Paris after Waterloo; notes taken at the time and hitherto unpublished, including a revised edition--the tenth--of A visit to Flanders and the field

Front matter

(ttmntll Uttfotwtig ji

;itaeg

ME

Preface

" A Visit to Flanders and the Field of Waterloo," published alone, in 1815, formed a part only of notes, taken by the author, on his whole sojourn in Belgium and France. Looking over the hitherto unpublished portion, 'which for thirty-seven years has reposed in a dusty corner, and finding much which he himself had forgotten, but which narrates events and describes scenes which he thinks might be interesting, as they would probably.be new, to his younger countrymen, — especially at the present moment that a recent loss has recalled the public attention to the marvels of days past, — he has ventured to bring it out. The history of Waterloo, no doubt, has been written by many others since his own slight sketch of it appeared. But his being rather a picture than a detailed narrative — true, however, so far as it goes — the readers of the new portion, he thinks, may like to see the old ; and he has given it the place it originally held in the journal which he kept at the time. In doing so, he trusts

Chapter I. Antwerp

Page Caserne de Facon, one of the hospitals of wounded British' — La Corderie, the hospital of wounded French — Citadel — Convicts in chains — Wounded officers — Highlanders in Antwerp — Docks of Napoleon — View from the tower of the Cathedral — Streets and houses of Antwerp — Cathedral, and blanks left for Rubens' pictures expected to be restored, .... 1-13

Chapter II

Road from Antwerp to Brussels — Place Royale — Park, with its buildings and ornamentB — Preparations in Brussels for the battle — March of the troops — Of the Highland regiments — Visit to Quatre-Bras — Two English ladies — Retrograde movement of the British army — Alarms in Brussels — Wounded officer — -Lady who had lost her husband — Alarm of fire at Antwerp — Field immediately after the battle — Robbery by a Prussian Hussar — Irish officer and his young Belgian wife — Singular fortitude of the latter — Palace of Laken — Theatre — King of the Netherlands present — A blacksmith necessary to disarm a Highland sergeant — Quack doctress on horseback — Report about the Netherlands — Experience of the author's wounded relative, . . 14-26

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Vjsit To The Field

Forest of Soigne— Village of Waterloo— Station of Lord Wellington — Description of the field — Discouraging bivouac — Spirit of an Irish officer — Numbers of the two armies — Exclamation of Buonaparte — Two first attacks — Effect of their failure on Napoleon — Highlanders and Scots Greys — Three grand charges by the British cavalry — Infantry attacks — Cavalry attacks numerous — Impatience of the British troops to be led on — Their constancy and firmness — Farm-house of La Haye Sainte — Sir William De Lancey — Colonel Miller and Captain Curzon — Horrors of the field the day after the battle — Wreck yet remaining ; leaves of books and letters — Chivalrous conduct of the Prince of Orange —Conduct of a nameless regiment of light horse — 12th Light Dragoons ; young officer of that regiment who fell — Brigade of 30th, and another regiment — Several anecdotes — 69th regiment — Hougomont and the Guards — Hovel of La Belle Alliance — Country over which the enemy fled — Visit to the station of Napoleon — Lacoste the farmer — Answer of Napoleon to a message about an English battery — His compliments to the British troops — His interview with a British officer — Account by a French officer of his behaviour — Defeat of a general attack by the French army — Final effort of Napoleon — Its defeat — Advance by the whole British army — French officer's account of the rout of the French army — Meeting of Wellington and Blucher — Compliment from the Prussian to the British cavalry — Flight of Napoleon — Contrast of the conduct of Frederick the Great — Megret's remark on the death of Charles XII. — Anecdote of a peasant woman on the field, ..... 27-77

Chapter IV. Keflections

Reflections written in 1815, . . . . . 78-87

Reflections written in 1852, ..... 87-94

CONTENTS. XI

Chapter V. Mons — Cambbay — Kote — Senlis

Pagk Devotion of a French soldier to the Emperor — Belgian agriculture — British regiments passing through Mons — General mendicity — Singular violin-playing — Valenciennes — Cambray — Dress of the peasantry — Peasant family — Returned conscript — Roye ; termagant hostess — Prussian soldiers complained of — Senlis ; interesting hospital ; wounded French officer — Approach to Paris — English Life Guards sent out as police — Highland sentry at the Barrier St Martin — Arrival in Paris, . . . 95-101

Chapter VI

Place Carrousel — Venetian horses on triumphal arch — Austrian humiliation — Louis XVIII. — Opera, Duke of Wellington, the music, the dancing, Highland soldiers represented in the ballet, these popular — Gahgnani's — Review of 30,000 Russian Guards — " Vive nos ennemis" — Blucher and Platoff — Tuileries gardens — French at a table-d'hote — Theatre des Varietes, John Bull ridiculed, Characteristic scenes, an English and French officer — The English the protectors of Paris — Ladies much abroad ; Home unknown — Palais Royal — Cafe'de Mille Colonnes and its matron; Walter Scott there— French women, French men — Napoleon's opinion of the latter — French boys on the streets — Recollections of the " tenth of August" — Place Louis XV. — Champs Elysees ; British troops encamped — Bois de Boulogne — English and Hanoverians — Fire among the huts of the latter — British Guards. 102-117

Chapter VII. Louvre Galleky

(First Visit.)

