had not yet come up from Liege.  The scheme of beating the Prussian divisions in detail had therefore failed; but the second part of the plan, namely, that of separating them wholly from Wellington, might still succeed.  With this view, while Blucher was concentrating his force about Ligny, the French held on the main road to Brussels from Charleroi; beating in some Nassau troops at Frasnes, and followed them as far as Quatre-Bras, a farmhouse, so called, because it is there that the roads from Charleroi to Brussels, and from Nivelles to Namur, cross each other.

At half-past one o’clock, p.m., of the same day (Thursday the 15th) a Prussian officer[72] of high rank arrived at Wellington’s headquarters in Brussels, with the intelligence of Napoleon’s decisive operations.  By two o’clock orders were despatched to all the cantonments of the Duke’s army, for the divisions to break up, and concentrate on the left at Quatre-Bras; his Grace’s design being that his whole force should be assembled there, by eleven o’clock on the next night, Friday the 16th.

It was at first intended to put off a ball announced for the evening of Thursday, at the Duchess of Richmond’s hotel in Brussels; but on reflection it seemed highly important that the population of that city should be kept as far as possible in ignorance as to the course of events, and the Duke of Wellington desired that the ball should proceed accordingly; nay, the general officers received his commands to appear in the ball-room—­each taking care to quit the apartment as quietly as possible, at ten o’clock, and proceed to join his respective division en route.  This arrangement was carried into strict execution.  The Duke himself retired at twelve o’clock, and left Brussels at six o’clock next morning for Quatre-Bras.  The reserve quitted Brussels in the night with the most perfect silence and regularity, unnoticed by the inhabitants; and the events which had occurred were almost wholly unknown in that city, except to the military authorities, until the next day.

The Duke of Wellington conversed at the ball with various persons on the movements which had occurred; stated his calculation of the French force directed against his left, and expressed his confidence that his whole army would be up at Quatre-Bras by eleven o’clock the next night.  This most extraordinary and rapid concentration of force was effected; the various divisions of the army, previously cantoned over an extent of fifty miles, were collected at Quatre-Bras, within the short space of twenty-four hours.

Napoleon, on coming up from Charleroi, about noon on the 16th, hesitated for a time whether Blucher at Ligny, or the English at Quatre-Bras, ought to form the main object of his attack.  The Anglo-Belgian army was not yet concentrated—­the Prussian, with the exception of one division, was:  and he at length resolved to give his own personal attention to the latter.  With the main strength of his army, therefore, he assaulted Blucher at three in the afternoon; and about the same time Ney, with 45,000 men, commenced seriously (for there had been skirmishes ever since daybreak) the subordinate attack on the position of Wellington.