The French court (Louis XVIII and his suite) received advice how to save themselves by retiring to Antwerp, in case the enemy should succeed in turning the British right: they were desired to be in no alarm, nor to be startled by mere rumours, but to await positive information. Having thus provided for the military wants, and even for the fears of those behind him, the Duke devoted his whole attention to the army; and in proportion as the storm approached, repeated his warnings to the Prussians, by incessant dispatches to sir Henry Hardinge. He also sent frequent instructions to his own officers who were the nearest to the enemy, to keep on the alert.
The regiment I belonged to disembarked at Ostend on the 21st of April, and we soon found there was work in hand. Swords were to be ground and well pointed, and the frequent inspections of arms, ammunition, camp equipage, etc., plainly announced that we were shortly about to take the field. The army, soon after our arrival, had, in consequence of a secret memorandum[5] issued by the duke of Wellington to the chief officers in command, drawn closer together, in the probable expectation of an attack, and our great antagonist was not the sort of man to send us word of the when and the where. Louis XVIII, with his suite and a train of followers, being with us at Ghent, we were not destitute of information. Napoleon was as well informed of all that transpired in Belgium as if it had taken place at the Tuileries.
Things continued in this state until June, when, from various rumours, we began to be more on the alert.
At the commencement of operations, the duke of Wellington’s army comprised about 105,000 men, including the troops in garrison, and composed of about 35,000 British, 6,000 King’s German legion, 24,000 Hanoverians, 7,000 Brunswickers, and 32,000 Dutch-Belgians and Nassau-men, with a hundred and ninety-six guns. Many in the ranks of the last-named troops had served under Napoleon, and there still prevailed amongst them a most powerful prejudice in his favour; it was natural, therefore, that we should not place too strong a reliance upon them, whenever they might become opposed to their old companions in arms.
The Anglo-allied army was divided into two corps, of five divisions each. The first was commanded by the prince of Orange; its head-quarters being Braine-le-Comte. Those of the second corps, under lord Hill, were at Grammont. The cavalry, divided into eleven brigades, was commanded by the earl of Uxbridge, now marquis of Anglesey; head-quarters Ninove. His Grace’s head-quarters were at Brussels, in and around which place was our reserve of all arms, ready to be thrown into whatever point of our line the enemy might attack, so as to hold the ground until the rest of the army could be united.
The Prussian army, under the veteran prince Blücher, consisted of about 115,000 men, divided into four corps, each composed of four brigades. The head-quarters of the 1st, or Zieten’s corps, were at Charleroi; the 2d, Pirch’s, at Namur, which was also Blücher’s head-quarters; the 3d, Thielmann’s, at Ciney; and the 4th, Bulow’s, at Liège.
Each corps had a reserve cavalry attached, respectively commanded by generals Röder, Jurgass, Hobe, and prince William. Their artillery comprised three hundred and twelve guns.
The Prussian army was posted on the frontier upon our left, from Charleroi to Maestricht. Our left, communicating with Blücher’s right, was at Binche; and our right stretched to the sea.
A large proportion of the British troops was composed of weak second and third battalions, made up of militia and recruits, who had never been under fire[6]; most of our best-tried Spanish infantry, the victors of many a hard-fought field, were on their way from America. The foreign troops, with the exception of the old gallant Peninsular German legion, were chiefly composed of new levies, hastily embodied, and very imperfectly drilled; quite inexperienced in war, raw militia-men in every sense of the word, and wholly strangers to the British troops and to each other. Nor was the Prussian army what it had been; it was no longer the old Silesian one: many soldiers had just been embodied, and thousands had fought under the Imperial eagles.
The French army of the North, commanded by the Emperor in person, and destined to act against Belgium, early in June, was divided into six corps, and cantoned: the 1st, or D’Erlon’s, at Lille; the 2d, or Reille’s, at Valenciennes; the 3d, or Vandamme’s, at Mézières; the 4th, or Gérard’s, at Metz; and the 6th, or Lobau’s, at Laon. The Imperial guard was in Paris. The reserve cavalry, commanded by generals Pajol, Excelmans, Milhaut, and Kellermann, cantoned between the Aisne, the Meuse and the Sambre. There were three hundred and fifty pieces of artillery.