P A HI S. 547 
All jthe orders with which he had been inverted, and 
thofe which he ufually-wore, were alfo taken; amongft 
which was the Prurtian order of the black eagle, with the 
snotto, “ Every man his own.” His baggage, many fine 
Arabian horfes, his library, w*fere alfo taken ; and, along 
with thefe, whole bales of revolutionary proclamations, 
addrefled to the Belgians, ready dated on the 19th, from 
the palace of Lacken, near Bruflels. Mounted on horfe- 
back, he left Genappe, and with "his followers proceeded 
in the utmoft hafte to the frontiers. 
From Genappe the Prufiians continued to purfue the 
wrecks of his wretched army. It was continued till the 
next day was far ad van ced, the whole march ,e being but one 
continued chace, either in the corn-fields or the houfes.” 
The whole period was employed by the Prufiians only in 
firing and cutting them down, for no refiftance could be 
attempted. At every footftep, cannon, equipages, arms, 
and accoutrements, fell into their hands. Before day¬ 
light fixty pieces of cannon had been taken by the 
Prufiians. ,e The caufeway,” faid Blucher, “ prefented 
the appearance of an immenfe fhipwreck ; it was covered 
with an innumerable quantity of cannon, caifi'ons, car¬ 
riages, baggage, arms, and wrecks of every kind.” About 
40,000 men, partly without arms, and carrying with them 
only twenty-leven pieces of their numerous artillery, the 
remains of the whole army, and that in complete diforder, 
parted through Charleroy on the forenoon of the 19th. 
About five in the morning Napoleon, with about fifty 
companions, parted the Sambre at this place. Here he 
took fome refrefhment, the firft for twenty-four hours. 
The Prufiians advanced with unremitting ardour. The 
French army fled before them with increafing confufion. 
When they came to Charleroy, the crowd upon the bridge 
became fo great, that Napoleon placed a company with 
fixed bayonets upon it, in order to flop the fugitives. 
The attempt was vain : this guard was overpowered, and 
then it was impoflible to flop the torrent. The Prufiians 
found nine cannon and a hundred caifions, abandoned 
by the French, in this place. Twenty-feven pieces only 
parted the bridge, and of thefe fix pieces more were left 
between Charleroy and Sobre-le-Chateau. At Charleroy, 
Napoleon left the direciion of his remaining troops to 
Soult; and, getting into a carriage, fet out for Paris, 
taking the road by Rheims and Soiflons. 
The fugitives, having once effeded their paflage acrofs 
the Sambre, thought they might venture to halt, and had 
ertabliffied bivouacks in the meadows and orchards on 
its right bank, when an alarm was given that the Pruf- 
fians were approaching : without waiting for any orders, 
without deitroying the bridge, or even reconnoitring, 
they renewed their diforderly flight; the whole ftarted 
at once, and every one provided for himfelf, without 
knowing whither to dired his fteps. At a fliort diftance 
from Charleroy there are two roads, one leading to Avef- 
nes, and the other to Philippeville. No diredions having 
been given to them, the fugitives divided themfelves into 
two parties, the rnoft numerous of which took the road 
by which they had before advanced, while the other took 
a diredion towards the left, and marched on Phillippe- 
ville. Numbers of ftragglers, without any other defign than 
that of avoiding the purfuit of the Prufiians, threw them¬ 
felves into the lurrounding woods. Thus the army, be¬ 
came more and more difperfed, till at length fcarcely 
20,000 men remained, and a great part of thefe were 
without arms. 
Meanwhile marlhal Grouchy, ignorant of the fate of 
the reft of the army, ftill continued in the neighbourhood 
of Wavre. Early in the morning of the 19th, he was at¬ 
tacked in the pofition in which we left him, by Thielman ; 
but, after a fevere conteft, he fucceeded in compelling 
that general to abandon Wavre and the mill of Bielge, 
and to fall back upon the reft of the Prufiian army. At 
the fame rime, Grouchy continued to advance; and had 
arrived in front of Rozierne, ready to march upon Bruf- 
fels, when a French officer brought him the account of 
the lofs of the battle of Waterloo. He then found him¬ 
felf in a truly perilous fituation ; but after much difficulty, 
and fome lofs, he fucceeded in effetting his efcape from 
Wavre to Namur. Here he was attacked by the Prufiians, 
and, after a fevere conflidl, compelled to abandon the 
place, and make the belt of his way to Dinant, where he 
arrived on the 20th, with about 25,000 men, having thus 
loft in the various actions 10,000 men. 
