WATERLOO DAYS;
THE NARRATIVE OF AN ENGLISHWOMAN
RESIDENT AT BRUSSELS IN JUNE, 1815.
BY
CHARLOTTE A. EATON,
AUTHOR OF "ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,"
"AT HOME AND ABROAD,"
ETC.
NEW EDITION.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX
By EDWARD BELL, M.A.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
1888.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
INTRODUCTION.[1]
The following little book which was first published within two yearsof the events which it describes, was republished in 1852, after somerevision by the author, under the title of "The Days of Battle." It hasnow been out of print for a considerable time, but its merits as a verygraphic and interesting description of those few momentous days whichhave left their mark on English literature no less than on the historyof Europe, are sufficient, it is believed, to justify its republicationin a popular series.
Though it was first published anonymously as a "Narrative of a fewdays' Residence in Belgium with some account of a visit to the field ofWaterloo, by an Englishwoman," it has so much personal interest thatthe reader will, doubtless, be glad to know something of its author,more especially as she is favourably known by other works, and withother members of her family has claims upon the memory of a youngergeneration.
Miss Charlotte Anne Waldie, the lady in question, was born 28September, 1788, and was the second of three daughters[Pg vi] of GeorgeWaldie, Esq., of Hendersyde Park, near Kelso, Roxburghshire, and ForthHouse, Newcastle-on-Tyne. There were also two sons, one of whom ismentioned in the following pages, but they both died without issue.The eldest daughter, Maria Jane, married in 1812 Mr. Richard Griffith,the distinguished civil engineer, who was appointed by Government solecommissioner for the general valuation of Ireland, and was the authorof the famous geological map of that country. After more than fortyyears of arduous public service, during a large part of which he wasPresident of the Board of Works in Ireland, he was created a baronet;and his son, Sir George R. Waldie-Griffith, inherited Mr. Waldie'sestates.
The youngest of the three sisters, Jane, was an accomplished painter,and her pictures are to be met with in many institutions in the northof England. She also had considerable literary talent, and wrote a workentitled "Sketches descriptive of Italy," which was published in fourvolumes in 1820. She married Captain, afterwards Admiral, Watts, ofLangton Grange, near Staindrop, Darlington, but unfortunately died inearly life.
Charlotte, the sister with whom we are chiefly concerned, accompaniedher brother and younger sister, as is hereafter related, on a visit toBrussels, in June, 1815, when it had temporarily and hastily become theheadquarters of the army under Wellington. The allied forces, as everyone supposed, were to meet and crush Napoleon, who had just returnedfrom Elba, before he had time to take the offensive. But his movementswere more rapid than had been anticipated, and the Belgian capital,crowded with non-combatants of both sexes, instead of bein