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diff --git a/31517.txt b/31517.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d33f39e --- /dev/null +++ b/31517.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3909 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Week at Waterloo in 1815, by Magdalene De Lancey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Week at Waterloo in 1815 + Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She + Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, + Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the + Great Battle + +Author: Magdalene De Lancey + +Editor: Major B. R. Ward + +Release Date: March 6, 2010 [EBook #31517] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815 *** + + + + +Produced by Steven Gibbs, Linda Cantoni, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: A table of contents has been added for the +reader's convenience. Minor, obvious printer errors have been +corrected without note. Numbers in brackets are footnotes, which are +set forth below the paragraphs in which they appear. Numbers in +parentheses appearing in the narrative are endnotes, which can be +found in the Notes to Lady De Lancey's Narrative.] + + + + +A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815 + +LADY DE LANCEY'S NARRATIVE + +BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HOW SHE NURSED HER HUSBAND, COLONEL SIR WILLIAM +HOWE DE LANCEY, QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL OF THE ARMY, MORTALLY WOUNDED IN +THE GREAT BATTLE + + +EDITED BY MAJOR B.R. WARD +ROYAL ENGINEERS + + +LONDON +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. +1906 + + +[Illustration: Major William Howe De Lancey + +45th Regiment c. 1800.] + + + "Dim is the rumour of a common fight, + When host meets host, and many names are sunk; + But of a single combat Fame speaks clear." + + --_Sohrab and Rustum._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +INTRODUCTION +A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815 +NOTES TO LADY DE LANCEY'S NARRATIVE +APPENDIX A--Letters to Captain Basil Hall, R.N., from Sir Walter Scott + and Charles Dickens +APPENDIX B--Bibliography of Lady De Lancey's Narrative +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +MAJOR WILLIAM HOWE DE LANCEY, 45th Regt. of +Foot, c. 1800. _From a miniature in the possession +of Wm. Heathcote De Lancey of New York_ _Frontispiece_ + +THE GOLD CROSS OF SIR WM. DE LANCEY, received +after serving in the Peninsular War, with +clasps 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 Wellington, who honoured him with +his particular confidence and regard."[2] + +[Footnote 2: _Explanatory Notes on the Battle of Waterloo_, by Captain +Arthur Gore, 1817, p. 83.] + +His ancestors, for several generations, had been men of great +distinction, and he undoubtedly inherited their great qualities in a +very high degree. + +The De Lancey family is one of Huguenot origin, the founder of the +family,[3] Etienne De Lancey, having fled from France at the time of +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. + +[Footnote 3: In French annals the family can be traced back to the +time of the Hundred Years' War. The first of the name, of whom there +is any authentic record, was Guy de Lancy, Vicomte de Laval et de +Nouvion, who in 1432 held of the Prince Bishop of Laon and Nouvion, +villages and territories a few miles south of that city. See _History +of New York during the Revolutionary War_, by Thomas Jones, edited by +Edward Floyd De Lancey, vol i., p. 651, and _Dictionnaire de la +Noblesse de France_, vol. viii., title "Lancy."] + +The following extracts treating of the family history are taken from +Appleton's _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_. + +The author of the articles, Edward Floyd De Lancey,[4] was born in +1821, and died at Ossining, N.Y., on the 7th April 1905. At one time +he held the position of President of the New York Genealogical +Society, and has done a great deal of work in the field of historical +research. + +[Footnote 4: For biographical sketch, _see_ Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, +vol. ii., p. 130.] + +"Etienne De Lancey (great-grandfather of Sir William De Lancey), was +born in Caen, France, 24th October 1663; and died in the city of New +York, 18th November 1741. Having been compelled, as a Protestant, to +leave France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (18th October +1685), he escaped into Holland. Deciding to become a British subject +and to emigrate to America, he crossed to England and took the oath of +allegiance to James II. He landed in New York, 7th June 1686. His +mother had given him, on his departure from Caen, a portion of the +family jewels. He sold them for L300, became a merchant, and amassed a +fortune of L100,000. He married Anne, second daughter of Stephanus van +Cortlandt, 23rd January 1700. He took a prominent part in public +affairs, representing the fourth ward of New York as alderman in +1691-93, and was a member of Assembly for twenty-four years. While +sitting in the latter body he gave his salary, during one session, to +purchase the first town-clock erected in New York; and with the aid of +his partner imported and presented to the city the first fire-engine +that had been brought into the province. The De Lancey house, built by +Etienne in 1700 upon a piece of land given to him by his +father-in-law, is now the oldest building in the city of New +York."[5] Mr De Lancey was buried in the family vault in Trinity +Church, New York. + +[Footnote 5: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, vol. ii., p. 129.] + +Three of his sons, James, Peter, and Oliver, left descendants. +Descendants of the eldest son, James, amongst whom were included +Edward Floyd De Lancey, the historian of the family, are resident in +the city of New York, and also at Ossining, N.Y. Descendants of the +second son, Peter, are now living in the county of Annapolis, Nova +Scotia.[6] + +[Footnote 6: For further details of this branch of the family, _see_ +the _History of the County of Annapolis_, by Calnek and Savary, pp. +339-344 and 499.] + +The third son, Oliver, grandfather of the hero of the present +narrative, went to England after the Revolutionary War. No direct +descendants of his in the male line would appear to be now living. + +The following is the account of his life as given in Appleton's +_Cyclopaedia_:-- + +"Oliver, the youngest son of Etienne, was born in New York City, 16th +September 1708; and died in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 27th +November 1785. He was originally a merchant, being a member of the +firm founded by his father. He early took an active part in public +affairs, and was noted for his decision of character and personal +popularity. He represented the city of New York in the Assembly in +1756-60, and served as alderman of the out-ward from 1754 till 1757. +He was active in military affairs during the entire French War, and, +in 1755, obtained leave from Connecticut to raise men there for +service in New York, for which he received the thanks of the Assembly +of his own province. In March 1758 he was appointed to the command of +the forces then being collected for the expedition against Crown +Point, and succeeded in raising the entire New York City regiment +within ten days. He was placed at the head of the New York contingent, +under General Abercrombie (about 5000 strong), as Colonel-in-Chief. In +the attack on Fort Ticonderoga, 8th July 1758, he supported Lord Howe, +and was near that officer when he fell mortally wounded. In November +of the same year the Assembly of New York again voted him its thanks +'for his great service, and singular care of the troops of the colony +while under his command.' In 1760 he was appointed a member of the +Provincial Council, retaining his seat until 1776. In 1763 he was +made Receiver-General, and in 1773 Colonel-in-Chief of the Southern +military district of the province. 'In June 1776,' says the historian +Jones, 'he joined General Howe on Staten Island; and, had that officer +profited by his honest advice, the American War, I will be bold to +say, would have ended in a very different manner to what it did.' In +September of that year he raised three regiments of Loyalists, largely +at his own expense, of 500 men each, known as 'De Lancey's +battalions.' Of these regiments a brigade was formed, and Colonel De +Lancey was commissioned Brigadier-General in the Loyalist service. He +was assigned to the command of Long Island, where he remained during +the war. One of his battalions served in the South with great credit, +under his son-in-law, Colonel John Harris Cruger, doing effective +service in the defence of Fort Ninety-six against General Greene. In +November 1777, his country-seat at Bloomingdale, on the Hudson, was +robbed and burned at night by a party of Americans from the +water-guard at Tarrytown, his wife and daughters being driven from the +house in their night-dresses and compelled to spend the night in the +fields, now the Central Park. Having been attainted, and his immense +estates in New York and New Jersey confiscated, General De Lancey +retired to England, where he resided in Beverley until his death. Of +his four daughters, Susanna married Sir William Draper, while +Charlotte became the wife of Sir David Dundas, K.C.B., who succeeded +the Duke of York as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army."[7] + +[Footnote 7: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, vol. ii., p. 132.] + +In the Life of Van Schaak, his decease is mentioned thus by a +fellow-Loyalist: "Our old friend has at last taken his departure from +Beverley, which he said should hold his bones; he went off without +pain or struggle, his body wasted to a skeleton, his mind the same. +The family, most of them, collected in town (London). There will +scarcely be a village in England without some American dust in it, I +believe, by the time we are all at rest."[8] + +[Footnote 8: _Loyalists of the American Revolution_ (Sabine), vol. i., +365.] + +Stephen, the eldest son of Brigadier-General Oliver De Lancey, and +father of Sir William De Lancey, was born in New York City about 1740; +and died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, December 1798. He was educated +in England, and practised law in New York before the Revolutionary +War, during which he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the "De Lancey's" +second battalion. After the war he was appointed Chief Justice of the +Bahama Islands, and subsequently was made Governor of Tobago and its +dependencies. His health becoming impaired while he held the latter +office, he sailed for England to rejoin his family. But he grew +rapidly worse on the voyage, and, at his own request, was transferred +to an American vessel bound for Portsmouth, N.H., where he died, and +was buried a few days after his arrival.[9] + +[Footnote 9: The following is an extract from the Parish Register of +St John's Church, Portsmouth, N.H. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +"1798. | RECORD OF DEATHS. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +Decbr. 6th | His Excellency, _Stephen De Lancy_, Governour of + | Tobago, who died, the night after his arrival + | in the harbour of this town, of a decline which + | had been upon him for six months, aged 50 + | years." +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Mr De Lancey was buried in the Wentworth tomb, in St John's +Churchyard, where many of the Wentworth Governors of New Hampshire and +their families are buried.--ED.] + +Sir William De Lancey, soldier, only son of the preceding, was born in +New York about 1781,[10] and died in June 1815, in consequence of +wounds received at the battle of Waterloo. He was educated in England, +and early entered the British army. He served with great distinction +under Wellington in Spain, and was several times honourably mentioned +in his despatches.[11] + +[Footnote 10: This date agrees with the tradition handed down in the +family with Lady De Lancey's narrative, to the effect that he was only +thirty-four at the time of his death at Waterloo.--ED.] + +[Footnote 11: _Vide_ Gurwood's _Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, +2nd edition, vol. iii., pp. 227 and 229; vol. v., p. 476; vol. vi., p. +542. Sir Harry Smith, a soldier of soldiers--"inter milites +miles"--speaks of him in his Autobiography as "that gallant fellow De +Lancey." (_Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith_, vol. i., p. 266.)] + +[Illustration: THE GOLD CROSS OF SIR WILLIAM DE LANCEY. + +Received after serving in the Peninsular War. + +_In the possession of Major J.A. Hay._] + +At the close of the war he was made a Knight of the Bath. When +Napoleon landed from Elba, Wellington, in forming his staff, insisted +on having De Lancey appointed as his Quartermaster-General. The +officer really entitled to the promotion was Sir William's +brother-in-law, Sir Hudson Lowe;[12] but as Wellington had conceived +a dislike for him, he refused to accept that officer in that capacity. +The military authorities, however, insisted on his appointment, and it +was only when Wellington made the promotion of De Lancey a _sine qua +non_ of his acceptance of the supreme command that the former +yielded.[13] Six weeks before the battle of Waterloo, Sir William +married the daughter of Sir James Hall[14] of Dunglass, the Scottish +scientist. His bride accompanied him on the Continent. On the second +day of the battle[15] Sir William was knocked from his horse by a +spent cannon-ball, and it was at first supposed that he had been +instantly killed. Thirty-six hours afterwards he was discovered, still +alive and in his senses, but incapable of motion, although without any +visible wound. Notwithstanding the skill of the surgeons, and the +tender care of his wife, he succumbed to his injuries nine days after +the battle.[16] + +[Footnote 12: It was not till the 16th December 1815--six months after +Waterloo--that Sir Hudson Lowe married Mrs Susan Johnson, sister of +Sir William De Lancey. (_Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. +xxxiv., p. 191.) See also _The Creevey Papers_, Third Edition (1905), +p. 247.] + +[Footnote 13: "Wellington assumed command in the Netherlands early in +April 1815, and Lowe, who had been acting as Quartermaster-General in +the Low Countries under the command of the Prince of Orange, remained +for a few weeks under him as his Quartermaster-General; but having +been nominated to command the troops in Genoa designed to co-operate +with the Austro-Sardinian armies, he was replaced in May by Sir +William Howe De Lancey." (_Dictionary of National Biography_, art. +"Lowe, Sir Hudson," vol. xxxiv., p. 191.) See also _The Creevey +Papers_, Third Edition (1905), p. 247. + +The following extract of a letter from Major-General Sir H. Torrens to +Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War, dated Ghent, 8th April 1815, alludes +to the hitch about Sir Hudson Lowe: "I shall communicate fully with +the Commander-in-Chief upon the Duke of Wellington's wishes respecting +his Staff.... As you were somewhat anxious about Sir Hudson Lowe, I +must apprise you that he will not do for the Duke." (_Supplementary +Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, vol. x., pp. 42 and 43.) (_Cf._ +_The Creevey Papers_, Third Edition (1905), p. 289.) + +Evidently Sir Hudson Lowe was no more of a _persona grata_ to +Wellington than he afterwards became to Napoleon! + +A letter from Major-General Sir H. Torrens, who appears to have been +acting at the time as Military Secretary to the Duke of York, +Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, written to the Duke of +Wellington from London on the 16th April 1815, shows the high +estimation in which the Duke held De Lancey's services:-- + +"De Lancey is in town on his way to go out.... I told him the very +handsome and complimentary manner in which you asked for his services, +and assured him that nothing could be so gratifying, in my view of the +case, to his military and professional feelings as the desire you +expressed to me of having him again with you." (_Supplementary +Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, vol. x., p. 130.) + +That the Duke felt deeply the interference of Headquarters with his +selection of Staff Officers is clearly shown by the following letter, +written by him to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War, dated Bruxelles, +4th May 1815:-- + +"To tell you the truth, I am not very well pleased with the manner in +which the Horse Guards have conducted themselves towards me. It will +be admitted that the army is not a very good one, and, being composed +as it is, I might have expected that the Generals and Staff formed by +me in the last war would have been allowed to come to me again; but +instead of that, I am overloaded with people I have never seen before; +and it appears to be purposely intended to keep those out of my way +whom I wished to have. However I'll do the best I can with the +instruments which have been sent to assist me." (_Supplementary +Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, vol. x., p. 219.)] + +[Footnote 14: See _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xxiv., p. +68.] + +[Footnote 15: On the 18th June, at Waterloo; the battle of Quatre Bras +having been fought on the 16th.--ED.] + +[Footnote 16: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, vol. ii., pp. 132, 133.] + +There are several references to De Lancey's death in the "_Letters of +Colonel Sir Augustus S. Frazer, K.C.B._, commanding the R.H.A. in the +army under the Duke of Wellington, written during the Peninsular and +Waterloo campaigns," edited by Major-General Sir Edward Sabine, R.A. +On the 29th June Sir Augustus writes to Lady Frazer from Mons: "I +regret to state that poor De Lancey is dead; so Hume, the Duke's +surgeon, told me. He had opened the body; eight ribs were forced from +the spine, one totally broke to pieces, and part of it in the lungs. +Poor De Lancey! He is our greatest loss; a noble fellow and an +admirable officer," p. 582. + +In connection with the foregoing, it will be interesting to compare +the account of De Lancey's wound given in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_:-- + + "The Duke of Wellington gave the following version of the + occurrence to Samuel Rogers: 'De Lancey was with me, and + speaking to me when he was struck. We were on a point of land + that overlooked the plain. I had just been warned off by some + soldiers (but as I saw well from it, and two divisions were + engaging below, I said "Never mind"), when a ball came + bounding along _en ricochet_, as it is called, and, striking + him on the back, sent him many yards over the head of his + horse. He fell on his face, and bounded upwards and fell + again. All the staff dismounted and ran to him, and when I + came up he said, 'Pray tell them to leave me and let me die + in peace.' I had him conveyed to the rear, and two days + after, on my return from Brussels, I saw him in a barn, and + he spoke with such strength that I said (for I had reported + him killed), 'Why! De Lancey, you will have the advantage of + Sir Condy in "Castle Rackrent"--you will know what your + friends said of you after you were dead.' 'I hope I shall,' + he replied. Poor fellow! We knew each other ever since we + were boys. But I had no time to be sorry. I went on with the + army, and never saw him again."[17] + +[Footnote 17: "Recollections of Samuel Rogers," under "Waterloo." From +the article on "Sir William De Lancey," by H. Manners Chichester, in +the _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xiv., pp. 304, 305.] + +The following is the extract from Wellington's official despatch of +the 19th June, referring to De Lancey:-- + + "I had every reason to be satisfied with the conduct of the + Adjutant-General, Major-General Barnes, who was wounded, and + of the Quartermaster-General, Colonel De Lancey, who was + killed by a cannon-shot in the middle of the action. This + officer is a serious loss to His Majesty's service, and to me + at this moment."