First impression — General survey — 1400 masterpieces — Divided into schools — Paul Potter's bull — Works of earlier painters — Statuary halls — Pliny and the Laocoon — Tivoli gardens ; silly

XIV

CONTENTS.

Page Value of a bit of frieze from the Parthenon — West and Canova's opinion of Elgin Marbles — "Transfiguration" again; has been tampered with — Raphael's female beauty — Restitution of pictures — that question — Fete in the Tuileries gardens — Illuminations — Prussian officers resenting an insult by the police to an English officer — Banquet of the 95th at the Quadron Bleu ; their toasts and cheers, and effect on Parisians — Review at Neuilly of two pet regiments of Russian guards ; monarehs colonels ; Cossacks keeping the ground ; Emperor of Russia giving word of command — Respect for the English troops — Visit to the guillotine — Church of Nfitre Dame— Crown of Thorns — Ancient cloister — House of Fulbert ; Abelard and Helo'ise — Observatory — Execution of Marshal Ney near it — M. Arago — Last visit to Louvre — Journey to Rouen — Afflicting French lady — Rouen, ancient and interesting — Officers of Scots Greys there — The vast cathedral — Place de la Pucelle, the Maid of Orleans — Journey to Dieppe — Substitute for passport — Immediate embarkation — Arrival at Brighton, .... 246-274

CHAPTER XII.

Conclusion,

275-278

Appendix

I. Sufferings of Sir William Ponsonby on the field, . 279 II. British Account of the Battle of Waterloo — London Gazette Extraordinary, ..... 281

III. Prussian Account— Official Report of Marshal Blucher, 287

IV. Spanish Account— Despatch from General Miguel Alava, 293 V. French Official Account, .... 300

VI. Marshal Ne/s Observations on the Battle, . . 306

VII. Wellington Victories, : gn

VIII. Wellington Honours and Rewards, . . 311

IX. Wellington Titles, . ... 312

X. Wellington Offices, . . . . 3J3

INTBODUCTION.

The generation is passing away who, in their prime, cheered on the career of Wellington, and shouted for the victory of Waterloo. A generation of their sons, and yet another of their grandsons, were unborn when the world wide first rang with these inseparable alliterated names. From the thinned ranks of grandfathers the aged hero has descended to his honoured tomb ; but the survivors have "grandfathers' tales" to tell, which

" The listener holds his breath to hear."

A long war, on which was staked their existence, had roused, in the British people, a martial ardour, which a more pacific age would deem a national mania. A million of men, of peaceful habits and pursuits, were in arms. Grave citizens marched through their familiar streets to the cadence of trumpet and drum, in "the pomp and circumstance of war," intent to rouse the echos with salvos of musketry and cannon. You were served by the shopman in soldier's garb ; your physician

11 INTEODUCTION.

exchanged the lancet for the lance, and felt your pulse in scarlet and lace ; your advocate pleaded your cause, his gown scarcely concealing the same gaudy incongruity ; ■while the judge descended from the bench, and even the divine from the pulpit, to assume it, and hasten, with " the sword of Gideon," to the field. It may easily be believed that when " the regulars" were spared for Continental campaigns, the soldiers at home went with them in spirit, heart, and soul ; and that tidings of their movements and feats of arms were expected with intense interest by those who, so well qualified to look on, felt as if they were actually playing the critical game. Believing, in our simplicity, that we had deposited Buonaparte for life, in a little island temptingly near the French coast,* we were more " electrified " than we were entitled to be when he reappeared, like a meteor, in the heart of the country, and advanced — " alone he did it" — to his recently abdicated throne in the Tuileries. France exulted ; and Europe, crying treachery, flew once more to arms.

" The war that for a space did fail, Now trebly thundering swelled the gale."

To revenge "the cheat" our martial spirit burst forth again with a heat which left its prior temperature cool and moderate. Every available "regular" was hurried to Belgium, the expected battle-field — the region of battle-fields since Caesar's time. Wellington was again

* Captain Usher's ship, when conveying the French Emperor to Elba, was spoken at sea by another ship of war, the captain of which came on board for a few minutes. A sailor leaning over the taffrail was heard to call to another looking from Captain Usher's ship, "Well, you've got Boney on board?" "Ay, ay," was the answer, " we've got him at last ! "