The army of 124,000 men to whom those burning words were addressed had been swiftly concentrated within cannon-shot of the enemy, before Blücher or Wellington had the faintest idea of what had happened. While it was possible for the French Emperor to strike at once, with the crushing weight of the whole army, _three days_ were necessary to Blücher and Wellington. _How did they get those three days?_ Through the blunders and disobedience of Napoleon’s own officers. Contributing immensely to the same result was the refusal of Wellington’s officers to obey the orders which he sent from Brussels and which, had they been obeyed, would have left Quatre Bras in the hands of the French, and put Napoleon in overwhelming numbers _between_ the scattered forces of his enemies. To have destroyed them would have been child’s play for such a captain. On the 15th of June, Wellington wrote to the Czar of Russia stating his intention to take the offensive at the end of the month. As to Blücher, that indomitable but short-sighted soldier was writing to his wife, “We shall soon enter France. We might remain here a year, for Bonaparte would never attack us.” About the time that the wife of “Marshal Forwards” was reading this reassuring letter, the Prussian army was flying before the French Emperor, and old Blücher himself, unhorsed and bruised almost to unconsciousness, had escaped capture because of the darkness, and was being borne off the lost field of Ligny. CHAPTER III On the morning of June 15th, at half-past three, the French army crossed the Belgian frontier. Disobeying orders, D’Erlon did not set his troops in motion until half-past four. Receiving no orders, Vandamme did not move at all--not until the approach of Lobau’s corps warned him that some mistake had been made. Gérard was ordered to start at three; he did not appear at the rendezvous until seven. To increase the ill effect which these delays were making upon the mind of the suspicious troops, General Bourmont, commander of the head division of the 4th Corps, went over to the enemy, accompanied by his staff, some other officers, and an escort of five lancers. This act of treachery threw the whole of the 4th Corps into confusion, and it became necessary for Gérard and General Hulot to harangue the troops to restore their confidence. Two hours were thus lost. Napoleon had not wished to give Bourmont a command, but had yielded at the urgent entreaties of Gérard and Labedoyére. To the credit of Blücher, it must be said that he gave the traitor a contemptuous reception, and spoke to his staff scornfully of the “cur.” Between nine and ten o’clock on the morning of the 15th of June the French reached the Sambre. At Thuin, at Ham, in the woods of Montigny, at the farm of La Tombe they had struck the Prussian outposts and driven them, killing, wounding and capturing some 500 of them. Then there was a fight for the bridge over the Sambre at Marchienne.