[18] + +[Footnote 18: Gurwood, vol. viii., p. 150. _Cf._ _Letters of Colonel +Sir Augustus S. Frazer, K.C.B._, dated Nivelles, June 20: "De Lancey +is said to be dead: this is our greatest loss, none can be greater, +public or private," p. 550.] + +At the end of the despatch there is a _P.S._ announcing the death of +Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, followed by a second _P.S._ +couched in the following terms: "I have not yet got the returns of +killed and wounded, but I enclose a list of officers killed and +wounded on the two days, as far as the same can be made out without +the returns; and I am very happy to add that Colonel De Lancey is not +dead, and that strong hopes of his recovery are entertained." + +That the Duke felt keenly his severe losses in killed and wounded, +especially amongst the members of his Staff, is shown by the following +reminiscence of General Alava,[19] as told by him, two years after the +battle, to Sir Harry Smith and his wife--the lady now immortalised by +the name Ladysmith, emblazoned on the colours or accoutrements of +thirty-five British regiments. + +[Footnote 19: A Spanish naval officer who served on the Staff of the +Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. Alava +enjoyed the unique distinction of having been present both at +Trafalgar and Waterloo. At the former battle he commanded a Spanish +line-of-battle ship.--ED.] + +On the evening of the battle, "the Duke got back to his quarters at +Waterloo about nine or ten at night. The table was laid for the usual +number, while none appeared of the many of his Staff but Alava and +Fremantle. The Duke said very little, ate hastily and heartily, but +every time the door opened he gave a searching look, evidently in the +hope of some of his valuable Staff approaching. When he had finished +eating, he held up both hands in an imploring attitude and said, 'The +hand of Almighty God has been upon me this day,' jumped up, went to +his couch, and was asleep in a moment."[20] + +[Footnote 20: _Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith_, vol. i., p. 291.] + +The following is from General Alava's official report of the action: +"Of those who were by the side of the Duke of Wellington, only he and +myself remained untouched in our persons and horses. The rest were all +either killed, wounded, or lost one or more horses. The Duke was +unable to refrain from tears on witnessing the death of so many brave +and honourable men, and the loss of so many friends and faithful +companions."[21] + +[Footnote 21: From the _Supplement to the Madrid Gazette_ of the 13th +July 1815, quoted in the London _Evening Mail_ of August 2 to August +4, 1815.] + +The next morning, the Duke wrote the following note to Lady Frances W. +Webster, dated + + "BRUXELLES, 19_th_ _June_ 1815. + + "Half-past 8 in the morning. + + "MY DEAR LADY FRANCES, + + "Lord Mount-Norris may remain in Bruxelles in perfect + security. I yesterday, after a most severe and bloody + contest, gained a complete victory, and pursued the French + till after dark. They are in complete confusion; and I have, + I believe, 150 pieces of cannon; and Bluecher, who continued + the pursuit all night, my soldiers being tired to death, + sent me word this morning that he had got 60 more. My loss + is immense. Lord Uxbridge, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, General + Cooke, General Barnes, and Colonel Berkeley are wounded: + Colonel De Lancey, Canning, Gordon, General Picton + killed.[22] The finger of Providence was upon me, and I + escaped unhurt.--Believe me, etc.,[23] + + "WELLINGTON." + +[Footnote 22: All the foregoing were on the General Staff of the Army +or on the Duke's personal Staff.--ED.] + +[Footnote 23: _Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, +vol. x., p. 531.] + +Captain Gronow--a subaltern of the 1st Guards at Waterloo--gives us +the following glimpse of the Duke and his Staff, on the morning of the +18th, before the opening of the battle:-- + + "The road was ankle-deep in mud and slough; and we had not + proceeded a quarter of a mile when we heard the trampling of + horses' feet, and on looking round perceived a large + cavalcade of officers coming at full speed. In a moment we + recognised the Duke himself at their head. He was accompanied + by the Duke of Richmond, and his son, Lord William Lennox. + The entire Staff of the army was close at hand: the Prince of + Orange, Count Pozzo di Borgo, Baron Vincent, the Spanish + General Alava, Prince Castel Cicala, with their several + aides-de-camp; Felton Hervey, Fitzroy Somerset, and De Lancey + were the last that appeared. They all seemed as gay and + unconcerned as if they were riding to meet the hounds in some + quiet English county."[24] + +[Footnote 24: _Recollections and Anecdotes_, by Captain Gronow, p. +186.] + +Colonel Basil Jackson, who in 1815 was a lieutenant in the Royal Staff +Corps, attached to the Quartermaster-General's department (see +Dalton's _Waterloo Roll Call_, p. 38), gives the following interesting +reminiscences of De Lancey on the 17th, at Quatre Bras, and during the +retreat to Waterloo on the same day: "Some few changes were made in +the disposition of the troops after the Duke of Wellington arrived on +the ground, soon after daylight; arms were then piled, and the men, +still wearied with their exertions of marching and fighting on the +preceding day, lay down to snatch a little more rest. The Duke, too, +after riding about and satisfying himself that all was as it should +be, dismounted and stretched himself on the ground, very near the +point where the road from Brussels to Charleroi crossed that leading +from Nivelles to Namur, forming thereby the _Quatre Bras_.... + +"I remained for some time at a short distance from the great man, who +occasionally addressed a few words to Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Sir E. +Barnes, De Lancey, and others of his principal officers. He was then +awaiting the return of Sir Alexander Gordon, who had gone off by the +Namur road, some time between 6 and 7 o'clock, escorted by a squadron +of the 10th Hussars. I had seen this detachment start at a round trot, +but of course knew not the object of despatching it; which, as we +learned afterwards, was to gain intelligence of Bluecher's operations, +whose defeat at Ligny we, that is, the army generally, were ignorant +of, though the Duke was aware of it. + +"I availed myself of this period of quietness to go and examine +particularly the ground which had been so hardly contested the day +before.... + +"Returning to the place where I had left the Duke when I set out on my +ramble round the outposts, I found him still on the same spot; where +he remained till Gordon and his escort came in with jaded horses, soon +after 10 o'clock. On hearing his report, the Duke said a few words to +De Lancey, who, observing me near him, directed me to go to Sir Thomas +Picton, and tell him the orders were to make immediate preparation for +falling back upon Waterloo.... + +"Just as the retreat commenced (about noon), I was ordered off to +Mont St Jean, where I was told I should meet the Quartermaster-General; +accordingly I made for Genappe, and as the high road was by that time +filled with troops, being, moreover, careless of the farmer's +interest, I took a short cut through the corn-fields, in such a +direction as enabled me to strike into that village about its centre. +There I found sad confusion prevailing; country waggons with stores, +ammunition tumbrils, provision waggons, and wounded men, choked up the +street, so that it was impossible for any one to pass. Aware of the +great importance of freeing the passage at a time when the retiring +troops might be pressed by the enemy, I at once set to work to remedy +the disorder that prevailed. Let the reader picture to himself Police +Constable 61 C posted at the pastry-cook's corner where Gracechurch +Street enters Cheapside, at a moment when those passages, together +with Bishopsgate and Leadenhall Streets are blocked up by 'buses, +drays, waggons, carts, advertising locomotives, private carriages, and +dodging cabs, when that unhappy functionary is vainly striving to +restore order and clear the ways, and he will have some idea of the +difficulty I experienced in executing my self-imposed task. Happily, I +was acquainted with some pithy expressions in two or three languages, +which were familiar to the ears of those I had to deal with; and +these, together with the flat of my sword, proved very efficacious in +the end. While in the thick of this scene of tumult and confusion, I +felt some one clap me on the shoulder, and on looking round saw Sir W. +De Lancey. 'You are very well employed here,' said he; 'remain, and +keep the way clear for the troops; I shall not want you at Waterloo.' +Encouraged by my chief's commendation I redoubled my efforts, and had +soon the satisfaction of seeing the defile free."[25] + +[Footnote 25: "Recollections of Waterloo," by a Staff Officer, in +_United Service Journal_ for 1847, Part III., p. 11.] + +"A week after the battle"--to quote again from the article by H. +Manners Chichester in the _Dictionary of National Biography_--"De +Lancey succumbed to his injuries, in a peasant's cottage in the +village of Waterloo, where he was tenderly nursed by his young wife, +who had joined him in Brussels a few days before the battle. +According to another account, De Lancey was laid down at his own +request when being conveyed to the rear, and so was left out untended +all night and part of the next day. Rogers, in a note, states that he +was killed by 'the wind of the shot,' his skin not being broken; and +also that Lady De Lancey left a manuscript account of his last days." + +[Illustration: Lady de Lancey + +From a miniature after J.D. Engleheart] + +This manuscript account was written in the first instance by Lady De +Lancey for the information of her brother, Captain Basil Hall, R.N. +The original manuscript has been lost sight of. An early copy, which +was made by Mrs Basil Hall, is now in the possession of their +grand-daughter, Lady Parsons. Copies would appear to have been made by +members of the family at various times; but the existence of the +narrative was apparently not known to Edward Floyd De Lancey, the +historian of the family in Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_. Besides the copy +of the narrative made by Mrs Basil Hall, another copy came into the +possession of the poet Rogers. This copy is now owned by W. Arthur +Sharpe, Esq., Highgate, N. Both the above versions--which contain only +slight variations--have been consulted in the present edition of the +narrative. + +Captain Basil Hall, R.N. (vide _Dictionary of National Biography_, +vol. xxiv., p. 58), was a well-known author in his day, his best known +work being _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, published in three +series between 1831 and 1833, and frequently reprinted since. + +In Volume II. of the first series, Captain Hall alludes to his first +meeting with De Lancey. It occurred on board H.M.S. _Endymion_ on the +morning of the 18th January 1809, when the British troops had all been +safely embarked on the transports, the second day after the battle of +Corunna. + +Basil Hall--then a lieutenant in the navy--and De Lancey[26] struck up +a great friendship on the _Endymion_, and the former introduced his +soldier friend after the voyage home to his family in Scotland. The +marriage of De Lancey six years afterwards to Basil Hall's sister +Magdalene was a result of this introduction. + +[Footnote 26: De Lancey was at this time a lieutenant-colonel and +permanent assistant in the quartermaster-general's department (Army +List, 1809, p. 323). + +His first commission as a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons bore the +date 7th July 1792 (Army List, 1793, p. 50), when he was only eleven +years old. + +He was gazetted lieutenant in the same regiment on the 26th February +1793, and was subsequently transferred to the 80th Foot. + +On the 20th October 1796 he was gazetted captain in the 17th Light +Dragoons, of which regiment his uncle, General Oliver De Lancey, was +then colonel. + +He obtained a majority in the 45th (or Nottinghamshire) Regiment of +Foot on the 17th October 1799. He was by this time eighteen years of +age, and up to this date had probably no connection with the army at +all beyond drawing his pay and figuring in the Army List. Even now he +does not appear to have joined his regiment until its return from the +West Indies, a year or two afterwards (_Dict. Nat. Biog._, vol. xiv., +p. 305). His first uniform was probably that of the 45th Foot, and the +portrait, forming the frontispiece of this volume, was in all +likelihood painted on his first joining the regiment as a major in +1800 or 1801. + +In the Army List of 1804 he is shown on page 31 as an assistant +quartermaster-general. His actual regimental service can therefore +hardly have exceeded two or three years. Until his death in 1815, he +was continuously on the staff of the army in the quartermaster-general's +department.] + +The following extract from Captain Basil Hall's _Fragments of Voyages +and Travels_, gives an account of the first meeting of the two friends +on board the _Endymion_, and of the dramatic circumstances under +which Captain Hall heard the news of his sister's marriage, and of De +Lancey's death at Waterloo:-- + +"As we in the _Endymion_ had the exclusive charge of the convoy of +transports, we remained to the very last, to assist the ships with +provisions, and otherwise to regulate the movements of the stragglers. +Whilst we were thus engaged, and lying to, with our main-topsail to +the mast, a small Spanish boat came alongside, with two or three +British officers in her. On these gentlemen being invited to step up, +and say what they wanted, one of them begged we would inform him where +the transport No. 139 was to be found. + +"'How can we possibly tell you that?' said the officer of the watch. +'Don't you see the ships are scattered as far as the horizon in every +direction? You had much better come on board this ship in the +meantime.' + +"'No, sir, no,' cried the officers; 'we have received directions to go +on board the transport 139, and her we must find.' + +"'What is all this about?' inquired the captain of the _Endymion_; +and being told of the scruples of the strangers, insisted upon their +coming up. He very soon explained to them the utter impossibility, at +such a moment, of finding out any particular transport amongst between +three and four hundred ships, every one of which was following her own +way. We found out afterwards that they only were apprehensive of +having it imagined they had designedly come to the frigate for better +quarters. Nothing, of course, was farther from our thoughts; indeed, +it was evidently the result of accident. So we sent away their little +boat, and just at that moment the gun-room steward announced +breakfast. We invited our new friends down, and gave them a hearty +meal in peace and comfort--a luxury they had not enjoyed for many a +long and rugged day. + +"Our next care was to afford our tired warriors the much-required +comforts of a razor and clean linen. We divided the party amongst us; +and I was so much taken with one of these officers, that I urged him +to accept such accommodation as my cabin and wardrobe afforded. He +had come to us without one stitch of clothes beyond what he then wore, +and these, to say the truth, were not in the best condition, at the +elbows and other angular points of his frame. Let that pass--he was as +fine a fellow as ever stepped; and I had much pride and pleasure in +taking care of him during the passage. + +"We soon became great friends; but on reaching England we parted, and +I never saw him more. Of course he soon lost sight of me, but his fame +rose high, and, as I often read his name in the Gazettes during the +subsequent campaigns in the Peninsula, I looked forward with a +gradually increasing anxiety to the renewal of an acquaintance begun +so auspiciously. At last I was gratified by a bright flash of hope in +this matter, which went out, alas, as speedily as it came. Not quite +six years after these events, I came home from India, in command of a +sloop of war. Before entering the Channel, we fell in with a ship +which gave us the first news of the battle of Waterloo, and spared us +a precious copy of the Duke of Wellington's despatch; and within five +minutes after landing at Portsmouth, I met a near relation of my own. +This seemed a fortunate rencontre, for I had not received a letter +from home for nearly a year--and I eagerly asked him-- + +"'What news of all friends?' + +"'I suppose,' he said, 'you know of your sister's marriage?' + +"'No, indeed! I do not!--which sister?' + +"He told me. + +"'But to whom is she married?' I cried out with intense impatience, +and wondering greatly that he had not told me this at once. + +"'Sir William De Lancey was the person,' he answered. But he spoke not +in the joyous tone that befits such communications. + +"'God bless me!' I exclaimed. 'I am delighted to hear that. I know him +well--we picked him up in a boat, at sea, after the battle of Corunna, +and I brought him home in my cabin in the _Endymion_. I see by the +despatch, giving an account of the late victory, that he was badly +wounded--how is he now? I observe by the postscript to the Duke's +letter that strong hopes are entertained of his recovery.' + +"'Yes,' said my friend, 'that was reported, but could hardly have been +believed. Sir William was mortally wounded, and lived not quite a week +after the action. The only comfort about this sad matter is, that his +poor wife, being near the field at the time, joined him immediately +after the battle, and had the melancholy satisfaction of attending her +husband to the last!'"[27] + +[Footnote 27: _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, by Captain Basil +Hall, R.N., 1831, vol. ii., pp. 367-371.] + +It was, as before stated, at Captain Hall's request that Lady De +Lancey wrote the memorable Waterloo narrative. + +In order to satisfy the natural curiosity of friends--who had probably +heard of the narrative in Captain Hall's possession--Lady De Lancey +prepared an abridged version, in more general terms, and of a much +more reserved character than the original account, written for her +brother only. + +This condensed account was found amongst the papers of her nephew, +General De Lancey Lowe, after his death in 1880. His widow published +it in the _Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine_ for 1888, p. 414. + +In some few instances this abridged account contains descriptive +touches not given in the original narrative. These variations are +given in the form of notes to the present edition of the narrative. + +Thomas Moore in his diary for the 29th August 1824 describes the +circumstances under which Captain Hall lent him his copy of the +narrative as follows:-- + +"A note early from Lord Lansdowne, to say that Capt. Basil Hall, who +is at Bowood, wishes much to see me; and that if I cannot come over +to-day to either luncheon or dinner, he will call upon me to-morrow. +Answered that I would come to dinner to-day. Walked over at five.... +Company, only Capt. Basil Hall, Luttrel, and Nugent, and an _ad +interim_ tutor of Kerry's.... Hall gave me, before I came away, a +journal written by his sister, Lady De Lancey, containing an account +of the death of her husband at Waterloo, and her attendance upon him +there, they having been but three months married. Walked home; took +the narrative to bed with me to read a page or two, but found it so +deeply interesting, that I read till near two o'clock, and finished +it; made myself quite miserable, and went to sleep, I believe, crying. +Hall said he would call upon me to-morrow."[28] + +[Footnote 28: _Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore_, +edited by Lord John Russell, vol. iv., p. 239.] + +Earl Stanhope, in his _Notes of Conversations with the Duke of +Wellington_, p. 182, writes as follows: "I mentioned with much praise +Lady De Lancey's narrative of her husband's lingering death and of her +own trials and sufferings after Waterloo. The Duke told me that he had +seen it--Lord Bathurst having lent it him many years ago." This +conversation took place on the 12th October 1839. + +The two most famous literary men to whom Captain Basil Hall lent the +narrative, were, however, Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. + +Sir Walter Scott writes under date Abbotsford, 13th October 1825, that +his publisher, Constable, thinks that the narrative "would add very +great interest as an addition to the letters which I wrote from Paris +soon after Waterloo, and certainly I would consider it as one of the +most valuable and important documents which could be published as +illustrative of the woes of war."