was killed. To put an end to the anxiety
that overwhelmed us, I took the horse of the principal of our
attendants (_chef de nos equipages_), and, accompanied by one of our
principal _piqueurs_, named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon
from the island of Elba, I hastened back toward Mont St. Jean. After
having in vain wearied a multitude of officers with questions, I met a
page, young Gudin, who assured me, that the Emperor must have quitted
the field of battle. I still pushed on. Two cuirassiers, raising their
sabres, stopped me. "Where are you going?"--"I am going to meet the
Emperor."--"You lie; you are a royalist; you are going to rejoin the
English." I know not how the business would have ended, had not a
superior officer of the guard, sent by heaven, fortunately known me,
and extricated me from the difficulty. He assured me, that the
Emperor, whom he had escorted a long way, must be before. I returned
to the Duke of Bassano. The certainty, that the Emperor was safe and
sound, alleviated our sorrows for a few moments: but they soon resumed
all their strength. He must have been no Frenchman, who could behold
with dry eyes our dreadful catastrophe. The army itself, after
recovering from its first impressions, forgot the perils with which it
was still menaced, to meditate with sadness on the future. Its steps
were dejected, its looks dismayed; not a word, not a complaint, was
heard to interrupt its painful meditations. You would have said it was
accompanying a funeral procession, and attending the obsequies of its
glory and of its country.

The capture and plundering of the baggage of the army had suspended
for a moment the enemy's pursuit. They came up with us at Quatre Bras,
and fell upon our equipage. At the head of the convoy marched the
military chest, and after it our carriage. Five other carriages, that
immediately followed us, were attacked and sabred. Ours, by miracle,
effected its escape. Here were taken the Emperor's clothes: the superb
diamond necklace, that the princess Borghese had given him; and his
landau, that in 1813 had escaped the disasters of Moscow.

The Prussians, raging in pursuit of us, treated with unexampled
barbarity those unfortunate beings, whom they were able to overtake.
Except a few steady old soldiers, most of the rest had thrown away
their arms, and were without defence; but they were not the less
massacred without pity. Four Prussians killed General ...... in cold
blood, afte