth—I'll eat them."[Back to Main Text.]