Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

were forgotten at the animating order to charge; and the whole line four deep, and supported by the artillery and cavalry, rushed down the slope, and up the corresponding bank, preceded by the Duke of Wellington with his hat in his hand. The fire from one hundred and fifty pieces of artillery did not stop them for a single moment, and in a short time the French artillery-men deserted their guns, cut loose their traces, and mingled in the flight now altogether confused and universal, the fugitives trampling down those who yet endeavoured to keep their ranks. The tirailleurs of the Imperial guard gallantly endeavoured to cover the retreat. They were charged by the British cavalry and literally cut to pieces. Both lines now became united in one tide of general and undistinguished flight. Baggage waggons, artillery carts, guns overthrown, and all the impediments of a hurried flight, encumbered the field and road, without mentioning the thick-strewn corpses of the slain, and the bodies of the still more iniserable wounded, who, in vain shrieked and implored compassion, as fliers and pursuers drove headlong over them in the agony of fear, or the ecstacy of triumph. All the guns which were in the line, fell into the immediate possession of the British.

The march and advance of the Prussians crossed the van of the British army near La Belle Alliance, where the Duke of Wellington and Prince Marshal Blucher, met to congratulate each other upon their joint success. Here too the victorious allies of both countries exchanged military greeting. The Prussian cavalry in advance, halted their regimental band to play God save the King,' which compliment the British returned with three cheers.. After a fight of such unparalleled length and ferocity the British troops were completely exhausted. Even the horses of the officers were altogether unable to strike a trot for any length of way. But Blucher assuring the Duke that every man and horse should be sent in pursuit of the fugitives, the British halted and gave the French three hearty cheers. The night

[ocr errors]

was illuminated by a bright moon, so that the fliers found no refuge, and experienced as little mercy. The Prussian light horse executed their orders with an exactness that was terrible. At Genappe there was nothing but pell-mell confusion, and the French being completely dispirited and exhausted, were slaughtered without resistance. There was something Homeric in the death of General Duhesme, who commanded the rear guard. He was overtaken at the gate of an inn by a Brunswick hussar. The Duke fell yesterday,' said the hussar, and instantly cut him down. Charleroi the French attempted to make a stand, but a few shots from their pursuers dispersed them; and caissons, provisions, guns, and money, were abandoned in the streets, and the whole material of the army fell into the hands of the Prussians. The flight now recommenced with all its disorder. At a little distance from Charleroi, one party' took the road leading to Avesnes, and the other to Philippeville; and many threw themselves into the surrounding woods, to avoid the Prussian cavalry, and thus this great army gradually dispersed and disappeared.

The British halted about two miles from the field of battle. It was then half past nine o'clock. The Duke of Wellington returned to Waterloo. As he crossed again this fatal scene, on which the silence of death had now succeeded to the storm of battle, the moon breaking from dark clouds shed an uncertain light upon this wide field of carnage, covered with mangled thousands of that gallant army, whose heroic valour had won for him the brightest wreath of victory, and left to future times an imperishable monument of their country's faine. He saw himself surrounded by the bloody corpses of his veteran soldiers, who had followed him through distant lands---of his friends--his associates in arms---his companions through many an eventful year of danger and of glory: in that awful pause which follows the mortal conflict of man with man, emotions unknown or stifled in the heat of battle forced their way, the

feelings of the man triumphed over those of the general, and in the very hour of victory, Lord Wellington burst into

tears.

If it was a day of glory, it was likewise a day of sorrow for Britain; if we triumph in it as the proudest, we must also mourn it as the most bloody of all the battles that she fought or won. Those who witnessed the most sanguinary contests of the Peninsular war, declared they had never seen so terrible a carnage; and the Prussians acknowledged that even the battle of Leipsic was not to be compared to it. The dead could not be numbered; and by those who visited this dreadful field of glory, and of death, the day after the battle, the spectacle of horror that it exhibited can never be forgotten.

