634 PARIS. 
adjoining thereto, feemed to throw a gleam of hope on 
the Pruflian arms. From the map it appears, that Blu- 
cher was here very near feparating the enemy’s line, and 
turning the left of his main body, which was attacking 
him. This bright profpedl was, however, but of fliort 
duration. At this moment, accounts were received that 
the Englifh divifion, deftined to fupport them, was vio¬ 
lently attacked by a French corps, and that it could 
barely maintain itfelf at Quatre Bras. The fourth corps, 
under Bulow, had not made its appearance, as had been 
calculated upon ; and no profpedl remained of deriving 
any benefit from its affiftance during the day. The Prufi- 
iians invoked, but invoked in vain, the arrival of thofe 
fuccours which were fo neceflary. Ligny was Hill held ; 
there the combat raged with the fame fury, and with an 
equality of luccefs. The Weftphalian and Berg regi¬ 
ments fought at this point. A whole company of the 
former fell in the court-yard of the church ; and on the 
terrace before it lay fifty dead. Each fide made a fortrefs 
of the houfes occupied by them. The French held one 
end of the village, and the Pruffians the other. The 
French were driven out four times, and as often refumed 
the ground which they had loft : at length the village was 
fet on fire by the French, and the combatants fought 
amidft the burning houfes. All the Prnfiian divifions 
either were or had by this time been engaged. No frefh 
corps remained at hand to fupport them. The French, 
on the other hand, continued to pour forth frefh troops 
to the combat. But even their ftrength, numerous as it 
was, had been nearly exhaufted. “By feven o’clock,” 
faid they, “ we remained matters of all the villages 
fituated on the banks of the ravine which covered the 
Pruflian pofition.” Part of thefe they had obtained, but 
not yet all. On the heights of Bufiy and Ligny the Pruf- 
fian mafles ftill remained unfhaken. A defperate effort 
became neceflary to decide the bloody day. “ Almoft all 
the troops,” faid the French, “ had already been engaged 
in the villages.” How hard they were prefled, and how 
uncertain the combat long was, appears from Ney’s letter, 
wherein we are informed that, without acquainting him, 
the emperor took away the firft corps of the army to his 
affiftance, as alfo a divifion of Girard’s corps, which 
Ney depended upon for fupport. The emperor mutt, 
therefore, have been very doubtful of the iflue of the 
combat where he was, before he would venture to 
withdraw half of his force from Ney, without confulting 
him. In fail, the bravery of the Pruffians proved long 
equal to his fierceft attacks. At St. Amand, the deftruc- 
tion had been fo great amongft the French troops, that 
Napoleon was, in reality, forced to call forward, in the 
greateft hafte, the firft corps to his affiftance at this point. 
But by the time this force arrived, the Pruffians had been 
compelled to abandon this place. It was then fent back 
to Ney; but it arrived too late to render him any affift¬ 
ance. 
At Sombref, on the Pruflian left, general Thielman, 
with the third corps, remained immoveable againft all 
the efforts of the French. Bonaparte, therefore, refolved 
to complete his luccefs by one of thofe fkilful and daring 
manoeuvres which charadlerifed his tallies. In the vil¬ 
lage of Ligny, which fronted the centre of the Pruflian 
line, he drew up the imperial guard, which he had hi¬ 
therto kept in referve. Eight battalions of thefe troop? 
