.039}

I left Woburn on Thursday night last, and got here on Friday
morning. The Lievens, Worcesters, Duke of Wellington, Neumann,
and Montagu were here. The Duke went away yesterday. We acted
charades, which were very well done. Yesterday we went to shoot
at Sir Philip Brookes'. As we went in the carriage, the Duke
talked a great deal about the battle of Waterloo and different
things relating to that campaign. He said that he had 50,000 men
at Waterloo. He began the campaign with 85,000 men, lost 5,000 on
the 16th, and had a corps of 20,000 at Hal under Prince
Frederick. He said that it was remarkable that nobody who had
ever spoken of these operations had ever made mention of that
corps,[47] and Bonaparte was certainly ignorant of it. In this
corps were the best of the Dutch troops; it had been placed there
because the Duke expected the attack to be made on that side. He
said that the French army was the best army that was ever seen,
and that in the previous operations Bonaparte's march upon
Belgium was the finest thing that ever was done--so rapid and so
well combined. His object was to beat the armies in detail, and
this object succeeded in so far as that he attacked them
separately; but from the extraordinary celerity with which the
allied armies were got together he was not able to realise the
advantages he had promised himself. The Duke says that they
certainly were not prepared for this attack,[48] as the French
had previously broken up the roads by which their army advanced;
but as it was in summer this did not render them impassable. He
says that Bonaparte beat the Prussians in a most extraordinary
way, as the battle[49] was gained in less than four hours; but
that it would probably have been more complete if he had brought
a greater number of troops into action, and not detached so large
a body against the British corps. There were 40,000 men opposed
to the Duke on the 16th, but he says that the attack was not so
powerful as it ought to have been with such a force. The French
had made a long march the day before the battle, and had driven
in the Prussian posts in the evening. I asked him if he thought
Bonaparte had committed any fault. He said he thought he had
committed a fault in attacking him in the position of Waterloo;
that his object ought to have been to remove him as far as
possible from the Prussian army, and that he ought consequently
to have moved upon Hal, and to have attempted to penetrate by