terribly downcast and frightened at the idea of
fighting, but I have often found that it is these most timid ones who
when they come to an actual battle rush forward and get killed first;
probably owing to the confused state they are in, while the more
disciplined soldiers know better what course to pursue.

From Brussels we marched to about five or six miles out of the town,
not far from the village of Waterloo, when our commander sent his
aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington for general orders how he was to act,
or as to what part of the line we were to fall in at. The orders
returned were that we were to stay in our present position till next
morning, so that night we crept into any hole we could find, cowsheds,
cart-houses, and all kinds of farmstead buildings, for shelter, and I
never remember a worse night in all the Peninsular war, for the rain
descended in torrents, mixed with fearful thunder and lightning, and
seeming to foretell the fate of the following morning, the 18th, which
again happened to be Sunday.

The allied army had on the 16th and 17th been attacked by Napoleon's
large forces at Ligny and Quatre Bras, but neither side had obtained
any great success, beyond thousands being killed on both sides; during
the night of the 17th, therefore, firing was continually going on,
which I could distinctly hear, in spite of its being considerably
drowned by the thunder. All that night was one continued clamour, for
thousands of camp-followers were on their retreat to Brussels, fearful
of sticking to the army after the Quatre Bras affair. It was indeed a
sight, for owing to the rain and continued traffic the roads were
almost impassable, and the people were sometimes completely stuck in
the mud: and besides these a continual stream of baggage-wagons was
kept up through the night.

Early in the morning of the 18th we were again put on the march to
join our lines, our position being in the reserve, which included the
Fourth and Twenty-Seventh Regiments, together with a body of
Brunswickers and Dutch, and formed a line between Merk Braine and Mont
St. Jean on the Brussels road. Our regiment took the left of this
road, but did not remain there long, for the French were seen in
motion, and on their opening fire from their cannon we soon marched up
to action in open column.

During this movement a shell from the enemy cut our
deputy-sergeant-major in two, and having passed on to take the head
off one of my company of g