Collected Reminiscences of Waterloo

Journal of Napoleon's Aide de Camp

ADVANCE OF THE OLD GUARD

The following further details of the last terrible moments at Waterloo are given by another of Napoleon's Aide-de-camp.

(This is from an unnamed MS. The historian E. Bruce Low was fully satisfied of its authenticity. Ed.)

From two o'clock until a quarter before seven, Bonaparte commanded all the operations and movements from a position where he remained without any danger whatever to his own person; he was a distance of at least a cannon shot and a half from the enemy; nothing in short, could reach him. When he was at length convinced that the corps d'armée which he had so long and so obstinately taken for that of Marshal Grouchy, was in reality a Prussian corps, he seemed to think that affairs were desperate, and that he had no other resource than to make a great effort with the reserve of his Guard composed of fifteen thousand men. This he accordingly prepared to do and he assumed an appearance of resolution which re-animated a little those who surrounded him. He advanced saying, 'Let every one follow me (Tout le monde en arrière)' which clearly signified that he wished to be in front.

In fact he made this movement at first and headed, for about ten minutes, the formidable column which remained to him as his forlorn hope; but when he arrived within two hundred toises (1200 ft.) from three solid squares of Allied troops which occupied a ridge, with a formidable artillery – 'and which ridge it was necessary to carry' – he suddenly stopped under the broken ground of a sand-pit or ravine and a little on one side out of the direction of the cannon balls.

'This fine and terrible column which he had for sometime headed, found him here as it passed and defiled before him in order to advance, taking a Demi-tour to the bottom of the hillock and directly in front of the enemy's squares. These Bonaparte himself could not see from the lateral point which he occupied, although it is very true that he was close enough to the enemy's batteries. As the corps passed him, he smiled, and addressed to them expressions of confidence and encouragement.

The march of these old warriors was very firm and there was something solemn in it. Their appearance was very fierce. A kind of savage silence reigned among them: There was in their looks a mixture of surprise and discontent occasioned by their unexpected meeting with Bonaparte who as they thought, was at their head. In proportion as they ranged up the eminence and darted forward on the squares which occupied its summit the artillery vomited death upon them, and killed them in batches.

This part of the scene came directly under Bonaparte's eye, without his being able to see what passed on the height itself as he still kept himself, as it were, enveloped in the corner of the ravine. It was then precisely a quarter of an hour from seven o'clock and it was at this very moment that the decisive crisis of the battle commenced. Bonaparte had then six persons close to him: these were, his brother Jerome, Generals Bertrand, Drouot, Bernard, Colbert, and Labedoyere. At every step which he took, or seemed to take to put his own person in front Generals Bertrand and Drouot threw themselves before his horse's head, and exclaimed in a pathetic accent:- 'Ah! Sire, what are you going to do? Consider that the safety of France and of the army depends entirely upon you; all is lost if any accident happen to you'.

Bonaparte yielded to their entreaties with a real or apparent effort by which he seemed to gain control over himself. But one thing appeared very singular, namely that the two men who knew so well how to moderate his ardour and to restrain him, were the only persons whom he never sent out to reconnoitre the state of the battle, though he sent the others twenty times into the midst of the fire, to carry orders, or bring him information. One of them having told him that the Duke of Wellington had been for a long time in front and at the head of one of his squares, he made a sort of grimace which showed that this part of the narrative vexed him much.

Jerome having thought proper to take aside and whisper with one of his brother Aide-de-Camps, to whom he spoke his mind very freely, Bonaparte sent him (Jerome) several times into the middle of the fire, as if to get rid of such an importunate critic.

Jerome, in fact, took it greatly to heart that his brother did not profit by this occasion to die in a glorious manner, and I distinctly heard him say to General Bertrand 'Can it be possible that he will not seek death here? Never will he find a more glorious grave!'

At nightfall Bonaparte disappeared from us under pretext of going himself to ascertain the state of things and to put himself at the head of the Guards to animate them. Before I conclude, there is a peculiarity which deserves to be noticed namely that, before effecting his personal retreat, in order to get rid of impertinent witnesses he directed those around him to carry different orders all at the same time, and to bring information the result of which could not concern him in the least.

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