ance of the French to move, Lord Uxbridge directed the 7th, his own regiment, to charge. But the 7th proved too light for the work in hand. The lance was a weapon new to the British swordsman. The 7th fought with great bravery; they were engaged on a limited front; the houses protected the flanks of their opponents; but as often as one squadron recoiled from the immovable thicket of lances, another squadron renewed the fight. It was evident, however, that the hussars were overmatched, and their colonel drew them out of the conflict, in order to employ heavier metal. The front was no sooner clear than Lord Uxbridge quietly moved the 1st Life Guards through the 23rd Dragoons, and held them ready for a charge. The moment soon arrived. Warmed by their success, the French began to shout their favourite battle-cry, “En avant!" to animate each other, and to press up the ascent. In an instant the Life Guards, "big men on big horses," obedient to the signal of their chief, went with the roar of a torrent down the hill, the stream of red coats and gleaming swords overturning everything before it, and speedily filling up the space where the brilliant lancers had stood, but where they now lay, followed up the flying, and cleared Genappe of the enemy. This vigorous stroke taught the French to be cautious; but they kept close at the heels of the retiring column. The guns on both sides were engaged at intervals, and the skirmishers continuously, until the retreat ended at Mont St. Jean. The rain had fallen heavily throughout the afternoon, and had soaked the soil of the fields, so that the French infantry found the march extremely painful.' They came 1 And of course the British. "Whenever the troops left the great chaussées [paved roads]," writes Sir James Shaw Kennedy, "they were placed in situations of great difficulty. This was proved on the 17th of June by the movement of the 3rd Division [with which he was] through on, struggling through the miry soil with plodding steps, and were still distant, when Subervie and Domont and Milhaud, who had led the pursuit, halted near La Belle Alliance. Napoleon had ridden from Quatre Bras, and was with them, and he ascertained, by provoking a cannonade from about La Haye Sainte, that Wellington's army was in position before him. Napoleon says he wished for the power of Joshua to stop the sun for two hours, that he might attack the English. This could only have been an empty boast, for the bulk of his infantry did not arrive in line until two hours after he had uttered it. Only D'Erlon, Lobau, and the Guard were up, even at eight o'clock, and Reille was still at Genappe, where he halted until the next morning. It would have served Napoleon's purpose better could he have stopped the rain. The French army took up its position for the night in rear of La Belle Alliance, the right touching Planchenoit, the left Mon Plaisir. The corps of D'Erlon and Lobau were in the front line; the Guard and cavalry in the rear. Behind all, at the farm of Caillou, Napoleon fixed his headquarters. Wellington, on his side, had collected nearly his whole Wais le Hutte, where it crossed the Dyle, and its march was ordered to be by cross-roads parallel to the great chaussées [from Charleroi to Brussels]. After crossing the Dyle the march on the cross-roads became so difficult as absolutely to make the situation of the division in some degree perilous; it did lose some of its baggage, and the division felt as relieved from a very unpleasant situation when it moved, without orders from head-quarters, into the great chaussée." In another place he reminds the reader that the "violent rain, which began about three o'clock on the 17th, continued through the night. The violent rain fell upon the whole of the country on which the armies of Wellington, Blucher, and Napoleon marched during the 17th, and rendered the cross-roads in the whole of that country all but impassable." disposable force in the position of Mont St. Jean. Sir John Lambert's brigade of Sir Lowry Cole's division was still on its way from Ghent. Wellington had not altered the disposition of the detached column on his right, except so far as to instruct Sir Charles Colville to retire from Braine le Comte upon Hal; and to direct Prince Frederick to occupy the position between Hal and Enghien, and defend it as long as possible. Blucher's reply to Wellington's despatch of the morning reached the English general in the evening, at Waterloo. "I will join you," wrote the Prussian marshal, "not only with two corps, but with my whole army; and if the enemy does not attack you on the 18th, we will attack him together on the 19th." A hardy pledge, which was fulfilled nearly to