The mangled and lifeless bodies were even then stripped of every covering-every thing of the smallest value was already carryed off.* The road between Waterloo and Brussels, which passes for nine miles through the thick shades of the Forest of Soigne, was choaked up with scattered baggage, broken waggons, and dead horses. The heavy rains and the

* All the inhabitants near the field of Battle fled into the adjoining wood, except the gardener at Hougoumont, who had delayed his retreat too long, and was therefore obliged to remain amongst the British troops. At a farm house at the end of Waterloo and nearest the field, one solitary woman remained, during the whole of the day, shut up in a garret, from which she could see nothing, and without any means of gaining information of what was passing, while they were fighting man to man, and sword to sword, at the very doors; while shells were bursting in at the windows, and while the cannon-balls were breaking through the wooden gates into the farm-yard, and striking against the walls of the house. This woman was the farmer's wife: and when asked her motives for this extraordinary conduct, she replied with great simplicity, that she had a great many cows and calves, and poultry, and pigs-that all she had in the world was there; and that she thought, if she did not stay to take care of them, they would all be destroyed or carried off. Though the inhabitants had their property destroyed, yet they were amply compensated by the plunder of the dead, and the sale of their relics to crowds of curious English that visited the field. Many of the peasantry, it is said, realized a small fortune.

great passage upon it, had rendered it almost impassible, so that it was with extreme difficulty that the carriages containing the wounded could be brought along. The way was lined with unfortunate men who had crept from the field, and many, unable to go farther, lay down and died :---holes dug by the road side, served as their graves, and the road, weeks after the battle, was strewed with the tattered remains of their clothes and accoutrements. In every village and hamlet,--on every road,--in every part of the country, for thirty miles round, wounded soldiers were found wandering; the wounded Belgic and Dutch stragglers exerting themselves to the utmost to reach their own homes. So great were the numbers of the wounded, that, notwithstanding the most active and unremitting exertions, the last were not removed from the field of battle into Brussels till the Thursday following.

It is impossible for words to do justice to the generous kindness, and unwearied care and attention, which the inhabitants of Brussels and Antwerp, and the whole of the Belgic people, exerted towards these poor sufferers. Nor should the humanity shown by the British soldiers themselves be unnoticed. The wounded of our army, who were able to move, employed themselves in tying up the wounds and administering to the wants of their suffering enemies.

The desolation which reigned on the scene of action, cannot easily be described. The fields of high standing corn were trampled down, and so completely beaten into the earth, that they had the appearance of stubble. The ground was completely ploughed up in many places with the charge of the cavalry, and the horses' hoofs, deep stamped into the earth, left the traces where many a deadly struggle had been. The whole field was strewed with the melancholy vestiges of war and devastation---soldiers' caps pierced with many a ball, and trodden under foot--eagles that had ornamented them--badges of the legion of honour--cuirasses---fragments of broken arms, belts and scabbards innumerable--shreds of tattered cloth, shoes, cartridge boxes, gloves, highland bon

M

nets, feathers steeped in mud and gore-French novels, and German Testaments--scattered music belonging to the bands ---packs of cards, and innumerable papers of every description, that had been thrown out of the pockets of the dead, by those who had pillaged them. French love-letters, and letters from mothers to their sons, and from children to their parents, were scattered about in every direction.

The number that fell on the field of Waterloo, has never been exactly ascertained. The loss in killed and wounded of the British and Hanoverians, has been estimated at 17,000, and that of the French at 23,000, making a total of 40,000. But some officers of distinction have considered this computation as rather low. To the superior English officers that fell, and are mentioned in the notes, may be added, General Barnes, Colonels Ellis, Gordon, Ferrier, and Hamilton; and Lieut. Colonels Thomas, Canning, Currie, Fitzgerald, D'Oyly, and Macara, Majors Hodge, Cairnes, Hawlyn, Howard, Griffith, Packe, and Lloyd, and most of the Duke of Wellington's suite. Many of these fought and fell in the ball dress, in which they had appeared at the Duchess of Richmond's rout. The Earl of Uxbridge received a wound by almost the last shot fired, in consequence of which his leg was amputated.

When it is considered that it was almost the first line alone, which consisted of English troops, that received and repelled the furious and repeated shocks of the whole French army, the decided superiority of troops that have been nurtured in the invigorating principles of freedom, will appear in a most striking point of view. Blucher's celebrated veterans, strongly posted, could not resist the attacks of an equal number of French, but a small body of English defeated a greatly superior number of French warriors, whose gallantry and enthusiasm were most conspicuous on this occasion. Had the Prussians not appeared at night, and had the French succeeded in forcing the English lines, Lord Wellington has declared that a rout would not have ensued.

« ZurückWeiter »