of seventy thousand men into action at once, a force calculated to overwhelm all resistance but every acre of ground was to be covered with slain before it was yielded, and then disputed for again. Still, however, Buonaparte conscious of his superiority in numbers (notwithstanding that fifteen thousand of his men were already stretched upon the plain), remained unshaken in his resolution to carry our position; and when Marshal Ney sent him word that he could not advance by reason of an English battery which threatened his utter destruction, and asked for orders, the reply was, "take the battery!" when he doubtless himself knew that it was an absolute impossibility; and added, "tell the Marshal that the day must and shall be ours." His friend Marshal Soult, who it would appear was remarkably quiet on the occasion, I dare say could by this time have told him a very different story. It was now past 6 o'clock, and the loss which we had sustained was beyond all precedent. Upwards of ten thousand of our brave officers and troops had fallen, and still the day was not over:

it seemed almost that no man was to outlive it, and that all parties had met to die together; for now the blood-thirsty Napoleon perceiving that affairs were come to such a crisis, that in the short space of one hour more all must be lost or won, resolved to set the fate of the day and that of all parties once more at issue, by one most awful effort, which though it should fail of success would yet afford him and his soldiers the bloody satisfaction that their falling spears had to the last drank deep in British gore, and pierced every heart in England. Finding that all his attempts against our troops at Hougomont had failed, he gathered his whole force, including all his reserves, into such order, that by a simultaneous movement they bore down upon our little devoted army with such savage rancour and despair, as for the moment threatened to render the victory again doubtful, for there was not a sufficient number of British and Hanoverian troops left to hold the position, one half of the former having fallen, and it was considered dangerous in the present juncture of affairs to bring forward those Belgic regiments

which had been left in the rear, as almost every man of them had formerly been in the service of Buonaparte. Just at this critical moment a tremendous roar of cannon upon our left, in the direction of Aguiers, announced the arrival of the Prussian army, which was now forming upon the enemy's right flank, with the view of marching into their rear. Marshal Blucher immediately on his arrival at the head of his troops (although they were not all up), perceiving the dreadful crisis to which affairs were brought with the English army, and as he himself nobly expressed it, "knowing that with whatever firmness the British maintained the conflict it was impossible but that all their heroic efforts must have their limits," resolved instantly to commence the attack, which we had been most anxiously looking for all the afternoon. It appears by Buonaparte's account that the Prussians had attacked him in this same quarter about 4 o'clock, but that the 6th corps of his army under Count Lobau, which was then in reserve, soon defeated and drove them back. Now this was nothing more than the ad

vanced guard of the Prussians, who had márched from Wavre as soon as it was light, with the view of joining us soon after the contest should have commenced; but from the badness of the roads, which the heavy rain had broken up, and the difficulties they experienced in passing a defile, they had been so retarded in their advance that the British had been sustaining the heat of this unequal and awful conflict for four hours before even the Prussian advanced guard arrived. Unequal as this heroic little band was to the task of giving their friends that effectual aid of which they stood so much in need, while the enemy had still so large a force in reserve ready to oppose them, they viewed the scene (it was said) with tears in their eyes, and struck with admiration at the firmness and constancy with which the English army defended the great cause, endeavoured to create a diversion in our favour: but Buonaparte having with his reserves driven them back, then concluded that he had once for all done with the Prussians, especially as he had left, what he considered a sufficient force with Marshal

Grouchy to keep them in check. This officer appears to have received but very imperfect information, however, respecting Prince Blucher's movements, for his attack upon the corps left at Wavre was made too late in the day to be of any service to Buonaparte, who imagined that either he was engaging the attention of the Prussian army at Wavre, or that, if their grand force was marching in this direction, he also was making a corresponding movement. Fully impressed with this persuasion, and perceiving that nothing but the most preponderating force could make any impression on the British, regardless altogether of the Prussians, in his last attack he brought forward all his reserves, by which though he cer tainly caused us dreadful loss, he effectually paved the way to his own complete overthrow ; for now that the Prussian army was really advancing and had commenced its attack, he had no disposable force left to oppose it, and he was so astonished that for a time he would not believe but that they were his own troops under Marshal Grouchy. Lord Wellington perceiving that the Prus

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