A Week at Waterloo in 1815 Part 6

NOTES TO LADY DE LANCEY'S NARRATIVE

Most of the following notes have been compiled by Mr T.W. Brogden, of the Middle Temple, to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness for his a.s.sistance in the preparation of this volume, and for his kindness in seeing the book through the press, during my absence in Canada.

EDITOR.

(1) "On Thursday the 15th June we had spent a particularly happy morning. My dear husband gave me many interesting anecdotes of his former life, and I traced in every one some trait of his amiable and generous mind; never had I felt so perfectly content, so grateful for the blessing of his love."--_Abridged Narrative._

(2) General Alava, who was Minister Plenipotentiary from Spain to the King of the Netherlands.

Sir William and Lady De Lancey were amongst the guests invited to the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond's famous ball that night. See _Reminiscences of Lady de Ros_, p. 127.

(3) "He turned back at the door, and looked at me with a smile of happiness and peace. It was the last!"--_Abridged Narrative._

(4) The Duke's house was at the corner of the Rue de la Montagne du Parc and the Rue Royale, and was next to the Hotel de France. The Count de Lannoy's house was at the south-east corner of the Impa.s.se du Parc.

(5) By 9 P.M. the _first orders_ had been despatched.

Colonel Basil Jackson has the following recollections of his experiences on the evening of the 15th June: "I was sauntering about the park towards seven o'clock on the evening of the 15th June, when a soldier of the Guards, attached to the Quartermaster-General's office, summoned me to attend Sir William De Lancey. He had received orders to concentrate the army towards the frontier, which until then had remained quiet in cantonments. I was employed, along with others, for about two hours in writing out 'routes' for the several divisions, foreign as well as British, which were despatched by orderly Hussars of the 3rd Regiment of the German Legion, steady fellows, who could be depended on for so important a service. To each was explained the rate at which he was to proceed, and the time when he was to arrive at his destination; he was directed also to bring back the cover of the letter which he carried, having the time of its arrival noted upon it by the officer to whom it was addressed.

"This business over, which occupied us till after nine, De Lancey put a packet into my hand directed to Colonel Cathcart--the present Earl--a thorough soldier, and highly esteemed by the Duke, who then filled, as he had previously done in Spain, the arduous post of a.s.sistant Quartermaster-General to the whole of the cavalry.

"'I believe you can find your way in the dark by the cross roads to Ninove,' said Sir William, 'let this be delivered as soon as possible.'

"Proud of my commission, I was speedily in the saddle and threading my way, which I did without difficulty. My good nag rapidly cleared the fifteen miles, but ere reaching the above place, then the headquarters of the cavalry, I fell in with one or two orderly Dragoons speeding to out-quarters. I could also perceive lights flickering about in the villages adjacent to my route: indications which satisfied me that the German Hussar previously despatched from Brussels had accomplished his mission.

"Here let me stop for a moment to commend the practice in our service of having plenty of well-mounted staff officers ready to convey orders of moment at the utmost speed. On the portentous night in question, several, chiefly belonging to the Royal Staff Corps, a body attached to the Quartermaster-General's department, were employed in conveying duplicates of the instructions previously forwarded by Hussars, in order to guard against the possibility of mistake. The omission of such a precautionary measure at the Prussian headquarters, on the same evening, was attended with disastrous consequences, for Blucher's order for Bulow's corps to unite with the rest of his army, being entrusted to a corporal, probably wanting in intelligence, he did not deliver it in time, whereby that corps, 30,000 strong, failed to reach Ligny and share in the battle."[33]

[Footnote 33: "Recollections of Waterloo," by a Staff Officer, in _United Service Journal_ for 1847, Part III., p. 3.]

(6) "I entreated to remain in the room with him, promising not to speak. He wrote for several hours without any interruption but the entrance and departure of the various messengers who were to take the orders. Every now and then I gave him a cup of green tea, which was the only refreshment he would take, and he rewarded me by a silent look. My feelings during these hours I cannot attempt to describe, but I preserved perfect outward tranquillity."--_Abridged Narrative._

(7) By 12 midnight, the _after orders_ had been despatched. With regard to the orders of the 15th and 16th June, including the "Disposition of the British Army at 7 o'clock A.M., 16th June,"

attributed to Sir William De Lancey, see Gurwood, vol. xii., pp.

472-474; _Supplementary Despatches_, vol. x., p. 496; Ropes'

_Waterloo_, pp. 77-89; and Colonel Maurice in _U.S. Magazine_, 1890, pp. 144 and 257-263.

(8) Doubtless, General m.u.f.fling, Prussian attache at the headquarters of the Duke of Wellington. He accompanied the Duke to the ball, and next morning rode with him to Quatre Bras.

