s business to defend Brussels, he would choose to give battle on the
field of Waterloo, in advance of the forest of Soignies; and he now
retired thither--in the confidence of being joined there in the morning,
ere the decisive contest should begin, by Blucher. The day was rainy,
the roads were covered deep with mud, and the English soldiery are of
all others most discouraged by the command to retreat. Their spirits,
however, rose gallantly when, on reaching the destined field, they
became aware of their leader's purpose; and, having taken up their
allotted stations, they bivouacked under the storm in the sure hope of
battle.

All his arrangements having been effected early in the evening of the
17th, the Duke of Wellington rode across the country to Blucher, to
inform him personally that he had thus far effected the plan agreed on
at Bry, and express his hope to be supported on the morrow by two
Prussian divisions. The veteran replied, that he would leave a single
corps to hold Grouchy at bay as well as they could, and march himself
with the rest of his army upon Waterloo; and Wellington immediately
returned to his post.[73] The cross roads between Wavre and Mont St.
Jean were in a horrid condition; the rain fell in torrents, and Grouchy
had 32,000 men to attack Thielman's single division, left at Wavre.
Blucher's march, however, began; and if it occupied longer time than had
been anticipated, the fault was none of his.

The position of the Duke of Wellington was before the village of Mont
St. Jean, about a mile and a half in advance of the small town of
Waterloo, on a rising ground, having a gentle and regular declivity
before it--beyond this a plain of about a mile in breadth--and then the
opposite heights of La Belle Alliance, on which the enemy would of
course form their line. The Duke had now with him about 75,000 men in
all; of whom about 30,000 were English. He formed his first line of the
troops on which he could most surely rely--the greater part of the
British foot--the men of Brunswick and Nassau, and three corps of
Hanoverians and Belgians. Behind this the ground sinks and then rises
again. The second line, formed in rear of the first, was composed of the
troops whose spirit and discipline were more doubtful--or who had
suffered most in the action of Quatre-Bras; and behind these lay all the
horse. The position crosses the two highways from Nivelles and Charleroi
to Brussels, nearly where they unite: these