Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Elba and the Hundred Days, 1814-1815; Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815
It was ten o'clock at night when the first intelligence of the attack
made by the French in the direction of Frasne, was received at the
Prince of ORANGE's Head Quarters, at Braine le Comte. It was carried
by Captain GAGERN, who, as previously mentioned (see page 70), had
been despatched by Prince BERNHARD of Saxe Weimar, with his Serene
Highness's report of the affair, to General PERPONCHER at Nivelles,
and who was subsequently sent on by the General, with this information
to the above Head Quarters. Lieutenant WEBSTER, Aide de Camp to the
Prince of ORANGE, started soon afterwards for Brussels, with a report
from the Dutch-Belgian Quartermaster General, DE CONSTANT REBECQUE,
stating what had taken place, and detailing the measures which he had
thought proper to adopt. These measures did not entirely coincide with
the instructions above given, as issued by the Duke, because they
were consequent upon the affair at Frasne, with which his Grace at
that time was unacquainted; but they were perfectly consistent with
the spirit of those instructions, inasmuch as they were not adopted
"until the Enemy's attack upon the Right of the Prussian Army, and the
Left of the Allied Army had become a matter of certainty." The Enemy's
advance along the Charleroi road had already been successfully checked
at Quatre Bras, and the necessity of immediately collecting at this
important point, the troops ordered by the Duke "to be assembled that
night at Nivelles" was too obvious to be mistaken.
* * * * *
A little before ten o'clock on the same evening, a further
communication reached the Duke from Prince BLÜCHER, announcing the
crossing of the Sambre by the French Army, headed by NAPOLEON in
person; and the required intelligence from other quarters having
arrived almost at the same moment, and confirmed him in the opinion
"that the Enemy's movement upon Charleroi was the real attack," he
issued, at ten o'clock P.M., the following Orders for the march of his
troops to their Left:--ALTEN's Division to continue its movement from
Braine le Comte upon Nivelles. COOKE's Division to move from Enghien
upon Braine le Comte. CLINTON's and COLVILLE's Divisions to move from
Ath, Grammont, and Audenarde, upon Enghien. The Cavalry to continue its
movement from Ninhove upon Enghien.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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