ench people is beyond their power.
If they enter France they will there find their tomb. Soldiers! we have
forced marches, battles and dangers before us. For every Frenchman who
has a heart the moment is arrived to conquer or to perish!" Such was his
oration: and never was army more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
its chief.

Blucher's army numbered at this time about 100,000 men, and, extending
along the line of the Sambre and the Meuse, occupied Charleroi, Namur,
Givet, and Liege. They communicated on their right with the left of the
Anglo-Belgian army, under Wellington, whose headquarters were at
Brussels. This army was not composed, like Blucher's or Napoleon's, of
troops of the same nation. The Duke had less than 35,000 English; and of
these but few were veterans--the flower of his Peninsular Army having
been despatched to America, to conclude a war into which the United
States had forced England, on very trivial pretences, during the season
of her greatest difficulties and dangers, in 1812. The King's German
Legion, 8000 strong, was, however, equal to the best British force of
like amount; and there were 5000 Brunswickers, headed by their gallant
Duke and worthy of his guidance. The Hanoverians, exclusive of the
Legion, numbered 15,000: of Nassau troops, Dutch and Belgian, commanded
by the Prince of Orange, son to the sovereign of the Netherlands, there
might be 17,000; but the spirit of the Belgian part of this army was,
not without reason, suspected on all sides. The Duke of Wellington's
motley host amounted, then, in all to 75,000 men. His first division
occupied Enghien, Brain-le-Comte and Nivelles, communicating with the
Prussian right at Charleroi. The second division (Lord Hill's) was
cantoned in Halle, Oudenard and Gramont--where was most of the cavalry.
The reserve (Sir Thomas Picton's) were at Brussels and Ghent. The
English and Prussian commanders had thus arranged their troops, with
the view of being able to support each other, wherever the French might
hazard their assault. It could not be ascertained beforehand whether
Napoleon's mark was Ghent or Brussels; even had the Allied Generals
known that it was the latter city, who could inform them by which of the
three great routes, of Namur, of Charleroi, or of Mons, he designed to
force his passage thither? Fouche, indeed, doubly and trebly dyed in
treason, had, when accepting office under Napoleon, continued to
maintain his correspondence with Loui