In confirmation of the last statement Sir Harry Smith, who also fought
under Wellington in this campaign, says “I had never seen anything to
be compared with what I saw,” excepting only “one spot at New Orleans,
and the breach of Badajos.” He adds a description of the field as he
observed it on the following day:
“At Waterloo,” he writes, “the whole field from right to left was a
mass of dead bodies. In one spot, to the right of La Haye Sainte, the
French Cuirassiers were literally piled on each other; many soldiers
not wounded lying under their horses; others, fearfully wounded,
occasionally with their horses struggling upon their wounded bodies.
The sight was sickening, and I had no means or power to assist them.
Imperative duty compelled me to the field of my comrades, where I had
plenty to do to assist many who had been left out all night; some had
been believed to be dead, but the spark of life had returned. All over
the field you saw officers, and as many soldiers as were permitted to
leave the ranks, leaning and weeping over some dead or dying brother
or comrade. The battle was fought on a Sunday, the 18th June, and I
repeated to myself a verse from the Psalms of that day--91st Psalm,
7th verse: ‘A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy
right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.’ I blessed Almighty God
our Duke was spared, and galloped to my General, whom I found with some
breakfast awaiting my arrival.” In Sir Harry’s opinion “Napoleon fought
the battle badly, his attacks were not simultaneous, but partial and
isolated, and enabled the Duke to repel each by a concentration.”
A fleeting glimpse of the fallen Colossus as he rushes towards Paris
is afforded us by Alexandre Dumas, then staying with his mother at the
posting-house of Villers-Cotterets, about fifty-five miles from the
capital. The novelist had seen the Emperor pass through the little town
before the crushing conflict. He had then been accompanied by General
Letort and Jerome Bonaparte. Says Dumas:
“At seven o’clock a courier arrived; he was covered with mud, his horse
shook from head to foot, and was ready to drop with fatigue. He ordered
four horses to be ready for a carriage which was following him, then he
leapt on his horse and set off on his journey again.
“It was in vain we questioned him; he either knew nothing or would not
say anything.
“The four horses were taken out of the stables and harnessed in
readiness for the carriage: a rapidly approaching heavy rumble
announced it was coming, soon we saw it appear round the corner of the
street and draw up at the door.
“The master of the post came forward and stood stupefied. I took hold
of his coat tails and asked: ‘It is he? the Emperor?’
“‘Yes.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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