stion of courage, we were the more numerous, the older soldiers, and
the better led. But the Emperor desired to do all things in order,
and he waited until the ground should be drier and harder, so that his
artillery could manoeuvre. So three hours were wasted, and it was eleven
o'clock before we saw Jerome Buonaparte's columns advance upon our left
and heard the crash of the guns which told that the battle had begun.
The loss of those three hours was our destruction. The attack upon
the left was directed upon a farm-house which was held by the English
Guards, and we heard the three loud shouts of apprehension which the
defenders were compelled to utter. They were still holding out, and
D'Erlon's corps was advancing upon the right to engage another portion
of the English line, when our attention was called away from the battle
beneath our noses to a distant portion of the field of action.

The Emperor had been looking through his glass to the extreme left of
the English line, and now he turned suddenly to the Duke of Dalmatia, or
Soult, as we soldiers preferred to call him.

"What is it, Marshal?" said he.

We all followed the direction of his gaze, some raising our glasses,
some shading our eyes. There was a thick wood over yonder, then a long,
bare slope, and another wood beyond. Over this bare strip between the
two woods there lay something dark, like the shadow of a moving cloud.

"I think that they are cattle, Sire," said Soult.

At that instant there came a quick twinkle from amid the dark shadow.

"It is Grouchy," said the Emperor, and he lowered his glass. "They are
doubly lost, these English. I hold them in the hollow of my hand. They
cannot escape me."

He looked round, and his eyes fell upon me.

"Ah! here is the prince of messengers," said he. "Are you well mounted,
Colonel Gerard?"

I was riding my little Violette, the pride of the brigade.

I said so.

"Then ride hard to Marshal Grouchy, whose troops you see over yonder.
Tell him that he is to fall upon the left flank and rear of the English
while I attack them in front. Together we should crush them and not a
man escape."

I saluted and rode off without a word, my heart dancing with joy that
such a mission should be mine. I looked at that long, solid line of red
and blue looming through the smoke of the guns, and I shook my fist at
it as I went. "We shall crush them and not a man escape."

They were the Emperor's words, and it was I, Etienn