You have seen
the rabbit when the snake approaches. So stood the English upon
the ridge of Waterloo. The night before, the Emperor, who had
lost an aide-de- camp at Ligny, ordered me to join his staff, and
I had left my Hussars to the charge of Major Victor. I know not
which of us was the most grieved, they or I, that I should be
called away upon the eve of battle, but an order is an order, and
a good soldier can but shrug his shoulders and obey. With the
Emperor I rode across the front of the enemy's position on the
morning of the 18th, he looking at them through his glass and
planning which was the shortest way to destroy them. Soult was
at his elbow, and Ney and Foy and others who had fought the
English in Portugal and Spain. "Have a care, Sire," said Soult.
"The English infantry is very solid."
"You think them good soldiers because they have beaten you," said
the Emperor, and we younger men turned away our faces and smiled.
But Ney and Foy were grave and serious. All the time the English
line, chequered with red and blue and dotted with batteries, was
drawn up silent and watchful within a long musket- shot of us.
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