the letter. As the night closed, a thunderstorm, like that which had signalized the commencement of the retreat of the cavalry from Quatre Bras, again broke over the country; and the rain, which had abated, fell with renewed violence, inundating the valleys occupied by the outposts, and soaking the fields on the higher ground. The positions of the rival armies were soon marked out by the ruddy fires around which slept the wearied soldiers. § 4. Blucher retires upon Wavre. The Prussian generals had made good use of the precious hours of the 17th. Gneisenau, who took command when Blucher was wounded, had, at nightfall, directed the corps of Zeithen and Pirch I. to march at once from the field of Ligny upon Tilly and Gentinnes. The retreat was protected by a strong rear-guard, posted in Bry, and by the corps of Thielemann, which occupied Sombref and Point du Jour, with instructions to remain until daybreak, At the first flush of dawn on the 17th, Zeithen and Pirch marched from Tilly and Gentinnes towards Wavre, where the whole army was to assemble. The route of the 1st and 2nd corps was by Mont St, Guibert, whence, by inclining to the left, they followed the right bank of the Dyle. Zeithen had crossed this river at midday, when Napoleon was still at St. Amand, and Wellington watching with his cavalry at Quatre Bras. Pirch, halting some time at Mont St. Guibert, continued his retreat after he had been joined by General von Jagow, who had remained until dawn in absolute possession of the village of Bry. Pirch went on and occupied a position on the right bank of the Dyle, opposite Wavre. Before he quitted Mont St. Guibert he left Colonel von Sohr, with a rear-guard of cavalry, between Tilly and Gentinnes. Von Sohr's instructions were to keep the keenest watch upon the movements of the enemy, and not to fall back upon Mont St. Guibert until it was absolutely necessary. Bulow, coming from Hannut, had halted the 4th corps, on the evening of the 16th, on the Roman road near Sauvenières, the head of the column being about nine miles from Sombref. He was at daylight directed to detach a force of all arms upon Mont St. Guibert, to relieve Von Sohr, and ordered to march his main body upon Dion le Mont, a village about four miles east of Wavre. Thus, in the afternoon, the three corps of Ziethen, Pirch, and Bulow were, in a military sense, brought into close connection about Wavre. For Ziethen, at Bierge, communicated freely with Pirch at Aisemont, by Wavre and the bridges of Bierge and Limale; and Bulow, at Dion le Mont, was within three miles of Pirch. Late in the evening the 3rd corps closed upon the main body. Thielemann's rear-guard had quitted the field of battle about the time that Von Jagow had stolen out of Bry. No one saw, apparently, the departure either of the entire corps or of the rear-guard. Both the larger and lesser body vanished without attracting the notice of a single sentinel or patrol. Thielemann proceeded slowly to Gembloux, halted there some hours to rest his men, and then pursued his way. But he was caught in the storm which raged over the whole country, and he did not cross the Dyle to take post at Les Bavettes north-west of Wavre until the evening. The Prussians still held Mont St. Guibert and Vieux Sart, upon the two roads they had followed in their retreat. Moreover, they had sent patrols through the whole country between the Dyle and the Lasne. The Prussian dragoons were in every lane and village; and thus the officers detached on this service not only detected the march of Napoleon upon Quatre Bras and La Belle Alliance, but they reconnoitred the course of the Lasne from Couture to Genval, took note of every defile, road, stream, and wood, and thereby acquired the invaluable information that neither Napoleon nor Grouchy had sent a single patrol into the country between the two allied armies. It was through these active patrols that the Duke of Wellington was kept informed fully of the movements of Blucher. By these means the Prussian general carried his army deftly out of reach of the French, placed it in a position separated from Wellington by a few miles only, and acquired the most ample knowledge of the inactivity, as well as the subsequent movements, of the common foe. Before night on the 17th, Blucher, worsted but not routed at Ligny, had rallied at Wavre nearly 90,000 men and 260 guns, and was prepared to fall the next day with the greater part of these upon the right rear of Napoleon. As the sun went down, the Prussian soldiers eagerly refilled their pouches with ammunition, and supplies were refurnished to the artillery. Many had fallen in the bloody combat of the 16th, some 8,000 had literally ran away |