for a moment to commend the practice in our service
of having plenty of well-mounted staff officers ready to convey orders
of moment at the utmost speed. On the portentous night in question,
several, chiefly belonging to the Royal Staff Corps, a body attached
to the Quartermaster-General's department, were employed in conveying
duplicates of the instructions previously forwarded by Hussars, in
order to guard against the possibility of mistake. The omission of
such a precautionary measure at the Prussian headquarters, on the same
evening, was attended with disastrous consequences, for Bluecher's
order for Bulow's corps to unite with the rest of his army, being
entrusted to a corporal, probably wanting in intelligence, he did not
deliver it in time, whereby that corps, 30,000 strong, failed to reach
Ligny and share in the battle."[33]

[Footnote 33: "Recollections of Waterloo," by a Staff Officer, in
_United Service Journal_ for 1847, Part III., p. 3.]

(6) "I entreated to remain in the room with him, promising not to
speak. He wrote for several hours without any interruption but the
entrance and departure of the various messengers who were to take the
orders. Every now and then I gave him a cup of green tea, which was
the only refreshment he would take, and he rewarded me by a silent
look. My feelings during these hours I cannot attempt to describe, but
I preserved perfect outward tranquillity."--_Abridged Narrative._

(7) By 12 midnight, the _after orders_ had been despatched. With
regard to the orders of the 15th and 16th June, including the
"Disposition of the British Army at 7 o'clock A.M., 16th June,"
attributed to Sir William De Lancey, see Gurwood, vol. xii., pp.
472-474; _Supplementary Despatches_, vol. x., p. 496; Ropes'
_Waterloo_, pp. 77-89; and Colonel Maurice in _U.S. Magazine_, 1890,
pp. 144 and 257-263.

(8) Doubtless, General Mueffling, Prussian attache at the headquarters
of the Duke of Wellington. He accompanied the Duke to the ball, and
next morning rode with him to Quatre Bras.

(9) _I.e._, without changing their ball dress. Some of the officers
were killed at Quatre Bras in their shoes and silk stockings. "There
was a ball at Brussels, at the Duchess of Richmond's, that night
(which I only mention because it was so much talked of), at which
numbers of the officers were present, who quitted the ball to join
their divisions, which had commenced their march before they arrived
at their quarters,