[137] Blucher's Official Report. [138] Bulletin, Moniteur, June 21. Gourgaud, however, states the actual loss, on the part of the French, to have been 7000. [139] Gourgaud, Campaign de 1815, ou Relation des Opérations, &c. [140] Grouchy, Observations sur la Relation de Gourgaud. CHAPTER LXXXIX. _Strength of the two armies--Plans of their Generals--THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO commenced on the forenoon of the 18th June--French attack directed against the British centre--shifted to their right--Charges of the Cuirassiers--and their reception--Advance of the Prussians--Ney's charge at the head of the Guards--His repulse--and Napoleon's orders for retreat--The victorious Generals meet at La Belle Alliance--Behaviour of Napoleon during the engagement--Blucher's pursuit of the French--Loss of the British--of the French--Napoleon's subsequent attempts to undervalue the military skill of the Duke of Wellington answered--His unjust censures of Grouchy--The notion that the British were on the point of losing the battle when the Prussians came up, shown to be erroneous._ [Sidenote: WATERLOO.] There might be a difference of opinion in a mere military question, whether the English general ought to have hazarded a battle for the defence of Brussels, or whether, falling back on the strong city of Antwerp, it might have been safer to wait the arrival of the reinforcements which were in expectation. But in a moral and political point of view, the protecting Brussels was of the last importance. Napoleon has declared, that, had he gained the battle of Waterloo, he had the means of revolutionizing Belgium;[141] and although he was doubtless too sanguine in this declaration, yet unquestionably the French had many partisans in a country which they had so long possessed. The gaining of the battle of Ligny had no marked results, still less had the indecisive action at Quatre-bras; but had these been followed by the retreat of the English army to Antwerp, and the capture of Brussels, the capital city of the Netherlands, they would then have attained the rank of great and decisive victories.