Here was a plan after his own heart. To establish himself once more at the head of the nation he must win a glorious victory for France. The minds of Frenchmen were peculiarly susceptible to the inspiriting effects of military glory. Therefore he would strike at Belgium: he would separate Blucher from Wellington and beat each army in turn. And here is revealed the nicety of his calculations. He must attack and beat either Wellington or Blucher before they could join their forces. “If he directed his line of operations against Brussels through Ath, and debouched from Lille or Condé against Wellington’s right, he would merely drive the English army towards the Prussian army, and two days later he would find himself face to face with their united forces. If, on the contrary, he marched against Blucher’s left, through Givet and the valley of the Meuse, in the same way he would still hasten the union of the hostile forces by driving the Prussians to the English. Inspired by one of his finest strategical conceptions, the Emperor resolved to break boldly into the very centre of the enemy’s cantonments, at the very point where the English and Prussians would probably concentrate. The road from Charleroi to Brussels forming the line of contact between the two armies, Napoleon, passing through Beaumont and Phillippeville, resolved, by this road, to fall like a thunderbolt on his foe.”[2] Wellington’s troops were scattered in cantonments stretching over an arc from Oudenarde to Quatre-Bras. The Second Corps, under Lord Hill, formed the extreme right, and occupied Ghent, Oudenarde, Ath and Leuze. The Corps was 27,000 strong, of whom scarcely 7,000 were British troops. The First Corps, under the Prince of Orange, occupied Mons, Rouelx, Soignies, Genappe, Seneffe, Frasnes, Braine-le-Comte, and Enghien. This Corps was 30,000 strong, of whom only 6,300 were British. Its left rested on Genappe, Quatre-Bras, and Frasnes, and was in touch with the right of the First Corps, of the Prussian army, under Zieten, whose headquarters were at Charleroi. Wellington’s Reserve, 25,500 men, was posted in the neighbourhood of Brussels, under the Duke’s personal command. The Cavalry, under Lord Uxbridge, was comprised in seven brigades, British and King’s German Legion; with one Hanoverian brigade, five squadrons of Brunswick Cavalry, and three brigades of Dutch-Belgian Cavalry. The Brunswickers were stationed near Brussels; the three Dutch-Belgian brigades were allotted to the First Corps, and the remainder of the cavalry were stationed at Ninove, Grammont, and in the villages scattered along the Dender.