With an Army greatly inferior in numbers to the united forces of his adversaries, NAPOLEON's prospects of success rested exclusively upon his utmost skill and address, not only in preventing that union of force, but also in so planning, arranging, and executing his combinations, that having succeeded in defeating one opponent with a superior mass, he might then precipitate himself in like manner upon another, at the very moment when the latter might be occupied or engaged with one of his Marshals. This would have exacted of him the most untiring energy, the application of all his great resources in strategical science, a lightning-swift decision, and a daring resolution both in adopting and in executing all his movements. It was by the exercise of such powerful mental resources as these, that, unaided by a sufficiently corresponding amount of physical force, he had conducted the Campaign of 1814; but the spirit by which they were conceived, and the genius which instinctively seized the means of their execution, seemed to have abandoned him in this, his last, Campaign: a faint gleam of the old spirit was visible in its opening movements, but it was now rather a wildfire, dazzling him for a moment, on the downward path to his destiny, than the Star which had so often led him to victory. The last flash of his genius was brief, and, on the memorable plains of Fleurus, seemed to disappear, and leave him in utter darkness. The same fatal inactivity which had marked the French Emperor's proceedings on the evening of the 15th, and during the morning of the 16th, again manifested itself upon the 17th of June: and it was not until nearly noon of this day, upon receiving a report of a reconnaissance, made in the direction of Quatre Bras, and upon learning that a considerable body of Prussians had been discovered at Gembloux, that he made any disposition for the movement of his troops, beyond the previous detaching of PAJOL's Light Cavalry in pursuit of the Prussians along the Namur road. He now ordered the following troops to proceed to occupy a position in advance of Marbais, across the Namur road, facing Quatre Bras:-- LOBAU's Infantry Corps (the Sixth), with the exception of the Twenty First Division, under Lieutenant General TESTE, which had already been detached in support of PAJOL; MILHAUD's Corps of Heavy Cavalry (_Cuirassiers_), Lieutenant General Baron SUBERVIE's Light Cavalry Brigade, from PAJOL's Corps; the Third Light Cavalry Division (belonging to the Third Corps), under Lieutenant General Baron DOMON; and the Imperial Guard, both Cavalry and Infantry.