550 LIEUT.-GENERAL THOMAS DYNELEY, C.B., B.As 
The action continued desperate until about seven o’clock when the 
Duke sang out, “send on the cavalry, I’ll attack them,’ and on 
they went in a most magnificent style carrying everything before 
them. ‘The slaughter throughout the day had been dreadful and the 
ground was so completely covered with killed and wounded that it was 
with great difficulty we could pick our way so as to prevent driving 
over them, and I saw hundreds of poor fellows ridden over. You 
have no doubt heard how near a thing it was; the scales were even 
for several hours, indeed I may say Napoleon’s side came down, but 
by a happy hit we brought ours down and sent his high enough ; if it 
had gone the other way, certainly not a gun and, | think, scarce a man 
would have escaped, and Napoleon, instead of being on his passage to 
St. Helena, might now have been at Berlin or any other place he 
thought proper. For whatever they may say of the Prussians, they 
certainly cannot do the trick, and if we had not been in the country, 
Napoleon would have beaten them and the Russians too out of it in no 
time, though you see a very different account in print. The French 
beat the Prussians in almost every action from the 18th to our entry 
into Paris, but then they brought up such immense reinforcements 
that the French, knowing our army was close in the rear, found it 
was impossible to take advantage of their victories. 
I do not think Louis’ crown is worth much; his only chance would 
have been if, instead of dividing the scoundrels of Generals, etc. into 
two classes, one to be brought before a court-martial, and the other to 
retire into the interior of France, he had only made the difference by 
hanging article No. 1 up by the heels, and No. 2 by the head. Now 
he has left them at large to bring about just such another business as 
we have had lately. The whole of the soldiers, and I may say, with 
very few exceptions, the people are for Napoleon; they cannot under- 
stand his being sent to St. Helena; they ask if we did not want him 
to escape again why not kill him. Every peasant will tell you we 
shall never have peace as long as he is alive, and the apprehension of 
his return, and of being visited for their sins, prevents them from 
declaring openly their sentiment for the King. As for the soldiers, I 
think they are one and all for Napoleon. 
I am sure you would rejoice when you found I had got the 
Majority. Vivian recommended me. I knew nothing about it 
1 ‘FH’ troop was attached to Vivian’s cavalry brigade, which was on the extreme left of the line, 
and ordered not to be engaged, but kept entire until the arrival of the Prussians. However, the 
desire to assist Ponsonby’s cavalry brigade when it charged the infantry of d’Erlon’s corps in their 
attack on the allied left seemed irresistible, and Sir Robert Gardiner advanced two guns. For an 
excellent account of ‘EH’ troop on the 17th and 18th of June, 1815, see Waterloo letters, p. 194, 
et seq. f 
It is probable that ‘EH’ troop was the reserve to which the Duke! of Wellington referred in his 
letter to Lord Mulgrave in December 1815 (see Duncan R.A. History, Vol. I1., p. 447) and which 
did advance with great‘effect at the end of the battle, none of the other troops or brigades being 
then in a condition to do much in way of movement. The reserve division of artillery, ‘ A’ and 
‘D’ troops and a field brigade, were engaged early in and throughout the battle. —Ed. 
2 By an ordonnonce of July 24th, 1815, annesty was granted to all concerned with Bonaparte, 
except certain officers and officials, who were to be tried wherever found by Council of War. 
Certain others were to leave France within two months and not return without Royal permission. 
All the Bonaparte family were to leave France within a month and their property to be sold with- 
n six months.—Kd, 
