“Yes, considering the number engaged, the losses have been terribly heavy,” the major said.  “It looked very bad for a time.”

“That it did,” O’Connor agreed.  “That’s what comes of fighting with little mongrels by the side of you.  It’s always been the case when we get mixed up with other nationalities.  Look at Fontenoy, look at Talavera.  If I were a general I would simply fight my battles in my own way with my own men.  If any allies I had liked to come up and fight on their own account, all the better; but I wouldn’t rely upon them in the very slightest.”

“The Belgians and Dutch fought very fairly at the beginning, O’Connor.”

“Yes, I will admit that.  But what’s the good of fighting at the beginning if you are going to bolt in the middle of a battle?  If we had had two or three regiments of our own cavalry, it would have made all the difference in the world; but when they went off, horse and foot and left our division alone to face the whole force of the enemy, I hardly even hoped we should hold our ground till Alten came up.”

“Yes, he was just in the nick of time; but even with him we should have had to fall back if Cooke had not arrived with the guards.  By the way, has any one heard what has taken place on our left?”

“We have heard nothing; but I think there is no doubt the Prussians must have been thrashed.  One could hear the roar of fire over there occasionally, and I am sure it got farther off at the end of the day; beside, if Blucher had beaten Napoleon, our friends over there would be falling back, and you can see by their long lines of fire they have not done so.  I dare say we shall hear all about it to-morrow.  Anyhow, I think we had better lie down and get as much sleep as we can, we may have another hard day’s work before us.”

CHAPTER XVIII.

WATERLOO.

The Prussians indeed had been beaten at Ligny.  Their three corps, numbering eighty thousand men, with two hundred and twenty-four guns, had been attacked by Napoleon with sixty thousand men, with two hundred and four guns.  The battle was contested with extraordinary obstinacy on both sides.  The villages of Ligny and St. Armand were taken and retaken over and over again, and for hours the desperate strife in and around them continued without cessation.  Both parties continued to send down reinforcements to these points, but neither could succeed in obtaining entire possession of them.

The faults which Wellington had perceived in the Prussian position told against Blucher.  The villages were too far in advance of the heights on which the army was posted, and his reinforcements were therefore a long time in reaching the spot where they were required to act.  They were, too, as they descended the hill, under the observation of Napoleon, who was able to anticipate their arrival by moving up supports on his side, and who noted the time when Blucher’s last reserves behind Ligny had come into action.  At this critical moment General Lobau arrived from Charleroi with twelve thousand fresh men and thirty-eight guns, and at seven o’clock in the evening Napoleon launched this force with his division of guards, twenty thousand strong, who had hitherto been kept in reserve, against the enemy.