ILLUSTRATIONS. Two large Panoramic Views of the Field, drawn immediately after the battle. A View of the present State of the Field of Waterloo, with the Monuments. No. Page 1. "The Duke of Wellington having shown the Duke of Brunswick a letter changed his horse, and they set off together" 68 2. BATTLE OF LIGNY. "It was here a contest began, the most obstinate recorded in History" 321 3. BATTLE OF LIGNY. "Marshal Blücher, stunned by the violent fall, lay entangled under his horse" 322 6. BATTLE OF QUATRE BRAS. Lieut.-Col. Macara of the 42d Regiment 7. BATTLE OF QUATRE BRAS. 71st Regiment. "The piper suddenly struck up the Pibroch,' and followed into the thickest of the fight" 8. BATTLE OF QUATRE BRAS. "Fall of the Duke of Brunswick" 9. GUARDS' OFFICERS. "The last tribute to the brave" 10. “MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY charging on the 17th of June, at the entrance into Genappe" . 11. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND HIS STAFF at the commencement of the action on the 18th of June 59 "The 203 52 13. HOUGOMONT. "The Artillery officers had the range so accurately, that every shot and shell fell into the very centre of their masses" 14. "The Duke led on a Brigade, consisting of the 52d and 95th Regiments" 152 35 16. WATERLOO, 2 P.M. "Left of the British line. Charge of the Royals, Greys, and Inniskillings, conducted by the Marquis of Anglesey and Sir W. Ponsonby. The body of Gen. Picton, who fell leading on the infantry, is borne from the field. The village of Frichermont in the distance 29 18. Major-Gen. Sir W. Ponsonby's Brigade charging. "The Greys preserved a beautiful line at speed. After considerable resistance, the Eagles of the 45th and 105th Regiments were seized" 19. The fall of Major-Gen. Sir W. Ponsonby, K.C.B. 20. "French Cuirassiers advanced to the mouth of our cannon, &c. Three o'clock" 21. Singular gallantry of an Officer of the Imperial Guards 185 186 35 42 22. The Hon. Lieut.-Col. Ponsonby, 12th Dragoons. "Ah, Brigand, tu n'es pas mort done!" . 210 23. Lieut.-GENERAL SIR T. PICTON fell in the thickest of the fight 57 18 190 41 43 24. The Greys and 92d cheered and huzzaed "Scotland for ever!" 25. Corporal Shaw of the Life Guards . 26. Sergeant Taylor, 18th Hussars and French Cuirassiers," Ha! ha!" &c. 27. BRUNSWICKERS SALAMANDERS. Cuirassiers repulsed by a square of Brunswickers 28. Up, Guards, and at them!" "Drive them back, 13th!" 29. GENERAL LORD HILL AND 13TH. 31. WATERLOO, 8 P.M. Centre of the British line. The Marquis of Anglesey, on the general advance, directing the Brigades of Cavalry on the right of La Haye Sainte. La Belle Alliance, the road to Charleroi, and the spires of Planchenoit in the distance 32. "Now EVERY MAN MUST ADVANCE!" 33. "It was at LA BELLE ALLIANCE, pierced through and through, they accidentally met" 34. The retreat at Genappe. "The Duke fell yesterday, and thou shalt also bite the dust" A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE CHIEF EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G. ETC. ETC. ETC. ARTHUR WELLESLEY (or, as formerly written, Wesley), the fourth son of Garrett Colley Wellesley, Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley in the peerage of Ireland, by his wife Anne Hill, eldest daughter of Arthur Viscount Dungannon, was born, according to some accounts, at the seat of his ancestors, Dangan Castle, county Meath, but most probably in Merrion Street, Dublin, on the 1st May, 1769.* His father died in May 1781, * The question of the real birth-day of the Duke would appear settled by the testimony of his mother, as shown by the following letter, communicated to the "Times" of September 21, 1852:— "Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, April 6, 1815. "SIR,-In answer to your inquiry respecting my son, the Duke of Wellington, I inform you that he was born on the 1st of May, 1769. I am much flattered by your intention of celebrating his birth-day; the good-wishes and prayers of worthy, respectable persons, I trust, will continue to my son the good fortune and success that it has hitherto pleased the Almighty to grant him in the service of his king and country. * * * "ANNE MORNINGTON." "To Mr. Jas. Cuthbertson, "Seaton Mains by Tranent." The place of His Grace's birth may be also ascertained by referring to the following paragraph from the "Dublin Mercury" of May 2, 1769, among the births :"In Merrion Street, the Right Hon. the Countess of Mornington of a son." The only incongruity arises from the fact that in the Registry of Baptisms in St. Peter's Church, Dublin, the entry runs thus:-" 1769, April 30, Arthur, son of the Right Hon. Earl and Countess of Mornington.