cessarily must be regulated. The Prussian officer sent to acquaint him with the intelligence had been made prisoner by the French light troops; and when the news arrived, they bore such a cloudy aspect as altogether destroyed the agreeable hopes which the success at Quatre Bras had induced the army to entertain.

But pledged as I am to give you a detailed account of this brief campaign, I must reserve the battle of Ligny to another occasion. Meanwhile, I am ever sincerely yours,

PAUL.

LETTER VII.'

PAUL TO THE MAJOR-IN CONTINUATION.

BATTLE OF LIGNY.

Bonaparte's Plan for Attacking Blucher-Blucher's Position -Number of Troops on both Sides-Mutual hostility of the Prussians and the French-The two Armies join Battle -Vicissitudes of the Contest-Storming of St Amand— Taking of Ligny-Charge of the Imperial GuardsCharge of the French Cavalry-Blucher's Horse shotRepulse of the French Cavalry-Prussians RetreatConcentration of the Prussian Army at Wavre-Loss of the Prussians-British Army Retreats- Bonaparte resolves to turn his whole Force against the British-Retreat of the British-Pursuit of the French-Bad state of the roads-French Cavalry checked in two attacks—British Army retire upon Waterloo-Headquarters of the Duke of Wellington Headquarters of Bonaparte— Storminess of the Night-Melancholy Reflections of the British-Triumphant Confidence of the French-Remarks on Bonaparte's Plan of Attack.

WHEN Bonaparte moved with his centre and right wing against Blucher, he certainly conceived that he left to Ney a more easy task than his own; and that the Maréchal would find no difficulty in pushing his way to Brussels, or near it, before the

English army could be concentrated in sufficient force to oppose him. To himself he reserved the task of coping with Blucher, and by his overthrow cutting off all communication between the Prussian and British armies, and compelling each to seek safety in isolated and unconnected movements. The Prussian veteran was strongly posted to receive the enemy, whom upon earth he hated most. His army occupied a line where three villages, built upon broken and unequal ground, served each as a separate redoubt, defended by infantry, and well furnished with artillery. The village of St Amand was occupied by his right wing, his centre was posted at Ligny, and his left at Sombref. All these hamlets are strongly built, and contain several houses, with large court-yards and orchards, each of which is capable of being converted into a station of defence. The ground behind these villages forms an amphitheatre of some elevation, before which runs a deep ravine, edged by straggling thickets of trees. The villages were in front of the ravine; and masses of infantry were stationed behind each, destined to reinforce the defenders as occasion required.

In this strong position Blucher had assembled three corps of his army, amounting to 80,000 men. But the fourth corps, commanded by Bulow, (a general distinguished in the campaign of 1814,) being in distant cantonments between Liege and Hannut, had not yet arrived at the point of concentration. The force of the assailants is stated in the Prussian despatches at 130,000 men. But as Ney had at least 30,000 soldiers under him at

MUTUAL HOSTILITY.

81

Quatre Bras, it would appear that the troops under Bonaparte's immediate command at the battle of Ligny, even including a strong reserve, which consisted of the first entire division, could not exceed 100,000 men. The forces, therefore, actually engaged on both sides, might be nearly equal. They were equal also in courage and in mutual animosity.

The Prussians of our time will never forget, or forgive, the series of dreadful injuries inflicted by the French upon their country after the defeat of Jena. The plunder of their peaceful hamlets, with every inventive circumstance which the evil passions of lust, rapine, and cruelty could suggest; the murder of the father, or the husband, because "the pekin looked dangerous," when he beheld his property abandoned to rapine, his wife, or daughters, to violation, and his children to wanton slaughter; such were the tales which the Prussian Land-wehr told over their watch-fires to whet each other's appetite to revenge. The officers and men of rank thought of the period when Prussia had been blotted out of the book of nations, her queen martyred by studied and reiterated insult, until she carried her sorrows to the grave, and her king only permitted to retain the name of a sovereign to increase his disgrace as a bondsman. The successful campaign of 1814 was too stinted a draught for their thirst of vengeance, and the hour was now come when they hoped for its amplest gratification.

The French had, also, their grounds of personal animosity, not less stimulating. Those very Prussians, to whom (such was their mode of stating

the account) the emperor's generosity had left the
name of independence, when a single word could
have pronounced them a conquered province; those
Prussians, admitted to be companions in arms to
the victors, had been the first to lift the standard
of rebellion against them, when the rage of the
elements had annihilated the army with which Na-
poleon invaded Russia. They had done more: they
had invaded the sacred territory of France; de-
feated her armies upon her own soil; and contri-
buted chiefly to the hostile occupation of her capital.
They were commanded by Blucher, the inveterate
foe of the French name and empire, whom no
defeat could ever humble, and no success could
mitigate. Even when the Treaty of Paris was
received by the other distinguished statesmen and
commanders of the allies as a composition advan-
tageous for all sides, it was known that this veteran
had expressed his displeasure at the easy terms on
which France was suffered to escape from the con-
flict. Amid the general joy and congratulation, he
retained the manner (in the eyes of the Parisians)
of a gloomy malcontent. A Frenchman, some-
what acquainted with our literature, described to
me the Prussian general, as bearing upon
that occa-
sion the mien and manner of Dryden's spectre-
knight :-

"Stern look'd the fiend, and frustrate of his will,
Not half sufficed, and greedy yet to kill."

And now this inveterate enemy was before them, leading troops, animated by his own sentiments, and forming the vanguard of the immense armies, which unless checked by decisive defeat, were