"
But although O'Connor did not know it, the duke had by this time
received news indicating that the attack upon the Prussian outpost was
the beginning of a great movement, and that the whole French army were
pressing forward by the road where the Prussian and British army
joined hands.
At daybreak the French had advanced in three columns--the right upon
Chatelet, five miles below Charleroi, on the Sambre; the center on
Charleroi itself; the left on Marchienne. Zieten, who was in command
of the Prussian corps d'armee, defended the bridges at these three
points stoutly, and then contested every foot of the ground, his
cavalry making frequent charges; so that at the end of the day the
French had only advanced five miles. This stout resistance enabled
Blucher to bring up two out of his other three corps, Bulow, whose
corps was at Liege, forty miles away, receiving his orders too late to
march that day. The rest of the Prussian army concentrated round the
villages of Fleurs and Ligny.
Accordingly at ten o'clock in the evening orders were issued by
Wellington for the third division to march at once from
Braine-le-Comte to Nivelles, for the first to move from Enghien to
Braine-le-Comte, and for the second and fourth divisions to march from
Ath and Grammont on Enghien. No fresh orders were issued to the troops
round Brussels; and although it was known at the ball that the troops
were in readiness to march at a moment's notice, there were none
except the generals and a few members of the staff who had an idea
that the moment was so near at hand.
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