formed into one folid column, fupported by four fqua- 
drons of cavalry, two regiments of cuiraffiers, and the 
liorfe-grenadiers of the guard, traverfed the village at the 
pas-de-charge, threw themfelves into the ravine which 
ieparates the village from the heights, and began to af- 
cend them, notwithftanding a dreadful fire of grape and 
mufketry from the Pruffians. Their advance, however, 
was not flopped, nor even in the fmalleft degree fhaken, 
by this fire; but, boldly coming up the heights of Bully, 
they made fuch an impreffion on the mafles of the Pruflian 
line as threatened to break through the centre of their 
army. The combat at this moment was truly dreadful; 
but the impetuofity of the French grenadiers furmounted 
every obftacle, and cut their way through the oppofing 
ranks with a horrible carnage. The divifion ofPecheaux, 
fupported by the cuiraffiers, having made a circuit round 
Ligny, came from both fides at once, unobferved, upon 
the main body of the Pruflian force at this point, which 
was polled behind the houfes. At the fame moment alfo 
the Pruflian cavalry, which were polled on a height behind 
the village, were repulfed in repeated attacks upon the 
French cavalry. It was now dark. “ The movement 
made by the enemy,” faid Blucher, “ was deeijive." Ne- 
verthelefs, though thus furrounded, and in the fhades of 
night, which heightens the idea of danger in the human 
mind, the Pruflian columns behind Ligny did not fuffer 
themfelves to be difeouraged. “Formed in mafles, they 
coolly repulfed all the attacks made upon them ; and this 
corps retreated in good order upon the heights, whence 
it continued its retrograde movement upon Tilly.” In 
confequence, however, of this fudden eruption of the 
enemy’s cavalry, the artillery belonging to the Pruflian 
army, in their precipitate retreat, got into defiles, in 
which they fell into diforder, and Blucher acknowledged 
that fifteen pieces were taken by the enemy. 
The Pruflian army retreated during the night, and the 
next morning was followed by general Thielman, with 
the third corps, who retired upon Gembloux, where the 
fourth corps, under Bulow, had arrived during the night. 
The whole army then retreated upon the village of Wavre, 
where Blucher eftablifhed his head-quarters. The French 
did not attempt to purfue them. The lofs of the Pruffians, 
in the battle of Ligny, amounted to at leaft 20,000 men ; 
that of the French was alfo fevere. Although hoftilities 
had commenced only on the preceding day, yet, in this 
fliort fpace of time, upwards of 40,000 men had fallen in 
the three armies. Great, however, as this deftruflion 
was, it is trifling to what followed. 
In the night of the 16th, the converfation in the French 
camp turned on the events of this fanguinary day. The 
Pruffians had given way; and how had it happened that 
the Britifli, whom the French had made fure of defeating, 
had gained ground ? It was owing, faid the infantry 
officers, to the inferiority of the French in number, and 
to the cavalry not having boldly repeated their charges ; 
ils n'avoient pas franchement aborde I'infanterie. Marfhal 
Ney has declared his opinion that, had Napoleon, on the 
16th, diredled his preponderating force againft Quatre 
Bras, he would have overpowered the Britifli, without 
incurring great danger from the Pruffians, who might 
have been watched or oppofed by the remainder of the 
French. He fhould, however, have taken into theaccount 
that fuch a movement could not have efcaped the obfer- 
vation of the Pruffians, or of the Britifli van-guard ; 
that our regiments would have received orders to halt 
before they reached Quatre Bras; that, the march of the 
French being thus unavoidably lengthened, the adlion 
could not have begun till late in the afternoon ; and that, 
on the next day, Blucher would not have failed to have 
burfl through the oppofing divifion of the enemy, and 
have marched to our fupport. It muft at the fame time 
be admitted that the extent of mifehief might have been 
fully as ferious in this cafe as in that which aftually took 
place, and would have been owing in both to the fame 
caufe. 
It is a very general notion, even among the duke of 
Wellington’s admirers, that at the outfet of the opera¬ 
tions he allowed himfelf to be taken by furprife; and 
fome of them have gone fo far as to apologize for him by 
throwing the blame on Fouche, who, it is gravely alleged, 
fent a female with an exafl plan of Bonaparte’s operations 
to the frontier, but managed fo that her arrival at the 
Britifli head-quarters fhould not take place till after the 
battle of Quatre Bras. (Paul’s Letters, p. 92.) Some 
fagacious politicians imagine that Fouche afled thus in 
order that he might keep in with both parties : but the 
fa£l will be found to be, that the duke of Wellington, 
