[Illustration:  BATTLE OF LIGNY.]

In this he reckoned the Prussians at 40,000 men, and ordered Grouchy to repair with the French right wing to Sombref.

" ...  I shall be at Fleurus between 10 and 11 a.m.:  I shall proceed to Sombref, leaving my Guard, both infantry and cavalry, at Fleurus:  I would not take it to Sombref, unless it should be necessary.  If the enemy is at Sombref, I mean to attack him:  I mean to attack him even at Gembloux, and to gain this position also, my aim being, after having known about these two positions, to set out to-night, and to operate with my left wing, under the command of Marshal Ney, against the English.”

The Emperor did not reach Fleurus until close on 11 a.m., and was undoubtedly taken aback to find Grouchy still there, held in check by the enemy strongly posted around Ligny.  Grouchy has been blamed for not having already attacked them; but surely his orders bound him to wait for the Emperor before giving battle:  besides, the corps of Gerard, which had been assigned to him was still far away in the rear towards Chatelet.[484] The absence of Gerard, and the uncertainty as to the enemy’s aims, annoyed the Emperor.  He mounted the windmill situated on the outskirts of Fleurus to survey the enemy’s position.

It was a fair scene that lay before him.  Straight in front ran the high-road which joined the Namur-Nivelles chaussee, some six miles away to the north-east.  On either side stretched cornfields, whose richness bore witness alike to the toils and the warlike passions of mankind.  Further ahead might be seen the dark lines of the enemy ranged along slopes that formed an irregular amphitheatre, dotted with the villages of Bry and Sombref.  In the middle distance, from out a hollow that lay concealed, rose the steeples and a few of the higher roofs of Ligny.  Further to the left and on higher ground lay St. Amand, with its outlying hamlets.  All was bathed in the shimmering, sultry heat of midsummer, the harbinger, as it proved, of a violent thunderstorm.  The Prussian position was really stronger than it seemed.  Napoleon could not fully see either the osier beds that fringed the Ligny brook, or its steep banks, or the many strong buildings of Ligny itself.  He saw the Prussians on the slope behind the village, and was at first puzzled by their exposed position.  “The old fox keeps to earth,” he was heard to mutter.  And so he waited until matters should clear up, and Gerard’s arrival should give him strength to compass Bluecher’s utter overthrow while in the act of stretching a feeler towards Wellington.  From the time when the Emperor came on the scene to the first swell of the battle’s roar, there was a space of more than four hours.