Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/290

252 {|
 * || | Mont || ||
 * || | St. Jean || ||
 * || | Haye || || | Papelotte
 * || | Sainte || ||
 * colspan=2 | Hougomont || ||
 * || | Belle || ||
 * || | Alliance || ||
 * colspan=3 |  || | Plancenoit
 * }
 * || | Belle || ||
 * || | Alliance || ||
 * colspan=3 |  || | Plancenoit
 * }
 * colspan=3 |  || | Plancenoit
 * }
 * }

The allied army with its centre Mont St. Jean held three advanced posts, if I may so call them. The Chateau of Hougomont which with its massive buildings and gardens and plantations formed an excellent little fort was held by the English. I saw its ancient walls riddled with bullets, and still bearing marks of the eventful day. And inside it I saw the chapel where a fire broke out and was happily extinguished, and the well in which hundreds of dead bodies were buried after the battle. The loopholes too made by the English in the garden walls also exist to this day. The height of Haye Sainte was held by the Germans under Major Von Baring. Here I saw on the wall a tablet dedicated to the brave Germans who fell in defending this place. Papelotte etc. to the east were also held by the Germans under the Duke of Weimar.

The battle began at 11 and Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, precipitated himself against Hougomont Chateau which continued to be the scene of desperate fighting and of fearful slaughter all through