ait. But
now, towards 11 o'clock, the Emperor hears that Wellington is still at
Quatre Bras, that Pajol has captured eight Prussian guns on the Namur
road, and that Excelmans has seen masses of the enemy at Gembloux. At
once he turns from politics to war.

His plan is formed. While he himself falls on the British, Grouchy is
to pursue the Prussians with the corps of Gerard and Vandamme, the
division of Teste (from Lobau's command), and the cavalry corps of
Pajol, Excelmans, and Milhaud. The Marshal begged to be relieved of
the task, setting forth the danger of pursuing foes that were now
reunited and far away. It was in vain. About 11.30 the Emperor
developed his verbal instructions in a written order penned by
Bertrand. It bade Grouchy proceed to Gembloux with the forces stated
above (except Milhaud's corps and a division of Vandamme's corps,
which were to follow Napoleon) to reconnoitre on the roads leading to
Namur and Maestricht, to pursue the enemy, and inform the Emperor as
to their intentions. If they have evacuated Namur, it is to be
occupied by the National Guards. "It is important to know what Bluecher
and Wellington mean to do, and whether they propose reuniting their
armies in order to cover Brussels and Liege, by trying their fortune
in another battle...."[500]

As Napoleon's fate was to depend largely on an intelligent carrying
out of this order, we may point out that it consisted of two chief
parts, the general aim and the means of carrying out that aim. The aim
was to find out the direction of the Prussians' retreat, and to
prevent them joining Wellington, whether for the defence of Brussels
or of Liege. The means were an advance to Gembloux and scouting along
the Namur and Maestricht roads. The chance that the allies might
reunite for the defence of Brussels was alluded to, but no measures
were prescribed as to scouting in that direction: these were left to
Grouchy's discretion. It must be confessed that the order was not
wholly clear. To name the towns of Brussels and Liege (which are sixty
miles apart) was sufficiently distracting; and to suggest that only
the eastern and south-eastern roads should be explored was certain to
limit Grouchy's immediate attention to those roads alone. For he
distrusted alike his own abilities and the power of the force placed
at his disposal; and an officer thus situated is sure to inclose
himself in the strict letter of his instructions. This was what he
did, with di