There is in fact no reason to doubt that Napoleon’s habitual activity and even his capacity for physical exertion had in 1815 sensibly diminished. Like most men of forty-five, he was not so full of energy as he had been at five and twenty. He had also grown stout, and he was furthermore a sufferer from some painful maladies which rendered it difficult for him to keep on horseback for any great length of time.[31] All these circumstances would naturally tend to diminish, more or less, the once ceaseless activity of his mind; we may, therefore, expect to find him less thoughtful, less vigilant, less careful, than he had been in his earlier campaigns. But it is plain that the standard by which the Napoleon of 1815 is tested is no ordinary standard,[32] and it may well be that although he may have failed to come up to the high mark which he formerly attained, we shall nevertheless find in this campaign of Waterloo no conspicuous lack of ordinary activity and energy. In conclusion, we may fairly say that while we recognize that the army with which Napoleon was preparing to take the field in June, 1815, was not as well-organized a body of troops as some of the armies which he had led to victory, that its corps-commanders were not as brilliant soldiers as were many of the distinguished generals of that period, that peculiar circumstances rendered Soult, Ney and Grouchy less serviceable than they probably would have been had things been otherwise ordered, and that the Emperor himself was more or less deficient in the never-resting activity of mind and body which he had once possessed, we must not forget that the soldiers and their officers were all veterans, that their generals had won their rank by distinguished service on many a bloody field, and that no man living surpassed their leader in military talent. It is not correct to say[33] that the army which Napoleon led into Belgium was the finest he had ever commanded, but it is quite certain that it was by far the best of the three armies then in the field. The strength and composition of this army, was, according to Charras,[34] whom we may safely follow, as follows:— 1st Corps: d’Erlon. Four divisions of infantry,— Allix, Donzelot, Marcognet, Durutte 16,885 Men One division of cavalry,—Jaquinot 1,506 „ Artillery,—46 guns,—engineers, etc. 1,548 „ ------ Total, 19,939 „ 2d Corps: Reille. Four divisions of infantry,— Bachelu, Jerome Napoleon,[35] Girard, Foy 20,635 Men One division of cavalry,—Piré 1,865 „ Artillery,—46 guns,—engineers, &c. 1,861 „ ------ Total, 24,361 „ ------ 3d Corps: Vandamme.