[29] + +[Illustration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.] + + "I never read anything which affected my own feelings more + strongly, or which, I am sure, would have a deeper interest + on [_sic_] those of the public.... + + "Perhaps it may be my own high admiration of the contents of + this heartrending diary, which makes me suppose a + possibility that after such a lapse of years, the + publication may possibly (as that which cannot but do the + highest honour to the memory of the amiable authoress) may + [_sic_] not be judged altogether inadmissible....--Most + truly yours, + + "WALTER SCOTT."[30] + +[Footnote 29: Perhaps the _Memoires de Madame la Marquise de +Larochejaquelein_ of which four editions were published between 1814 +and 1817--one of the noblest and most touching of autobiographies--is +the nearest parallel in literature to Lady De Lancey's narrative. The +French Marchioness describes her experiences in Paris in 1789, and +during the Insurrection of La Vendee in 1793.--ED.] + +[Footnote 30: The complete letter will be found in Appendix A of this +volume.] + +[Illustration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CHARLES DICKENS.] + +The following is a transcript of the most remarkable passages in +Dickens' letter:-- + + "DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + + _"Tuesday evening_, 16_th_ _March_ 1841. + + "MY DEAR HALL, ... + + "I have not had courage until last night to read Lady De + Lancey's narrative, and, but for your letter, I should not + have mastered it even then. One glance at it, when, through + your kindness, it first arrived, had impressed me with a + foreboding of its terrible truth, and I really have shrunk + from it in pure lack of heart. + + "After working at Barnaby all day, and wandering about the + most wretched and distressful streets for a couple of hours + in the evening--searching for some pictures I wanted to + build upon--I went at it, at about ten o'clock. To say that + the reading that most astonishing and tremendous account has + constituted an epoch in my life--that I shall never forget + the lightest word of it--that I cannot throw the impression + aside, and never saw anything so real, so touching, and so + actually present before my eyes, is nothing. I am husband + and wife, dead man and living woman, Emma and General + Dundas, doctor and bedstead--everything and everybody (but + the Prussian officer--damn him) all in one. What I have + always looked upon as masterpieces of powerful and + affecting description, seem as nothing in my eyes. If I live + for fifty years, I shall dream of it every now and then, + from this hour to the day of my death, with the most + frightful reality. The slightest mention of a battle will + bring the whole thing before me. I shall never think of the + Duke any more but as he stood in his shirt with the officer + in full-dress uniform, or as he dismounted from his horse + when the gallant man was struck down. It is a striking proof + of the power of that most extraordinary man, Defoe, that I + seem to recognise in every line of the narrative something + of him. Has this occurred to you? The going to Waterloo with + that unconsciousness of everything in the road, but the + obstacles to getting on--the shutting herself up in her room + and determining not to hear--the not going to the door when + the knocking came--the finding out by her wild spirits when + she heard he was safe, how much she had feared when in doubt + and anxiety--the desperate desire to move towards him--the + whole description of the cottage, and its condition; and + their daily shifts and contrivances, and the lying down + beside him in the bed and both _falling asleep_; and his + resolving not to serve any more, but to live quietly + thenceforth; and her sorrow when she saw him eating with an + appetite, so soon before his death; and his death + itself--all these are matters of truth, which only that + astonishing creature, I think, could have told in fiction. + + "Of all the beautiful and tender passages--the thinking + every day how happy and blest she was--the decorating him + for the dinner--the standing in the balcony at night and + seeing the troops melt away through the gate--and the + rejoining him on his sick-bed--I say not a word. They are + God's own, and should be sacred. But let me say again, with + an earnestness which pen and ink can no more convey than + toast and water, in thanking you heartily for the perusal of + this paper, that its impression on me can never be told; + that the ground she travelled (which I know well) is holy + ground to me from this day; and that, please Heaven, I will + tread its every foot this very next summer, to have the + softened recollection of this sad story on the very earth + where it was acted. + + "You won't smile at this, I know. When my enthusiasms are + awakened by such things, they don't wear out....--Faithfully + yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS."[31] + +[Footnote 31: The complete letter will be found in Appendix A of this +volume.] + +Many literary and artistic masterpieces have grouped themselves round +Waterloo. One of the most striking passages in _Vanity Fair_ refers to +an imaginary incident in connection with the battle. Sir Walter Scott +once said that in the whole range of English poetry there was nothing +finer than the stanzas in _Childe Harold_, commencing with the line-- + + "There was a sound of revelry by night," + +and ending with the words-- + + "Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent." + +Tennyson's _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington_ ranks as a +funeral dirge with _Lycidas_ and _Adonais_. Napoleon's tomb in the +Invalides may hold its own almost with the Taj. Yet, when all is said +and done, the fact remains that no hero of the battle, and indeed few +victims of war, have ever received a more touching memorial than the +one here set forth in the sight of all future generations of men by +the love and the literary genius of Lady De Lancey. + +B.R. WARD. + +HALIFAX, N.S., + _April_ 1906. + +[Illustration: COLONEL SIR WILLIAM HOWE DE LANCEY (_c._ 1813).] + + + + +A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815 + + +I arrived at Brussels on Thursday, 8th June 1815, and was much +surprised at the peaceful appearance of that town, and the whole +country from Ostend. We were billeted in the house of the Count de +Lannoy, in the Park, which is a square of very beautiful houses with +fine large trees in the centre. The Count de Lannoy was very +attentive, and we had a suite of very excellent rooms, up four +stories, which is the fashion in that country, I believe. It was +amusing enough, sometimes, to see from our windows the people parading +in the Park. I saw very little of the town, and still less of the +inhabitants; for notwithstanding Sir William's belief that we should +remain quietly there for a month at least, I have the comfort of +remembering that, as there was a chance we might separate in a few +days, I wasted no time in visiting or going to balls, which I did not +care for, and therefore I never went out, except for an hour or two +every afternoon, to walk with Sir William. + +The people in general dined between three and four, we dined at six; +we walked while others were at dinner, so that literally I never saw +anybody, except some gentlemen, two or three of whom dined with us +every day--Sir William's friends, whom he brought to introduce to me. + +I never passed such a delightful time, for there was always enough of +very pleasant society to keep us gay and merry, and the rest of the +day was spent in peaceful happiness. + +Fortunately my husband had scarcely any business to do, and he only +went to the office for about an hour every day. I then used to sit and +think with astonishment of my being transported into such a scene of +happiness, so perfect, so unalloyed!--feeling that I was entirely +enjoying life--not a moment wasted. How active and how well I was! I +scarcely knew what to do with all my health and spirits. Now and then +a pang would cross my mind at the prospect of the approaching +campaign, but I chased away the thought, resolved not to lose the +present bliss by dwelling on the chance of future pain. Sir William +promised to let me know as soon as he knew himself, everything +concerning the movement of the army; and accordingly he gave me every +paper to read, to keep my mind easy. After some consideration, he +decided that upon the commencement of hostilities I should go to +Antwerp, and there remain till the end of the campaign, which might +last months. He wished me not to think of going along with him, +because the rear of a great army was always dangerous, and an unfit +situation for a woman; and he wished not to draw me into any scenes, +or near any danger, more than if I had remained in England. He little +thought I should be in the midst of horrors I would not pass again for +any being _now_ living; and alas, the cautious anxiety he expressed +that I should avoid being shocked, only made me feel more desolate and +miserable when I found myself in the midst of most terrible scenes. + +Several other officers, on hearing that he designed to send me to +Antwerp, fixed that their wives should go there too. It is a very +strongly fortified town, and likewise having the sea to escape by, if +necessary, it was by far the safest place; and being only twenty-five +miles from Brussels, it added so little to the time of hearing from +him, if separated, that I acquiesced cheerfully. After this was +arranged, we never thought more about it, and enjoyed each hour as it +passed with no more anxiety than was sufficient to render time +precious. + +On Wednesday the 14th, I had a little alarm in the evening with some +public papers, and Sir William went out with them, but returned in a +short time; and it passed by so completely, that Thursday(1) forenoon +was the happiest day of my life; but I cannot recollect a day of my +short married life that was not perfect. I shall never get on if I +begin to talk of what my happiness was; but I dread to enter on the +gloomy past, which I shudder to look back upon, and I often wonder I +survived it. We little dreamt that Thursday was the last we were to +pass together, and that the storm would burst so soon. Sir William had +to dine at the Spanish Ambassador's,(2) the first invitation he had +accepted from the time I went; he was unwilling to go, and delayed and +still delayed, till at last when near six, I fastened all his medals +and crosses on his coat, helped him to put it on, and he went.(3) I +watched at the window till he was out of sight, and then I continued +musing on my happy fate; I thought over all that had passed, and how +grateful I felt! I had no wish but that this might continue; I saw my +husband loved and respected by everyone, my life gliding on, like a +gay dream, in his care. + +When I had remained at the window nearly an hour, I saw an +aide-de-camp ride under the gateway of our house. He sent to enquire +where Sir William was dining. I wrote down the name; and soon after I +saw him gallop off in that direction. I did not like this appearance, +but I tried not to be afraid. A few minutes after, I saw Sir William +on the same horse gallop past to the Duke's,(4) which was a few doors +beyond ours. He dismounted and ran into the house--left the horse in +the middle of the street. I must confess my courage failed me now, and +the succeeding two hours formed a contrast to the happy forenoon. + +About nine,(5) Sir William came in; seeing my wretched face, he bade +me not be foolish, for it would soon be all over now; they expected a +great battle on the morrow; he would send me to Antwerp in the +morning, and desired me to be ready at six. He said that though he +expected it would be a decisive battle, and a conclusion of the whole +business, he thought it best I should keep the plan of going to +Antwerp, to avoid the alarms that he knew would seize everyone the +moment the troops were gone; and he said he would probably join me +there, or send for me to return the same evening. He said he should be +writing all night, perhaps: he desired me to prepare some strong green +tea in case he came in, as the violent exertion requisite to setting +the whole army in motion quite stupefied him sometimes. He used +sometimes to tell me that whenever the operations began, if he thought +for five minutes on any other subject, he was neglecting his duty. I +therefore scrupulously avoided asking him any questions, or indeed +speaking at all.(6) I moved up and down like one stupefied myself. + +He went to the office, and returned near twelve,(7) much fatigued, but +he did not attempt to sleep; he went twice to the Duke's; the first +time he found him standing looking over a map with a Prussian +general,(8) who was in full-dress uniform--with orders and crosses, +etc.--the Duke was in his chemise and slippers, preparing to dress for +the Duchess of Richmond's ball; the two figures were quite admirable. +The ball took place notwithstanding the reveille played through the +streets the whole night. Many of the officers danced, and then +marched(9) in the morning. + +About two, Sir William went again to the Duke, and he was sleeping +sound! At three the troops were all assembled in the Park, and Sir +William and I leant over the window, seeing them march off--so few to +return. It was a clear refreshing morning, and the scene was very +solemn and melancholy.(10) The fifes played alone, and the regiments +one after another marched past, and I saw(11) them melt away through +the great gate at the end of the Square. Shall I ever forget the tunes +played by the shrill fifes and the buglehorns which disturbed that +night! + +At six in the morning, Friday the 16th, I went to Antwerp: Sir William +gave me a letter to Captain Mitchell, in the Q.M.-General's +department, requesting him to take charge of me. Accordingly, soon +after we arrived I was settled in very comfortable apartments. I was +at first for an hour in the inn,(12) and I lay down in a small back +room. In the evening I sent my maid from the lodgings to get some wine +at the inn; when wandering in the passage to find some English person, +she opened the door of the room I had been in, and saw the body(13) of +the Duke of Brunswick on the very bed. + +I was fortunate enough to have a room at the back, so shut in with +buildings that I could not hear any noise in the streets. Sir William +had made me promise to believe no reports, and not upon any account to +move without his written order for it. I thought it was best not to +listen to any stories, so I told my maid Emma not to tell me any, and +to do her best to get no alarms herself. Captain Mitchell I found of +great service; he is a very sensible and seemingly good-hearted man. +There was a calmness in his manner which was of infinite use to me +when I could not entirely get the better of fears but too well +founded. Though he was afterwards oppressed with business, night and +day, he never failed to come to me when he had heard any accounts he +could depend upon. But I may say I never saw so much kindness, and +softness indeed, as during that miserable time. + +The general and individual distress that rapidly followed the battles +then fought, seemed quite to unman them; and one grew accustomed to +see men weep, without their attempting to conceal it. The same evening +the Town Major, Machel, called. He knew Sir William, and he brought a +Mrs ---- to call. She very kindly asked me to go and visit her in the +country about a mile. I was much obliged to her, but said I hoped to +return to Brussels so soon that I should not have time. She apologised +for Mr ----; he would have called on me, but the report I had brought +of the marching of the troops had given him a great deal of business. +The town was now very bustling, though when I arrived there was +nothing but quiet. Captain Mitchell told me in the evening that the +battle had taken place; that the English had gained a victory, but he +believed there was to be more fighting. He promised to send me any +letter, or if he heard of Sir William. I sat up late, but none came. + +On Saturday the 17th, Antwerp was truly a scene of confusion--by the +servant's account, for I would not stir out of my room. Not one of the +ladies who had intended to come to Antwerp at first, kept their +resolution; and in consequence they got a great alarm, which was what +my husband wished me to escape. There was a battle fought on Friday +the 16th, near Brussels, and I was told the noise of the cannon was +tremendous--the houses shook with it. It was distinctly heard at +Antwerp; but I kept the windows shut, and tried not to hear. I only +heard a rolling like the sea at a distance.(14) Poor Emma, urged by +curiosity, stood in the street listening to terrible stories, seeing +wounded men brought in, carriages full of women and children flying +from Brussels, till she was completely frightened. She came and told +me that all the ladies were hastening to England by sea, for the +French had taken Brussels. I saw I must take my time to alarm her, and +I said, "Well, Emma, you know that if the French were firing at this +house, I would not move till I was ordered; but you have no such duty, +therefore go if you like. I dare say any of the families will let you +join them." + +Emma was shocked at my supposing she would be so base as to desert me, +and declared that if she was sure she had to remain in a French prison +for five years, she would not leave me. My reproof had all the effect +I intended; for she brought me no more stories, and I am certain she +never was frightened after, even when we were in far greater danger. + +Though I had little reason to expect a letter from my husband, I sat +up late in hopes. At midnight, what was my joy to get a little note +from him, written at Genappe,(15) after the battle of the 16th. He +said he was safe, and in great spirits; they had given the French a +tremendous beating. I wrote to him every day, and Captain Mitchell +sent my letters, but they never reached him. + +On Sunday, Captain Mitchell told me he had heard the last effort was +to be made. I cannot attempt to describe the restless unhappy state I +was in; for it had continued so much longer than I had expected +already, that I began to find it difficult to keep up my spirits, +though I was infatuated enough to think it quite impossible that he +could be hurt. I believe mine was not an uncommon case, but so it was. +I might be uneasy at the length of the separation, or anxious to hear +from him; but the possibility of his being wounded never glanced into +my mind, till I was told he was killed. + +On Sunday the 18th June, there was to be a great battle. It began +about eleven;(16) near three,(17) when Sir William was riding beside +the Duke, a cannon ball struck him on the back, at the right shoulder, +and knocked him off his horse to several yards distance. The Duke at +first imagined he was killed; for he said afterwards, he had never in +all the fighting he had ever been in seen a man rise again after such +a wound. Seeing he was alive (for he bounded up again and then sank +down), he ran to him, and stooping down, took him by the hand.