PARIS. 
548 
and Vandamme, but Biucher and Wellington ; the latter 
s of whom, in his opinion, committed a great imprudence 
in handing a general engagement at Waterloo. Had the 
weather been fair during the night, the French, we are 
told, would have begun the battle, and have decided it 
before the arrival of the Pruflians : but, in the cafe of 
dry weather and good roads, the Pruffian corps under 
Bulow would have reached the field of battle by eleven 
o’clock inftead of four, and Biucher a few hours after¬ 
wards. Next as to the chance of fupport from Grouchy, 
can it be deemed probable that a force of 36,000 men 
would have been allowed to march acrofs the country, 
without a correfponding movement on the part of the far 
greater army oppofed to it by the Pruflians ? A campaign, 
laid Frederic II. is little elfe than a feries of miftakes : but 
the ex-emperor puts in the fcale only thofe that operated 
againft him, inftead of admitting that the efforts of his 
opponents were enfeebled by fimilar caufes. In fa6f, the 
truth comes out, indiredfly and reludfantly, in the laft 
page of this very work ; where, in contradicting the well- 
known pamphlet given fome years ago to the public under 
the name of Manufcrit de Ste. Helene, Bonaparte adds, 
“ in other times the French would have gained the vic¬ 
tory; which, indeed, the obftinate and unyielding bra¬ 
very of the Englifh troops alone prevented them from 
obtaining.” 
The lofsof the French army, in the battle of Waterloo, 
(without including that of Grouchy at Wavre,) in killed, 
wounded, and prifoners, amounted to, at leaft, 60,000 
men. Such a victory, however, could not be gained 
without great lofs on the part of the allies. The lofs of 
the Britifh, Hanoverians, Belgians, &c. and Pruflians, 
was little fhort of 30,000 on this important day. The 
iield-of-battle on the next morning prefented a molt me¬ 
lancholy feene. About 40,000 dead, all of whom had 
been ftripped naked, and perhaps the fame number of 
wounded, whom, as yet, it had been impoflible to remove 
lay crowded into a narrow fpace. Near 25,000 horfes, 
-dead or wounded, lay mixed with their former riders, and 
increafed the horrors of the feene. It was not fo much 
the ghaftly wounds which had deprived them of life, 
which disfigured their mangled remains. But thefe had 
been farther trampled by the cavalry, crufhed by the ar¬ 
tillery, and torn to pieces by the continued fhowers of 
bullets, which the latter vomited forth over thefe pofi- 
tions. The number of dead upon the field-of-battle, 
laid an eye-witnefs, could not be numbered. According 
to the moft accurate accounts which can be procured, the 
total number burnt or buried in thefe fatal fields amount¬ 
ed to 40,000. For many days feveral thoufand carriages, 
and many peafants from the furrounding countries, even 
as far as Mons, were employed in burning or burying the 
dead. The talk was not only loathfome but dangerous ; 
and the Pruflians were abfolutely forced to compel them 
at the point of the bayonet. To avoid infection from 
their corrupting remains, the peafants firft dug large 
pits, and then, by means of hooks, dragged the bodies 
into them. The country, for feveral miles, prefented the 
appearance of one continued groupe of hillocks, fo 
thickly was its furface covered with large graves, in 
which hundreds of the bodies of men and horfes were 
thrown together. In one acre of ground a beholder 
counted forty graves thus filled with dead. The weather 
having become dry after their burial, the wet mould, 
which had not been thrown over them to a fufficient 
depth, cracked from the heat, and, opening, fhowed in 
fome places their ghaftly remains. Notwithftanding the 
burning and the burying the dead, for feveral weeks after 
the battle the fmell from their putrid carcafles was infuf- 
ferable, and a peftilential gale continued to be wafted over 
.the furrounding country from this theatre of death. For 
many days the number of carrion-flies which fed on the 
.dead bodies was dreadful, and moft annoying to thofe who 
iv'ifit.ed the fpot. It is faid that fome foldiers abfolutely 
loft their reafon from the remembrance of this dreadful 
feene. 
