Part 7 (1/2)

(21) Doubtless the village of Mont St Jean, the village of Waterloo being two miles further north.

When Miss Waldie (afterwards Mrs Eaton--see _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. lix., p. 26) went to Waterloo on the 15th July, she noticed the name of Sir William De Lancey written in chalk on the door of a cottage, where he had slept the night before the battle.

(_Waterloo Days_, p. 125.) The sketch on the opposite page is reproduced from _Sketches in Flanders and Holland_, by Robert Hills, 1816, and shows the village of Mont St Jean, as it appeared a month after the battle. The figures in the foreground represent villagers returning from the battlefield with cuira.s.ses, bra.s.s eagles, bullets, etc., which they had picked up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VILLAGE OF MONT ST JEAN, 1815.]

(22) See _Waterloo Roll Call_, p. 35, and _Army List_ for 1815, p. 31.

(23) The Duke began the Waterloo despatch very early on the 19th at Waterloo, but he finished it at Brussels, that same morning.

(24) _I.e._, not only Waterloo, but Ligny, Quatre Bras, and the fighting that took place on the 15th and 17th June.

(25) Mr William Hay of Duns Castle. He had been in the 16th Light Dragoons in the Peninsular War (see _Army List_ for 1811, p. 89), and had come over from England a few days before to see his old friends, and introduce his young brother, Cornet Alexander Hay, to his old regiment.

(26) Mr Hay was on the battlefield during the early part of the fight.

Early next morning he revisited the field, to try to find some trace of his brother. The body was never found. He had been killed late at night on the French position, while the 16th Light Dragoons were in pursuit of the enemy. (Tomkinson's _Diary of a Cavalry Officer_, 1809-1815, p. 314; also _Reminiscences_, 1808-1815, _under Wellington_, by Captain William Hay, C.B.) There is a memorial tablet to him in the church at Waterloo, with the following inscription:

”Sacred to the memory of Alexander Hay, Esq., of Nunraw, Cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons, aged 18 years, who fell gloriously in the Memorable Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815.

”_O dolor atque decus magnum ...

Haec te prima dies bello dedit, haec eadem aufert._

”This tablet was placed here by his Brothers and Sisters.”

(27) No doubt Lieutenant-General John Mackenzie who was in command at Antwerp. He succeeded Sir Colin Halkett in that post. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 8.

(28) Another indication that it was in the village of Mont St Jean and not Waterloo.

(29) ”One of the most painful visits I ever paid was to a little wretched cottage at the end of the village which was pointed out to me as the place where De Lancey was lying mortally wounded. How wholly shocked I was on entering, to find Lady De Lancey seated on the only broken chair the hovel contained, by the side of her dying husband. I made myself known. She grasped me by the hand, and pointed to poor De Lancey covered with his coat, and with just a spark of life left.”--_Reminiscences, etc._, by Captain William Hay, C.B., p. 202.

(30) Creevey states that as he was on his way from Brussels to Waterloo on Tuesday the 20th June, the Duke overtook him and said he was going to see Sir Frederick Ponsonby and De Lancey. The Duke was in plain clothes and riding in a curricle with Colonel Felton Hervey.--_The Creevey Papers_, p. 238.

(31) Probably the Duke had in his mind the charge of Lord Edward Somerset's Household Brigade against the French Cuira.s.siers, which took place about 2 o'clock. Alava, in his report to the Spanish Government, calls it ”the most sanguinary cavalry fight perhaps ever witnessed.”

(32) This was the general opinion at the time. Four days after the battle an officer in the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards wrote as follows: ”I constantly saw the n.o.ble Duke of Wellington riding backwards and forwards like the Genius of the storm, who, borne upon its wings, directed its thunder where to break. He was everywhere to be found, encouraging, directing, animating. He was in a blue short cloak, and a plain c.o.c.ked hat, his telescope in his hand; there was nothing that escaped him, nothing that he did not take advantage of, and his lynx eyes seemed to penetrate the smoke and forestall the movements of the foe” (p. 42, _Battle of Waterloo_, 11th edition, 1852, L. Booth). A highly interesting remark from the Duke's lips just before the attack made by the Imperial Guard has been preserved in a letter written at Nivelles on the 20th June, by Colonel Sir A.S.

Frazer. ”'Twice have I saved this day by perseverance,' said his Grace before the last great struggle, and said so most justly.” This seems to coincide with the observation which the Duke made to Creevey at Brussels the morning after the battle. ”By G.o.d! I don't think it would have been done, if I had not been there.”

(33) Another proof that it was Mont St Jean and not Waterloo.

(34) Probably James Powell, an apothecary in the Medical Department.

Date of rank, 9th September 1813. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 93. In the Army List of 1817, and in subsequent Army Lists he is shown with a [symbol: Blackletter W] before his name, as being in possession of the Waterloo Medal. His last appearance in the Army List is in 1841, in which issue he is shown on page 340 as a surgeon on half-pay.

(35) John Robert Hume was a Deputy-Inspector of the Medical Department. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 90. He also held the appointment of surgeon to the Duke of Wellington. He was in attendance on the memorable occasion when a duel took place in Battersea Fields between the Duke of Wellington and Earl Winchilsea, 21st March 1829.

He died in 1857. See _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xxviii., p. 229.