ck, and proceed to join his respective division
_en route_. This arrangement was carried into strict execution. The Duke
himself retired at twelve o'clock, and left Brussels at six o'clock next
morning for Quatre-Bras. The reserve quitted Brussels in the night with
the most perfect silence and regularity, unnoticed by the inhabitants;
and the events which had occurred were almost wholly unknown in that
city, except to the military authorities, until the next day.

The Duke of Wellington conversed at the ball with various persons on the
movements which had occurred; stated his calculation of the French force
directed against his left, and expressed his confidence that his whole
army would be up at Quatre-Bras by eleven o'clock the next night. This
most extraordinary and rapid concentration of force was effected; the
various divisions of the army, previously cantoned over an extent of
fifty miles, were collected at Quatre-Bras, within the short space of
twenty-four hours.

Napoleon, on coming up from Charleroi, about noon on the 16th, hesitated
for a time whether Blucher at Ligny, or the English at Quatre-Bras,
ought to form the main object of his attack. The Anglo-Belgian army was
not yet concentrated--the Prussian, with the exception of one division,
was: and he at length resolved to give his own personal attention to the
latter. With the main strength of his army, therefore, he assaulted
Blucher at three in the afternoon; and about the same time Ney, with
45,000 men, commenced seriously (for there had been skirmishes ever
since daybreak) the subordinate attack on the position of Wellington.

The English General had held a conference with Blucher this morning at
Bry; and settled with him the ultimate measures to be adopted under
whatever course the events of the day might assume; and he now awaited
the assault of Ney under many disadvantages. His troops were vastly
inferior in number, and all, except a few Belgians, that were now on the
field, had been marching since midnight. The enemy were comparatively
fresh; and they were posted among growing corn, as high as the tallest
man's shoulders, which, with an inequality of ground, enabled them to
draw up a strong body of cuirassiers close to the English, and yet
entirely out of their view. The 79th and 42nd regiments were thus taken
by surprise, and the former would have been destroyed but for the coming
up of the latter. The 42nd, formed into a square, was repeatedly bro