Wellington’s despairing words have been handed down in various forms.  Notably he is reported to have said, “Oh! for night or Bluecher.”  When he heard the firing, “That is old Bluecher at last!” &c.  That he was in a tight place there is little doubt, and many authorities have stated that had Grouchy come up according to orders, the allied forces would have been cut to pieces.

Whether it was “caprice of fortune” or not, Wellington claimed to have won the battle.  “Caprice of fortune” had nothing to do with it.  It was a hard-fought battle.  Treachery and desertion at an important juncture undoubtedly weakened the chances of French success.  Meneval adds that “in no encounter of such importance did the French army display more heroism and more resolution than at the Battle of Waterloo.”  Napoleon at St. Helena attributed his defeat to a variety of circumstances:  to treachery, and to his orders not being carried out as they should have been by some of his generals, and often concludes:  “It must have been Fate, for I ought to have succeeded.”  He was accustomed to say that “One must never ask of Fortune more than she can grant,” and possibly he erred in this.

Though nearly a century has passed since the catastrophe to France, the cause of it is still controversial.  It is certain that the conduct of Marshal Soult, who was second in command, gave reason for suspicion.  An old corporal told the Emperor that he was to “be assured that Soult was betraying him.”  General Vandamme was reported to have gone over to the enemy.  It was also reported to the Emperor by a dragoon that General Henin was exhorting the soldiers of his corps to go over to the Allies, and while this was going on the General had both legs blown away by a cannon shot.  Lieutenants, colonels, staff officers, and, it is said, officers who were bearing despatches deserted, but it is significant that there is not a single instance given of the common soldier forsaking his great chief’s cause.  Lord Wolseley declares that if Napoleon had been the man he was at Austerlitz, he would have won the Battle of Waterloo.  Wolseley is supported in this view by many writers.

After Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden, Byron said that “bar epilepsy and the elements, he would back Napoleon against the field.”  It is well known the odds he had to battle with, including the vilest treachery within his own circle.

Marshal Grouchy’s conduct will always remain doubtful, even to the most friendly critics.  High treason bubbling up everywhere must have had a dulling effect on the mind of the great genius, though he battled with the increasing vigour of it with amazing courage.  He saw the current was running too strong for him to stem unless he determined to again risk the flow of rivers of blood.  This he shrank from, and abdicated the throne a second time.  And then the barbarous, crimeful story began.

Sir Hudson Lowe’s appointment was a national calamity, but he was the nominee of Wellington’s coadjutors, and carried out their wishes with a criminal exactitude, and they should have stood by him in his dire distress, instead of which they allowed him to die in poverty, broken in spirit, and a victim to calumny which they ought to have been manly enough to share.