your
breath for a moment, and then we'll go back, and try if we
can do a little better;" and he actually carried them back
to the charge. He was, indeed, upon that day, everywhere,
and the soul of everything; nor could less than his personal
endeavors have supported the spirits of the men through a
contest so long, so desperate, and so unequal. At his last
attack, Buonaparte brought up 15,000 of his Guard, who had
never drawn trigger during the day. It was upon their
failure that his hopes abandoned him.

[Footnote 20: The skull of Shaw is now in the Museum at
Abbotsford.]

I spoke long with a shrewd Flemish peasant, called John de
Costar, whom he had seized upon as his guide, and who
remained beside him the whole day, and afterwards
accompanied him in his flight as far as Charleroi. Your
Grace may be sure that I interrogated Mynheer very closely
about what he heard and saw. He guided me to the spot where
Buonaparte remained during the latter part of the action. It
was in the highway from Brussels to Charleroi, where it runs
between two high banks, on each of which was a French
battery. He was pretty well sheltered from the English fire;
and, though many bullets flew over his head, neither he nor
any of his suite were touched. His other stations, during
that day, were still more remote from all danger. The story
of his having an observatory erected for him is a mistake.
There is such a thing, and he repaired to it during the
action; but it was built or erected some months before, for
the purpose of a trigonometrical survey of the country, by
the King of the Netherlands. Bony's last position was nearly
fronting a tree where the Duke of Wellington {p.053} was
stationed; there was not more than a quarter of a mile
between them; but Bony was well sheltered, and the Duke so
much exposed, that the tree is barked in several places by
the cannon-balls levelled at him. As for Bony, De Costar
says he was very cool during the whole day, and even gay. As
the cannon-balls flew over them, De Costar ducked; at which
the Emperor laughed, and told him they would hit him all the
same. At length, about the time he made his grand and last
effort, the fire of the Prussian artillery was heard upon
his right, and the heads