Chapter 14 - Where Are the Prussians?
For hours, the question had passed through the army like a prayer.
Where are the Prussians?
Wellington had expected Blücher.
Napoleon knew they might come.
Every man who understood the wider battle seemed to look east whenever possible.
Then smoke rose there.
Gunfire.
Movement.
Word spread.
Prussians.
At first nobody cheered.
We had believed too many rumors.
Then more reports came.
Prussian troops were attacking Napoleon’s right.
The effect was not immediate.
The French did not vanish.
The pressure on Wellington did not end.
But the shape of the battle changed.
Napoleon now had another enemy on the field.
Men who had been fighting us were needed elsewhere.
Around Plancenoit, fierce combat began.
I could see little beyond smoke and distance.
Yet we heard the result through messengers.
“Prussians in the village.”
“French pushed them out.”
“They’re back.”
“Guard sent there.”
Again, fragments.
Mercer shook his head.
“Imagine being Napoleon.”
“I would rather not.”
He glanced at me.
“Wise.”
The wounded kept coming.
William had disappeared into the line again.
Edward remained alive, though pale.
I carried water until my arms ached.
Toward evening the light changed.
Sunlight broke beneath clouds.
The battlefield turned gold.
That was almost unbearable.
The most terrible place I had ever seen became beautiful for ten minutes.
Smoke glowed orange.
Metal flashed.
Fields shone.
I hated the sunset.
Across the valley, French formations shifted again.
Something was happening near Napoleon’s center.
Officers around us began speaking one phrase.
“The Guard.”
The Imperial Guard.
Napoleon’s veterans.
His final reserve.
Men whispered their name as though saying it too loudly might summon them faster.
William appeared.
He was breathing hard.
“They say Guard’s coming.”
“I heard.”
He checked his musket.
His hands shook.
“Thomas.”
“Yes?”
“If they break us—”
“No unfinished sentences.”
He looked at me.
Then smiled.
“Fair.”
He returned to the line.
May you like
The sun lowered.
The Imperial Guard advanced.
