As to the first, Grouchy was unaware that Excelmans, with his whole Corps, was already at Gembloux. But Pajol’s report from Le Mazy might have helped him to come to the conclusion that the Prussians had not taken that direction. Grouchy, when he had received his verbal instructions from Napoleon, had expostulated and expressed the opinion that no advantage would be obtained if he carried out the operations he was ordered to. He argued that the Prussians had already had twelve hours’ start; that although no definite news had yet been received from the cavalry scouts, it was extremely likely that Blucher had retired on his base, Namur; and that in following the Prussians in this direction he would be moving further and further from Napoleon. He asked to be allowed to march to Quatre-Bras with the Emperor. But Napoleon, naturally enough, declined, and firmly repeated his orders to Grouchy, saying that it was his (Grouchy’s) duty to find which route the Prussians had taken, and to attack them as soon as he found them. Grouchy withdrew and proceeded to carry out his orders. But if he was so far convinced of the importance and infallibility of his own conclusions as to discuss them boldly before the Emperor, he certainly could not have been very hopeful or determined when he proceeded to carry out the very instructions against which he had been arguing! He then sent orders to Vandamme, who was at St Amand, to march at once with the Third Corps to Point-du-Jour, at the junction of the Gembloux and Namur roads. He sent an aide-de-camp towards Gembloux to obtain news from Excelmans. (Not often is it necessary for a general to send one of his own Staff to gather news from the advanced cavalry!) He then went himself to Ligny to give Gérard his orders. In starting Vandamme before Gérard, Grouchy made a serious mistake; for Gérard had over an hour to wait before he could march his troops off, since both Corps had to use the same road, and Vandamme was behind Gérard at the time. Vandamme’s Corps had suffered less than Gérard’s at Ligny the day before, but it was no longer a case of fearing an inferiority in numbers. Vandamme marched with incredible slowness. His advanced guard did not reach Point-du-Jour until 3 P.M.; (Thielemann was by this time an hour’s march beyond Gembloux!) The roads were in a very bad state, it is true, and the heavy rain that was falling made marching difficult; also the passage of the Prussians had made the roads worse; but Point-du-Jour is less than 4 miles from St Amand.