The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-05-28
Napoleon at Waterloo.

The following letter addressed to the Moniteu
by Count de Flahaut, who was one of Napoleon
aids de.camp on the field of Waterloo, Is by IA
the most interesting Of the many protests tha
| the posthumous works of the Duke dc Ragus'
| have provoked.
LONDON, APRIL Z. 1857 -Marshai Marmon
says. (voi p Ill giving account of the battl,
of Waterloo: In the course of the day Napoleon
found himself so far off from the field of battle
that be could not make the necessary notifications
In the execution OF his plans More particularly
he was unable to support the cavalry movements
In proper time That movement, being premature
aud isolated. while, If the guard had been een,
forward simultaneously, the effect might have
been decisive. When the army was In disorder
Napoleons mind wasso acted upon by terror tha;
he fed At gallop for several leagues, and every
moment, dt was dark) fancyirg he saw the ene-
mys cavalry on his flank, be sent people to recon.
noitre 1t is impossible not to perceive the malice
of this whole story which the rshal pretends to
have had from Gen. Bernard. That cannot be
true, because Gen. Bernard was a brave and
hone man. and consequently incapable OF telling
q tissue of falsehoods.
"The Emperor placed himself during the battle
on q hock in the centre of the position, from
which be could survey the whole of the operations,
from which he saw the advance of cavalry order
ed by Marshal Ney. and which did, In point of
fact appear to him premature and ill-timed. He
at once exclaimed, there's Ney turning certain
~ into an uncertainty, but now that the move.
meut Is commenced there is nothing to be done
but to support it, He ordered me accordingly to
carry an order that all the cavalry should advance
10 support and follow those troops which had al
ready crossed the hollow which lay between them
aud the enemys position. This WAS done, but
unfortunately, as the Emperor had feared, the mos
msnt had not come when such q movement might
have been successful. However, it was impossible
to recall the squadrons that were already engaged
In war there are certain faults which can only be
repaired by persevering in them. leave to Mar
shal Marmont the houor which do moi envy, Of
the parallel he has Instituted (p 1859 between the
leaders of the two armies and of the share attribu.
table to each In the results of the battle he takes
pleasure il praisiug the English General at the
expense of the Emperor; but, instead of taking SO
much pains to prove the Emperor guilty of miss
takes which led to the fatal issue of the day he
might have understood that the unexpected arri.
val on our flank of 80 900 Prussians whose artle.
swept our line of operations the real cause
of the loss of the bs and its disastrous consequent
ceg. The Duke of Wellington bad the justice TO sd.
mi. this in his report TO his Government. AS to the
terror which the Marshal pretended the Emperor
gave way to, cannot better refute this false as
sertion than by stating facts of which / was an
eyewitness, and which, therefore, no one is in a
better position to bear witness of than myself.
After having taken part in the successive at
tacks of the cavalry and the guard, and when
the retreatiug movement had most decidedly set
In, went to look for the Emperor. 1t was
dark. found him in the centre of square Of
| infantry, and l did not afterwards leave him
After waiting there some time longer, the battle
being irretrevably lost, he left the field by the
Char eroi road. We went along, not in gallop,
as Ia UNANIMOUSLY said in the memoirs but at q
walk, and no pursuit of the enemy inspired the
Emperor with any such fears as the Marshars
malice attributes to him. So far was the EN-
peror from being trodbled with any personal
tears, although the situation was not very reas-
suring, that, being knocked up by the fatigue he
bad undergone during the preceding days, he
several times fell asleep, and would have fallen
off bis horse had not held him on. We arrived
| the next morning at Charleroi where he took
post for Lson. There the Emperor halted to
write the bulletin giving an accoust of the fatal
day and he then set ont for Paris This Is the
truth. Let the public compare it with Marshal
Marmont's msicious and lying narrative, and
then judge But how can one express ones feel
ing of indignation and disgust at seeing a man
whose place 1t was to hope to be forgotten, as the
best thing that could happen to him, thus to attack
one who was his benefactor, and defame his mem,
ory after having betrayed him when liviDg'
count DE FLAHAUT."