Napoleon, when at St.-Helena, admitted that the tactics of his army in the Waterloo campaign had their defects; but on no occasion, to my knowledge, did he admit that he himself had committed an error. He invariably endeavoured to shift all blame, more especially the irretrievable failure at Waterloo, to other shoulders than his own, to those of his marshals. He accused Grouchy, the well-tried soldier in many a hard-fought field, and who was banished for his attachment to the Imperial cause, of having, by neglect, delay and non-compliance with orders, occasioned his defeat at Waterloo; and Grouchy’s alleged false movement is the basis of every argument advanced by those who yet maintain the military infallibility of their idolized Emperor. One would imagine, from the tenor of Napoleon’s order of the day on the 14th of June, “Soldiers! we have forced marches to make, battles to fight, dangers to encounter,” that he would not have allowed the precious hours of the morning of the 16th to be frittered away in inactivity, or have left his troops until near eleven o’clock in the bivac of the night before, chiefly where they crossed the Sambre, viz. at Charleroi, Châtelet and Marchiennes, without making a movement to support his advanced troops at Frasnes and Fleurus. No doubt the French were fatigued and wanted rest; but, as the success of the campaign depended upon vigorously pressing forward, and making the most of the first advantages, there was no time for rest. Again, on the 17th, after the battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, we find Napoleon lingering on the field of Ligny, visiting the wounded, and expressing his satisfaction at witnessing the gallantry of his troops; we find him discussing, with Gérard and Grouchy, subjects in no way connected with the campaign which should decree him Emperor or exile; we find it to be near one o’clock P.M. (17th,) before he put his own force in motion to join Ney in pursuit of us, or before he gave Grouchy his orders to pursue the Prussians. Early in the morning, Pajol’s cavalry and Teste’s infantry divisions were detached towards Namur, in pursuit of the Prussians; and, strange to say, when, after capturing a Prussian battery on the Namur road, and sending it to the Imperial head-quarters, they found themselves completely baffled and at fault, they returned to their bivac of the preceding night near Mazy, and lay there till next morning, the 18th.