The Editor of an Article in _The Quarterly Review_, No. CLI., entitled _Marmont_, _Siborne_, and _Alison_, having, in his comments upon this Work, denied the accuracy of one or two important facts therein stated; I have, in notes at pages 57 and 152,[2] entered into more minute details, which explain the grounds that warrant me in adhering to the original statements. The observations made in the Preface of a Volume of "MURRAY's Home and Colonial Library," entitled _The Story of Waterloo_, and the palpable embodiment of the present Work into the pages of the latter, have been such as could scarcely fail to attract attention; and I have accordingly appended to this Edition, in a separate form, some remarks upon that publication.[3] Public opinion (if I may judge by the unanimous consent of the press) having so distinctly pronounced its acknowledgment of the value of my Work, as one of History; I could not disregard the conduct of a Writer, who, in the first place endeavours to depreciate that value, and then unblushingly makes the most ample and unlicensed use of it for his own purposes. W. SIBORNE. _18th June 1848._ [Illustration: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: _Omitted in this Fourth Edition.--E.A._] [Footnote 2: Omitted in this Fourth Edition.--E.A.] [Footnote 3: Omitted in this Fourth Edition.--E.A.] PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The circumstance of the First Edition having been sold off within a very few days, combined with the highly favourable notices taken of the Work by professional as well as other critics, and, I may be permitted to add, the very flattering encomiums which have been pronounced upon it by so many who, from their position, are the most competent to form an opinion on its merits, cannot fail to afford proofs, the most satisfactory to the Public, and, at the same time, the most gratifying to the Author, that, in the production of these Volumes,[4] upon a subject of such stirring national interest, neither the expectations of the former have been altogether disappointed, nor the labours of the latter bestowed in vain. The present Edition contains corrections on one or two points of trivial importance, to which my attention has been directed; and I shall be happy to receive further information from surviving Eye Witnesses who may discover any instances in which the facts related appear either inaccurately or insufficiently explained. W. SIBORNE. _August 23rd, 1844._ FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 4: The First and Second Editions of this Work were each published in Two Volumes.--E.A.] PREFACE.