The line being formed, and wheeled into column by threes, we set forward at a good round trot; and, after compassing about fourteen miles, heard what the excessive heat of the weather induced us to believe was the rolling of thunder at a distance. Another half-hour's progress, however, set that notion aside; for then we could distinguish the smoke as it curled over the woods of Quatre Bras, and were no longer at a loss to tell that artillery was firing sharply. These sights and sounds had no tendency to repress our ardour; we gave the jaded horses the spur, and kept them on the trot till full five-and-twenty miles were compassed. It would have been both cruel and useless to urge them further without a rest, so we dismounted and loosened girths without feeding. But the halt was not prolonged beyond the interval which was absolutely necessary, and in a quarter of an hour we were once more in the saddle. And now, as we drew nearer to the scene of action, the evidences of deadly strife multiplied upon us. The cannonade became louder, and mixed with it was the short sharp rattle of musketry; while, by-and-by, a quantity of waggons, laden with ammunition and stores of every sort, were passed in one of the small towns. Finally, groups of persons were seen approaching, whom, on our nearing one another, we recognised to be the wounded, some of whom appeared to be suffering much, though all bore themselves nobly under their pain. Poor fellows, they drew to one side that we might pass, and cheered lustily. "Push on, push on," was their cry, "you are very much wanted; for there is no cavalry up." And we did push on as fast as our now jaded animals would go; but all our efforts failed to bring us to the field in time to take part in the action.

We had ridden, I conceive, about forty miles, and the sun was long set, when the red flashes of musketry and cannon greeted us. "Halt!" was the word given; "cut away forage, and draw swords." The hay was cut loose, our swords flashed in the air, and at the signal, "Quick trot," away we went again. But, as I have already said, we did not reach the field till the firing had ceased. We formed line, however, and riding over numbers of the dead, if not of the dying, approached our own troops, which lay upon their arms; whence in a few minutes we received orders to fall back, and to picket our horses for the night in a place that was convenient for them.

Throughout the whole of that night there was a dropping fire of musketry kept up in the woods to the right and left of our bivouac. The outposts of infantry chose to skirmish instead of sleep, and we were in consequence kept constantly on the alert. But this was not the only, nor, perhaps, the greatest grievance to which our position subjected us. The horses had not tasted water since the march began, and the darkness was such as, combined with their extreme weariness, hindered our men in general from going in search of it. Again the habits of the old soldier prevailed with me; and knowing that on the efficiency of my horse my own depended, I resolved, at all hazards, to fetch him some water. Accordingly I proposed to my comrade that we should steal away together; and he consented the more readily on my putting him in mind that the very same process which won refreshment for our chargers might insure a good supper for ourselves; and that the most zealous martinet would never blame us, if in seeking for the one we should chance to stumble on the other.

Armed each with a pistol, and carrying a sack and leathern bucket in our hands, my comrade and I stole from the bivouac; and having previously noticed a village about a mile distant, we made directly for it. We entered, and found the stillness of the grave; but, by-and-by, observing a light in the window of one of the houses, I knocked at the door, and we were admitted. My astonishment may be conceived, when the first object that met my gaze was a French grenadier, fully accoutred, and seated in the chimney corner. It was no time for hesitation, so I cocked my pistol; when up he rose, welcomed us with perfect self-possession; and pointing to his knee, informed us that he was wounded. Perceiving that he spoke the truth, I desired him to sit down again, adding an assurance that he had nothing to fear; and he, coolly taking me at my word, and smoking his pipe, I next addressed myself to the master of the house. It was to no purpose, however, that I demanded food and drink. The French, he replied, had taken every thing from him; which was not exactly the case; for my companion, having instituted a search in the cellar, soon returned, bringing with him part of a ham, a loaf of bread, and some butter. With these we judged it expedient to be content; so, wishing both our host and the wounded man a good night, we passed the threshold, and hurried back to the camp.

Before reaching the lines, we fortunately came upon a ditch full of water, in which we filled our buckets, greatly to the satisfaction of our weary chargers. Our horses were not, however, the only animals who benefited by this discovery. Having informed the rest where the water lay, they also provided enough for the wants of themselves and their cattle: and the night in consequence passed more agreeably than either by man or beast bad been anticipated. But as far as the means of satisfying other wants of nature were affected, I and my comrade stood, I believe, alone. We made a hearty supper of our ham and bread, and regretted only that it was impossible to share the morsel with others.

