with a peculiar bad grace from the Prussians. Surely, in thus taking the lion’s share in this glorious victory, they do not think to cover their defeat at Ligny, or their unaccountable delay in arriving on the field of Waterloo. “The roads were very bad, and the Prussians had a numerous artillery, not over-well horsed. Yet supposing them to have been put in motion at eight o’clock in the morning, (their official account says _break of day_,) they were ten or eleven hours in marching little more than a like number of miles! May we not therefore be allowed to conjecture, that there was some hesitation on the part of Blücher in marching upon Waterloo, until he could feel assured of his army being in little danger from Grouchy?” (JACKSOS and SCOTT’S _Life of the Duke of Wellington_.)[100]. And if true, as the Prussian official report represents, that Blücher had such a large force on the field to act, previous to, or during Napoleon’s last attack upon us, why did not Blücher, to use the language of two excellent military writers, roll up the French army as Pakenham’s division did at Salamanca? I have often thought that if lord Hill could, by any means, have been transferred across the field to where Bulow debouched, with the same force of British troops under his command as Bulow had of Prussian, (30,000,) our illustrious Chief’s table that night might have been honoured by the presence of Napoleon and his chief officers, and most of the French army favoured with a free passage to England. Lieutenant-colonel B. Jackson, in his _Military life of Wellington_, (vol. II, page 806,) says, “There can exist no doubt whatever that, paradoxical as it may at first sight appear, the cooperation, thought somewhat tardy, of the Prussians, produced, _not the defeat_, but the total rout of Bonaparte’s army: for the duke of Wellington could not, weakened as his force was at the close of the day, have hazarded an attack with his whole army, had Blücher not been at hand to support the movement. The service rendered by our brave allies was therefore most opportune, and of the highest value.... An error of half an hour—and men do not consult their watches during the excitement of battle—made either by the Prussians or ourselves, is sufficient to account for much of the discrepance existing between their statements and our own.” That English and Prussian writers should altogether agree as to the apportionment of the glory of the day, was not to be expected. It is clear, to the lasting honour of the two allied nations, that whatever feelings may have since grown up on this subject, none interfered at the time with the cordiality of their combined operations. The following lines, from a Prussian pen, will show that just national pride is not inconsistent with candour: