out of sight I had his card converted into a
teaspoon. Sir William never ate anything, except once or twice a
morsel of toast out of the water. He drank a great deal of tea and
lemonade. At first he had no milk to his tea, and he complained that
it was very bad; but there was none to be got. I sent my servant to
search for some, and he met some Prussian cows, and milked one, and
brought a fine jug of milk. The different contrivances sometimes
amused him. One day he wished to have the room fumigated. How was this
to be done, without fire-irons, or indeed without fire? We put some
vinegar into a tumbler, and Emma went with a large pair of scissors,
and brought a piece of burning charcoal, and put it into the vinegar,
and that made a great smoke. Every time we wanted anything warmed, or
water boiled, Emma had to cross a court and make a fire, and then
watch it, or someone would have run away with what she was cooking.
Meantime I would call her ten different times, and this in wet or dry,
night or day. I now regretted having brought so few clothes.

The day I went to Waterloo, Sir William told me the Duke(30) had
visited him in the morning. He said he never had seen him so warm in
his feelings: he had taken leave of him with little hope of seeing
him again, I fancy. The Duke told him he never wished to see another
battle; this had been so shocking. It had been too much to see such
brave men, so equally matched, cutting(31) each other to pieces as
they did. Sir William said there never had been such fighting; that
the Duke far surpassed anything he had ever done before.(32) The
general opinion seemed to be that it had been a peculiarly shocking
battle. Sir William said he never would try it again; he was quite
tired of the business. In speaking of his wound he said this might be
the most fortunate event that could have happened for us both. I
looked at him for an explanation. He said, "Certainly, even if I
recover completely, I should never think of serving again. Nobody
could ask such a thing, and we should settle down quietly at home for
the rest of our lives." The evening after I went to Waterloo, Sir G.
Scovell said he would take something to eat, and after seeing me
fairly established he would go to Headquarters. He wrote a copy of a
return of rations, for which we were to send to Brussels; and also any
other provisions must be got from thence, for the village produced
nothing. He left two sentinels, for fear there shou