The diameter of the principal part of this field of blood 
was about two miles, wherein every thing was totally de- 
ftroyed. The dead were abfolutely lying in ranks', and 
horfes grouped in heaps with their riders. All the wells, 
and all the water in the neighbourhood, for many days 
after the battle, were red with blood, and became putrid 
from the number of dead bodies found in them. The 
churches in the furrounding villages were filled with dead 
and dying. Every village, every hamlet, all the ravines, 
corn-fields, and forefts, were filled with wounded foldiers, 
who had crawled to thefe places for fhelter, and whom, 
even when they were feen, it was for feveral days after 
found impoflible to remove. It w'as as late as theThurf- 
day following before all the wounded then difeovered 
could be removed. “ On the 21ft,” fays one who vifited 
the field-of-battle, “ I faw in one groupe of wounded, 
thirty-fix out of feventy-three who had loft an arm or a 
leg, befides flefli-woundswhile the roads, even on the 
25th, were covered with waggon-loads of wounded, 
ftirieking with pain. On the morning after the battle, 
numbers of the wounded were feen railing themfelves up 
amongft the heaps of dead, and imploring from the vifit- 
ors, fome a mouthful of water ; others, that the behold¬ 
ers might put an end to their miferies. Every road, in 
every part of the country forthirty miles round, was full 
of wounded foldiers, wandering about in the extremes of 
agony and want. After a damp day on the 18th, the 
night became clear and chill, which had a fatal effe£f on 
the wounded. Thoufands perifhed for want of timely 
medical aid. Many were found in cottages and obfeure 
retreats, their bodies become half putrid from the feverity 
of their wounds, yet ft ill in life. Thoufands were cut off 
in the extremes of hunger and diftrefs. At the end of 
ten, twelve, and fifteen, days, there were found in bye 
corners, wounded men who had preferved life by gnaw¬ 
ing the flefli from the dead bodies, of their comrades, or of 
horfes that chanced to be near them. Others, (lightly 
wounded, were found feveral days after the battle, on 
the field, uling the French cuiraffes as frying-pans to drefs 
their lcanty meals. Even in the rear of the allied pofi- 
tion, fuch feenes of diftrefs were numerous. From 
Waterloo to Bruflels, the road, for nine miles, was fo 
choaked up with fcattered baggage, that the wounded 
could with difficulty be brought along. The way was 
lined with unhappy wretches who had crept from the 
field; and many, unable to proceed, lay down and died. 
Holes dug by the fide of the road formed their graves, 
while their tattered garments and accoutrements covered 
the furrounding lands. In Bruflels alone, more than 
23,000 wounded were aflembled, where they were treated 
with the utmoft kindnefs and attention. The people, in 
crowds, went oiit to meet them with refrefhments, ban¬ 
dages, &c. The principal families, and women of rank, 
fupported them with every neceffary, and frequently ad- 
miniftered to their wants with their own hands. The 
treatment, however, of the French prifoners by the pea- 
lantry was different. They were treated with harlbnefs; 
and thefe poor creatures now felt the fevered want and 
negleft. By the Britifh only were they treated with hu¬ 
manity. , 
Befides the lofs of men, and all the beft horfes which 
Bonaparte had for cavalry, the French army loft above 
300 pieces of cannon, 500 caiffons, all their baggage, and 
almoft all their arms. Such were the confequences, in 
part, of Napoleon’s efcape from Elba; and fuch the third 
page of that terrible flieet, on which, according to the 
Moniteur, in March preceding, “the emperor had juft 
written the fined page of hiftory, and to which the annals 
of the world afford no companion.” The prefent page 
indeed, in blood and its refults, ftands unparalleled in 
the annals of the world. The fheet of Napoleon’s poli¬ 
tical life to which it belonged was nearly full. The laft 
page 
