Page:15 decisive battles of the world Vol 2 (London).djvu/317

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BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
309

perhaps, content myself with referring to their pages, and avoid the difficult task of dealing with a subject, which has already been discussed so copiously, so clearly, and so eloquently by others. In particular, the description by Captain Siborne of the Waterloo campaign, is so full and so minute, so scrupulously accurate, and at the same time so spirited and graphic, that it will long defy the competition of far abler pens than mine. I shall only aim at giving a general idea of the main features of this great event, of this discrowning and crowning victory.

When, after a very hard-fought and a long-doubtful day, Napoleon had succeeded in driving back the Prussian army from Ligny, and had resolved on marching himself to assail the English, he sent, on the 17th, Marshal Grouchy with thirty thousand men, to pursue the defeated Prussians, and to prevent their marching to aid the Duke of Wellington. Great recriminations passed afterwards between the marshal and the emperor, as to how this duty was attempted to be performed, and the reasons why Grouchy failed on the 18th to arrest the lateral movement of the Prussian troops from Wavre towards Waterloo. It may be sufficient to remark here, that Grouchy was not sent in pursuit of Blucher till late on the 17th, and that the force given to him was insufficient to make