Colonel Maurice is inclined to the opinion that the letter which is quoted by Siborne is really one written to Müffling at Blücher’s dictation on the following morning, after nine o’clock, in which Müffling is desired to inform the Duke of Blücher’s intentions, and in which some of the words given above are employed. If this be so, and it seems very likely, the Duke not only took up his position for battle before he had received any definite assurance of support from his ally, but he did not get any until the arrival at the Duke’s headquarters at Waterloo of the letter sent off from Wavre between 11 and 12 P.M.,[550] which could hardly be before 2 A.M. of the 18th. How much longer the Duke would have remained in his position waiting for the promise of Prussian support, no one, of course, can say. He certainly did not propose to stay and fight single-handed. He had sent word to Blücher by Massow that without Prussian support he would be obliged to fall back to Brussels.[551] Yet according to Siborne, he waited till evening,[552] according to Ollech, he must have waited till two o’clock in the morning, before receiving any definite assurance of assistance. 2. But there is a story, which rests on testimony which it is impossible to disregard, to the effect that the Duke, after having caused his army to take up its position on the field of battle, rode over to Wavre in the evening to ascertain for himself whether or not he was to be supported by Marshal Blücher in the battle of the ensuing day. This story has been carefully investigated by Colonel Maurice,[553] and we shall state, as briefly as we can, the evidence collected by him. We first find the story in print in the year 1835, in Lockhart’s Life of Napoleon.[554] It reads as follows:— “All his arrangements having been effected early in the evening of the 17th, the Duke of Wellington rode across the country to Blücher, to inform him personally that he had thus far effected the plan agreed on at Brye, and express his hope to be supported on the morrow by two Prussian divisions. The veteran replied that he would leave a single corps to hold Grouchy at bay as well as they could, and march himself with the rest of his army upon Waterloo; and Wellington immediately returned to his post.” To this the following note is appended:— “The fact of Wellington and Blücher having met between the battles of Ligny and Waterloo is well known to many of the superior officers in the Netherlands; but the writer of this compendium has never happened to see it mentioned in print. The horse that carried the Duke of Wellington through this long night journey, so important to the decisive battle of the 18th, remained till lately, it is understood, if he does not still remain, a free pensioner in the best paddock at Strathfieldsaye.”