3. Finally, it must be said that the Duke of Wellington was not well served by his subordinates on the day of the 15th in respect to the transmission to him of information from the front.[246] His first news of the attack on the Prussian lines near Thuin did not arrive till 3 P.M., although the French movement must have been pronounced some ten or eleven hours before that hour. Charleroi was occupied by the main French column at noon, but all the Duke had heard at 10 P.M. simply warranted him in writing that the enemy “appeared to menace Charleroi.” Brussels is only 35 or 36 miles from Charleroi; and by a good despatch system news of such importance ought to have been transmitted in four hours. If that had been done,—if Wellington had known at four or five o’clock in the afternoon positively that the French had occupied Charleroi in force, and if his information from Mons had arrived at the same time, as certainly ought to have been the case,—there is every reason to suppose that he would at once have issued orders for the concentration of the army at Quatre Bras. The orders which he did issue to this effect were not sent out, as we have seen, till the early morning hours of the 16th, some nine or ten hours later than those which we may fairly suppose he would have issued, had information of the French movements been promptly transmitted to him. But how far the commander-in-chief is himself responsible for such delays as this is, of course, a question. It is and must be for him to devise efficient methods, and to put them to the test often enough beforehand to feel justified in relying on them in a sudden emergency. And the situation in which the Duke of Wellington was in the month of June, 1815, certainly would seem to have called for the utmost watchfulness and for the taking of every precaution. It is impossible not to conclude that he failed in these respects. FOOTNOTES: [237] Grenadier Guards, vol. 3, p. 15. [238] Leeke, vol. 1, pp. 10, 11. [239] Siborne, vol. 1, p. 90. [240] Siborne, vol. 1, p. 102, note. Gomm, pp. 353, 354. Waterloo Letters, pp. 23, 24. Gomm says Picton’s division left Brussels at 5 A.M., marched to Waterloo (a distance of about eleven miles), and halted there two hours; and then at 1 P.M. resumed its march for Quatre Bras, where it arrived at 3.30 P.M. Siborne (vol. 1, p. 102) says that Picton arrived at a quarter before 3 P.M., having left Waterloo about noon. As the distance is about thirteen miles, the later hour of arrival given by Gomm is probably correct. [241] Siborne, vol. 1, p. 103, n. [242] Van Loben Sels, p. 232. [243] Historical Record of the Life Guards, p. 193: 2d Ed. London; Longmans: 1840. Bullock’s Journal; English Historical Magazine, July, 1888, p. 549. [244] Life Guards, p. 194. Bullock, p. 549, says eight o’clock.