o separate the two armies. Ney was accordingly detached for
this purpose with 43,000 men. In the event of the success of Marshal Ney
he would have been enabled to detach a portion of his forces for the
purpose of making a flank attack upon the Prussians in the rear of St.
Amend, whilst Napoleon in person was directing his main efforts against
that village the strongest in the Prussian position. Ney's reserve was
at Frasnes, disposable either for the purpose of supporting the attack on
Quatre Bras or that at St. Amand; and in case of Ney's complete success
to turn the Prussian right flank by marching on Bry.

CHAPTER IX.

1815

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

One of the most important struggles of modern times was now about to
commence--a struggle which for many years was to decide the fate of
Europe. Napoleon and Wellington at length stood opposite one another.
They had never met; the military reputation of each was of the highest
kind,

--[For full details of the Waterloo campaign see Siborne's History
of the War in France and Belgium in 1815, giving the English
contemporary account; Chesney's Waterloo Lectures, the best English
modern account, which has been accepted by the Prussians as pretty
nearly representing their view; and Waterloo by Lieutenant-Colonel
Prince Edouard de la Tour d'Auvergne (Paris, Plon, 1870), which may
be taken as the French modern account.

In judging this campaign the reader must guard himself from looking
on it as fought by two different armies-the English and the
Prussian-whose achievements are to be weighed against one another.
Wellington and Blucher were acting in a complete unison rare even
when two different corps of the same nation are concerned, but
practically unexampled in the case of two armies of different
nations. Thus the two forces became one army, divided into two
wings, one, the left (or Prussian wing) having been defeated by the
main body of the French at Ligny on the 16th of June, the right (or
English wing) retreated to hold the position at Waterloo, where the
left (or Prussian wing) was to join it, and the united force was to
crash the enemy. Thus there is no question as to whether the
Prussian army saved the English by their arrival, or whether the
English saved the Prussians by their resistance at Waterloo. Each
army executed well and gallantly its part in a concerted operation.
The English wo