Editor's Note: I've always found the Waterloo Campaign astonishing for all its grandeur and decisiveness, and for the sheer amount of documented minutae available to the diligent researcher. It seems everybody who could wrote down what they were doing or had witnessed that week. Here we present some lesser known accounts on forewarnings of death as recorded by the witnesses. Spooky... The Premonition of General Girard At the crossing near Ransart in a humble cottage (today disappeared, it was near the entrance of the chateau that was built later by the visconte Robert le Hardy de Beaulieu, also called Lombat Wood. It was in this chateau a century later that a great-grandson of General Reille painted thrilling hunting scenes), Prince Jerome received at his table General Girard, Colonel Cubieres and two or three generals of brigades. Alexander Dumas the elder has described in La Chronique - number I for the year 1843 the scene which he had from the lips of Prince Jerome himself: "an aide-de-camp of Napoleon entered. He carried the order for Girard and his division to march to Fleurus to make the junction with the Emperor. General Girard, who was one of the bravest soldiers of the army and who had been very cheerful up till then, paled to such a degree on receiving this order, that the Prince turned to him and asked if he was ill. "No, my lord", said the general, putting his hand to his brow, "but there comes to me a singular presentiment: I will be killed tomorrow. " "Come on!", said the Prince, laughing, "have you gone mad, my old comrade? " "No, my lord, but haven't you ever heard that there are men who have received advance warning of their death?" "How many times have you been wounded? asked the Prince. "Twenty-seven or twenty-eight" (in reality twelve wounds, a most honorable number), "my lord, I don't know exactly the total, I am as full of holes as foam. " "Very well. When one has received twentyeight wounds in the service of France, one is immortal. Good-bye (Au revoir), Girard. "Good-bye, my lord. "Till we meet again. "No, no, good-bye (Adieu). Girard left the room. All of these men of war accustomed to see death each day looked at each other smiling; nevertheless, although none of them believed the alleged presentiment of the one who had left, a sad impression weighed upon them. " (Editor's Note: Baron Girard, we know, received his mortal wound assaulting the farm of St. Amand La Haye. He did not die, however, until several days later in France, and had been elevated in title, duc de Ligne by Napoleon on June 17th). The Premonition of the Duke of Brunswick The Duke had perhaps the most famous premonition of the campaign. Here we present two accounts of his ghastly foresight. The [Duchess of Richmond's] ball was at its height, when the Duke of Wellington received for the first time positive warning that Napoleon had crossed the Sambre with all his army and had seized Charleroi. The Duke of Brunswick, who was sitting with a child (the present Prince de Ligne) on his knees, was so troubled that he stood up and let the prince fall to the floor." Cotton, A Voice from Waterloo "The Duke of Brunswick, from a military family, of which each campaign seemed, since 1772, to prophesy the death of one of its members on the field of battle, rose up with such a start at the unexpected news of Napoleon's invasion of Belgium, that he forgot that a young child was dozing on his knees and allowed him to slide to the rug." Lamartine, History of the Restoration This account is also found in Houssaye and Thiery. (Editor's Note: For more information on exactly how the Duke of Brunswick met his doom, see Ken Gallagher's article in issue 20 of The Art of War.) The Account of Francoise "le Dromedaire" Premonitions also occurred in humbler circles, as in this extract from the journal of the Egyptian veteran Francoise, in 1815 a captain in the 30th Line: 3 June. The regiment was assembled and made camp at the village of Kange, near Thionville, which we had passed through and where we re-encountered our friends with pleasure. I went to the house of one of my friends who gave me a lock of her hair and a ring which was engraved with our two initials. She said to me; "Good-bye Charles, forever, for I do not believe that you will return. We will have a war with all the powers of Europe and you will succumb along with the army, and France will be invaded by the Allies, for you will be betrayed. " Since then, I have remembered thinking of this prediction. (Editors Note: Of course Francoise lived to do "this thinking "). Back to Art of War Issue # 26 Table of Contents Back to Art of War List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Clash of Arms Games. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com