En avant de Ligny, le 17 à midi.
Monsieur le Maréchal, l’empereur vient de faire prendre position, en avant de Marbais, à un corps d’infanterie et à la garde impériale; S. M. me charge de vous dire que son intention est que vous attaquiez les ennemis aux Quatre-Bras, pour les chasser de leur position, et que le corps qui est à Marbais secondera vos opérations; S. M. va se rendre à Marbais, et elle attend vos rapports avec impatience.
Le maréchal d’empire, major général,
Duc de Dalmatie.
XXIX.
CAPTAIN BOWLES’ STORY OF WELLINGTON AT QUATRE BRAS: June 17, 1815.
Captain Bowles in Lord Malmesbury’s Letters, vol. 2, p. 447.
“On the morning of the 17th, my company being nearly in front of the farmhouse at Quatre-Bras, soon after daybreak the Duke of Wellington came to me, and, being personally known to him, he remained in conversation for an hour or more, during which time he repeatedly said he was surprised to have heard nothing of Blücher. At length a staff-officer arrived, his horse covered with foam, and whispered to the Duke, who without the least change of countenance gave him some orders and dismissed him. He then turned round to me and said, ‘Old Blücher has had a d——d good licking and gone back to Wavre, eighteen miles. As he has gone back, we must go too. I suppose in England they will say we have been licked. I can’t help it; as they are gone back, we must go too.’
He made all the arrangements for retiring without moving from the spot on which he was standing, and it certainly did not occupy him five minutes.”