The plan of the campaign adopted by the Emperor was worthy the courage
of the French, and the high reputation of their chief.

Information given by a hand to be depended upon, and agents furnished
by the Duke of Otranto[41], had made known the position of the allies
in all its particulars. Napoleon knew, that the army of Wellington was
dispersed over the country from the borders of the sea to Nivelles:
that the right of the Prussians rested on Charleroy; and that the rest
of their army was stationed in echelon indefinitely as far as the
Rhine. He judged, that the enemies' lines were too much extended; and
that it would be practicable for him, by not giving them time to close
up, to separate the two armies, and fall in succession on their troops
thus surprised.

[Footnote 41: These agents, paid by the king, went and
came from Ghent to Paris, and from Paris to Ghent. The
Duke of Otranto, who, no doubt, had good reasons for
knowing them, offered the Emperor, to procure him news
of what passed beyond the frontiers; and it was by their
means the Emperor knew in great part the position of the
enemies' armies. Thus the Duke of Otranto, if we may
credit appearances, with one hand betrayed to the enemy
the secrets of France, and with the other to Napoleon
the secrets of the Bourbons and the foreign powers.]

For this purpose he had united all his cavalry into a single body of
twenty thousand horse, with which he intended to dart like lightning
into the midst of the enemies' cantonments.

If victory favoured this bold stroke, the centre of our army would
occupy Brussels on the second day, while the corps of the right and of
the left drove the Prussians to the Meuse, and the English to the
Scheldt. Belgium being conquered, he would have armed the
malecontents, and marched from success to success as far as the Rhine,
where he would have solicited peace anew.

On the 14th, in the night, our army, the presence of which the Emperor
had taken care to conceal, was to commence its march: nothing
indicated, that the enemy had foreseen our irruption, and every thing
promised us grand results; when Napoleon was informed, that General
Bourmont, Colonels Clouet and Villoutreys, and two other officers, had
just deserted to the enemy.

He knew from Marshal Ney, that M. de Bourmont, at the time of th