(18) + +Sir William begged the Duke, as the last favour he could have it in +his power to do him, to exert his authority to take away the crowd +that gathered round him, and to let him have his last moments in peace +to himself. The Duke bade him farewell, and endeavoured to draw away +the Staff, who oppressed him; they wanted to take leave of him, and +wondered at his calmness. He was left, as they imagined, to die; but +his cousin, Delancey Barclay,(19) who had seen him fall, went to him +instantly, and tried to prevail upon him to be removed to the rear, as +he was in imminent danger of being crushed by the artillery, which was +fast approaching the spot; and also there was danger of his falling +into the hands of the enemy. He entreated to be left on the ground, +and said it was impossible he could live; that they might be of more +use to others, and he only begged to remain on the field. But as he +spoke with ease, and Colonel Barclay saw that the ball had not +entered, he insisted on moving him, and he took the opinion of a +surgeon, who thought he might live, and got some soldiers to carry him +in a blanket to a barn(20) at the side of the road, a little to the +rear. The wound was dressed, and then Colonel Barclay had to return +to the Division; but first he gave orders to have Sir William moved to +the village;(21) for that barn was in danger of being taken possession +of by the enemy. Before Colonel Barclay went, Sir William begged him +to come quite close to him, and continued to give him messages for me. +Nothing else seemed to occupy his mind. He desired him to write to me +at Antwerp; to say everything kind, and to endeavour to soften this +business, and to break it to me as gently as he could. He then said he +might move him, as if he fancied it was to be his last effort. He was +carried to the village of Waterloo, and left in a cottage, where he +lay unheeded all night, and part of next day. Many of his friends were +in the village, and no one knew where he was, or that he was alive +even. It was by chance that an officer of the Staff Corps found him +next morning, and sent to inform Sir George Scovell.(22) The evening +before,(23) the Duke had written the despatches, and had inserted De +Lancey as killed. Interest was made that he should alter them, when he +was told that he had been carried off the field alive. Some kindly +thought this might benefit me; but I was not so fortunate. Sad scenes +were passing at Antwerp in the meantime. + +On Monday morning, Captain Mitchell, at nine o'clock, came to tell me +that the last battle was over, and the French entirely defeated, and +that Sir William was safe. I asked him repeatedly if he was sure, and +if he had seen any of his writing, or if he had heard from him. He had +not; but had read a list of the killed and wounded, and could assure +me his name was not in it. Captain Mitchell was quite sincere; and was +afterwards much grieved that he had added to the accumulation of +misery, for this only made the dash down more severe. I now found how +much I had really feared by the wild spirits I got into. I walked up +and down, for I could not rest, and was almost in a fever with +happiness, and for two hours this went on. + +At eleven a message came that Lady Hamilton wished to see me. I went +down to the parlour, and found her and Mr James. I did not remark +anything in her countenance, but I think I never saw feeling and +compassion more strongly marked than in his expression. I then said I +hoped Lady Emily was well. He answered that she was so, with a tone of +such misery that I was afraid something had happened, I knew not what, +to somebody. I looked at Lady Hamilton for an explanation. She seemed +a little agitated too, and I said, "One is so selfish: I can attend to +nothing, I am so rejoiced Sir William is safe." + +Mr James walked to the other end of the room. I did not know what to +do. I feared that my gay voice grieved them, for I saw something had +made them unhappy. Little did I think the blow was falling on my own +unfortunate head. + +Lady Hamilton said, "Poor Mr James! He has lost a brother and I a +nephew. It was a dreadful battle!--so many killed." + +I thought it cruel of them to come to me to tell all this to, when I +was so merry; but I tried to be polite, and again apologised for +appearing glad, on account of my own good fortune. + +Lady Hamilton said, "Did you hear from him?" + +"No, but Captain Mitchell saw the list, and his name was not in it." + +Mr James went out of the room. Lady Hamilton said, "He is gone to see +it, I suppose," and then began to talk about the list, and what were +the first names, and a great deal about whether I had any friends in +that country, etc. She then asked what I intended to do if the +fighting continued, and if I should go to England? I was a little +surprised at these enquiries, but assured her I would not move until +Sir William came or sent for me. She found me so obstinately confident +that she began[32]...--and after a short time a suspicion darted into +my mind. What a death-like feeling was that! + +[Footnote 32: Here there is a hiatus in the MS.] + +Lady Hamilton confessed she had written the list, and with a most +mistaken kindness had omitted several of the names, Sir William's +among the rest. A general had come from the field and named them; and +she, knowing I was in the country, had left his out, fearing that I +should be suddenly informed. But such information would not be +otherwise than a shock whatever way it was told, and the previous +account of his safety only tortured me the more. But it is needless to +dwell upon it now; and though I believe she thinks I never forgave +her, I now recollect only the motive, which was kind. + +My difficulty then was to find out, or rather to believe the truth. +She assured me he was only wounded. I looked at her keenly, and said, +"Lady Hamilton, I can bear anything but suspense. Let me know the very +worst. Tell me, is he killed?" + +She then solemnly assured me he was only desperately wounded. + +I shook my head and said, "Ah, it is very well to say so. Yes, he must +be wounded first, you know." And I walked round the room fast. "Yes, +yes, you say so, but I cannot believe what you say now." + +She was terrified, for I could not shed a tear. She declared upon her +word of honour that when General Alava left the field he was alive, +but was not expected to live. + +This I felt sounded like truth, and I stood before her and said, +"Well, Lady Hamilton, if it is so, and you really wish to serve me, +help me to go to him instantly. I am sure Mr James will be so good as +to hurry the servant. Oh, how much time has been lost already! If +Captain Mitchell had but known, I should have gone at nine. Every +moment may make me too late to see him alive." + +She was glad to try to do anything for me, and was going. I stopped +her at the door, and said, "Now, if you are deceiving me, you may +perhaps have my senses to answer for." + +She repeated her assurances, and I said I would send my servant for +the carriage, which was at the Town Major's, if she would see anybody +to get horses, and I was ready. She said she would offer to go with +me, but she knew it would oppress me. + +I said, "Oh no, let me be alone," and I ran upstairs. + +No power can describe my sufferings for two hours before I could set +out. Captain Mitchell requested a friend of his to ride forward to +Brussels, and to gallop back with information of where Sir William +was, and whether it was still of any avail for me to proceed: he was +expected to meet us at Malines, half-way. We at last left Antwerp; but +bribing the driver was in vain. It was not in his power to proceed; +for the moment we passed the gates, we were entangled in a crowd of +waggons, carts, horses, wounded men, deserters or runaways, and all +the rabble and confusion, the consequence of several battles.(24) +Every now and then we went several miles at a walk; and the temper of +the people was so irritable that we feared to speak to them; and I had +to caution my servant to be very guarded, because they were ready to +draw their swords in a moment. Two men got on the back of the +carriage, and we dared not desire them to get off; and this was no +imaginary terror, as I afterwards experienced. + +When we were within a mile or two of Malines, the carriage stopped, +and the servant said, "It is the Captain." I had drawn the blinds to +avoid seeing the wretched objects we were passing. I hastily looked +out, and saw Mr Hay.(25) When he saw me he turned his head away. + +I called out, "Mr Hay, do you know anything?" + +He hesitated, and then said, "I fear I have very bad news for you." + +I said, "Tell me at once. Is he dead?" + +"It is all over." + +I sank into the carriage again, and they took me back to Antwerp. When +I had been a short time there, Mr Hay sent to know if I had any +commands to Brussels, as he was going to return, and would do anything +for me there. At first I said I had none, and then I sent for him, and +asked repeatedly if he were sure of what he said; if he had seen him +fall. He had not been in the action,(26) and of course was not near +Sir William, "who was surrounded by Lord Wellington's Staff; but in +the middle of the action he was struck in the breast by a cannon ball, +and instantly fell. The Duke went and leant over him, and he died like +a soldier." + +I then begged Mr Hay to make a point of seeing someone who had been +near him; and if possible to learn if he had spoken, and if he had +named me. Mr Hay promised this, and then asked if I would choose to go +to England. I said: "Instantly." He then said if he had twelve hours +to search the field once more--for his brother was missing--he would +be ready to take a passage for me, and to accompany me if I chose. He +said Lady Hamilton and Mrs B. were below, anxious to be of use. + +I said I greatly preferred being alone, and was always much better +alone. About half an hour after, Mrs B. contrived to get into the +room. I was terrified, and called out, "Go away, go away, leave me to +myself." She prayed and entreated me to hear her, and then said if I +was ill would I send for her. I said, "Oh, yes, yes; but the only +thing anybody can do for me is to leave me alone." She was alarmed at +my violent agitation and went away. I locked the outer door, and shut +the inner one, so that no one could again intrude. They sent Emma to +entreat I would be bled; but I was not reasonable enough for that, and +would not comply. I wandered about the room incessantly, beseeching +for mercy, though I felt that now, even Heaven could not be merciful. +One is apt to fix on a situation just a little less wretched than +one's own, and to dwell upon the idea that one could bear that better. +I repeated over and over that if I had seen him alive for five +minutes, I would not repine. At night Emma brought her bed into my +room, as she feared I should be ill. Towards morning I fancied I heard +a sound of someone trying to get into the room. I heard it a long +while, but thinking it was somebody coming to visit me, I made no +answer. + +About two hours after, the attempt was repeated. I said to Emma, +"There is a noise at the door. Don't let Mrs B. in, or Lady Hamilton." + +She went, and returning in a few minutes said, "I am desired to tell +you cautiously"-- + +I said, "O Emma! go away. Don't tell me anything, any more." + +"Nay, but I must tell you. I have good news for you." + +"How can you be so inhuman! What is good news for me now?" + +"But--Sir William is not dead." + +I started up, and asked what she was saying, for she would make me +mad. She told me that General M'Kenzie(27) was below, and had a +message from Brussels, requesting him to inform me that Sir William +was alive, and that there were even hopes of his recovery. + +I ran down to General M'Kenzie, and began earnestly to persuade him it +must be impossible. I had suffered so much the day before, I durst not +hope for anything now. His voice faltered, and his eyes filled with +tears. + +He said, "Can you believe any man would bring such intelligence unless +it were well-founded?" He then gave me a letter from Sir G. Scovell, +who had seen an officer of the Staff Corps who had seen Sir William +alive that morning, who was anxious to see me. He was attended by a +skilful surgeon, and had been twice bled. This was dated Monday, seven +o'clock, evening. + +I regretted the deal of time that had been lost, and said that +yesterday morning was a long time ago; and was no argument for his +being alive now; for it was often repeated in the letter not to raise +my hopes. I then asked General M'Kenzie to assist me to get away. +Unfortunately I did not say I had a carriage. He said he was going to +Brussels, and would take me. I consented, and he went to get ready. I +would not if I could, describe the state I was in for two hours more; +then I lost all self-command. I would not allow Emma to put up my +clothes, for fear of being detained. My agitation and anxiety +increased. I had the dreadful idea haunting me that I should arrive +perhaps half an hour too late. This got the better of me, and I paced +backward and forward in the parlour very fast, and my breathing was +like screaming. I went into the passage, and sent Emma to see if the +carriage were coming; and then sat down on the stair, which was steep +and dark. There General M'Kenzie found me. Whenever he learnt I had a +carriage, he sent the horses he had; for his carriage was not ready, +and would not be for some time. When he saw what a state I was in, he +roused me in a most sensible manner. + +He said, "Lady De Lancey, consider what you are doing. You are +exhausting your strength and spirits to no purpose, for your friends +are endeavouring to forward your departure as soon as possible." + +I exclaimed, "Oh, I shall never be there. He may be dying at this +moment." + +He took my hand, and said calmly and firmly, "My dear madam, why fancy +evil? You know what dreadful scenes you may have to go through when +you reach Waterloo. You will probably require all your courage, and +must command yourself for his sake." + +I said no more, but quietly went to the parlour and remained +waiting--such an immediate effect had his steady good sense on my +fevered mind. I overheard him say, "No, do not at present; she is not +fit for it." I was alarmed, and ran out; but I saw a lady retreating, +and I was grateful to him. + +We left Antwerp between eight and nine, and had the same difficulties +to encounter; but the road was not quite so much blocked up. General +M'Kenzie said he would ride after us in an hour, in case we should be +detained; he also sent a dragoon before, to order horses. When we were +near Vilvorde, the driver attempted to pass a waggon, but the soldier +who rode beside it would not move one inch to let us pass. The waggons +kept possession of the _chaussee_ the whole way, and we had to drive +on the heavy road at the side. My servant got off the seat to +endeavour to lead the horses past. This provoked the soldier, and a +dispute began. I was alarmed, and desired the servant to get upon the +carriage again, which he did. A Prussian officer, enraged at our +attempting to pass the waggon he was guarding, drew his sword, and +made several cuts at the servant's legs, but did not reach him. He was +preparing to get down again, but I looked from the opposite window and +commanded him to sit still, and not to answer a word; or else to quit +the carriage altogether. The driver now made a dash past the waggon, +and the officer galloped after us and attempted to wound the horses. +This made me desperate, and I ventured on a most imprudent action. I +drew up the blind, and holding up my hands, I petitioned him to let +us pass. I exclaimed that my husband, a British officer, was dying, +and if he detained me I might not see him. It had the desired effect, +for without seeming to have heard me, he slackened his pace and was +soon far behind. + +When within ten miles of Brussels, the smell of gunpowder was very +perceptible. The heat was oppressive. As we came within a mile of +Brussels, the multitude of wretched-looking people was great, as Emma +told me, for I was both unwilling and unable to look out. I was so +much worn with anxiety that I could scarcely sit up. As we entered +Brussels the carriage stopped, and I saw Mr Hay. I durst not speak, +but he instantly said, "He is alive. I sent my servant to Waterloo +this morning; he is just returned, and Sir William is better than they +expected. I have horses standing harnessed, and you will soon be there +if the road is passable, though it was not yesterday, for a horse." + +We were soon out of Brussels again, and on the road to Waterloo. It is +nine miles, and we took three hours and a half. Mr Hay rode before us +with his sword drawn, and obliged them to let us pass. We often stood +still for ten minutes. The horses screamed at the smell of +corruption, which in many places was offensive. At last, when near the +village, Mr Hay said he would ride forward and find the house, and +learn whether I should still proceed or not. I hope no one will ever +be able to say they can understand what my feelings must have been +during the half-hour that passed till he returned. How fervently and +sincerely I resolved that if I saw him alive for one hour I never +would repine! I had almost lost my recollection, with the excess of +anxiety and suspense, when Mr Hay called out, "All's well; I have seen +him. He expects you." + +When we got to the village, Sir G. Scovell met the carriage, and +opening the door, said, "Stop one moment." + +I said, "Is he alive?" + +"Yes, alive; and the surgeons are of opinion that he may recover. We +are so grieved for what you have suffered." + +"Oh! never mind what I have suffered. Let me go to him now." + +He said I must wait one moment. I assured him I was composed indeed. + +He said, "I see you are," with a smile, "but I wish to warn you of one +thing. You must be aware that his life hangs on a very slender hold; +and therefore any agitation would be injurious. Now, we have not told +him you had heard of his death; we thought it would afflict him; +therefore do not appear to have heard it." + +I promised, and he said, "Now come along." I sat down for an instant +in the outer room, and he went in; and when I heard my husband say, +"Let her come in, then," I was overpaid for all the misery. + +I was surprised at the strength of his voice, for I had expected to +find him weak and dying. When I went into the room where he lay, he +held out his hand and said, "Come, Magdalene, this is a sad business, +is it not?" I could not speak, but sat down by him and took his hand. +This was my occupation for six days. + +Though I found him far better than I expected, I can scarcely say +whether I hoped or feared most at first; because I was so much +occupied with gathering comforts about him, and helping him, that I +had not time to think about the future. It was a dreadful but +sufficient preparation, being told of his death; and then finding him +alive, I was ready to bear whatever might ensue without a murmur. I +was so grateful for seeing him once more, that I valued each hour as +it passed, and as I had too much reason to fear that I should very +soon have nothing left of happiness but what my reflections would +afford me, I endeavoured, by suppressing feelings that would have made +him miserable, and myself unfit to serve him, to lay up no store of +regret. He asked me if I was a good nurse. I told him that I had not +been much tried. He said he was sure he would be a good patient, for +he would do whatever I bade him till he was convalescent; and then he +knew he would grow very cross. I watched in vain for a cross word. All +his endeavour seemed to be to leave none but pleasing impressions on +my mind; and as he grew worse and suffered more, his smile was more +sweet, and his thanks more fervent, for everything that was done for +him. + +I endeavoured to find out from the surgeons the extent of the danger. +They said that at present there were no bad symptoms, and after seeing +him alive at all after such a wound they would not despair: and if +the fever could be kept off, there was a great chance of his +recovering. With this view they wished to bleed him constantly; +wishing also thereby to make the recovery more complete. I knew they +had no interest in me, and therefore would probably tell me the same +as other people, so I continued to ask them after every visit what +they thought; but when by watching the symptoms myself and also +observing the surgeon's expression, I saw what I must soon prepare +for, I did not tease them any more with questions, but tried not to +give way, and endeavoured to keep up as long as it would be of +consequence to him; for even after all hope was gone and the disorder +increased rapidly, I felt that if by agitating him I should afterwards +imagine I had shortened his life by one hour, that reflection would +embitter my whole life. