in 1815 was a lieutenant in the Royal Staff
Corps, attached to the Quartermaster-General's department (see
Dalton's _Waterloo Roll Call_, p. 38), gives the following interesting
reminiscences of De Lancey on the 17th, at Quatre Bras, and during the
retreat to Waterloo on the same day: "Some few changes were made in
the disposition of the troops after the Duke of Wellington arrived on
the ground, soon after daylight; arms were then piled, and the men,
still wearied with their exertions of marching and fighting on the
preceding day, lay down to snatch a little more rest. The Duke, too,
after riding about and satisfying himself that all was as it should
be, dismounted and stretched himself on the ground, very near the
point where the road from Brussels to Charleroi crossed that leading
from Nivelles to Namur, forming thereby the _Quatre Bras_....

"I remained for some time at a short distance from the great man, who
occasionally addressed a few words to Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Sir E.
Barnes, De Lancey, and others of his principal officers. He was then
awaiting the return of Sir Alexander Gordon, who had gone off by the
Namur road, some time between 6 and 7 o'clock, escorted by a squadron
of the 10th Hussars. I had seen this detachment start at a round trot,
but of course knew not the object of despatching it; which, as we
learned afterwards, was to gain intelligence of Bluecher's operations,
whose defeat at Ligny we, that is, the army generally, were ignorant
of, though the Duke was aware of it.

"I availed myself of this period of quietness to go and examine
particularly the ground which had been so hardly contested the day
before....

"Returning to the place where I had left the Duke when I set out on my
ramble round the outposts, I found him still on the same spot; where
he remained till Gordon and his escort came in with jaded horses, soon
after 10 o'clock. On hearing his report, the Duke said a few words to
De Lancey, who, observing me near him, directed me to go to Sir Thomas
Picton, and tell him the orders were to make immediate preparation for
falling back upon Waterloo....

"Just as the retreat commenced (about noon), I was ordered off to
Mont St Jean, where I was told I should meet the Quartermaster-General;
accordingly I made for Genappe, and as the high road was by that time
filled with troops, being, moreover, careless of the farmer's
interest, I took a short cut through the corn-fields, in such a
directio