By the Emperor’s masterly arrangements his army was assembled on the frontiers with astonishing secrecy; but his intention of taking the two armies by surprise was defeated, on the night of the 13th, by the Prussian outposts, in advance of Charleroi, having observed the horizon illumined by the reflection of numerous bivac fires in the direction of Beaumont and Maubeuge, which announced that a numerous enemy had assembled in their immediate front; this intelligence was forthwith transmitted to both Wellington and Blücher. Zieten, the Prussian commander at Charleroi, received intelligence, on the afternoon of the 14th, that the enemy’s columns were assembling in his front, the certain prelude to an attack, probably the next day. Blücher, apprized of this about ten o’clock the same evening, immediately sent off orders for the concentration of the Prussian army at Fleurus, a preconcerted plan between the two commanders. When the order was first sent to Bulow at Liège, to move to Hannut, had the most trifling hint been given him of the French being about to attack, he would probably have been up in time to share in the battle of Ligny, which might have changed the aspect of affairs. After dispatching orders for the concentration of the Grand army, Napoleon left Paris on the 12th, and, as he himself states, under a great depression of spirits, aware he was leaving a host of enemies behind, more formidable than those he was going to confront. He slept at Laon, and arrived at Avesnes on the 13th, near which place he found his army assembled, amounting, according to his own account, to 122,400 men and three hundred and fifty guns. Their bivacs were behind small hills, about a league from the frontier, situated so as to be concealed, in a great measure, from the view of their opponents. The Emperor’s arrival amongst his devoted soldiers raised their spirits to the highest degree of enthusiasm, and on the 14th he issued the following order: “IMPERIAL HEAD-QUARTERS, 14th June, 1815. “Napoleon, by the grace of God and the constitution of the Empire, Emperor of the French, etc. “Soldiers! this day is the anniversary of Marengo and of Friedland, which twice decided the fate of Europe. Then, as after Austerlitz, as after Wagram, we were too generous: we believed in the protestations and in the oaths of princes, whom we left on their thrones. Now, however, leagued together, they aim at the independence and most sacred rights of France; they have commenced the most unjust of aggressions. Let us then march to meet them: are they, and we, no longer the same men? “Soldiers! at Jena, against those same Prussians, now so arrogant, you were one to three, and at Montmirail one to six. Let those amongst you, who have been captives to the English, describe the nature of their prison ships, and the frightful miseries you endured.