(9) _I.e._, without changing their ball dress. Some of the officers were killed at Quatre Bras in their shoes and silk stockings. "There was a ball at Brussels, at the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond's, that night (which I only mention because it was so much talked of), at which numbers of the officers were present, who quitted the ball to join their divisions, which had commenced their march before they arrived at their quarters, and some of them were killed the next day in the same dress they had worn at the ball." (Extract from a letter written by Colonel Felton Hervey shortly after the battle, and published in the _XIXth Century_ for March 1903, page 431.) See also Colonel Maurice in _U.S. Magazine_, 1890, p. 144.

(10) "As the dawn broke, the soldiers were seen a.s.sembling from all parts of the town, in marching order, with their knapsacks on their backs, loaded with three days' provisions. Unconcerned in the midst of the din of war, many a soldier laid himself down on a truss of straw and soundly slept, with his hands still grasping his firelock; others were sitting contentedly on the pavement, waiting the arrival of their comrades. Numbers were taking leave of their wives and children, perhaps for the last time, and many a veteran's rough cheek was wet with the tears of sorrow. One poor fellow, immediately under our windows, turned back again and again to bid his wife farewell, and take his baby once more in his arms; and I saw him hastily brush away a tear with the sleeve of his coat, as he gave her back the child for the last time, wrung her hand, and ran off to join his company, which was drawn up on the other side of the Place Royale. Many of the soldiers' wives marched out with their husbands to the field, and I saw one young English lady mounted on horseback slowly riding out of town along with an officer, who, no doubt, was her husband. Soon afterwards the 42nd and 92nd Highland regiments marched through the Place Royale and the Parc, with their bagpipes playing before them, while the bright beams of the rising sun shone full on their polished muskets and on the dark waving plumes of their tartan bonnets. Alas!

we little thought that even before the fall of night these brave men whom we now gazed at with so much interest and admiration would be laid low." (Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 21.)

(11) "I stood with my husband at a window of the house, which overlooked a gate of the city, and saw the whole army go out. Regiment after regiment pa.s.sed through and melted away in the mist of the morning."--_Abridged Narrative._

(12) "Le Grand Laboureur."

(13) The Duke's corpse did not arrive at Antwerp till Sat.u.r.day afternoon. See Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 59.

(14) "I went to Antwerp, and found the hotel there so crowded, that I could only obtain one small room for my maid and myself, and it was at the top of the house. I remained entirely within, and desired my maid not to tell me what she might hear in the hotel respecting the army.

On the 18th, however, I could not avoid the conviction that the battle was going on; the anxious faces in the street, the frequent messengers I saw pa.s.sing by, were sufficient proof that important intelligence was expected, and as I sat at the open window I heard the firing of artillery, like the distant roaring of the sea, as I had so often heard it at Dungla.s.s. How the contrast of my former tranquil life there was pressed upon me at that moment!"--_Abridged Narrative._

Southey, the poet, says that the firing of the 16th was heard at Antwerp, but not that of the 18th. It is an extraordinary but indisputable fact that the firing at Waterloo was heard in England.

The _Kentish Gazette_ of Tuesday, 20th June 1815 (published therefore before any one in England, not even Nathan Rothschild himself, was aware that there had been a battle fought at Waterloo), contained the following piece of news from Ramsgate: "A heavy and incessant firing was heard from this coast on Sunday evening in the direction of Dunkirk." Dunkirk lies in nearly a straight line between Waterloo and the coast of Kent. What makes the matter still more extraordinary is the fact that Colville's Division, which, on the 18th, was posted in front of Hal, about ten miles to the west of the battlefield, never heard a sound of the firing, and did not know till midnight that any battle had taken place.

(15) Wellington's headquarters on the night of the 16th June were at Genappe, two or three miles to the rear of the battlefield of Quatre Bras. He slept at the Roi d'Espagne. Blucher occupied the same inn on the night of the 18th.

(16) The battle began about 11.35, though Wellington in his despatch states that it began about 10. Napoleon's bulletin fixes noon as the time. Marshal Ney said that it began at 1 o'clock. It is clear they did not all look at their watches.

(17) De Lancey is supposed to have been struck about the time when the French batteries opened a fierce cannonade on the English centre, preparatory to the first of their tremendous cavalry attacks. This would make the hour nearer 4 o'clock than 3.

He fell not far from the Wellington Tree, and close to the famous _chemin creux_ of Victor Hugo, in the immediate rear of which Ompteda's brigade of the King's German Legion was posted. The appearance of the spot is now entirely altered. The tree was cut down in 1818, and all the soil of the elevated ground on the south side of the _chemin creux_ was carted away to make the Belgian Lion Mound about 1825. A steam tramway now runs by the place.

