Note 75 — Chapter IV · THE FIFTEENTH OF JUNE.—NAPOLEON.

Doc. Inéd., p. 4, statement of Colonel Heymès. The hour given by Heymès, seven o’clock, is much too late. We can fix the time of this conversation from a statement of Marshal Grouchy’s. That officer (Observations, p. 61) tells us that on going to Charleroi to take his orders from the Emperor just before the attack on Gilly, he found him giving instructions to Ney. The attack on Gilly was ordered, as we have seen above, at five o’clock, so that Ney must have joined the Emperor some time before five, and probably reached Reille about half or three-quarters of an hour later. Cf. Van Loben Sels, p. 140.