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I +succeeded even better than I could have hoped; for toward the end of +the week, when every symptom was bad, the surgeon (probably because I +desisted from enquiring and did not appear agitated) doubtful what I +thought, yet, judging it right to tell me, asked Emma if she knew +whether I was aware of the danger or not. She assured him I had +entirely given up hope for some time. + +I found Emma of great service. Her good will carried her through +excessive fatigue while at Waterloo; and afterwards her excellent +heart and superior judgment were quite a blessing to me. She told me +she was thankful she had been at Waterloo, for it would do her good to +see a little of what other people endured. She never before knew half +the value of her peaceful, comfortable home in London, where the +absence of miserable objects might alone be considered as a benefit. I +can hardly express what I felt on returning to England, to see people +surrounded with every luxury unhappy at the want of the smallest +comfort. I can fancy no better cure for all imaginary evils than a +week's residence at Waterloo. + +Noise did not disturb Sir William, fortunately, for the cottage was +surrounded with roads.(28) One in front led to Nivelles, and every +waggon going to and from the army, and all the wounded and prisoners, +passed along that road. It was paved, and there was an unceasing +noise for four days and nights. We were obliged to keep the windows +open, and people used to pass close to that in his room, talking loud, +and sometimes looking in and speaking; but he never took any notice. I +never saw anybody so patient. The people to whom the cottage belonged +were, luckily, favourable to our cause, or they would have tormented +us a good deal; instead of which, I never met with such good nature; +and though they never rested one moment helping the soldiers to water, +and were constantly worn out with giving them assistance, we had only +to tell them what to do, and they ran about to work for us. Their +_menage_, I must allow, was in a sad state.(29) There was a want of +everything. I could not help thinking with envy of the troublesome +abundance I had often seen in sick-rooms, when there was far less need +for it. However, in a short time we got everything he required; and I +have the greatest comfort in recollecting that there was not one thing +which he expressed a wish for that we did not procure. I sent a +servant instantly to Brussels with a list of things we wanted; and +once I recollect something was brought which he had been very anxious +for. Naturally enough, he was disappointed when he found it not so +good as he expected; but I was quite struck with his endeavour to +praise it, for fear I should be sorry. There was a languid melancholy +about him at the same time that he was calm and resigned, which would +have made the most uninterested person grieved to see him suffering, +and with such sweetness. Emma once gave him some drink, and she told +me that the tone of voice and his smile when he thanked her, was like +to break her heart, for he was in severe pain at the time. + +He said the wound gave him no pain at all, but a little irritating +cough caused excessive pain in his chest and side. As far as I could +learn, the blow had affected the lungs, which produced inflammation +and afterwards water in the chest, which was eventually the cause of +his death. I suspect the surgeons had never much hope, but they said +there was a chance if the inflammation could have been stopped. By +constantly watching him, and gradually day after day observing the +progress and increase of suffering and the elevated tone of his mind, +along with fatigue and weakness, I was prepared for his final release +in a manner that nothing but his firmness and composure could have +effected. + +He had at first been laid in the outer room, which had two large +windows to the road, and everyone saw in. This he did not like, and he +made the people move him to a small room, about seven feet wide, with +a bed across the end of it. They placed him so low and awkwardly in +the bed, that when I first went in I thought his legs were hurt, for +he could not straighten his knees. After a day or two, he got shoved +up by degrees, and then could stretch his limbs. The bed was wretched, +merely a wooden frame fastened to the wall, so that it could not be +moved, which rendered it extremely difficult to bleed him, or to +assist him in any way, as he could neither turn nor raise his head an +inch from the pillow, or rather sack of chaff, upon which he was laid. +This was so full of dust that it made him cough. I soon removed it, +and got a cushion out of the carriage instead. We had a clean blanket +from Brussels, and at first we put clean sheets on every day. But +latterly he grew so restless that he preferred having only the +blanket. I had purposely sent for a French cotton one, as I thought +the flannel would tease him. The bed was made tolerable at least, and +though I could not be pleased with it, _he_ was. He repeated more than +once, "What a thing it was for you being in this country!" and I had +the delight of hearing him say that he did not know what he would have +done without me. He said he was sure he would not have lived so long, +for he would not have been so obedient to anyone else. + +I found he had been the worse of seeing some friends who had called +the first day I was at Waterloo, so I told the servant afterwards +never to let anybody come into his room. I remember one day an officer +called, and before he was out of sight I had his card converted into a +teaspoon. Sir William never ate anything, except once or twice a +morsel of toast out of the water. He drank a great deal of tea and +lemonade. At first he had no milk to his tea, and he complained that +it was very bad; but there was none to be got. I sent my servant to +search for some, and he met some Prussian cows, and milked one, and +brought a fine jug of milk. The different contrivances sometimes +amused him. One day he wished to have the room fumigated. How was this +to be done, without fire-irons, or indeed without fire? We put some +vinegar into a tumbler, and Emma went with a large pair of scissors, +and brought a piece of burning charcoal, and put it into the vinegar, +and that made a great smoke. Every time we wanted anything warmed, or +water boiled, Emma had to cross a court and make a fire, and then +watch it, or someone would have run away with what she was cooking. +Meantime I would call her ten different times, and this in wet or dry, +night or day. I now regretted having brought so few clothes. + +The day I went to Waterloo, Sir William told me the Duke(30) had +visited him in the morning. He said he never had seen him so warm in +his feelings: he had taken leave of him with little hope of seeing +him again, I fancy. The Duke told him he never wished to see another +battle; this had been so shocking. It had been too much to see such +brave men, so equally matched, cutting(31) each other to pieces as +they did. Sir William said there never had been such fighting; that +the Duke far surpassed anything he had ever done before.(32) The +general opinion seemed to be that it had been a peculiarly shocking +battle. Sir William said he never would try it again; he was quite +tired of the business. In speaking of his wound he said this might be +the most fortunate event that could have happened for us both. I +looked at him for an explanation. He said, "Certainly, even if I +recover completely, I should never think of serving again. Nobody +could ask such a thing, and we should settle down quietly at home for +the rest of our lives." The evening after I went to Waterloo, Sir G. +Scovell said he would take something to eat, and after seeing me +fairly established he would go to Headquarters. He wrote a copy of a +return of rations, for which we were to send to Brussels; and also any +other provisions must be got from thence, for the village produced +nothing. He left two sentinels, for fear there should be any +disturbances, and we might feel unprotected. One night there was a +great noise of people quarrelling in front of the house; the windows +had no fastening whatever, but they passed away without molesting us. +I was a little more seriously alarmed another day. Some reports had +reached us that the French were coming back, and were within nine +miles. I thought it unlikely, but about eight in the morning all the +waggons that had passed for two hours came back as fast as possible, +horses trotting and men running. I was uneasy on Sir William's +account: his situation was so helpless. I leant forward, to prevent +people looking in and seeing him. I waited without saying anything, to +learn the cause of this bustle. I found afterwards that it was merely +the waggons had gone several miles on the wrong road, and were +hurrying back to make it up.(33) + +From the time Sir G. Scovell left us, we scarcely saw anybody but the +surgeons. It must add very much to the fatigue of their business, +having to do everything for the wounded whom they attend. Mr +Powell,(34) who attended most constantly to Sir William, and with +evidently great anxiety for his recovery, was sometimes quite knocked +up with walking many miles on the heavy road to the field and the +cottages. He had some difficulty to consider me as a useful person. At +first he used to ask me to tell the servant to come; but he learnt to +employ me very soon. + +The night I went, Sir William desired me to take some rest, for I +looked ill. A portmanteau bed had been brought for me from Brussels. I +left him reluctantly, for I grudged wasting any of such precious time, +but he would not hear of my sitting up. I had just lain down with my +clothes on--for there was no blanket, and the floor was damp tiles. I +heard him call to his servant, who slept at the end of his room on a +mattress. I jumped up and went to him, and did not leave him again. He +wanted some drink, which I gave him, and then sat down beside him. He +slept and woke every half-hour. He was not restless, nor had he any +pain, but he was constantly thirsty. + +On Wednesday he wished to have leeches applied to his side, where the +bruise appeared. Mr Powell had no objection, and desired me to send +for him when the leeches were brought from Brussels. I did so; but in +the meantime, not knowing why he was sent for, I began as a matter of +course to apply them. When he came, he apologised, and thanked me. I +was not at first aware of how I was obliging him. He said he was very +tired, and when he attempted to fix the leeches, he did not do it so +well as I did. Next time they were to be applied, I asked if I should +send for him. He said I was as good at it as any hospital nurse could +be, and as he had scarcely had an hour's rest any night since the +battle, he would be greatly obliged to me if I would take the trouble. +Sir William alleged that I grew quite vain of my skill in tormenting +my poor husband with these animals. The same day Dr Hume(35) called in +passing to Brussels, for ten minutes. I was a little provoked at the +gaiety of his manner; the gravity he assumed at Brussels would have +been suitable to the present scene. Though Sir William never +complained, he was serious, and seemed inclined to be quiet, and +neither to speak much nor to listen. He generally lay thinking, often +conversed with me, but seemed oppressed with general conversation, +and would not listen when anyone told him of the progress of the army. +His thoughts were in a very different train. Dr Hume's rapid, lively +visit annoyed me much. + +I did not feel the effects of having sat up on Tuesday night till next +night, but was resolved to fight against it. Sir William desired me to +go to rest, as he had done the night before; but I only remained away +till I had an excuse to return, and he always forgot a second time to +bid me go. This was the only night I had real difficulty to keep +awake; the noise of the carts assisted me a little. I counted the +rushes of the chair, for want of occupation. Some people said, why did +I not let my maid sit up; but that showed they did not understand; for +if twenty people had sat up, it would have made no difference to me. I +frequently rejoiced that I had no friend there who could exert +authority to make me take care of myself, when my only wish was to +keep up as long as he needed me. + +On Thursday he was not quite so well. Before this he had been making a +gradual progress, and he could move about with more ease. He spoke +much better than he did at first. His countenance was animated; but I +fear this was the beginning of the most dangerous symptoms, and I saw +that the surgeon now became uneasy at the appearance of the blood; and +Mr Woolriche,(36) a very eminent surgeon, now constantly attended. He +had come over once or twice before. General Dundas(37) called this +forenoon. He stayed only a minute, as Sir William was not so well, and +I was busy. After he was away, I recollected having neglected to ask +him to send a blanket and some wine. I never had time to eat, and I +always forgot to get wine--as I could take a glass of that and a bit +of bread in a moment--and my strength was failing. I looked out and +saw him still at the door. I went out, and there were a number of +people, Sir H.D. Hamilton,(38) etc. I told General Dundas I had no +blanket. "Bless me!" everyone exclaimed, "no blanket!" I said it was +not of much consequence, as I never lay down, but the floor was so +damp I was afraid my maid would be ill, and her help was very +essential. I then asked for wine, both of which General Dundas sent +down next day. + +That night I had no difficulty in keeping awake. Sir William was +restless and uncomfortable; his breathing was oppressed, and I had +constantly to raise him on the pillow. The pain in his chest +increased, and he was twice bled before morning. He was very much +better on Friday forenoon. Mr Woolriche told us that every day since +the battle the people of Brussels sent down carriages to take the +wounded to the hospital; from twenty to thirty private carriages came +every day. + +On Friday evening Sir William was very feverish, and the appearance of +the blood was very inflammatory. I had learnt now to judge for myself, +as Mr Powell, seeing how anxious I was, sometimes had the kindness to +give me a little instruction. About ten at night Mr Powell and Mr +Woolriche came. While I told them how Sir William had been since their +last visit, and mentioned several circumstances that had occurred, I +watched them and saw they looked at each other. I guessed their +thoughts. I turned away to the window and wept. + +They remained a little time, and I recovered myself enough to speak to +them cheerfully as they went out. They lingered, and seemed to wish to +speak to me, but I was well aware of what they had to say. I felt +unable to hear it then, and I shut the door instead of going out. It +was that night Mr Powell asked Emma if she knew what I thought. He +desired to be sent for on the first appearance of change. At one in +the morning he was in great pain, and as I raised him that he might +breathe more freely, he looked so fixed that I was afraid he was just +expiring. His arms were round my neck to raise himself by, and I +thought we should both have been killed by the exertion. He asked if +Mr Powell had not talked of bleeding him again. I said I had sent for +him. He bled him then for the last time. From that moment all the +fever was gone. Mr Powell said it was of consequence to keep him +quiet, and if he would sleep calmly it would do him good. At four in +the morning I was called out to see a surgeon sent from Mr Powell, who +was ill in bed. He came to know how Sir William was. He had slept a +little till three; but the oppression was returning. This surgeon told +me he had been anxious to speak to me several times, to tell me that +it was he who had first seen him on the field, and who had given it as +his opinion that he might live. He was grieved indeed to think that it +should fall to his lot to tell me that it was the opinion of the +surgeons that if I had anything particular to say to Sir William, I +should not delay long. I asked, "How long?" He said they could not +exactly tell. I said, "Days or hours?" He answered that the present +symptoms would certainly not prove fatal within twelve hours. I left +him, and went softly into my husband's room, for he was sleeping. I +sat down at the other end of the room, and continued looking at him, +quite stupefied; I could scarcely see. My mouth was so parched that +when I touched it, it felt as dry as the back of my hand. I thought I +was to die first. I then thought, what would he do for want of me +during the remaining few hours he had to live. This idea roused me, +and I began to recollect our helpless situation whatever happened, +and tried to think who I could inform of the circumstances. I was not +long in deciding on General Dundas, if he could be found, and have +time to come and take care of us both. I immediately wrote a long +letter to him, telling him how I was situated, and begging that he +would come after twelve hours. I said I hoped I should be calm and fit +to act for myself; but as I had never been near such a scene before, I +knew not what effect it might have upon me. I therefore explained what +I wished might be done after all was over, with respect to everything. +I then sent the servant with the letter and orders to find General +Dundas, if he were within ten miles of Brussels. A few hours after, I +had one line from him to say he would be at Waterloo in the evening. + +After I had sent the letter, I sat down to consider what I was to do +next. Though Sir William was aware of his danger, I thought it my duty +to tell him how immediate the surgeons seemed to think it. I knew he +was far above being the worse of such a communication, and I wished to +know if he had anything to say. I sat thinking about it, when he +awoke and held out his hand for me to take my usual station by his +bedside. I went and told him. We talked some time on the subject. He +was not agitated, but his voice faltered a little, and he said it was +sudden. This was the first day he felt well enough to begin to hope he +should recover! He breathed freely, and was entirely free from pain; +and he said he had been thinking if he could be removed to Brussels, +he should get well soon. + +I then asked if he had anything to desire me to do, or anything to say +to anyone. He reminded me of what he had told me had engrossed his +thoughts when he imagined himself dying on the field. He said he felt +exactly the same now. He felt at peace with all the world; he knew he +was going to a better one, etc., etc. He repeated most of what he had +told me were his feelings before--that he had no sorrow but to part +from his wife, no regret but leaving her in misery. + +He seemed fatigued; and shutting his eyes, he desired me not to speak +for a little. I then determined not to introduce the subject again, +nor to speak about it unless he seemed to wish it, as I had done all +that was necessary. + +In an hour or two he ate some breakfast, tea and toasted bread, with +so much relish that it almost overcame me. He observed that I must +have caught cold by sitting in a draught of air. I said I had. He felt +so much better that I was anxious the surgeon should see him. He came +in the evening. He was pleased to see Sir William free from pain, but +said there was scarcely a possibility of its continuing so. He said he +might linger a day or two, but that every symptom was bad. He advised +me to keep him as quiet and composed as possible. I assured him no +person had been in the room but the surgeons whom he had brought to +consult; and I had sat beside him the whole day, scarcely speaking. I +said I had told Sir William his opinion of his case. He said it had +evidently not agitated him, for his pulse was quite calm. Mr Woolriche +called in the afternoon; he was going to Brussels, and would do +anything there we wished. We had nothing for him to do, and he was +going when he repeated the question. Sir William looked at me +earnestly, and said, "Magdalene, love, General Dundas." I answered, +"I wrote to him this morning," and nothing more passed. + +Late in the evening, when we were as calm and composed as could be, +and I was sitting and looking at him, and holding his hand as usual, +Mr Powell and Dr Hume came. He was even more cheerful than before, +paid a rapid, noisy visit, and away again. It disturbed our +tranquillity not a little, but he is reckoned so skilful that we ought +to have been glad to see him. He bade Sir William rouse up, felt his +pulse, and said it would bear another bleeding yet, if