The ROYAL DRAGOONS returned to Villa Franche on the 23rd of April, where they remained about a month, and then moved to Montguiscarde; and on the 2nd of June commenced their march through France to Calais, where they arrived on the 17th of July. They embarked on the following day, landed at Dover on the 19th, and marched from thence to Bristol, where they arrived on the 11th of August; and shortly afterwards the establishment was reduced from ten to eight troops. In November the quarters were removed from Bristol to Exeter; and the brilliant services of the regiment were rewarded with permission to bear the word "PENINSULA," as an honorary distinction, on the standards and appointments. [Sidenote: 1815] The prospect of a lasting peace soon vanished, and unexpected events brought the ROYAL DRAGOONS again into the field of conflict. The return of Buonaparte to France, the flight of Louis XVIII. from Paris, and the appearance of a British army near the frontiers of France, followed in rapid succession. An express arrived at the quarters of the ROYALS on the morning of the 24th of April, 1815, with orders to march on the following morning for Canterbury, and afterwards to Dover and Ramsgate, and to embark for the Netherlands. An augmentation of two troops was at the same time ordered; a hundred horses were received at Canterbury by transfer from the fifth dragoon guards; and about the middle of May the ROYALS were in Belgium, in quarters in the villages between Ghent and Brussels, where, to pass away the time unemployed by military duties, the officers amused themselves with horse-races and athletic sports.[59] On the morning of the 16th of June the ROYALS were suddenly aroused before daybreak by the loud notes of the bugle sounding "to horse." The summons had a highly exhilarating effect on the spirits of the men: they turned out with alacrity, not doubting but the day was big with events, and in a short time they were advancing on _Quatre Bras_, where the enemy had commenced a furious attack on the advanced-posts. After continuing the march about fifty miles, the ROYALS arrived at the scene of conflict about dusk in the evening:[60] the fighting had ceased, and the troops bivouacked on the field of battle.