[145] "By a movement of impatience, which has often been so fatal to us, the cavalry of reserve having perceived a retrograde movement made by the English to shelter themselves from our batteries, crowned the heights of Mount St. Jean, and charged the infantry. This movement, which, made in time, and supported by the reserves, must have decided the day, made in an isolated manner, and before affairs on the right were terminated, became fatal."—Bulletin, Moniteur, June 21.
[146] "I had my horse killed and fell under it. The brave men who will return from this terrible battle, will, I hope, do me the justice to say, that they saw me on foot with sword in hand during the whole of the evening; and that I only quitted the scene of carnage among the last, and at the moment when retreat could no longer be prevented."—Ney's Letter to the Duke of Otranto.
[147] "Cries of all is lost, the Guard is driven back, were heard on every side. The soldiers pretend even that on many points ill-disposed persons cried out sauve qui peut. However this may be, a complete panic at once spread itself throughout the whole field. The Old Guard was infected, and was itself hurried along. In an instant, the whole army was nothing but a mass of confusion; all the soldiers of all arms were mixed pel-mel, and it was utterly impossible to rally a single corps."—Bulletin, Moniteur, June 21. "A retrograde movement was declared, and the army formed nothing but a confused mass. There was not, however, a total rout, nor the cry of sauve qui peut, as has been calumniously stated in the official bulletin."—Ney to the Duke of Otranto.
[148] Fleury de Chamboullon, tom. ii., p. 187.
[149] Our informant on these points, was Lacoste, a Flemish peasant, who was compelled to act as Buonaparte's guide, remained with him during the whole action, and accompanied him to Charleroi. He seemed a shrewd sensible man in his way, and told his story with the utmost simplicity. The author saw him, and heard his narrative, very shortly after the action.—S.
[150] See Captain Pringle's Remarks on the Campaign of 1815, Appendix, [No. I.]
[151] "Observations sur 'Le Campagne de 1815,' par Le Général Grouchy, 1819."
[152] See an account of the action of Waterloo, equally intelligible and scientific, drawn up by Captain Pringle of the artillery, which will amply supply the deficiencies of our narrative—Appendix, [No. I.]
[153] This was Fouché, who seems to have been engaged in secret correspondence with all and sundry of the belligerent powers, while he was minister of police under Napoleon. In his Memoirs [vol. ii., p. 279] he is made to boast that he contrived to keep his word to the Duke of Wellington, by sending the plan of Buonaparte's campaign by a female, a Flemish postmistress, whom he laid wait for on the frontier, and caused to be arrested. Thus he
"kept the word of promise to the ear,
And broke it to the sense."