necessary. + +The poor dying man raised his languid eyes, and said, "Oh no, I do not +need it now; I am quite cool." + +Dr Hume said he had no wish to bleed him, but would like to have his +limbs fomented. He shook his head. I asked him if he knew what it was. +He said No, and would like to try. I asked Dr Hume if it would be +advisable. He said he thought it might refresh him. He went out, and I +followed to hear what he would say. He said to Mr Powell, "Why do you +give up a man with such a pulse? with such a good constitution, too! +You make them all sad and useless. It does no harm to be trying +something." + +He named several things. "Put a blister on his breast, and leeches +after, if the pain is great down the side." + +I looked at Mr Powell, doubting, as I depended most on his opinion, as +his constant attention to the progress of the illness gave it most +weight. I thought he looked sorry that my hopes should be renewed, but +of course he said nothing. + +Dr Hume said, "Oh, don't fear, he won't desert the cause." + +I was angry at such nonsense, and said, "Be assured I do not fear that +Mr Powell will desert us, but he said this morning there was no hope." + +"Nay," said he, "not quite so much as that: I said there was little +hope." + +I went away, and left them to discuss it themselves. + +Sir William said he wished to try what Dr Hume was speaking of, and I +went to order some boiling water to be prepared. I made the people +understand that he wanted a great quantity in a tub. While I was +speaking, Mr Powell returned. He had taken a turn with Dr Hume, and I +fancy he had explained his opinion. He said he would go home and +prepare a blister, and he believed we had leeches. I said, was it not +a great pity to torment him. He said he would not pretend to say that +he thought it could be of much consequence, but for this reason he +advised me to do it: I was not aware, he said, how I should feel +afterwards; and I might perhaps regret when it was too late, not +having done everything which a physician of Dr Hume's eminence deemed +advisable. He said that Sir William would not be at ease at any rate, +and it would scarcely plague him; the fomentation would be pleasant to +him, and I might take the blister off in six hours if he wished it. + +When I went to foment his limbs, I could not find a morsel of flannel. +At last I thought of the servant's blanket, and tore it in two. Sir +William said this was a most delightful thing, and refreshed him very +much. He expressed a great wish to have a bit on his chest. I did not +know what to do for flannel. I regretted now excessively not having +brought a change of clothes; for I could have taken a flannel +petticoat. This put me in mind of the one I had on, and I instantly +tore a great piece out of it and put it into the tub. The cottagers +held up their hands, exclaiming, "Ah, madame!" He said it did him +good, and was delicious, unconscious where we had found the flannel; +indeed he never was aware of the difficulty, for the tub was placed in +the outer room. + +General Dundas came. Sir William heard me speaking to him, and asked +who it was. I told him, and he asked if he was going to remain. I said +he was. Sir William seemed gratified, but did not say anything. Surely +no earthly feeling can be superior to such perfect sympathy. + +Sir William fell asleep, and I went out to see if there was anything +for General Dundas to eat. He told me he had got a very good room +upstairs, and was willing to remain as long as I wished. His only +request was that I would not mind him any more than if he was not +there, but send for him when I wanted him. I opened the door of Sir +William's room and sat close to it, so as to hear if he moved or +spoke. I sat down to coffee for the first meal I had, and talked over +several things necessary to be settled with General Dundas. I could +not speak above a whisper, my voice was so faint. He entreated me, if +possible, to try and take some rest that night, for fear I should be +ill before my husband could spare me. I promised. He then told me that +Lady Hamilton had asked him to take me to her house when I returned to +Brussels; and also the Count de Lannoy had prepared rooms, which he +begged I would occupy as long as I pleased. I preferred going to the +house we had been in before, and I thought I could be more entirely +alone there than at any other person's house, which was what I wished, +and knew would be best for me. I was struck when I did return to +Brussels, with two marks of attention. I had a message from the +Commissary to say that orders had been given that I was to draw +rations and forage for as long as I stayed; and the other circumstance +was this. On the letters I had sent from Antwerp I had neglected to +write "private," which is necessary when writing to a person in +office. I gave them up for lost, and was uncomfortable. After I had +been three days at Brussels, they were all returned unopened from +Headquarters. + +Sir William called me. I sat a short time beside him, and after I had +prepared drink for the night I told him I was so very tired I would go +and lie down for a short time, if he would allow my maid to bring the +medicine which he took every four hours. He agreed, and asked if I did +not always take plenty of sleep. I said, "Oh yes," and was going, when +he said the pain in his chest was returning, and perhaps leeches would +do some good. This was the only time I hesitated to oblige him, for I +really could scarcely stand; but of course I proceeded to apply the +leeches, and in a few minutes the excessive drowsiness went off; so +much so, that when after an hour I went to lie down, I could not +sleep. I started every moment, thinking he called me. I desired Emma +to waken me if he spoke or seemed uneasy. She gave him the medicine. +He looked at her, and asked where I was; she told him I was sleeping. +He said, "That's right, quite right." + +The pain in his chest grew intolerable, and depending upon my being +asleep he yielded to complaint, and groaned very much. Emma roused me +and told me she feared he was suffering very much. I had slept half an +hour. I went and stood near him, and he then ceased to complain, and +said, "Oh, it was only a little twitch." I felt at that time as if I +was an oppression to him, and I was going away, but he desired me to +stay. I sat down and rubbed it, which healed the pain, and towards +morning I put on the blister. Between five and six he ate some toasted +bread and tea, about two inches of bread. Before he began he entreated +me to take off the blister only for ten minutes, that he might eat in +tolerable comfort. I said I would take it away entirely, and he was +pleased. The doctor came about nine. He was breathing then with great +difficulty, and there was a rough sound in his throat. Mr Powell said +the only thing to be done was to keep him quiet as usual, and to +prevent him speaking. He asked Mr Powell if he might rise, for he +might breathe easier at the window, and he was so tired of lying in +that bed. Mr Powell urged him not to think of it; he was not able; it +would hurt him very much, etc. + +About eleven o'clock he sent me away for ten minutes, and with the +help of his servant he rose and got to the other end of the room. I +was terrified when I heard he was up, and called General Dundas, who +went in and found him almost fainting. They placed him in bed again, +and when I returned he was much exhausted. I opened the windows wide +and shut the door, and sat by him alone, in hopes that he might go to +sleep and recover a little. He slept every now and then for a little. +He seemed oppressed with the length of the day for the first time. He +asked repeatedly what o'clock it was; he often asked if it was three +yet. When I told him it was near five, he seemed surprised. At night +he said he wished he could fall upon some device to shorten the weary +long night; he could not bear it so long. I could not think of any +plan. He said if I could lie down beside him it would cut off five or +six hours. I said it was impossible, for I was afraid to hurt him, +there was so little room. His mind seemed quite bent upon it. +Therefore I stood upon a chair and stepped over him, for he could not +move an inch, and he lay at the outer edge. He was delighted; and it +shortened the night indeed, for we both fell asleep. + +At five in the morning I rose. He was very anxious to have his wound +dressed; it had never been looked at. He said there was a little pain, +merely a trifle, but it teased him. Mr Powell objected; he said it +would fatigue him too much that day. He consented to delay. I then +washed his face and hands, and brushed his hair, after which I gave +him his breakfast. He again wished to rise, but I persuaded him not to +do it; he said he would not do anything I was averse to, and he said, +"See what control your poor husband is under." He smiled, and drew me +so close to him that he could touch my face, and he continued stroking +it with his hand for some time. + +Towards eleven o'clock he grew more uneasy; he was restless and +uncomfortable; his breathing was like choking, and as I sat gazing at +him I could distinctly hear the water rattling in his throat. I opened +the door and windows to make a draught. I desired the people to leave +the outer room, that his might be as quiet as usual; and then I sat +down to watch the melancholy progress of the water in his chest, which +I saw would soon be fatal. + +About three o'clock Dr Hume and Mr Powell came. I must do the former +the justice to say he was grave enough now. Sir William repeated his +request to have the wound dressed. Dr Hume consented, and they went +away to prepare something to wash it with; they remained away half an +hour. I sat down by my husband and took his hand; he said he wished I +would not look so unhappy. I wept; and he spoke to me with so much +affection. He repeated every endearing expression. He bade me kiss +him. He called me his dear wife. The surgeons returned. My husband +turned on one side with great difficulty; it seemed to give much pain. + +After I had brought everything the surgeons wanted, I went into +another room. I could not bear to see him suffering. Mr Powell saw a +change in his countenance; he looked out, and desired Emma to call me, +to tell me instantly Sir William wanted me. I hastened to him, +reproaching myself for having been absent a moment. I stood near my +husband, and he looked up at me and said, "Magdalene, my love, the +spirits." I stooped down close to him and held the bottle of lavender +to him: I also sprinkled some near him. He looked pleased. He gave a +little gulp, as if something was in his throat. The doctor said, "Ah, +poor De Lancey! He is gone." I pressed my lips to his, and left the +room. + +I went upstairs, where I remained, unconscious of what was passing, +till Emma came to me and said the carriage was ready, and General +Dundas advised me to go that evening to Brussels, but I need not hurry +myself. I asked her if the room below was empty. She assured me it +was; and I went down and remained some time beside the body. There was +such perfect peace and placid calm sweetness in his countenance, that +I envied him not a little. He was released: I was left to suffer. I +then thought I should not suffer long. As I bent over him I felt as if +violent grief would disturb his tranquil rest. + +These moments that I passed by his lifeless body were awful, and +instructive. Their impression will influence my whole life. + +I left Waterloo with feelings so different from those I had on going +to it. Then all was anxious terror that I would not be there in time +to see one look, or to hear one word. Now there was nothing +imaginary--all was real misery. There now remained not even a chance +of happiness, but what depended on the retrospect of better days and +duties fulfilled. + +As I drove rapidly along the same road, I could not but recall the +irritated state I had been in when I had been there before; and the +fervent and sincere resolutions I then made, that if I saw him alive, +I never would repine. + +Since that time I have suffered every shade of sorrow; but I can +safely affirm that except the first few days, when the violence of +grief is more like delirium than the sorrow of a Christian, I have +never felt that my lot was unbearable. I do not forget the perfection +of my happiness while it lasted; and I believe there are many who +after a long life cannot say they have felt so much of it. + +As I expressed some uneasiness to General Dundas at having left the +body with none but servants, Colonel Grant at his request went to +Waterloo the same evening, and remained till it was brought up next +day to Brussels. General Dundas then kindly executed all my orders +with respect to the funeral, etc., which took place on Wednesday the +28th, in the cemetery of the Reformed(39) Church. It is about a mile +from Brussels, on the road to Louvain. I had a stone placed, with +simply his name and the circumstances of his death. I visited his +grave(40) on Tuesday, the 4th of July. The burying-ground is in a +sweet, quiet, retired spot. A narrow path leads to it from the road. +It is quite out of sight among the fields, and no house but the +grave-digger's cottage is near. Seeing my interest in that grave, he +begged me to let him plant roses round it, and promised I should see +it nicely kept when I returned. I am pleased that I saw the grave and +the stone; for there were nearly forty other new graves, and not +another stone. + +At eleven o'clock that same day, I set out for England. That day, +three(41) months before, I was married. + +M. De L. + + + + +NOTES TO LADY DE LANCEY'S NARRATIVE + + +Most of the following notes have been compiled by Mr T.W. Brogden, of +the Middle Temple, to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my +indebtedness for his assistance in the preparation of this volume, and +for his kindness in seeing the book through the press, during my +absence in Canada. + +EDITOR. + + +(1) "On Thursday the 15th June we had spent a particularly happy +morning. My dear husband gave me many interesting anecdotes of his +former life, and I traced in every one some trait of his amiable and +generous mind; never had I felt so perfectly content, so grateful for +the blessing of his love."--_Abridged Narrative._ + +(2) General Alava, who was Minister Plenipotentiary from Spain to the +King of the Netherlands. + +Sir William and Lady De Lancey were amongst the guests invited to the +Duchess of Richmond's famous ball that night. See _Reminiscences of +Lady de Ros_, p. 127. + +(3) "He turned back at the door, and looked at me with a smile of +happiness and peace. It was the last!"--_Abridged Narrative._ + +(4) The Duke's house was at the corner of the Rue de la Montagne du +Parc and the Rue Royale, and was next to the Hotel de France. The +Count de Lannoy's house was at the south-east corner of the Impasse du +Parc. + +(5) By 9 P.M. the _first orders_ had been despatched. + +Colonel Basil Jackson has the following recollections of his +experiences on the evening of the 15th June: "I was sauntering about +the park towards seven o'clock on the evening of the 15th June, when a +soldier of the Guards, attached to the Quartermaster-General's office, +summoned me to attend Sir William De Lancey. He had received orders to +concentrate the army towards the frontier, which until then had +remained quiet in cantonments. I was employed, along with others, for +about two hours in writing out 'routes' for the several divisions, +foreign as well as British, which were despatched by orderly Hussars +of the 3rd Regiment of the German Legion, steady fellows, who could be +depended on for so important a service. To each was explained the rate +at which he was to proceed, and the time when he was to arrive at his +destination; he was directed also to bring back the cover of the +letter which he carried, having the time of its arrival noted upon it +by the officer to whom it was addressed. + +"This business over, which occupied us till after nine, De Lancey put +a packet into my hand directed to Colonel Cathcart--the present +Earl--a thorough soldier, and highly esteemed by the Duke, who then +filled, as he had previously done in Spain, the arduous post of +Assistant Quartermaster-General to the whole of the cavalry. + +"'I believe you can find your way in the dark by the cross roads to +Ninove,' said Sir William, 'let this be delivered as soon as +possible.' + +"Proud of my commission, I was speedily in the saddle and threading my +way, which I did without difficulty. My good nag rapidly cleared the +fifteen miles, but ere reaching the above place, then the headquarters +of the cavalry, I fell in with one or two orderly Dragoons speeding to +out-quarters. I could also perceive lights flickering about in the +villages adjacent to my route: indications which satisfied me that the +German Hussar previously despatched from Brussels had accomplished his +mission. + +"Here let me stop 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, and some of them were killed the next day in the +same dress they had worn at the ball." (Extract from a letter written +by Colonel Felton Hervey shortly after the battle, and published in +the _XIXth Century_ for March 1903, page 431.) See also Colonel +Maurice in _U.S. Magazine_, 1890, p. 144. + +(10) "As the dawn broke, the soldiers were seen assembling from all +parts of the town, in marching order, with their knapsacks on their +backs, loaded with three days' provisions. Unconcerned in the midst of +the din of war, many a soldier laid himself down on a truss of straw +and soundly slept, with his hands still grasping his firelock; others +were sitting contentedly on the pavement, waiting the arrival of their +comrades. Numbers were taking leave of their wives and children, +perhaps for the last time, and many a veteran's rough cheek was wet +with the tears of sorrow. One poor fellow, immediately under our +windows, turned back again and again to bid his wife farewell, and +take his baby once more in his arms; and I saw him hastily brush away +a tear with the sleeve of his coat, as he gave her back the child for +the last time, wrung her hand, and ran off to join his company, which +was drawn up on the other side of the Place Royale. Many of the +soldiers' wives marched out with their husbands to the field, and I +saw one young English lady mounted on horseback slowly riding out of +town along with an officer, who, no doubt, was her husband. Soon +afterwards the 42nd and 92nd Highland regiments marched through the +Place Royale and the Parc, with their bagpipes playing before them, +while the bright beams of the rising sun shone full on their polished +muskets and on the dark waving plumes of their tartan bonnets. Alas! +we little thought that even before the fall of night these brave men +whom we now gazed at with so much interest and admiration would be +laid low." (Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 21.) + +(11) "I stood with my husband at a window of the house, which +overlooked a gate of the city, and saw the whole army go out. Regiment +after regiment passed through and melted away in the mist of the +morning."--_Abridged Narrative._ + +(12) "Le Grand Laboureur." + +(13) The Duke's corpse did not arrive at Antwerp till Saturday +afternoon. See Mrs Eaton's _Waterloo Days_, p. 59. + +(14) "I went to Antwerp, and found the hotel there so crowded, that I +could only obtain one small room for my maid and myself, and it was at +the top of the house. I remained entirely within, and desired my maid +not to tell me what she might hear in the hotel respecting the army. +On the 18th, however, I could not avoid the conviction that the battle +was going on; the anxious faces in the street, the frequent messengers +I saw passing by, were sufficient proof that important intelligence +was expected, and as I sat at the open window I heard the firing of +artillery, like the distant roaring of the sea, as I had so often +heard it at Dunglass. How the contrast of my former tranquil life +there was pressed upon me at that moment!"