The principal knowledge we have of the conversation between Wellington and Blücher comes from what Müffling has told us about it.[324] According to him the last words the Duke spoke were:—“Well! I will come, provided I am not attacked myself.” General Dörnberg’s evidence[325] is to the same effect. The latest Prussian historian of the campaign[326] does not claim that the Duke gave Blücher any unconditional promise of support. That a different impression should have obtained currency with the Prussians is very natural. The Duke’s statements of the proximity of his army, made with perfect honesty, but based, as we have seen, on very erroneous _data_, no doubt raised false hopes in the minds of the Prussian generals. That these statements afterwards assumed in the mind of General Gneisenau, the Prussian chief-of-staff, the aspect and dimensions of a positive pledge of support, seems from Delbrück’s Life of Gneisenau quite probable.[327] But the evidence, what there is of it, and the probabilities of the case, are all the other way. That is to say, Blücher decided to fight at Ligny, without having any such definite promise of support from Wellington, as the latter relied upon when he decided to await the attack of the French at Waterloo, two days later. This will appear more clearly when we consider the other assertion made on behalf of the Prussian commander, of which we have made mention above,—namely, that Blücher’s decision to accept battle at Ligny was based upon this promise of support from Wellington.[328] Delbrück, in his Life of Gneisenau,[329] says: “Although this position [_i.e._, at and near Ligny] had been carefully considered and taken up with all caution, it was yet not fully decided to receive battle.” This decision was not arrived at, we are given to understand, until Blücher had received from Wellington a promise of support. That could not have been until between 1 and 2 o’clock P.M., for the Duke did not arrive at Brye till one o’clock. Müffling says[330] that it was “when the heads of Napoleon’s attacking columns showed themselves moving upon St. Amand” that “the Duke asked the Field Marshal [Blücher] and General von Gneisenau: ‘_Que voulez-vous que je fasse?_’” That is, we are asked to believe that Blücher had not fully decided to await the attack of these French columns, now seen to be advancing, in the positions which had been deliberately selected, and on which the troops had been carefully stationed, until the Duke of Wellington had stated himself able to do what Blücher and Gneisenau wished him to do. We are asked to believe that Blücher would have retreated if Wellington had told him that his situation was such that he could not bring him any aid.