WATERLOO WATSON. 



891 



mont. This movement destroyed, for a moment, 

 the connexion of the Prussians with the British 

 left wing, and made the situation of affairs, at this 

 juncture, critical. The sudden appearance of the 

 first brigade of the first Prussian battalion, under 

 general Ziethen, decided the battle. Their arrival 

 had been delayed by a necessary change in their 

 march and by the badness of the roads. These 

 brave soldiers immediately separated the sixth 

 French corps from the rest of the army, and, by 

 means of twenty-four cannon brought to bear on 

 the rear of the enemy, put them to flight. At the 

 same moment, the British cavalry had overthrown 

 and dispersed, after a brave resistance, the infantry 

 stationed at La Haye. These troops became min- 

 gled, at Belle Alliance, with those who were pur- 

 sued, by the first Prussian corps ; and thus their 

 defeat became complete. The British and Prus- 

 sians followed hotly, and kept up a continued fire. 

 The disorder of the French now exceeded all that 

 had been hitherto witnessed. Obedience and order 

 had ceased ; infantry and cavalry, generals and ser- 

 vants, soldiers and officers, were mingled in wild 

 confusion ; every one consulted only his own pre- 

 servation. All the artillery and baggage were 

 abandoned. The disorder finally increased to an 

 incredible degree, when Planchenoit was taken by 

 the combined exertions of Hiller's brigade and a 

 part of the second battalion. At Belle Alliance, 

 the victorious generals met. Prince Bliicher now 

 ordered a pursuit on the part of the Prussians, with 

 all the disposable troops, under general count 

 Gneisenau's personal direction. In Jemappes, which 

 was taken by a sudden attack, the travelling car- 

 riage of Napoleon, with his jewels, his plate, and 

 other valuables, as well as many military chests, 

 and the rest of the baggage of the French army, 

 fell into the hands of the conquerors. Upwards of 

 200 cannon, two eagles, and 6000 prisoners, were 

 the trophies of this victory. The whole French 

 army was dispersed and disabled. The loss in 

 killed and wounded amounted to 35,000. The 

 British army lost, on the eighteenth, in killed, two 

 generals, 173 officers, and 3242 privates, and, in- 

 cluding the wounded (among whom were five gene- 

 rals and 803 officers), about 10,580 men. The 

 Dutch lost, on this day, 2000 men. The loss of 

 the Prussian army amounted to 207 officers and 

 6984 men. Napoleon hastened to Paris. Grouchy, 

 however, returned through Namur (which the al- 

 lies had not occupied, and where the Prussians at- 

 tacked him with a loss of 1600 men) to Laon, by 

 the road througa Rethel. General Gourgaud, in 

 his Campagne de 1815, attributes the loss of the 

 battle to the faults committed by marshal Ney. 

 But the ex-prefect Gamut has justified the marshal 

 by printing the original orders, which did not allow 

 Ney to act otherwise. It is nevertheless true, 

 that Ney caused the cavalry to advance too far. 

 Marchand has also refuted Gourguud's account. 

 Napoleon himself gives two reasons for the loss of 

 the battle : 1. The non-arrival of Grouchy (but 

 Grouchy did not receive, till seven o'clock on the 

 evening of the eighteenth, the command, given by 

 Napoleon in the forenoon, to join the right wing 

 of the French) ; 2. the attack of the mounted 

 grenadiers and the reserved cavalry without his 

 command and knowledge. Napoleon, as he says 

 himself, was in great personal danger. When the 

 British, towards the end of the battle, became the 

 assailants, a portion of their cavalry and sharp- 

 shooters came near the place where Napoleon was. 



He placed himself at the head of a battalion, and 

 resolved to attack and die ; but Soult seized his 

 horse's reins, and exclaimed, " They will take you 

 prisoner, sire, and not kill you." He, with gene- 

 rals Drouot, Bertrand and Gourgaud, succeeded in 

 removing the emperor from the field of battle. 

 Napoleon, however, repeatedly exclaimed, both be- 

 fore and after his arrival at St Helena, "J'avrais 

 du mourir & Waterloo." A graphic description of 

 the battle has been given by Sir Walter Scott, in 

 his Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. 



WATERLOO, ANTHONY, a painter and en- 

 graver, was born in Utrecht (according to some, in 

 Amsterdam), in 1618. His paintings are confined 

 almost entirely to the scenery around Utrecht. 

 Weeninx painted the men and animals in his 

 landscapes. He is said to have died of want in an 

 hospital. 



WATERSPOUT. See Whirlwind. 



WATERVILLE; a flourishing post-town in 

 Kennebec county, Maine, on the west side of the 

 river Kennebec, eighteen miles north by east from 

 Augusta. The principal village is finely situated 

 at the head of boat navigation, and has considerable 

 trade. The township is much intersected by streams 

 affording excellent mill seats, and has a fertile soil. 

 Population in 1840, 2971. Here is a college under 

 the direction of the Baptist denomination. It was 

 founded in 1820. It had, in 1843, a president and 

 six teachers, 210 alumni, (of whom 70 had been di- 

 vines) 70 students, and 7000 volumes in its lib- 

 rary. 



WATLINGSTREET ; one of the Roman mili- 

 tary roads made in Britain, while in possession of 

 the Romans, running from Dover by St Alban's, 

 Dunstable, Towcester, Atterston and Shrewsbury, 

 and ending at Cardigan, in Wales. 



WATSON, RICHARD; an English prelate, born 

 at the village of Heversham, in Westmoreland, in 

 1737. His father was a clergyman, and master of 

 a free grammar school, where the son received his 

 early education. In 1754, he became a sizar of 

 Trinity college, Cambridge, where he was distin- 

 guished for his intense application to study, and for 

 the singularity of his dress, which consisted of a 

 coarse, mottled Westmoreland coat, and blue yarn 

 stockings. He regularly took his degrees, and be- 

 came a college tutor, and, in 1760, obtained a fel- 

 lowship. In 1764, he was elected professor of 

 chemistry, when he first applied himself to the 

 study of that science, and with great success, as 

 appears from the five volumes of Chemical Essays 

 which he subsequently published. On the death of 

 doctor Rutherforth, in 1771, he succeeded him as 

 regius professor of divinity. He early distinguished 

 himself by a display of his political opinions, in a 

 sermon preached before the university, on the an- 

 niversary of the revolution, which was printed under 

 the title of the Principles of the Revolution vindi- 

 cated. This discourse excited a degree of public 

 attention only exceeded by Hoadly's celebrated 

 sermon on the Kingdom of Christ. A short time 

 previous to this exhibition of his politics, doctor 

 Watson appeared as the opponent of Gibbon, to 

 whom he addressed a series of letters, entitled an 

 Apology for Christianity. The patronage of the 

 duke of Rutland was exerted to obtain his promo- 

 tion to the see of Llandaff, where he succeeded 

 bishop Barrington, in 1782 ; and he was permitted 

 to hold, at the same time, the archdeaconry of Ely, 

 his professorship, and other ecclesiastical prefer- 

 ments. Shortly after, he addressed to the archbi- 