--_Abridged Narrative._ + +Southey, the poet, says that the firing of the 16th was heard at +Antwerp, but not that of the 18th. It is an extraordinary but +indisputable fact that the firing at Waterloo was heard in England. +The _Kentish Gazette_ of Tuesday, 20th June 1815 (published therefore +before any one in England, not even Nathan Rothschild himself, was +aware that there had been a battle fought at Waterloo), contained the +following piece of news from Ramsgate: "A heavy and incessant firing +was heard from this coast on Sunday evening in the direction of +Dunkirk." Dunkirk lies in nearly a straight line between Waterloo and +the coast of Kent. What makes the matter still more extraordinary is +the fact that Colville's Division, which, on the 18th, was posted in +front of Hal, about ten miles to the west of the battlefield, never +heard a sound of the firing, and did not know till midnight that any +battle had taken place. + +(15) Wellington's headquarters on the night of the 16th June were at +Genappe, two or three miles to the rear of the battlefield of Quatre +Bras. He slept at the Roi d'Espagne. Bluecher occupied the same inn on +the night of the 18th. + +(16) The battle began about 11.35, though Wellington in his despatch +states that it began about 10. Napoleon's bulletin fixes noon as the +time. Marshal Ney said that it began at 1 o'clock. It is clear they +did not all look at their watches. + +(17) De Lancey is supposed to have been struck about the time when the +French batteries opened a fierce cannonade on the English centre, +preparatory to the first of their tremendous cavalry attacks. This +would make the hour nearer 4 o'clock than 3. + +He fell not far from the Wellington Tree, and close to the famous +_chemin creux_ of Victor Hugo, in the immediate rear of which +Ompteda's brigade of the King's German Legion was posted. The +appearance of the spot is now entirely altered. The tree was cut down +in 1818, and all the soil of the elevated ground on the south side of +the _chemin creux_ was carted away to make the Belgian Lion Mound +about 1825. A steam tramway now runs by the place. + +For a sketch of the celebrated tree, with Napoleon's guide, De Coster, +in the foreground, see Captain Arthur Gore's _Explanatory Notes on the +Battle of Waterloo_, 1817; and for another view of the ragged old tree +as it appeared the day before it was cut down, see _Illustrated London +News_, 27th November 1852. + +The map which faces page 110 is adapted from the plan of the +battlefield of Waterloo, drawn in 1816, by W.B. Craan, Surveying +Engineer of Brabant. + +The troops are shown in the positions occupied by them at 11 o'clock, +A.M., just before the opening of the battle. + +On the map will be seen the position of the Wellington Tree, also the +farm and village of Mont St Jean, to which village it is supposed Sir +William De Lancey was carried, after he had received the fatal blow. + +The village of Waterloo is outside the map, some two miles to the +north. + +[Illustration: Map of Part of the Battlefield of Waterloo] + +"The Duke had no fixed station throughout the day, and did not remain +at this tree for more than three or four minutes at any one time. He +frequently rode to it to observe the advance of the columns of attack. +A deep dip in the main road prevented his going beyond it without a +detour to the rear. It was here also that, the Duke having galloped up +with the staff and using his glass to observe the enemy's movements, +poor Colonel De Lancey by his side was struck by a heavy shot which +slanted off without breaking either his skin or even his coat, but all +the ribs of the left side were separated from the back."--Siborne's +_Waterloo Correspondence_, vol. i., p. 51. + +Sir Walter Scott has the following interesting passage in the Seventh +of his _Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk_. After a reference to the +British army taking up its position on the field of Waterloo the night +before the battle, he thus continues: "The Duke had caused a plan of +this and other military positions in the neighbourhood of Brussels, to +be made some time before by Colonel Carmichael Smyth, the chief +engineer. He now called for that sketch, and with the assistance of +the regretted Sir William De Lancey and Colonel Smyth, made his +dispositions for the momentous events of next day. The plan itself, a +_relique_ so precious, was rendered yet more so by being found in the +breast of Sir William De Lancey's coat when he fell, and stained with +the blood of that gallant officer. It is now in the careful +preservation of Colonel Carmichael Smyth, by whom it was originally +sketched." + +For an account of Colonel Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Commanding Royal +Engineer on the Staff of the Duke of Wellington, see _Dictionary of +National Biography_, vol. liii., p. 185. + +Major John Oldfield, Brigade-Major, R.E., gives the following +particulars about this map, which is reproduced opposite page 565 of +vol. i. of C.D. Yonge's _Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of +Wellington_. + +"Shortly after my chief--Colonel Smyth--had joined headquarters (this +was on the 16th), he sent in to me, at Brussels, for the plan of the +position of Waterloo, which had been previously reconnoitred. The +several sketches of the officers had been put together, and one fair +copy made for the Prince of Orange. A second had been commenced in the +drawing-room for the Duke, but was not in a state to send; I therefore +forwarded the original sketches of the officers. + +"_Morning of the 17th._--Upon my joining Colonel Smyth, he desired me +to receive from Lieutenant Waters the plan of the position, which, +according to his desire, I had sent to him from Brussels the preceding +day, and of which I was told to take the greatest care. It had been +lost in one of the charges of the French cavalry, and recovered. +Lieutenant Waters, who had it in his cloak before his saddle (or in +his sabretasche attached to his saddle, I forget which), was unhorsed +in the _melee_ and ridden over. Upon recovering himself, he found the +cavalry had passed him, and his horse was nowhere to be seen. He felt +alarmed for the loss of his plan. To look for his horse, he imagined, +was in vain, and his only care was to avoid being taken prisoner, +which he hoped to do by keeping well towards our right. The enemy +being repulsed in his charge was returning by the left to the ground +by which he had advanced. After proceeding about fifty yards, he was +delighted to find his horse quietly destroying the vegetables in a +garden near the farmhouse at Quatre Bras. He thus fortunately +recovered his plan, and with it rejoined the Colonel. The retreat of +the Prussians upon Wavre rendered it necessary for the Duke to make a +corresponding movement, and upon the receipt of a communication from +Bluecher, he called Colonel Smyth and asked him for his plan of the +position of Waterloo, which I immediately handed to him. The Duke then +gave directions to Sir William De Lancey to put the army in position +at Waterloo, forming them across the Nivelles and Charleroi +chaussees."--Porter's _History of the Corps of Royal Engineers_, vol. +i., p. 380. See also Ropes' _Waterloo_, p. 296. + +(18) "He was able to speak in a short time after the fall, and when +the Duke of Wellington took his hand and asked how he felt, he begged +to be taken from the crowd that he might die in peace, and gave a +message to me."--_Abridged Narrative._ + +(19) Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel Delancey Barclay, 1st Foot Guards. +See _Army List_ for 1815, pp. 30 and 145, also _Waterloo Roll Call_, +p. 30. + +(20) Probably a barn at the farm of Mont St Jean, about 700 yards +north of the Wellington Tree. + +(21) Doubtless the village of Mont St Jean, the village of Waterloo +being two miles further north. + +When Miss Waldie (afterwards Mrs Eaton--see _Dictionary of National +Biography_, vol. lix., p. 26) went to Waterloo on the 15th July, she +noticed the name of Sir William De Lancey written in chalk on the +door of a cottage, where he had slept the night before the battle. +(_Waterloo Days_, p. 125.) The sketch on the opposite page is +reproduced from _Sketches in Flanders and Holland_, by Robert Hills, +1816, and shows the village of Mont St Jean, as it appeared a month +after the battle. The figures in the foreground represent villagers +returning from the battlefield with cuirasses, brass eagles, bullets, +etc., which they had picked up. + +[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF MONT ST JEAN, 1815.] + +(22) See _Waterloo Roll Call_, p. 35, and _Army List_ for 1815, p. 31. + +(23) The Duke began the Waterloo despatch very early on the 19th at +Waterloo, but he finished it at Brussels, that same morning. + +(24) _I.e._, not only Waterloo, but Ligny, Quatre Bras, and the +fighting that took place on the 15th and 17th June. + +(25) Mr William Hay of Duns Castle. He had been in the 16th Light +Dragoons in the Peninsular War (see _Army List_ for 1811, p. 89), and +had come over from England a few days before to see his old friends, +and introduce his young brother, Cornet Alexander Hay, to his old +regiment. + +(26) Mr Hay was on the battlefield during the early part of the fight. +Early next morning he revisited the field, to try to find some trace +of his brother. The body was never found. He had been killed late at +night on the French position, while the 16th Light Dragoons were in +pursuit of the enemy. (Tomkinson's _Diary of a Cavalry Officer_, +1809-1815, p. 314; also _Reminiscences_, 1808-1815, _under +Wellington_, by Captain William Hay, C.B.) There is a memorial tablet +to him in the church at Waterloo, with the following inscription: + + "Sacred to the memory of Alexander Hay, Esq., of Nunraw, + Cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons, aged 18 years, who fell + gloriously in the Memorable Battle of Waterloo, June 18, + 1815. + + "_O dolor atque decus magnum ... + Haec te prima dies bello dedit, haec eadem aufert._ + + "This tablet was placed here by his Brothers and Sisters." + +(27) No doubt Lieutenant-General John Mackenzie who was in command at +Antwerp. He succeeded Sir Colin Halkett in that post. See _Army List_ +for 1815, p. 8. + +(28) Another indication that it was in the village of Mont St Jean and +not Waterloo. + +(29) "One of the most painful visits I ever paid was to a little +wretched cottage at the end of the village which was pointed out to me +as the place where De Lancey was lying mortally wounded. How wholly +shocked I was on entering, to find Lady De Lancey seated on the only +broken chair the hovel contained, by the side of her dying husband. I +made myself known. She grasped me by the hand, and pointed to poor De +Lancey covered with his coat, and with just a spark of life +left."--_Reminiscences, etc._, by Captain William Hay, C.B., p. 202. + +(30) Creevey states that as he was on his way from Brussels to +Waterloo on Tuesday the 20th June, the Duke overtook him and said he +was going to see Sir Frederick Ponsonby and De Lancey. The Duke was in +plain clothes and riding in a curricle with Colonel Felton +Hervey.--_The Creevey Papers_, p. 238. + +(31) Probably the Duke had in his mind the charge of Lord Edward +Somerset's Household Brigade against the French Cuirassiers, which +took place about 2 o'clock. Alava, in his report to the Spanish +Government, calls it "the most sanguinary cavalry fight perhaps ever +witnessed." + +(32) This was the general opinion at the time. Four days after the +battle an officer in the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards wrote as +follows: "I constantly saw the noble Duke of Wellington riding +backwards and forwards like the Genius of the storm, who, borne upon +its wings, directed its thunder where to break. He was everywhere to +be found, encouraging, directing, animating. He was in a blue short +cloak, and a plain cocked hat, his telescope in his hand; there was +nothing that escaped him, nothing that he did not take advantage of, +and his lynx eyes seemed to penetrate the smoke and forestall the +movements of the foe" (p. 42, _Battle of Waterloo_, 11th edition, +1852, L. Booth). A highly interesting remark from the Duke's lips just +before the attack made by the Imperial Guard has been preserved in a +letter written at Nivelles on the 20th June, by Colonel Sir A.S. +Frazer. "'Twice have I saved this day by perseverance,' said his Grace +before the last great struggle, and said so most justly." This seems +to coincide with the observation which the Duke made to Creevey at +Brussels the morning after the battle. "By God! I don't think it would +have been done, if I had not been there." + +(33) Another proof that it was Mont St Jean and not Waterloo. + +(34) Probably James Powell, an apothecary in the Medical Department. +Date of rank, 9th September 1813. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 93. In +the Army List of 1817, and in subsequent Army Lists he is shown with a +[symbol: Blackletter W] before his name, as being in possession of the +Waterloo Medal. His last appearance in the Army List is in 1841, in +which issue he is shown on page 340 as a surgeon on half-pay. + +(35) John Robert Hume was a Deputy-Inspector of the Medical +Department. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 90. He also held the +appointment of surgeon to the Duke of Wellington. He was in attendance +on the memorable occasion when a duel took place in Battersea Fields +between the Duke of Wellington and Earl Winchilsea, 21st March 1829. +He died in 1857. See _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xxviii., +p. 229. + +The following is Dr Hume's account of his visit to the Duke the +morning after the battle. "I came back from the field of Waterloo with +Sir Alexander Gordon, whose leg I was obliged to amputate on the field +late in the evening. He died rather unexpectedly in my arms about +half-past three in the morning of the 19th. I was hesitating about +disturbing the Duke, when Sir Charles Broke-Vere came. He wished to +take his orders about the movement of the troops. I went upstairs and +tapped gently at the door, when he told me to come in. He had as usual +taken off his clothes, but had not washed himself. As I entered, he +sat up in bed, his face covered with the dust and sweat of the +previous day, and extended his hand to me, which I took and held in +mine, whilst I told him of Gordon's death, and of such of the +casualties as had come to my knowledge. He was much affected. I felt +the tears dropping fast upon my hand, and looking towards him, saw +them chasing one another in furrows over his dusty cheeks. He brushed +them suddenly away with his left hand, and said to me in a voice +tremulous with emotion, 'Well, thank God, I don't know what it is to +lose a battle; but certainly nothing can be more painful than to gain +one with the loss of so many of one's friends.'"--(Extract from a +Lecture by Montague Gore, 1852.) + +(36) Stephen Woolriche was a Deputy-Inspector of the Medical +Department. See _Army List_ for 1815, p. 90. His name appears for the +last time in the Army List of 1855-56. By that time he had gained a +C.B., and held the rank of Inspector-General of the Medical Department +on half-pay. + +(37) General Francis Dundas (_Army List_ for 1815, p. 3) was Colonel +of the 71st Highland Light Infantry. He had served in the American +War, and afterwards at the Cape. At the time of the alarm of a French +invasion, of England in 1804-5, he commanded a portion of the English +forces assembled on the south coast under Sir David Dundas, the +Commander-in-Chief, who married an aunt of Sir William De Lancey. Sir +David Dundas was at this time Governor of Chelsea Hospital, where he +died at the age of eighty-five, on the 18th February 1820.--(See +_Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xvi., p. 185.) + +(38) Sir Hew Dalrymple Hamilton, fourth baronet, was born on the 3rd +January 1774, and married, on the 19th May 1800, Jane, eldest daughter +of the first Lord Duncan of Camperdown. + +(39) There were at that time three Protestant cemeteries at Brussels. +This was the St Josse Ten Noode Cemetery, on the south side of the +Chaussee de Louvain. Many were here buried who had died of wounds +received at Waterloo, including Major Archibald John Maclean, 73rd +Highlanders; Major William J. Lloyd, R.A.; Captain William Stothert, +Adjutant, 3rd Foot Guards; Lieut. Michael Cromie, R.A.; Lieut. Charles +Spearman, R.A.; Lieut. John Clyde, 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. See +_Times_ of 9th February 1889. + +(40) In 1889, Sir William De Lancey's remains were exhumed from the +old, disused cemetery of St Josse Ten Noode, and, along with those of +a number of other British officers who fell in the Waterloo campaign, +were removed to the beautiful cemetery of Evere, three miles to the +north-east of Brussels. On the 26th August 1890, H.R.H. the Duke of +Cambridge unveiled the celebrated Waterloo memorial which contains +their bones. + +The following was the inscription on the gravestone which Lady De +Lancey erected:-- + +"THIS STONE IS PLACED TO MARK WHERE THE BODY OF +COL. SIR W. HOWE DE LANCEY, +QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL, +IS INTERRED. + +"HE WAS WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF +BELLE ALLIANCE (WATERLOO) +ON THE 18TH JUNE 1815." + +[Illustration: THE WATERLOO MEMORIAL IN EVERE CEMETERY.] + +(41) _Tuesday, 4th April_ 1815.--This date is confirmed by the +_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1815, which states: "April 4, Col. Sir W. De +Lancey, K.C.B., to Magdalene, daughter of Sir James Hall, Bart." + +On the other hand, the _Abridged Narrative_ states as follows:--"I was +married in March 1815. At that time Sir William De Lancey held an +appointment on the Staff in Scotland. Peace appeared established, and +I had no apprehension of the trials that awaited me. While we were +spending the first week of our marriage at Dunglass, the accounts of +the return of Bonaparte from Elba arrived, and Sir William was +summoned to London, and soon after ordered to join the army at +Brussels as Adjutant-Quartermaster-General." Napoleon landed in France +on the 1st March, and in the London _Evening Mail_ of the issue +headed:-- + +"From Wednesday, March 8, to Friday, March 10, 1815," the following +appears as a postscript:-- + + "LONDON, + + "_Friday Afternoon, March_ 10. + + "Letters have been received at Dover of the most interesting + import; they announce the flight of Buonaparte from the + island of Elba, and his arrival at Frejus, the place at + which he landed on his return from Egypt. We have seen the + King of France's proclamation against him, dated the 6th + instant, declaring him and his adherents traitors and rebels: + of these he is said to have had at first only 1300, but to + have directed his march immediately on Lyons. It was + considered that he would make a dash at Paris. Now, however, + the villain's fate is at issue." + +This news probably reached Edinburgh by coach a week later, and may +have been known at Dunglass on the following day, the 18th March. + +It seems doubtful, therefore, whether Lady De Lancey did not make a +mistake of a month in dating her marriage exactly three months before +the 4th of July. She may possibly have been married in March. + +The "Hundred Days" cover the period between Napoleon's first +proclamation at Lyons on the 13th March and his abdication on the 22nd +June. + +It will therefore be seen that the married life of the De Lanceys, if +it extended from the 4th March to the 26th June 1815, covered this +period, with just thirteen days to spare. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +Letters to Captain Basil Hall, R.N., from Sir Walter Scott and Charles +Dickens.