Note 39 — Chapter I

This was Dejean, a favourite aide-de-camp of Napoleon. As the evidence shows that the Emperor ordered D’Erlon to Ligny, so it indicates that he must have permitted D’Erlon to abandon his march, and to retrace his steps towards Quatre Bras when peremptorily ordered to do so by Ney. This, in the events which happened, was over-caution, for D’Erlon would have destroyed Blücher had he carried out Napoleon’s order, and Ney, hard pressed as he was at Quatre Bras, could have held his ground against Wellington without the aid of D’Erlon; and this, I conceive, is the reason that Napoleon’s commentaries on this most important subject are vague and unsatisfactory.