Thiers[817] finds in the minuteness of detail in which this supposed order is stated in the Memoirs a proof that it could not have been invented. We do not so regard the matter. To our mind, the terms in which Napoleon has, in the extract given above, framed what he says was the order which he sent to Grouchy, simply express the expectations formed in his own mind of what Grouchy would do, when, after having received the Bertrand order, he found that Blücher had fallen back towards the English. We think the orders sent to Ney on the afternoon of the battle of Ligny should serve as a guide to us here. We do not believe that Napoleon sent to Grouchy any such order as that which he gives in his Memoirs; but then we do believe that he sent him the Bertrand order, which he does not even mention in his Memoirs, and which in fact he no doubt forgot all about. And we believe that, having a distinct recollection of having sent Grouchy an order, and also a very distinct recollection of what he expected Grouchy would do when he got the order, he has fused the two things in his mind, and has given us his order in the terms of his expectations.
There is nothing very uncommon about this. It is certainly to be distinguished from deliberate misrepresentation. It is partly, at any rate, the result of an active imagination working on facts imperfectly recollected, but which have been dwelt upon until the mind has become disturbed and warped.
APPENDIX B.
ON MARSHAL GROUCHY AND THE BERTRAND ORDER.
We have stated (ante, p. 208) that Marshal Grouchy “denied, over and over again, in his pamphlets written about the battle, ever having received any written order, whether from Napoleon or Soult, until the next day (the 18th)”; and we have pointed out the grave misconceptions of the conduct of Napoleon which have been the result of these denials on the part of Marshal Grouchy, which, for many years, were very generally credited. We now propose to prove the truth of our statement.
In 1818 Marshal Grouchy published in Philadelphia his “Observations sur la Relation de la Campagne de 1815 publiée par le Général Gourgaud.” After giving an account of the verbal orders which Napoleon gave him, of his observations in regard to them, and of the Emperor’s reply (ante, p. 207), he says:—[818]
“Such are the only dispositions which were communicated to me; the only orders which I received.”
In the same pamphlet he says:—[819]
“But why, unceasingly repeats this ‘Combatant of Waterloo,’—why does not Marshal Grouchy publish the text of the orders which he received?