1 first, being much pressed by the fugitives, was charged by a regiment of British cavalry, and nearly annihilated. One general cry was heard, "Sauvons l'Aigle;" when the soldiers having formed a group round the standard-bearer, succeeded in carrying it off, favoured by the decline of the day. The division of General Piré, and all the light cavalry, had been posted in the rear, to assist in covering the retreat of the army, and rally, if possible, the flying troops; but, unable to stem the torrent, it soon participated in that flight which it was intended to suppress. All the material was abandoned-his army had ceased to exist. Nothing remained but a confused, unorganised mass, which rushed with terrified impetuosity towards the hamlet of the Maison du Roi, with the hope of gaining Genappe. Two hundred pieces of cannon, an immense number of prisoners, among whom were many general officers, fell into the hands of the victorious army. Marshal Blucher ordered all his cavalry, under General Gneysenau, to advance, who pursued the enemy from one bivouac to another: the darkness of the night, and the encumbrances of the road, alone prevented their total destruction. Many more prisoners, sixty pieces of cannon, and the carriage and equipages of Napoleon, taken upon the road to, and at Genappe, added to the trophies of that memorable day! Napoleon, amidst the confusion and disorder which existed, followed by a part of his staff, succeeded in making his escape, and repassed the Sambre at Char leroi, on the nineteenth of June, at four o'clock in the morning (18). Whilst the Prussian troops were occupied in pursuit of the French, the Anglo-allied Army remained upon the field of battle, and fulfilled the painful, yet gratifying task, of administering to the ease and comfort of the wounded of both armies. To give an account, or even a partial idea, of the loss of the French Army, is totally impossible: the wreck which every where presented itself to the eye on the morning of the nineteenth, formed a mass of destruction so horrible, and extended, that human nature even now shudders to contemplate. The loss of the Anglo-allied Army has been estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, and that of the Prussians at three thousand (19). Thus terminated the battle of Waterloo, ever memorable in the annals of the world. Peace to the manes of the brave! and glory to the surviving heroes who maintained the sacred cause of freedom and of Europe! Whilst the events of that momentous day are fresh in our recollection, and our minds are carried back to a remembrance of the painful anxiety with which every feeling heart was possessed for the fate of those brave men, whose lives were at issue to insure the repose and safety of another land, where a virtuous and wise Monarch reigns, Protector of a free and independent constitution, the best bulwark of a Nation's rights; let us not forget the meed of praise which is justly due to the inhabitants of Brussels, and of every city and village throughout the kingdom of the Netherlands, to which the wounded strangers were conveyed, but more particularly to the kind and sympathizing Fair, whose unremitted attentions, and modest benevolence, can never be obliterated from the breasts of those who experienced their hospitality whose sufferings were solaced by their hand. F |