arch to Wavres: when he reached Walhain,
he heard the cannonading at Mont St. Jean. Its
continually increasing briskness left no doubt, that it
was an extremely serious affair. General Excelmans
proposed, to march to the guns by the right bank of the
Dyle. "Do you not feel," said he to the marshal, "that
the firing makes the ground tremble under our feet? let
us march straight to the spot where they are fighting."
This advice, had it been followed up, would have saved
the army: but it was not. The marshal slowly continued
his movements: at two o'clock he arrived before Wavres.
The corps of General Vandamme and that of Gerard
endeavoured to open a passage, and wasted time and men
to no purpose. At seven o'clock he received, according
to his own declaration, the order from the
major-general, to march to St. Lambert and attack Bulow;
which step ought to have been suggested to him before
that time by the tremendous cannonading at Waterloo, and
by the order _given in the first despatch received in
the morning_, to draw near to the grand army, and place
himself in a situation to co-operate with it. He did so
then. He crossed the Dyle at the bridge of Limale, and
made himself master of the heights, without meeting any
resistance; but night being come, he halted.

At three in the morning General Thielman attempted, to
drive our troops back across the Dyle: but he was
victoriously repulsed. The division of Teste, the
cavalry of General Pajol, obliged him to evacuate Bielge
and Wavres. The whole of the corps of Vandamme crossed
the Dyle, took Rosieren, and became master of the road
from Wavres to Brussels.

Marshal Grouchy, though the Emperor had recommended to
him, to keep open the communications, and to send him
frequent accounts of himself, had given himself no
concern about what was passing at Mont St. Jean; and was
preparing blindly to pursue his own movements, when an
aide-de camp of General Gressot came to announce to him