[245] It ought to be remembered, however, that the “Disposition” was in all probability drawn up in a great hurry. Wellington had put off the decision to concentrate at Quatre Bras so late that both the giving of the necessary orders and the preparation of this “Disposition” must have been done in the greatest haste. [246] _Cf._ Siborne, vol. 1, p. 166, note. CHAPTER VIII. THE MORNING OF THE SIXTEENTH OF JUNE: NEY. Marshal Ney, as we have seen,[247] rode back from the front at Frasnes to report to the Emperor at Charleroi, where he arrived at midnight of the 15th. He informed the Emperor, so Colonel Heymès says,[248] “Of the dispositions he had made. The Emperor made him stay to supper, gave him his orders, and received the Marshal with the frank confidence of the camp; he unfolded to him his projects and his hopes for the day of the 16th, which was very soon to begin. He talked with him a long time in the night of the 15th and 16th. All the officers of the Imperial headquarters can attest this.” Among these officers was, no doubt, Marshal Grouchy. It goes without saying that at this interview Ney told the Emperor that he had not occupied Quatre Bras, and why he had not done so. With almost equal certainty may it be believed that Napoleon told him that he must occupy the place the next forenoon. Heymès then proceeds as follows:[249] “The 16th, at two o’clock in the morning, the Marshal returned to Gosselies (_i.e._, from Charleroi), where he stopped some minutes in order to confer with General Reille; he gave him the order to set out, as soon as he could, with his two divisions and his artillery, and to get his troops together at Frasnes, where the Marshal himself would arrive almost as soon.” And he adds that at 8 A.M. Reille at the head of his two divisions was _en route_ for Frasnes. General Reille, however, while he says[250] that his troops were ready to march in the morning,[251] says also that at 7 A.M. he went to see Marshal Ney, to ask for orders; and that the Marshal said he was expecting them from the Emperor. One may infer from these statements, which are not perfectly consistent with each other, that Ney, on his return to Gosselies from Charleroi, told Reille that they must be ready to move at a moment’s notice, and that that officer at once proceeded to get his men into marching order, and that he had them on the Charleroi-Brussels turnpike, ready to march, before seven o’clock. One may, perhaps, infer more than this; namely, that Ney, immediately on his return from seeing the Emperor, ordered Reille to proceed with his two divisions, as soon as he could, from Gosselies to Frasnes, so that, when the order to seize Quatre Bras should arrive, it might be executed promptly; but that he afterwards reconsidered the matter, and allowed Reille to remain in Gosselies till the written orders should come.