For a sketch of the celebrated tree, with Napoleon's guide, De Coster, in the foreground, see Captain Arthur Gore's _Explanatory Notes on the Battle of Waterloo_, 1817; and for another view of the ragged old tree as it appeared the day before it was cut down, see _Ill.u.s.trated London News_, 27th November 1852.

The map which faces page 110 is adapted from the plan of the battlefield of Waterloo, drawn in 1816, by W.B. Craan, Surveying Engineer of Brabant.

The troops are shown in the positions occupied by them at 11 o'clock, A.M., just before the opening of the battle.

On the map will be seen the position of the Wellington Tree, also the farm and village of Mont St Jean, to which village it is supposed Sir William De Lancey was carried, after he had received the fatal blow.

The village of Waterloo is outside the map, some two miles to the north.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Part of the Battlefield of Waterloo]

"The Duke had no fixed station throughout the day, and did not remain at this tree for more than three or four minutes at any one time. He frequently rode to it to observe the advance of the columns of attack.

A deep dip in the main road prevented his going beyond it without a detour to the rear. It was here also that, the Duke having galloped up with the staff and using his gla.s.s to observe the enemy's movements, poor Colonel De Lancey by his side was struck by a heavy shot which slanted off without breaking either his skin or even his coat, but all the ribs of the left side were separated from the back."--Siborne's _Waterloo Correspondence_, vol. i., p. 51.

Sir Walter Scott has the following interesting pa.s.sage in the Seventh of his _Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk_. After a reference to the British army taking up its position on the field of Waterloo the night before the battle, he thus continues: "The Duke had caused a plan of this and other military positions in the neighbourhood of Brussels, to be made some time before by Colonel Carmichael Smyth, the chief engineer. He now called for that sketch, and with the a.s.sistance of the regretted Sir William De Lancey and Colonel Smyth, made his dispositions for the momentous events of next day. The plan itself, a _relique_ so precious, was rendered yet more so by being found in the breast of Sir William De Lancey's coat when he fell, and stained with the blood of that gallant officer. It is now in the careful preservation of Colonel Carmichael Smyth, by whom it was originally sketched."

For an account of Colonel Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Commanding Royal Engineer on the Staff of the Duke of Wellington, see _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. liii., p. 185.

Major John Oldfield, Brigade-Major, R.E., gives the following particulars about this map, which is reproduced opposite page 565 of vol. i. of C.D. Yonge's _Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington_.

"Shortly after my chief--Colonel Smyth--had joined headquarters (this was on the 16th), he sent in to me, at Brussels, for the plan of the position of Waterloo, which had been previously reconnoitred. The several sketches of the officers had been put together, and one fair copy made for the Prince of Orange. A second had been commenced in the drawing-room for the Duke, but was not in a state to send; I therefore forwarded the original sketches of the officers.

"_Morning of the 17th._--Upon my joining Colonel Smyth, he desired me to receive from Lieutenant Waters the plan of the position, which, according to his desire, I had sent to him from Brussels the preceding day, and of which I was told to take the greatest care. It had been lost in one of the charges of the French cavalry, and recovered.

Lieutenant Waters, who had it in his cloak before his saddle (or in his sabretasche attached to his saddle, I forget which), was unhorsed in the _melee_ and ridden over. Upon recovering himself, he found the cavalry had pa.s.sed him, and his horse was nowhere to be seen. He felt alarmed for the loss of his plan. To look for his horse, he imagined, was in vain, and his only care was to avoid being taken prisoner, which he hoped to do by keeping well towards our right. The enemy being repulsed in his charge was returning by the left to the ground by which he had advanced. After proceeding about fifty yards, he was delighted to find his horse quietly destroying the vegetables in a garden near the farmhouse at Quatre Bras. He thus fortunately recovered his plan, and with it rejoined the Colonel. The retreat of the Prussians upon Wavre rendered it necessary for the Duke to make a corresponding movement, and upon the receipt of a communication from Blucher, he called Colonel Smyth and asked him for his plan of the position of Waterloo, which I immediately handed to him. The Duke then gave directions to Sir William De Lancey to put the army in position at Waterloo, forming them across the Nivelles and Charleroi chaussees."--Porter's _History of the Corps of Royal Engineers_, vol.

i., p. 380. See also Ropes' _Waterloo_, p. 296.

(18) "He was able to speak in a short time after the fall, and when the Duke of Wellington took his hand and asked how he felt, he begged to be taken from the crowd that he might die in peace, and gave a message to me."--_Abridged Narrative._

(19) Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel Delancey Barclay, 1st Foot Guards.

See _Army List_ for 1815, pp. 30 and 145, also _Waterloo Roll Call_, p. 30.

(20) Probably a barn at the farm of Mont St Jean, about 700 yards north of the Wellington Tree.