Day dawned at length, and exhibited to us some strange spectacles calculated as well to raise the spirits as to depress them. We could now observe that the whole surface of the country over which yesterday's fighting had occurred, was covered with the slain; while in our rear and on either flank, a prodigious force of cavalry and light artillery which had arrived during the night, was in position. The latter made a brave show, especially in the eyes of our gallant infantry, who, few in number, had sustained repeated shocks from the enemy's horse, and uniformly repulsed them. But it soon appeared, that let the decisive battle occur when it might, we were not on this ground to measure ourselves again with the enemy. By degrees the infantry began to march to the rear. The cavalry and artillery stood fast to cover them, when they, in their turn slowly withdrew, as if reluctant to yield a foot of ground without fighting for it. Strange to say, the enemy did not appear for some time to be aware of what was going on in our ranks. The infantry was well to the rear, so were the heavy cavalry, ere they made a movement in pursuit; indeed, it must have been full three o'clock in the afternoon ere we found ourselves under the necessity of throwing out skirmishers, so as to check the advance, which was then pushed with considerable ardour.

There was a good deal of carbine practice, and prancing here and there, for about half an hour, at the close of which, the artillery began on both sides to open; while a mass of black clouds, which had been gathering all the day, broke at the concussion, and the rain descended in torrents. It is curious to observe how, even in such warfare as this, a heavy fall of rain operates as a sedative on animal courage. The skirmishing ceased as if by common consent; and the fighting was confined to an occasional dash of one of the enemy's leading squadrons against ours, which covered the rear; when sword-cuts were exchanged, and men and horses went down, as well from among us, as from among the assailants. Once in particular we had rather a sharp bout of it, for the enemy contrived, I know not how, to interpose between the plain on which we were moving, and a narrow road that led out of it, and no alternative remained except to cut our way through them. We rode at them with loosened reins, and soon opened a way for ourselves, cutting to pieces, among others, a French General, and leaving not above half-a-dozen of our own men behind.

We halted that night behind the crest of the rising ground which is still pointed out to the curious traveller as the Duke of Wellington's position on the great day of Waterloo. The rain, which fell in torrents, and had done so for hours ere our arrival, soon reduced the face of the country to a state of swamp; and as our bivouac was formed in a ploughed field, the comparative comforts of our situation require no poet's art to describe them. At every step which you took, you sank to the knees, and your foot, when you dragged it to the surface again, came loaded with some twenty pounds of clay. Moreover, fuel, with which to make fires, was wanting; till in despair some of us ran to a village about a mile in the rear, and came back laden with various articles of furniture, the whole of which were committed to the flames. Then again as to food--if I except a single biscuit and a glass of spirits--none had been served out since daybreak, and none came throughout the whole of that dreary night, either to officers or to men. I cannot say that our martial ardour was such as to render us either insensible of, or indifferent to, the desagrémens of our situation; yet I am bound to record, that we sustained them with wonderful equanimity, comforted by the knowledge that the night, which was short, would soon pass away, and that the morrow would in some shape or another obviate the necessity of passing many more in a similar manner.

Before the morning broke, we were in our saddles:--and immediately the horizon put on the hue of coming day, we shifted our ground to the brow of the hill, and there watered our horses. That done we dismounted; and removing the remnant of our fuel to the new parade ground we again lighted fires, and dried as well as we could, both our clothes and accoutrements. The Commissary, however, was slow in making his appearance; so, entertaining serious misgivings both as to my own powers of endurance, and those of my steed, which had been tried well nigh to the uttermost, I determined, let come what might, to find a breakfast for both. I looked round, and saw in the rear a village, to which straggling parties of the Foot Guards were continually passing. I ran thither, but looked about vainly, in every house, for those things of which I was in want. At last, just as I had come to the conclusion that further search would be useless, and that I had best return, I entered an apartment, where, in the middle of the floor, sat a solitary Yorkshireman, with a brown jar between his legs. He laughed, begged me to come in, and offered to share with me what he had: it was bread and sour cream, out of which both he and I contrived to make a capital breakfast. After which, I mounted by a trap-ladder to a loft, where, to my great delight, stores both of oats and peas were deposited. I filled my handkerchief, which was a large one; and having contrived, over and above, to get possession of half-a-dozen canteens of beer, I ran back, well pleased with the results of my adventure, to the front. My gallant steed fared well; and he repaid me for the care I took of him by the pliability and vigour of his movements throughout the day.

