[667] Ib., p. 24. See also Gérard’s “Lettre à MM. Germain-Sarrut et B. Saint Edme,” pp. 10, 11; and his “Dernières Observations,” pp. 8, 29. [668] Fragm. Hist.; Lettre à MM. Méry and Barthélemy, p. 9. [669] Grouchy Mém., vol. 4, pp. 71, 75. [670] The writer has abundant proof of the above statements. He has also visited the house. M. Wenseleers, who is referred to in the Preface, obtained for him this information in 1888 and 1889. CHAPTER XVI. THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. Napoleon, as we have seen, took up his headquarters on the evening of the 17th at the Caillou house on the Brussels road, about a mile and a half south of the little tavern known then and now as La Belle Alliance. All the afternoon and night it rained hard. We may suppose that, as his custom was, he slept during the evening. At 1 A.M. of the 18th, he mounted his horse, and, with Bertrand, rode out to the front.[671] Here he rode or walked along the line of the pickets until he had satisfied himself that Wellington’s army was in position, awaiting battle. The fires at which the soldiers of the English and Dutch army were drying and warming themselves left no doubt of this. He must have been occupied in this way more than two hours, as he was near the wood of Hougomont at half-past two in the morning. After returning, various reports came in. Between 7 and 8 A.M. he received from an officer who had been sent to the advanced posts, word that the enemy were retiring. This information he at once communicated to d’Erlon,[672] whose corps was in the first line,—that of Reille not having got fully up,—and ordered him to put his troops in march and to pursue the enemy with vigor. But d’Erlon having judged the enemy’s movement quite differently, sent his chief-of-staff to the Emperor to tell him that he, d’Erlon, thought that the English were making their dispositions to receive battle. D’Erlon proceeds:— “The Emperor came immediately to the advanced posts. I accompanied him; we dismounted in order to get near the enemy’s vedettes, and to examine more closely the movements of the English army. He perceived that I was right, and being convinced that the English army was taking position, he said to me:— ‘Order the men to make their soup, to get their pieces in order, and we will determine what is to be done towards noon.’” Napoleon seems in fact not to have spared himself any trouble, and there evidently was no very conspicuous deficiency in the physical energy of a man who, after a good afternoon’s work in the saddle in directing the march of an army, was able to go out twice in the deep mud during a rainy night and morning to visit the outer pickets of his line of battle, nearly two miles from the house where he had established his headquarters.