... “Early on the following morning, the survivors arose and hurried out to seek, amidst the dying and the dead, those comrades and friends of whose fate they were as yet ignorant[112]. But even earlier still had the wretches who hang on the skirts of every army, for the purpose of rifling the new-made corpse, been at work: the watches and purses of many were already gone; while many a brave heart, still throbbing, had received its _coup de grâce_ from the hands of these merciless plunderers. “Waterloo was won; the sun set upon a scene of slaughter, and the stillness of death succeeded the roar of battle. The thunder of five hundred cannons, the roll of musketry, the shock of mail-clad horsemen, the Highland slogan, the Irish huzza, were heard no more; and the moon gleamed coldly on a field of death, whose silence was only broken by the groans of the wounded, as they lay in helpless wretchedness beside their dead companions. “While many a sufferer listened to every sound in anxious expectation of relief, a dropping fire was occasionally heard in the direction of Genappe, announcing that the broken army of Napoleon was fiercely followed by its conquerors. “Wearied by the unparalleled exertions of the tremendous day of Waterloo, the British pursuit gradually relaxed, and the light cavalry halted on the right of the road to Quatre-Bras; but the Prussians, less fatigued, continued to harass the flying enemy, and the mingled mass of fugitives were forced from every village where they had attempted to form bivacs. A barrier was hastily thrown across the entrance of Genappe, to arrest the progress of the _jägers_ and hussars that hung upon the rear of the guard; but it was blown down by a few discharges of a howitzer, and the French were driven from the town. Throughout the disastrous night not a moment of repose was granted to the terror-stricken. To attempt anything like serious resistance to their pursuers, where all were inextricably confused, was absurd. Officers and soldiers were mobbed together; discipline had ended: none attempted to direct, where none were found to obey; and with unrelenting fury the Prussian cavalry sabred the exhausted fugitives, till, after passing Gosselies and Charleroi, the wreck of Napoleon’s army found a temporary shelter beneath the walls of Philippeville.