Waterloo Days: The narrative of an Englishwoman resident at Brussels in June 1815Eaton, Charlotte A. (Charlotte Anne)
History
Waterloo Days: The narrative of an Englishwoman resident at Brussels in June 1815
Eaton, Charlotte A. (Charlotte Anne)
Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815
scarcely passable: carriages were driving past each other as fast as
the horses could go. All Brussels seemed to be running away; and the
only competition appeared to be who should run the fastest. The road
was thronged with people on horseback and on foot flying from the
battle, while scattered parties of troops, British, Belgic, Hanoverian,
Nassau, and Prussian, were hurrying to the scene of action. A great
number of Prussian Lancers, with their black mustachios, high caps,
long pikes, and little horses, were pushing forwards to the field. Long
trains of commissariat waggons were rolling along with a deafening
clatter; overturned carts, and the remains of broken wheels, were
lying in the ditches. By the wayside, and beneath the shade of some
tall trees, there was a large rude sort of encampment, consisting of
men and women, horses and waggons, amongst which universal uproar
seemed to prevail. I could have fancied them a Tartar settlement in
the act of suddenly decamping at the approach of some horde of savage
enemies. Farther on, parks of artillery were drawn up in the peaceful
verdant meadows. Droves of oxen were going up to be slaughtered for
the army, and the poor beasts, amazed at the horrid objects and noises
which they encountered, took fright, and ran about in every direction
except the right one, entirely blocking up the road, where confusion
reigned unbounded: while the barking of the dogs, the blows and halloos
of the drivers, the curses of the soldiers, and the vexation of the
passengers, only served to increase the turbulence of the unruly
cattle. The canal, by the side of which the road is carried, was
covered with boats, and trackschuyts, and côches d'eau, and vessels
of every description, and presented a scene of tumult and confusion
scarcely inferior to that upon land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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