"(Sir W. Ponsonby) the General who commanded the brigade, had also commanded our brigade in the Peninsula, and as I was the only subaltern in it whom he knew, he asked me to be with him on the 17th and on this day also. This was just what I wished, for a man sees more, and suffers less in action when on the Staff, than with a regiment, being obliged in the latter case to stand still and be shot at, while in the former he is constantly on the alert carrying orders, and seeing and hearing everything that is going on. "When the General appeared on the ground I joined him, his Aide-de-Camp being at Brussels, whither the General had sent him, not expecting the action to begin so early if at all that day: his major of brigade and an officer who acted as _extra Aide-de-Camp_, were however with him. "We proceeded, after we had looked at the brigade, to the top of the hill, leaving the brigade drawn up close at the bottom of it. When we reached the summit we found the Duke of Richmond and one of his sons, as amateurs in plain clothes, with a number of officers, having their glasses on the look out for the Prussians: but we could see nothing of them, although we were on the extreme left of our army. Someone thought he saw a Prussian picquet at the foot of some trees near a wood, and for a time we were all of the same opinion--so fondly do people's hopes make things appear in the desired light: but there was no Prussian picquet, and the whole party seemed much dispirited. At this moment occurred a circumstance not mentioned by any writer whose account of the battle of Waterloo I have read: Buonaparte appeared in the front of his troops, and the loudest cheering began on the left of the French, and ran along their whole line. I confess that I never before felt so disheartened: it had evidently a powerful effect upon all present, but not one of our party said a word about it: nor was any attempt at a reply to it made on our side, by the troops near us: they were however chiefly Belgians, with the Highland Brigade, and some of the other regiments, which had suffered severely on the 16th. "At this time we did not know whether we were to fight that day or not: for having retired the whole of the day before, we thought as the Prussians were not to be seen, that we should again retreat, and seeing, or rather hearing by their shouts, that the French were in such spirits, ours were not enlivened by the circumstance, but the very reverse.