Barbara said, with a smile: "Confound you, Colonel, you begin at the end! Let us have the start, if you please!"
"By God!" he said seriously, "we have had an escape! You won't blab it about the town, but the fact is Boney took us by surprise, and if Ney had pushed on last night, or even this morning, there's no saying what might not have happened. Prince Bernhard had only a battalion of Nassauers and one horse battery at Quatre-Bras." He gave a chuckle. "We can guess why Ney didn't, of course. The French know the trick the Duke has of concealing the better part of his troops from sight. No doubt Ney was afraid he'd come up against the whole Army, and dared not risk an attack without more infantry. But God knows why he delayed so long today! They say the French weren't even under arms at ten o'clock this morning. We arrived at half-past to find Orange there with two of his division and nothing of a force in front of him. Charles arrived from Ath a little while after - still in his ball dress! He had no time to waste changing it last night, so there he is, in all his splendour. However, he is not the only one. Where was I?"
"You had arrived at Quatre-Bras to find no very startling force opposing you."
"Oh yes! Well, so it was. The Duke inspected the position, saw that Ney was making no move, and rode over with Gordon and Muffling to confer with old Blucher, at Ligny."
"We have not joined the Prussians, then?"
"Oh lord, no! They're seven miles to the east of us. and pretty badly placed, too. I don't know how it has gone with them: they've been engaged all day against Boney himself, but we've had no news. It appears that General Bourmont deserted to Blucher with all his staff yesterday morning, but the old man would have nothing to do with him! I haven't heard of any other desertions. As for the Prussians today, Gordon told me Blucher had his men exposed on the slope of the hill. and that the Duke told Hardinge pretty bluntly that he thought they would be damnably mauled. I daresay they have been. Gneisenau was anxious for the Duke to move to his support, which, I understand from Gordon, he said he would do, if he were not attacked himself. But we were attacked, and there was no question of going to help the Prussians. By the time the Duke got back to our position, somewhere between two and three in the afternoon, the French were in force in a wood in front of us. They started shouting Vive I'Empereur! and then we heard Ney go down the line, calling out: 'L'Empereur recompensera celui's'avancera!' We've heard that before, and we knew we were in for it. I can tell you, it was a nice situation to be in, with only a handful of Dutch-Belgic troops to hold the position, and no sign of old Picton with the reserve."
"But how is it possible?" Judith exclaimed. "We saw the regiments march out of Brussels in the small hours!"
"There was some muddle over the orders: they were halted at Waterloo, and only reached Quatre-Bras at about half past three. By God, we were glad to see them! The French opened the attack on a farm on the main road. I should think Ney had about fifteen or sixteen thousand men opposed to our seven thousand - but that's a guess. The fields are so deep in rye you can't make out the exact positions of anyone, friend or foe. In some places it's above one's head - or it was, till it got trampled down."
He paused, for the tea tray was just then brought in. Judith handed him a cup, and he gulped some of the tea down. "Thank you. Well, the Dutch were driven out of Bossu Wood, and there was a general advance of the French. I needn't tell you the Duke remained as cool as a cucumber throughout. There never was such a man! He was always in the hottest part of the fight - no one knows better than he how to put heart into the men! They may not worship him, as they say the French worship Boney, but by God, they trust him!"
Judith smiled. "I know how much you value him Colonel. But go on!"