When I reached the ground, my companions were all busily engaged rubbing down their horses and cleaning their accoutrements. I took care to feed my charger first, and then groomed him; nor had I finished buckling up the neatly rolled cloak, when a gun was discharged from some point near us, and, in an instant, the whole face of affairs underwent a change. Drums beat, trumpets brayed, while salvoes of artillery from either side told of a battle begun; and, while we mounted and closed our ranks, peal after peal of musketry warned us that ere long their consistency would be tried. By-and-by an order arrived to take ground to the right, where we enrolled ourselves in brigade with the 12th and 16th; and, forming close columns of regiments, waited till the moment should arrive when to us, also, the honour should be awarded of striking a few blows for Old England and victory.

The place where we were directed to execute this formation chanced to be particularly favourable for obtaining a view over the whole field of battle, as well as the overnight positions of the two armies. And never have these eyes of mine rested on a more imposing scene than, for a brief space, was spread out before them. As far as the eye could reach I beheld endless columns of the French--the infantry in front interlaced, as it were, with artillery; while in the rear were masses of cavalry, in comparison with which, as far as numbers go, we appeared as nothing. Then, again, on our side, I beheld horse, foot, and guns, all in admirable order, hidden in some degree from the enemy by the swell of the ground, yet all, as their attitudes denoted, thoroughly on the alert: while, both on our side and that of the French, staff officers in groups, and orderlies one by one, were galloping hither and thither, as if they had been the veritable messengers of fate. But the vision was like that which the sleeper obtains when, for a moment, the gates of Fairy-land are opened before him. From the hundreds of cannon, which sent forth death on each side, such a cloud of smoke arose as soon tendered objects indistinct; and when the musketry began to play, every living and dead thing on the earth's surface was shrouded under a canopy of gray mist.

It were idle in one filling the humble situation which I did to attempt any thing like the description of a great battle, especially such a battle as that of Waterloo. From the instant that the firing became general, all was to me dark and obscure beyond the distance of a few hundred yards from the spot on which I stood; indeed, it was only by the ceaseless roar, or the whistling of shot and shell around me, that I knew at times that I and those near me were playing a part in the grave game of life and death. For the cavalry, unlike the infantry, come into play only by fits and starts, and they have patiently to sustain the fury of a cannonade, to which they can offer no resistance, and out of the range of which they are not permitted to move. Neither was the brigade to which I belonged left long in ignorance touching both the peril and extreme discomfort of this species of inaction. For the French, perceiving us, opened upon our columns a battery of howitzers and light mortars, one shell from which falling into the very centre of the 16th, created terrible havock. But as if to hinder us from getting unsteady, an aide-de-camp rode up at this moment, and two squadrons, one from the 12th, another from our regiment, were ordered to drive back some lancers which had threatened certain of our guns. We went at them with good will, but not, perhaps, with perfect judgment. We did not consider that, when the ground is soft and heavy, a charge down hill is, of all operations to which cavalry can be put, the most unsafe; and the consequence was, that rushing over the ridge at speed, very many of our horses came down, and we lost all order. The result need hardly be stated. The squadron of the 12th, which led, was almost cut to pieces, and we, with difficulty and in great disorder, recovered the brigade.

This was not satisfactory, yet we believed that we could account for it, and finding ourselves again in our proper places, we desired nothing more than a repetition of the experiment. But, during the remainder of the day, little else fell to our share than to sustain, as we best might, the heavy fire of cannon which the enemy continued to direct against us. At each discharge, men and horses went down: yet we suffered less than a regiment of Nassau Hussars, which, keeping ground in our rear, served to catch every ball that passed over us. Nor was it the least disagreeable attendant on our position, that we stood exactly on such a spot as enabled us to behold the last struggles of the wounded, whose strength sufficed only to carry them a few yards to the rear. There was a long sort of ditch, or drain, some way behind us, towards which these poor fellows betook themselves by scores; and ere three hours had passed, it was absolutely choked up with the bodies of those who lay down there only that they might die. Then, again the wounded horses, of which multitudes wandered all over the field, troubled us. They would come back, some with broken legs, others trailing after them their entrails, which the round-shot had knocked out, and forcing themselves between our files, seemed to solicit the aid which no one had time to afford, and which, if afforded, would have been useless.

We were beginning to get tired of this state of things, when an order reached us to form line and move off to the left. "Now then," thought we, "a charge is before us;" but it was not so. A square of Brunswick Infantry had, it appeared, begun to waver, and, as a failure on that point might have proved fatal, we were brought up to stop it if we could. We drew our swords, cheered, made our horses prance, and the desired end was gained. The Brunswickers perceiving that there was support at hand, took up their arms, which some of them had thrown away, and they throughout the remainder of the action behaved with all the gallantry for which their countrymen have in every age and country been remarkable.

