[314] “When the Imperial Guards, led on by Marshal Ney, about half-past seven o’clock, made their appearance from a corn-field, in close columns of grand divisions nearly opposite, and within a distance of fifty yards from the muzzles of the guns, orders were given to load with cannister-shot, and literally five rounds from each gun were fired with this species of shot, before they shewed the least symptom of retiring. At the twenty-ninth round, their left gave way.”—Letters of an Artillery Officer.
[315] “On a surface of two square miles, it was ascertained that fifty thousand men and horses were lying! The luxurious crop of ripe grain which had covered the field of battle was reduced to litter, and beaten into the earth; and the surface, trodden down by the cavalry, and furrowed deeply by the cannon wheels, strewn with many a relict of the fight. Helmets and cuirasses, shattered fire-arms and broken swords; all the variety of military ornaments; lancer caps and Highland bonnets; uniforms of every colour, plume and pennon; musical instruments, the apparatus of artillery, drums, bugles;—but good God! why dwell on the harrowing picture of ‘a foughten field?’—each and every ruinous display bore mute testimony to the misery of such a battle.”
* * * * *
“Could the melancholy appearance of this scene of death be heightened, it would be by witnessing the researches of the living, amid its desolation, for the objects of their love. Mothers and wives and children for days were occupied in that mournful duty; and the confusion of the corpses, friend and foe intermingled as they were, often rendered the attempt at recognising individuals difficult, and, in some cases, impossible.”
* * * * *
“In many places the dead lay four deep upon each other, marking the spot some British square had occupied, when exposed for hours to the murderous fire of a French battery. Outside, lancer and cuirassier were scattered thickly on the earth. Madly attempting to force the serried bayonets of the British, they had fallen in the bootless essay, by the musketry of the inner files. Farther on, you traced the spot where the cavalry of France and England had encountered. Chasseur and hussar were intermingled; and the heavy Norman horse of the Imperial Guard were interspersed with the grey chargers which had carried Albyn’s chivalry. Here the Highlander and tirailleur lay, side by side together; and the heavy dragoon, with ‘green Erin’s’ badge upon his helmet, was grappling in death with the Polish lancer.”
* * * * *
“On the summit of the ridge, where the ground was cumbered with dead, and trodden fetlock-deep in mud and gore, by the frequent rush of rival cavalry, the thick-strewn corpses of the Imperial Guard pointed out the spot where Napoleon had been defeated. Here, in column, that favoured corps, on whom his last chance rested, had been annihilated; and the advance and repulse of the Guard was traceable by a mass of fallen Frenchmen. In the hollow below, the last struggle of France had been vainly made; for there the Old Guard, when the middle battalions had been forced back, attempted to meet the British, and afford time for their disorganized companions to rally. Here the British left, which had converged upon the French centre, had come up;—and here the bayonet closed the contest.”
[316] Buonaparte has been severely censured for daring to attack Wellington and Blucher[K] simultaneously. Had different results attended the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny, probably military criticism on Napoleon’s bold plans would have been more favourable. Ney seems certainly to have pointed out a safer course, and his idea of first overwhelming the British, and afterwards taking the Prussians in detail, might have been more successful had it been adopted. But even admitting, in part, that Napoleon’s “arrangements” were erroneous, they still were worthy of the vigorous and martial spirit that planned them. His great mistake may be traced to a mind that refused to be controlled by cold calculation. He aimed at more than he could accomplish. With limited means he acted upon a great and comprehensive scheme; and, disdaining to recognise his weakness, he pursued an object demanding ampler resources than he possessed. This was sufficiently proved by the result; for he was unable to gather the fruits of his triumph over the Prussians, whom he permitted to retreat without the slightest interruption. His army contented itself with remaining upon the ground it won so hardly, without even an attempt to harass the slowly retiring columns of the enemy.
There have been conflicting statements as to whether Buonaparte did, or did not know, that Bulow was in force in the rear of his right. Ney says, that Labedoyère brought him a message from the emperor, that Grouchy, at seven o’clock, had attacked the extreme left of the Anglo-Prussian army, while Girard states, that at nine in the morning Napoleon knew that a Prussian column, which had escaped the marshal (Grouchy), was advancing in his rear. Gneisenau affirms, that the fourth Prussian corps (Bulow’s) moved from Dien-le-Mont by Wavre on Saint Lambert at daybreak. Certainly Buonaparte might have been acquainted with its advance during the day; but whether he was or was not, its arrival at Waterloo in the evening decided that day and his destiny.