To the milinanagement of this general, ftill more than 
to that ot Ney, we afterwards find Napoleon imputing 
the difuftrous iflue of the campaign ; and lie alleges that 
this officer might have prefied the Prufiians much more 
clofely on the 17th, and have marched on the next day as 
foon as they did to the field of battle at Waterloo. 
Grouchy publiflied an explanation of his condudt; and 
the fadrts of the cafe are briefly thefe. After the lofs of 
the battle of Ligny, the Prufiians parted the night at a 
fliort diftance from the field ; and, beginning their retreat 
at an early hour, they arrived before the evening at 
Wavres, a fmall town fituated fully ftxteen miles from 
Ligny. Though they were not purfued by the French, 
this retrograde march was attended with much confufion ; 
partly from the heavy rains, and partly from the multi¬ 
tude of men, horfes, and carriages, that encumbered the 
roads. The French, however, having gained at Ligny 
nothing but the field of battle, and Bonaparte being 
eager to march his main body to the left againft the Eng- 
lifh, Grouchy did not fet out in purfuit of the Prufiians 
until noon 5 by which time they were at the diftance of 
eight or ten miles. Their numbers were fo great as to 
miflead the inhabitants of the country, from whom the 
French fought information ; and Grouchy, pofiefling 
little diferimination as to reports, inflead of marching 
ftraight to Wavres, turned to Gembloux on his right, and 
was not apprifed till fix in the evening that he had mif- 
taken the direction of the Prurtian main body. At that 
hour his troops were taking reft and refrefhment, and he 
committed a fecond fault in poftponing their march till 
the next morning. The following day proved rainy, the 
roads were wretched, and, by a delay wholly at variance 
with the habits of the French or the plans of Bonaparte, 
the troops under Grouchy were not in motion till after 
nine o’clock ; whereas the Prufiians, as early as four 
o’clock, had detached Bulow from Wavres, in the direc¬ 
tion of Waterloo. They alfo experienced inclement wea¬ 
ther and miferabie roads, being obliged to occupy more 
than ten hours in conveying their artillery a diftance of 
ten miles. Some time afterward, a farther and more nu¬ 
merous body, led by Blucher, followed on the fame road ; 
a meafure which, fays Bonaparte, would never have been 
adopted, if Grouchy’s army had been in fight and 
threatened an attack. To complete the difappointment, 
one of the officers d.ifpatched by Bonaparte on the mor¬ 
ning of the 18th, with notice of the approaching battle, 
did not reach Grouchy ; who, learning only at four 
o’clock the urgency of the emperor for his aid, conceived 
that his belt plan was to follow up the attack already be¬ 
gun on the Prurtian force at Wavres, confidering it as 
their main body, and having no idea that the latter had 
marched to Waterloo. Still, fuppofing Grouchy to have 
marched early, and to have reached the vicinity of Water¬ 
loo as foon as Blucher, the refult would have been only 
that he might have covered the retreat of the French, who 
had already loft 20,000 men in the battle; and who would, 
even after the juniftion, have been confiderably inferior 
to the allies. 
The charges againft Grouchy, made by the emperor at 
the time, are repeated in the “ Hiftorical Memoirs,” writ¬ 
ten by himfelf, and publifhed fo lately as the year 1S20. 
And thefe Memoirs, though compofed after fo long a 
period of retirement, contain no acknowledgment of 
paft errors, nor any tribute to the generalfhip of his ad- 
verfaries; but repeated aflfertions that, had not accidental 
caufes prevented, his boldeft fchemes would have been 
crowned with fuccefs. He cenfures not only Grouchy, Ney, 
4 and 
