lasps for Talavera, Nive, Salamanca, San
Sebastian, and Vittoria. _In the possession of
Major J.A. Hay_ _Face p._ 10

LADY DE LANCEY. _From a miniature after J.D.
Engleheart_ " 24

PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SIR WALTER
SCOTT " 34

PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CHARLES DICKENS " 36

COLONEL SIR WILLIAM HOWE DE LANCEY, _c._ 1813 " 38

MAP OF PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF WATERLOO " 110

THE VILLAGE OF MONT ST JEAN, 1815 " 113

THE WATERLOO MEMORIAL IN EVERE CEMETERY " 118

A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815

INTRODUCTION

The following narrative, written over eighty years ago, and now at
last given to the world in 1906, is remarkable in many respects.

It is remarkable for its subject, for its style, and for its literary
history.

The subject--a deathbed scene--might seem at first sight to be a trite
and common one. The _mise-en-scene_--the Field of Waterloo--alone
however redeems it from such a charge; and the principal actors play
their part in no common-place or unrelieved tragedy. "Certainly," as
Bacon says, "Vertue is like pretious Odours, most fragrant when they
are incensed or crushed: For _Prosperity_ doth best discover Vice; But
_Adversity_ doth best discover Vertue."

As to the style, it will be sufficient to quote the authority of
Dickens for the statement that no one but Defoe could have told the
story in fiction.

Its literary history is even more remarkable than either its style or
its subject.

It is no exaggeration to say of the narrative--as Bacon said of the
Latin volume of his Essays--that it "may last as long as Bookes last."
And yet it has remained in manuscript for more than eighty years. This
is probably unique in the history of literature since the Invention of
Printing.

As regards the hero of the narrative, the Duke of Wellington once said
that he "was an excellent officer, and would have risen to great
distinction had he lived."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington_, by
Earl Stanhope, p. 183.]

Captain Arthur Gore, who afterwards became Lieutenant-General Gore,
alludes to him in the following terms: "This incomparable officer was
deservedly esteemed by the Duke of W