The rain of the day before had perhaps saved Wellington from a complete disaster in permitting him to save his cavalry surprised and straggered at Quatre-Bras by the hussars under Ney. On receiving the last cannon balls of the French army, the English general made his head-quarters between the farm of Mont-St-Jean and the road to Ohain. The position was certainly well protected by the twilight and the ravine; he camped there with haste.
 
 

At midnight, Wellington had not yet closed his eyes! He lay on a bed in the farm of Mont-St-Jean, dressed and with his boots on; at the first light of day at half past three, he rose and changed clothes. He was wearing a coat of dark blue cloth, under a cape of the same material, white breeches made of buck-skin, high boots ornamented with tassels in gold and white tie that went four times round his neck; he wore a hat with two points to which he had fixed four cockades, a black cockade of England, another blue and white of Portugal, another red and white of Spain and another blue and red of Holland. About 5 o'clock he breakfasted in the farm with the generals Byng and Maitland of the English guards, Chassé of the Dutch-Belgian division, Brest of the
 

Hanovarian brigade. Then he mounted his horse Copenhagen, the same that he had ridden at Badajoz and at Ciudad-Rodrigo, and trotted along the front of his army which he had arranged in the following way:

Along the road from Ohain to Braine-l'Alleud that hemmed in the plain of Mont-St-Jean and cut at right angles the road to Brussels, which the Emperor wished to take, he had placed 67,000 men and 184 cannons. His right wing protected Braine-l'Alleud, where Chassé had spread out his men, ready to fall upon the left wing of the enemy by attacking the cavalry under Piré and the first divisions under Reille by the road to Genappe. Then, behind the excavated road, Wellington had placed the English brigades under Adam and Mitchel, in steps dominating Hougoumont, the Anglo-German divisions commanded by Halkett and Duplat, the strong infantry under Byng and Maitland by keeping them in reserve the army under Brunswick, the Anglo-German brigades of cavalry under Dornberg, Arenschild and Grant, the horse guards under the Duke of Somerset the Dutch-Belgian rifles and hussars under Van Merlen and Trip. Beyond the road to Brussels, towards the left wing extended the armies of Kempt, Best, Wincke, Pack and more in front, in a way so as to protect the road to Ohain against a surprise, the Belgians under Bylans, the foot-soldiers of the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimar and the cavalry of Vivian.

The centre was strengthened by a great number of infantry, that which had conquered in Spain and Portugal, and that which was formed in a great part of brigands recruited in the English prisons. It comprised also the three divisions of cavalry under Ponsonby and the Dutch-Belgian dragoons under Ghigny. The commander-in-chief had profited by the darkness to throw up passing fortifications, he had disposed of four batteries on each side of the road to Brussels, in the middle; two at each wing, six in reserve upon the heights. At the beginning of day this army was in readiness and already moving, for the chief had given orders to make the enemy uneasy by continual charges of cavalry.

In the mean time, Napoleon proceeded by strategy. Wellington had no plan, he trusted to his own tactics, his only aim being to resist and to protect Brussels. He hoped to be rejoined by Blücher from whom he had been separated two days and the whereabouts of whom he had no knowledge. He was not sure of the aim of Napoleon either, that was why he had left 17,000 men in the hands of the Prince of Holland thinking perhaps to be able to stop the French army between Hal and Enghien. But he showed not the slightest uneasiness, even daring to go so far as Hougoumont with general Muffling after having reviewed the battle-line. " Let them come, he cried, those who do come shall stay!".

And when the first discharges of the English artillery burst forth he was in the centre on horse-back only accompanied by four officers.