A Week at Waterloo in 1815: Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great BattleDe Lancey, Magdalene, Lady
History
A Week at Waterloo in 1815: Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great Battle
De Lancey, Magdalene, Lady
De Lancey, William Howe, Sir, 1778-1815; Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815
(10) "As the dawn broke, the soldiers were seen assembling from all
parts of the town, in marching order, with their knapsacks on their
backs, loaded with three days' provisions. Unconcerned in the midst of
the din of war, many a soldier laid himself down on a truss of straw
and soundly slept, with his hands still grasping his firelock; others
were sitting contentedly on the pavement, waiting the arrival of their
comrades. Numbers were taking leave of their wives and children,
perhaps for the last time, and many a veteran's rough cheek was wet
with the tears of sorrow. One poor fellow, immediately under our
windows, turned back again and again to bid his wife farewell, and
take his baby once more in his arms; and I saw him hastily brush away
a tear with the sleeve of his coat, as he gave her back the child for
the last time, wrung her hand, and ran off to join his company, which
was drawn up on the other side of the Place Royale. Many of the
soldiers' wives marched out with their husbands to the field, and I
saw one young English lady mounted on horseback slowly riding out of
town along with an officer, who, no doubt, was her husband. Soon
afterwards the 42nd and 92nd Highland regiments marched through the
Place Royale and the Parc, with their bagpipes playing before them,
while the bright beams of the rising sun shone full on their polished
muskets and on the dark waving plumes of their tartan bonnets. Alas!
we little thought that even before the fall of night these brave men
whom we now gazed at with so much interest and admiration would be
laid low." (Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 21.)
(11) "I stood with my husband at a window of the house, which
overlooked a gate of the city, and saw the whole army go out. Regiment
after regiment passed through and melted away in the mist of the
morning."--_Abridged Narrative._
(12) "Le Grand Laboureur."
(13) The Duke's corpse did not arrive at Antwerp till Saturday
afternoon. See Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 59.
(14) "I went to Antwerp, and found the hotel there so crowded, that I
could only obtain one small room for my maid and myself, and it was at
the top of the house. I remained entirely within, and desired my maid
not to tell me what she might hear in the hotel respecting the army.
On the 18th, however, I could not avoid the conviction that the battle
was going on; the anxious faces in the street, the frequent messengers
I saw passing by, were sufficient proof that important intelligence
was expected, and as I sat at the open window I heard the firing of
artillery, like the distant roaring of the sea, as I had so often
heard it at Dunglass. How the contrast of my former tranquil life
there was pressed upon me at that moment!"--_Abridged Narrative._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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