[34] + +[Footnote 34: From the autograph collection in the possession of Lady +Parsons.] + + * * * * * + +"MY DEAR CAPTAIN HALL, + +"I received with great pleasure your kind proposal to visit Tweedside. +It arrived later than it should have done. I lose no time in saying +that you and Mrs Hall cannot come but as welcome guests any day next +week, which may best suit you. If you have time to drop a line we will +make our dinner hour suit your arrival, but you cannot come amiss to +us. + +"I am infinitely obliged to you for Captain Maitland's plain, manly, +and interesting narrative. It is very interesting, and clears +Bonaparte of much egotism imputed to him. I am making a copy which, +however, I will make no use of except as extracts, and am very much +indebted to Captain Maitland for the privilege. + +"Constable proposed a thing to me which was of so much delicacy that I +scarce know how [_sic_] about it, and thought of leaving it till you +and I met. + +"It relates to that most interesting and affecting journal kept by my +regretted and amiable friend, Mrs Hervey,[35] during poor De Lancey's +illness. He thought with great truth that it would add very great +interest as an addition to the letters which I wrote from Paris soon +after Waterloo, and certainly I would consider it as one of the most +valuable and important documents which could be published as +illustrative of the woes of war. But whether this could be done +without injury to the feelings of survivors is a question not for me +to decide, and indeed I feel unaffected pain in even submitting it to +your friendly ear who I know will put no harsh construction upon my +motive which can be no other than such as would do honour to the +amiable and lamented authoress. I never read anything which affected +my own feelings more strongly or which I am sure would have a deeper +interest on those of the public. Still the work is of a domestic +nature, and its publication, however honourable to all concerned, +might perhaps give pain when God knows I should be sorry any proposal +of mine should awaken the distresses which time may have in some +degree abated. You are the only person who can judge of this with any +certainty or at least who can easily gain the means of ascertaining +it, and as Constable seemed to think there was a possibility that +after the lapse of so much time it might be regarded as matter of +history and as a record of the amiable character of your accomplished +sister, and seemed to suppose there was some probability of such a +favour being granted, you will consider me as putting the question on +his suggestion. It could be printed as the Journal of a lady during +the last illness of a General Officer of distinction during her +attendance upon his last illness, or something to that purpose. +Perhaps it may be my own high admiration of the contents of this +heartrending diary which makes me suppose a possibility that after +such a lapse of years, the publication may possibly (as that which +cannot but do the highest honour to the memory of the amiable +authoress) may not be judged altogether inadmissible. You may and +will, of course, act in this matter with your natural feeling of +consideration, and ascertain whether that which cannot but do honour +to the memory of those who are gone can be made public with the sacred +regard due to the feelings of survivors. + +[Footnote 35: Lady De Lancey married again in 1819 Captain Henry +Hervey, Madras Infantry, and died in 1822. _Gentleman's Magazine_, +vol. lxxxix, Part I., p. 368, and vol. cii., Part II., p. 179.] + +"Lady Scott begs to add the pleasure she must have in seeing Mrs Hall +and you at Abbotsford, and in speedy expectation of that honour I am +always, + +"Dear Sir, + +"Most truly yours, + +"WALTER SCOTT. + +"ABBOTSFORD, 13_th_ _October_ 1825." + + * * * * * + +"DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + +"_Tuesday evening_, 16_th_ _March_ 1841. + +"MY DEAR HALL, + +"For I see it must be 'juniores priores,' and that I must demolish the +ice at a blow. + +"I have not had courage until last night to read Lady De Lancey's +narrative, and, but for your letter, I should not have mastered it +even then. One glance at it, when through your kindness it first +arrived, had impressed me with a foreboding of its terrible truth, and +I really have shrunk from it in pure lack of heart. + +"After working at Barnaby all day, and wandering about the most +wretched and distressful streets for a couple of hours in the +evening--searching for some pictures I wanted to build upon--I went at +it, at about ten o'clock. To say that the reading that most +astonishing and tremendous account has constituted an epoch in my +life--that I shall never forget the lightest word of it--that I cannot +throw the impression aside, and never saw anything so real, so +touching, and so actually present before my eyes, is nothing. I am +husband and wife, dead man and living woman, Emma and General Dundas, +doctor and bedstead--everything and everybody (but the Prussian +officer--damn him) all in one. What I have always looked upon as +masterpieces of powerful and affecting description, seem as nothing in +my eyes. If I live for fifty years, I shall dream of it every now and +then, from this hour to the day of my death, with the most frightful +reality. The slightest mention of a battle will bring the whole thing +before me. I shall never think of the Duke any more, but as he stood +in his shirt with the officer in full-dress uniform, or as he +dismounted from his horse when the gallant man was struck down. + +"It is a striking proof of the power of that most extraordinary man +Defoe that I seem to recognise in every line of the narrative +something of him. Has this occurred to you? The going to Waterloo with +that unconsciousness of everything in the road, but the obstacles to +getting on--the shutting herself up in her room and determining not to +hear--the not going to the door when the knocking came--the finding +out by her wild spirits when she heard he was safe, how much she had +feared when in doubt and anxiety--the desperate desire to move towards +him--the whole description of the cottage, and its condition; and +their daily shifts and contrivances; and the lying down beside him in +the bed and both _falling asleep_; and his resolving not to serve any +more, but to live quietly thenceforth; and her sorrow when she saw him +eating with an appetite so soon before his death; and his death +itself--all these are matters of truth, which only that astonishing +creature, as I think, could have told in fiction. + +"Of all the beautiful and tender passages--the thinking every day how +happy and blest she was--the decorating him for the dinner--the +standing in the balcony at night and seeing the troops melt away +through the gate--and the rejoining him on his sick bed--I say not a +word. They are God's own, and should be sacred. But let me say again, +with an earnestness which pen and ink can no more convey than toast +and water, in thanking you heartily for the perusal of this paper, +that its impression on me can never be told; that the ground she +travelled (which I know well) is holy ground to me from this day; and +that please Heaven I will tread its every foot this very next summer, +to have the softened recollection of this sad story on the very earth +where it was acted. + +"You won't smile at this, I know. When my enthusiasms are awakened by +such things they don't wear out. + +"Have you ever thought within yourself of that part where, having +suffered so much by the news of his death, she _will not_ believe he +is alive? I should have supposed that unnatural if I had seen it in +fiction. + +"I shall never dismiss the subject from my mind, but with these hasty +and very imperfect words I shall dismiss it from my paper, with two +additional remarks--firstly, that Kate has been grievously putting +me out by sobbing over it, while I have been writing this, and has +just retired in an agony of grief; and, secondly, that _if_ a time +_should_ ever come when you would not object to letting a friend copy +it for himself, I hope you will bear me in your thoughts. + +"It seems the poorest nonsense in the world to turn to anything else, +that is, seems to me being fresher in respect of Lady De Lancey than +you--but my raven's dead. He had been ailing for a few days but not +seriously, as we thought, and was apparently recovering, when symptoms +of relapse occasioned me to send for an eminent medical gentleman one +Herring (a bird fancier in the New Road), who promptly attended and +administered a powerful dose of castor oil. This was on Tuesday last. +On Wednesday morning he had another dose of castor oil and a tea cup +full of warm gruel, which he took with great relish and under the +influence of which he so far recovered his spirits as to be enabled to +bite the groom severely. At 12 o'clock at noon he took several turns +up and down the stable with a grave, sedate air, and suddenly reeled. +This made him thoughtful. He stopped directly, shook his head, moved +on again, stopped once more, cried in a tone of remonstrance and +considerable surprise, 'Halloa old girl!' and immediately died. + +"He has left a rather large property (in cheese and halfpence) buried, +for security's sake, in various parts of the garden. I am not without +suspicions of poison. A butcher was heard to threaten him some weeks +since, and he stole a clasp knife belonging to a vindictive carpenter, +which was never found. For these reasons, I directed a post-mortem +examination, preparatory to the body being stuffed; the result of it +has not yet reached me. The medical gentleman broke out the fact of +his decease to me with great delicacy, observing that 'the jolliest +queer start had taken place with that 'ere knowing card of a bird, as +ever he see'd'--but the shock was naturally very great. With reference +to the jollity of the start, it appears that a raven dying at two +hundred and fifty or thereabouts, is looked upon as an infant. This +one would hardly, as I may say, have been born for a century or so to +come, being only two or three years old. + +"I want to know more about the promised 'tickler'--when it's to come, +what it's to be, and in short all about it--that I may give it the +better welcome. I don't know how it is, but I am celebrated either for +writing no letters at all or for the briefest specimens of epistolary +correspondence in existence, and here I am--in writing to you--on the +sixth side! I won't make it a seventh anyway; so with love to all your +home circle, and from all mine, I am now and always, + +"Faithfully yours, + +"CHARLES DICKENS. + +"I am glad you like Barnaby. I have great designs in store, but am +sadly cramped at first for room." + + + + +APPENDIX B + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LADY DE LANCEY'S NARRATIVE + + +_Reminiscences_, by Samuel Rogers, under the heading: "Duke of +Wellington," p. 210. + +_Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore_, edited by Lord +John Russell, Journal of 29th August 1824, vol. iv., p. 240. + +_Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington_, by Earl +Stanhope, p. 182. + +Letter from Sir Walter Scott to Captain Basil Hall, R.N., dated 13th +October 1825, published in the _Century Magazine_ (New York), April +1906, and in Appendix A, _ante_. + +Letter from Charles Dickens to Captain Basil Hall, R.N., dated 16th +March 1841, published in the _Century Magazine_ (New York), April +1906, and in Appendix A, _ante_. + +_Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine_, 1888, vol. viii., p. 414. A +condensed account of her experiences at Waterloo, written by Lady De +Lancey for the information of her friends in general. See page 31, +_ante_. + +_Century Magazine_, New York, April 1906. Publication in full of the +original narrative as written by Lady De Lancey for the information of +her brother, Captain Basil Hall, R.N. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbotsford, 124. + +Abercrombie, General, 6. + +_Abridged Narrative_, 103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 112, 118. + +_Adonais_, 38. + +Alava, General, 16, 17, 19, 56, 103, 114. + +Ambassador, Spanish, 42, 103. + +Annapolis, 5. + +Antwerp, 41, 44, 45, 48, 52, 53, 58, 59, 64, 93, 108. + +Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, quoted, 3, 5, 8, 24. + +_Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith_, quoted, 10, 17. + + +B., Mrs, 60, 61. + +Bacon, quoted, 1, 2. + +Bahama Islands, 9. + +Ball at Duchess of Richmond's, 45, 103, 106. + +Barclay, Colonel Delancey, 51, 112. + +_Barnaby Rudge_, 35, 125, 130. + +Barnes, Major-General Sir E., 15, 18, 20. + +Bathurst, Earl, 12, 33. + +Berkeley, Colonel, 18. + +Beverley, 5, 8. + +Bibliography of Lady De Lancey's Narrative, 131. + +Bloomingdale, 7. + +Bluecher, 18, 21, 105, 109. + +Bonaparte, Napoleon, 121. + +Bowood, 32. + +Brogden, T.W., 103. + +Broke-Vere, Sir Charles, 116. + +Brunswick, Duke of, 46. + +Brussels, 12, 14, 18, _et passim_. + +Bulow, 105. + + +Caen, 3, 4. + +Calnek and Savary, 5. + +Cambridge, Duke of, 117. + +Canning, Colonel, 18. + +Castel Cicala, Prince, 19. + +_Castle Rackrent_, 15. + +Cathcart, Colonel, 104. + +_Century Magazine_, 131, 132. + +Charleroi, 20, 112. + +Chichester, Henry Manners, 15, 23. + +_Childe Harold_, 38. + +Clyde, Lieutenant, 117. + +Colville's Division, 108. + +Connecticut, 6. + +Constable, 33, 122, 123. + +Cooke, General, 18. + +Corunna, 25, 30. + +_County of Annapolis, History of_, 5. + +Craan, W.B., 109. + +_Creevey Papers_, 10, 11, 114, 115. + +Creevey, Mr, 114, 115. + +Cromie, Lieutenant, 117. + +Crown Point, 6. + +Cruger, Colonel John Harris, 7. + + +Dalton's _Waterloo Roll Call_, 20, 112, 113. + +Defoe, 1, 36, 126. + +De Coster, 109. + +De Lancey, Charlotte, 8. + +De Lancey, Edward Floyd, 3, 5, 24. + +De Lancey, Etienne, 3, 4. + +De Lancey, James, 5. + +De Lancey, Lady, 12; + Narrative of, 24, 31-38. + +De Lancey, Oliver, 5, 8, 26. + +De Lancey, Peter, 5. + +De Lancey, Sir William Howe, biography of, 10; + military services of, 10, 25, 26; + on board H.M.S. _Endymion_, 25; + marriage, 12, 118; + summoned to Belgium, 13; + at Brussels, 13, 39-45; + at the battle of Waterloo, 14, 50, 51; + wounding and death of, 13-16, 50, 99, 110. + +De Lancey, Stephen, 8, 9. + +De Lancey, Susanna, 8. + +De Lancey, Guy, 3. + +De Ros, Lady, 103. + +_Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, quoted, 15, 16. + +Dickens, Charles, 1, 33, 34, 37, 121, 130, 131. + +Dickens, Kate, 127. + +_Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de France_, 3. + +_Dictionary of National Biography_, 10, 11, 12, 15, 23, 25, 26, 111, +112, 116, 117. + +Draper, Sir William, 8. + +Dundas, General Sir David, 8, 117. + +Dundas, General Francis, 35, 82, 86, 89, 92, 93, 96, 99, 100, 101, 117, +125. + +Dunglass, 108, 118, 119. + +Dunkirk, 108. + + +Eaton, Mrs, 107, 108, 112. + +Edinburgh, 119. + +Elba, 10, 118, 119. + +Emma, 35, 46, 48, _et saepe_. + +_Endymion_, H.M.S., 25, 27, 28, 30. + +_Evening Mail_, quoted, 17, 118. + +Evere Cemetery, 117. + + +_Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, 25, 26, 31. + +_Frazer, Colonel Sir A.S., Letters of_, 13, 15, 115. + +Frejus, 119. + +Fremantle, Colonel, 17. + + +Genappe, 22, 49, 109. + +Genoa, 11. + +_Gentleman's Magazine_, 118, 122. + +Ghent, 11. + +Gordon, Colonel Sir Alexander, 18, 20, 21, 116. + +Gore, Captain Arthur, 2, 109. + +Gore, Montague, 116. + +Grant, Colonel, 100. + +Greene, General, 7. + +Gronow, Captain, 19. + +Gurwood's _Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, 10, 15, 106. + + +Hal, 108. + +Halkett, Sir Colin, 114. + +Hall, Captain Basil, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 33, 35, 121, 124, 131. + +Hall, Magdalene (Lady De Lancey), 12, 26, 68, 89, 99, 118. + +Hall, Mrs Basil, 24, 121, 124. + +Hall, Sir James, 12, 118. + +Hamilton, Sir H.D., 82, 113. + +Hamilton, Lady, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 93. + +Hay, Captain William, 113, 114. + +Hay, Cornet Alexander, 113. + +Hay, Lieut., 59, 60, 66, 67, 113. + +Hervey, Mrs (Lady De Lancey), 122. + +Hervey, Colonel Felton, 19, 106, 114. + +Hills, Robert, 113. + +_History of the Corps of Royal Engineers_, quoted, 112. + +Howe, General Sir William, 7. + +Howe, Lord, 6. + +Hudson River, 7. + +Hume, Dr, 13, 80, 81, 89, 90, 91, 98, 115, 116. + +"Hundred Days," 119. + + +_Illustrated London News_, 109. + +_Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine_, 31, 131. + +India, 29. + +Invalides, Les, 38. + + +Jackson, Colonel Basil, 19, 104. + +James II., 4. + +James, Mr, 53, 54, 55, 57. + +Johnson, Mrs S., 10. + +Jones' History, quoted, 3, 7. + + +_Kentish Gazette_, 103. + + +Ladysmith, 16. + +Lannoy, Count de, 39, 93, 104. + +Lansdowne, Lord, 32. + +_Larochejaquelein, Memoires de Madame la Marquise de_, 34. + +Lennox, Lord William, 19. + +Ligny, 21, 105, 113. + +Lloyd, Major W.J., 117. + +London, 8, 71. + +Long Island, 7. + +Louvain, 101, 117. + +Lowe, General E.W.H. De Lancey, 31. + +Lowe, Sir Hudson, 10, 11. + +_Loyalists of the American Revolution,_ quoted, 8. + +_Lycidas_, 38. + +Lyons, 119. + + +Machel, Town Major, 47. + +Maclean, Major, 117. + +_Madrid Gazette_, 17. + +Maitland, Captain, 121, 122. + +Malines, 58. + +Maurice, Colonel, 106. + +M'Kenzie, General, 62, 63, 64, 114. + +_Memoires de Madame la Marquise de Larochejaquelein_, 34. + +Mitchell, Captain, 46, 47, 49, 55, 57. + +Mons, 13. + +Mont St Jean, 22, 110, 112, 113, 114, 115. + +Moore, Thomas, 32, 33, 131. + +Mount-Norris, Lord, 18. + +Mueffling, General, 106. + + +Namur, 20, 21. + +Nantes, Revocation of the Edict of, 3, 4. + +Napoleon, 10, 11, 38, 109, 118, 119. + +_National Biography, Dictionary of_, 10, 11, 12, 15, 23, 25, 26, 111, +112, 116, 117. + +_Naval and Military Magazine, Illustrated,_ 31, 131. + +New Jersey, 8. + +New York, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. + +Ney, Marshal, 109. + +_Nineteenth Century Magazine_, 106. + +"Ninety-Six," Fort, 7. + +Ninove, 105. + +Nivelles, 15, 20, 71, 112, 115. + +_Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington_, quoted, 2, 33. + +Nova Scotia, 5. + +Nunraw, 113. + + +Oldfield, Major, R.E., 111. + +Ompteda, 109. + +Orange, Prince of, 11, 19. + +Ossining, 3, 5. + +Ostend, 39. + + +Paris, 33, 122. + +Parsons, Lady, 24, 121. + +_Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk_, 110. + +Picton, General Sir Thomas, 18, 21. + +Ponsonby, Sir Frederick, 114. + +Ponsonby, Sir William, 16. + +Porter's _History of the Corps of Royal Engineers_, 112. + +Portsmouth, 29. + +Portsmouth, N.H., 8, 9. + +Powell, Mr, 78, 79, 83, 84, 89, 90, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 115. + +Pozzo di Borgo, Count, 19. + + +Quatre Bras, 20, 106, 109, 112, 113. + + +Ramsgate, 108. + +_Recollections and Anecdotes_, by Captain Gronow, quoted, 19. + +Richmond, Duke of, 19. + +Richmond, Duchess of, 45, 103, 106. + +Rogers, Samuel, 14, 15, 24, 131. + +Ropes' _Waterloo_, 106, 112. + +Rothschild, Nathan, 108. + +_Royal Engineers, History of the Corps of_, 112. + +Russell, Lord John, 33, 131. + + +Sabine, General Sir E., 13. + +Sabine's _Loyalists of the American Revolution_, quoted, 8. + +Scott, Lady, 124. + +Scott, Sir Walter, 33, 34, 38, 110, 121, 131. + +Scovell, Sir George, 52, 62, 67, 77, 78. + +Sharpe, W. Arthur, 24. + +Siborne's _Waterloo Correspondence_, 110. + +_Sketches in Flanders and Holland_, 113. + +Smith, Sir Harry, 10, 16. + +Smyth, Col. Sir Carmichael, R.E., 110, 111, 112. + +Somerset, Lord Edward, 114. + +Somerset, Lord Fitzroy, 18, 19, 20. + +Southey, Robert, 108. + +Spearman, Lieutenant, 117. + +Stanhope, Earl, quoted, 2, 33. + +Staten Island, 7. + +St Josse Ten Noode, 117. + +Stothert, Captain W., 117. + + +Taj, The, 38. + +Tarrytown, 7. + +Tennyson, 38. + +Ticonderoga, Fort, 6. + +Tobago, 9. + +Tomkinson's _Diary of a Cavalry Officer_, 113. + +Torrens, General Sir H., 11. + +Trafalgar, 16. + + +_United Service Journal_, 23, 105. + +_United Service Magazine_, 106. + +Uxbridge, Lord, 18. + + +Van Cortlandt, Stephanus, 4. + +_Vanity Fair_, 38. + +Van Schaak, 8. + +Vendee, La, 34. + +Victor Hugo, 109. + +Vilvorde, 65. + +Vincent, Baron, 19. + + +Waldie, Miss, 112. + +Waterloo, 1, 10,12, _et passim_. + +_Waterloo, Battle of_, by L. Booth, 115. + +_Waterloo Days_, 107, 108, 113. + +_Waterloo, Explanatory Notes on the battle of_, 2, 109. + +_Waterloo, Recollections of_, 23, 105. + +_Waterloo Roll Call_, 20, 112, 113. + +_Waterloo_, Ropes', 106, 112. + +Waters, Lieut., R.E., 111. + +Wavre, 112. + +Webster, Lady Frances, 18. + +Wellington, Duke of, 2, 10, 11, _et saepe_. + +_Wellington, Duke of, Despatches of the_, quoted, 15, 16. + +_Wellington, Duke of, Supplementary Despatches of the_, quoted, 11, 12, 18. + +Wellington Tree, 109, 110, 112. + +Winchilsea, Earl, 116. + +Woolriche, Mr, 82, 83, 88, 116. + + +Yonge's _Life of Wellington_, 111. + +York, Duke of, 8, 12. + + * * * * * + +PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Week at Waterloo in 1815, by Magdalene De Lancey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK AT WATERLOO IN 1815 *** + +***** This file should be named 31517.txt or 31517.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/5/1/31517/ + +Produced by Steven Gibbs, Linda Cantoni, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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