-J. J. M'SOLLY, Curate of St. Peter's." This was probably a clerical error; no doubt the Duke was christened May 30. b leaving a numerous family and an embarrassed estate; but he left also an amiable widow, to whose wise economy and personal instruction her children have been deeply indebted, and who lived long to witness the extraordinary glory which attended them.* By the death of his father in 1781, the control of his education was entrusted to his mother, who placed him at Eton. He was afterwards transferred to the Military College of Angiers, in the department of the Maine and Loire, under the direction of the celebrated engineer Pignerol, where he finished his military education in a manner creditable to his perseverance, but exhibiting at that time no marked superiority, such as might in after years have been looked back to as indicative of future fame. On the 7th of March, 1787, he received his first commission as Ensign in the 73d Regiment, and on the 25th of December following he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the 76th; in January, 1788, he exchanged into the 41st Regiment; and in 1789, on the 25th of June, was appointed to the 12th Light Dragoons; he received a company in the 58th Foot on the 20th September, 1791, but in October, 1792, again exchanged to the 18th Light Dragoons: he obtained his majority in the 33d Regiment in April, 1793, and succeeded to the Lieutenant-colonelcy of that regiment on the 30th of September following. In 1764 he was employed under Lord Moira in Flanders, and was noticed for the coolness with which he, under considerable difficulties, aided in covering the retreat of the army. It was near the village of Schyudel that he for the first time found himself engaged with that army which, in after years, he so successfully and finally discomfited. In the autumn of 1795 he embarked with the 33d Regiment, under orders for the West Indies; but after five weeks' ineffectual attempts to get out to sea, the squadron was obliged to return to Portsmouth to refit. Meanwhile the destination of the 33d was changed, and in April, 1796, Colonel Wellesley sailed for the East Indies. The career of Wellington may now be said to have fairly commenced. Previously, all had been educational. He had passed successively Eton, Angiers, and the Dykes of Holland, not as *The Countess died in September 1831, aged 90. disjointed or separate efforts of education, but as a continuous passing forward of life, from the schoolboy to the cadet, and from the cadet, by rapid series of promotions, to a command which enabled him to exhibit his individual merit, and which caused him to look to himself only for aid in moments of danger and difficulty, -thus by experience learning that most necessary virtue in a commander, decision of character. He had passed also unscathed the ordeal of pecuniary difficulties, having been aide-de-camp in the household of the Earl of Westmoreland, viceroy of Ireland; and the appointment necessitating a display to which his means were inadequate, he found himself embarrassed with debts, which the kindness of his landlord, a wealthy bootmaker of Dublin, alone enabled him to arrange; the assistance, timely and generous as it was, did not, as too often unfortunately is the case, remain unnoticed or forgotten. The young aide-de-camp was enabled in a few years, not only to repay the loan, but lived to confer valuable appointments on his humble friend and his family. Thus he had learned worldly wisdom, a lesson he never forgot in after life. India, at the period Colonel Wellesley first landed on its shores, was but a shadow of that colossal and powerful dependency which now adds its lustre to the British crown; our empire in the East was held by the sword. French influence, which, although it had diminished, was still powerful; and that power was systematically employed against England. The wars from the time of Clive to Cornwallis had gloriously upheld the dignity of the English crown, and the prestige of our invincibility was beginning to dawn upon the minds of our Asiatic competitors. Still the fame of Hyder, and the skill and impetuosity of his son Tippoo, had rendered the tenure of our power in the East entirely dependent on our maintaining our military supremacy: a single battle lost would have united those semi-barbaric rulers in one vast league against our dominion, and those who now held aloof, or whose mutual jealousies and animosities had been our greatest security, would probably, for the time, have united their efforts to expel the common foe. Colonel Wellesley arrived at Calcutta in February 1797, under the most auspicious aspects. His elder brother, the Earl of Mornington, had been appointed Governorgeneral of India, and arrived at Calcutta on the 17th of May fol |