Gérard, in a letter also written in 1819, states[663] that it was “at Wallin, or Sart-à-Wallin.” He says he found the Marshal eating some strawberries. It was about 11 A.M., a little more, or a little less. He gives an account of the interview, and then says “We quitted Wallin, &c.”
His acting chief-of-staff, Colonel Simon Lorière, says in his report:—[664]
“At 11 o’clock the Third [Fourth] Corps was entirely assembled at Walin.
“The Count Gérard, who preceded the march of his corps, learnt that Marshal Grouchy had stopped at a house in the village belonging to a M. Hollaert; he went there with the officers of his staff; he told me to follow; we found his Excellency at breakfast.”
Colonel Denniée of Gérard’s staff locates the incident at Sarra-Walin, and speaks of Gérard’s having found the Marshal at breakfast.[665]
Gérard wrote to a friend of his at Brussels to look up M. Hollaert; he did so, and wrote[666] to Gérard to say that he had been to see him at Sarra-Walin.
This seems to have decided Gérard that the place was Sart-à-Walhain; for he writes in 1820 to Colonel Grouchy, a son of the Marshal, as follows:—[667]
“It was not at 3 o’clock in the afternoon that I rejoined the commander-in-chief of the right wing, but towards 11 o’clock in the morning; he was at Sarra-Walin, at the house of a M. Hollaert, a notary, where he was breakfasting.”
Grouchy finally conceded to Gérard that it was long before they were skirmishing in the wood of Limelette, that the sound of the cannon of Waterloo was heard. He admitted in a letter[668] published in 1829, that it was at Sart-à-Walhain, and at 11.30 A.M. This is also the statement made in the Grouchy Memoirs.[669]
Nevertheless it was at Walhain and not at Sart-à-Walhain where Marshal Grouchy was when he heard the sound of the cannon, and Gérard proffered his advice to march toward the field of battle. It is certain that the incident took place at the house of a notary—a M. Hollaert (or Hollert, as it should be spelled),—for many of the officers who give their recollections mention his name; and it is in no wise remarkable that the name of the village in which his house stood should have made no distinct impression on their memories. Now there was at that time no notary at Sart-à-Walhain. There is none now. It is a very small village. There was not in fact a notary’s office at Walhain in 1815; there was none until 1818. But M. Joseph Hollert was in 1815 the notary of the neighboring town of Nil St. Vincent, and he lived in a large house in Walhain known as the Chateau Marette. It was here that he received Marshal Grouchy in the forenoon of the 18th of June, 1815, and it was into his garden that the officers went out from the house to catch the direction of the firing.[670]