Having effected this object, we were directed to fall back, and to dismount, that our horses might in some measure recruit their strength. Many wounded men passed us while thus resting; but of the case of only one I shall make mention, because it struck me at the moment as being a remarkable one. An infantry soldier approached, and asked me for a cup of water. I saw that he was wounded; and, recollecting that a canteen of beer was at my back, out of which I had been too much engaged to drink myself, I handed it to him and desired him to quench his thirst without scruple. The poor fellow drank, thanked me heartily, told me that almost all his regiment--the 28th--was destroyed; and then, lifting himself from my horse, on which he had been leaning, tottered towards the rear. I watched him, and saw that he had not gone twelve yards when he fell. Almost immediately afterwards his limbs gave a convulsive stretch, and he was a corpse. I went up to him, and saw where the fatal ball had taken its course, just above the hip-bone. Yet he seemed to die easily; and his voice, not three minutes ere the soul quitted the body, gave scarcely the smallest sign of weakness.

By this time the dusk was closing fast; and, as the battle continued to rage with unabated fury, the magnificence of the scene received, from minute to minute, a perpetual increase to its intensity. Over the surface of the ground, shells, with their burning fuses, rolled, bursting here and there with terrible effect. From the mouths of the cannon fire seemed to be poured, while the ceaseless glare of the musketry, as the opposing lines fought muzzle to muzzle, was terrific. By degrees, however, the sounds and sight of fire-arms began to be distinguishable where neither had before been observed; and the rumour ran from rank to rank among us, that the Prussians were come, and had fallen upon the right and rear of the enemy. Moreover, that the news was not without foundation, was soon apparent, from the altered state of things both near us and far away. Our infantry, which up to this moment had fought in squares, formed all at once into line. There was a heart-stirring cheer begun, I know not where, but very soon audible over the whole of our front; and we, too, were ordered to leap into the saddle and move forward. How can I pretend to describe what followed! On we went at a gallop, dashing past the weary yet gallant footmen, and, shouting as we went, drove fiercely and without check up to the very muzzles of a hostile battery. A furious discharge of grape met us, and thinned our ranks. Before it man and horse went down; but the survivors, never pulling bridle or pausing to look back, scattered the gunners to the winds, and the cannon were our own. Just at this moment, Serjeant Emmet of the 11th, whom I covered, received a shot in the groin, which made him reel in his saddle, from which he would have fallen, had I not caught him; while at the same time a ball struck me on the knee, the bone of which was saved by the interposition of my unrolled cloak. For in the morning I had not found time to pack it in its place; and it hung before me in loose folds, through most of which the bullet made its way, terribly bruising, yet not disabling, the limb. I was glad to save my serjeant, for he was a good and a brave man. Yet I own that I felt bitter mortification when the tide of war swept past us, and I felt myself cut off from sharing in the general triumph. Accordingly, perceiving a corporal near, I called him to lend his assistance, and no sooner saw him seize the serjeant by the other arm, than I loosed my hold. "One whole man," thought I, "is enough to take care of a wounded one;" and then I plyed my spurs into my horse's sides, and flew to the front. But by this time it was too dark to distinguish one corps from another. I therefore attached myself to the first body of horse which I overtook, and in three minutes found myself in the middle of the enemy.

There was a momentary check, during which the men demanded one of another, what regiment this was. I do not know how the discovery of their own absolute intermingling might have operated, had not an officer called aloud, "Never mind your regiments, men, but follow me." In an instant I sprang to his side, and, seeing a mass of infantry close upon us, who, by the blaze of the musketry, we at once recognised to be French, he shouted out "Charge!" and nobly led the way. We rushed on: the enemy fired, and eight of our number fell, among whom was our gallant leader. A musket-ball pierced his heart: he sprang out of his saddle, and fell dead to the ground.

Another check was the consequence, and almost instinctively we recoiled: neither, indeed, was the movement inopportune, for the impetuosity of a mere handful of men had carried them into the middle of a retreating column, and their destruction, had they lingered there must have been inevitable. For myself, having gazed hastily round, and noticed that the field was thickly studded with dung-heaps, I scoured off in search of my own regiment, with which, when it had halted, a good way off, I succeeded in coming up. But I was determined, as soon as a halt should occur, to return to the spot, and find the body of the slain; and, some hours afterwards, when the word was passed to dismount and rest, I carried my resolution into force.