It was only when the Prussians of Zeiten’s corps, breaking through to the right of the French who were attacking the English and to the left of the French who were withstanding Blücher, came thundering on their flank that the French army cried “_Treachery! Treachery!_” and dissolved in universal dismay. As to Napoleon, whenever he talked of Waterloo he either confined himself to despairing ejaculations or involved himself in contradictions. He blamed himself for not having reconnoitered Wellington’s position; he admitted that he had not had a good view of the field; he confessed that he had made a mistake in changing his plan of assailing the English right; he denied giving the order for the heavy cavalry to charge, although this order had been carried by his own aide-decamp, Count Flahaut--the father of one or two of Hortense’s queerly mixed brood of children; and he severely blamed D’Erlon, Ney and Grouchy. A curious evidence of the difficulty of learning the truth about Waterloo is to be found in Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables.” Describing the struggle for Hougoumont, he speaks of the fight in the chapel. He represents the sacred building as having gone through all the horrors of war, having been splashed with blood, having been torn by shot and shell, and having been ravaged by fire. All this seems probable enough, and yet the English authoress of “Waterloo Days” visited the battlefield a few hours after the fight and she makes particular mention of this same chapel; and she declares that it “stood uninjured”! Listen to this lady--Charlotte Eaton: “No shot or shell had penetrated its sacred walls; and no sacrilegious hand had dared to violate its humble altar, which was still adorned with its ancient ornaments and its customary care.” This is quite different from Hugo’s “Soldiers massacred each other in the chapel.” After Hugo’s famous description of Waterloo appeared, all the world talked of “the old road of Ohain” which had, the novelist declared, been the pitfall and the tomb of the French cavalry. Painters caught up the theme, and the legend lives on imperishable canvas. But now history discards the story. The road from Ohain to Braine l’Alleud _does_ become a hollow way, between steep banks, for about 400 yards; but the French were aware of the fact, and the cavalry did _not_ charge across the trench. The charges passed over the road where it was on a level with the plain. It _is_ true, however, that in the bewildering movements incident to charge and countercharge, a small body of French cavalry came upon this “hollow way,” walked their horses down the bank, got upon the road, and were about to ride up the other bank to get at the English, when the English cavalry charged the road, making it impossible for the French to mount the bank. They then rode up “the hollow way,”--hacked at by the English above,--until they reached the level ground, when they retired into the open field to reform.