AN EYE-WITNESS of WATERLOO

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 205, 27 August 1904, Page 11

AN EYE-WITNESS of WATERLOO

There is still living at the little vil.pge of Chapclle. within eyeshot of the iueeti_~placc of Wellington aud Blucher, a peasant woman, aged 10: i. who as .-i girl of _:. saw some of the fighting at Waterloo. A representative of the Paris "Patrie" recently visited her al lhe home which shr. shares with her two sons, aged SO ami 7S. Describing her recollections of the -roat events that occurred on Jim,. _s, <m) years ago, she saitl: — "As a little girl, slirrod and fascinated by the loug lines of horsemen, guns, aud tired foot regiments passing our cottage, I stood ai our door and .served out water tn, tbe beaux soldats. Afterwards I followed them to Waterloo. In ihe. evening we heard the booming of -rear r_ u _o_. and from the windows I could see the clouds «.f smoke rising into the air like trees, l was in the mill, anil Ihe windows rattled. All night lone we heard ihe tramp of silent men ami the creaking, stumbling guns passing onr doors. When ] looked out next morning J saw wounded h.«-_ lying by the roadside. In the distance I could hear a sound like a rough sea brcakiug against the rocks. There were eloud_ of smoke, ami 1 saw men galloping, and masses of brave soldiers u-oviug burri-dlv across the fields. "Then the doctors came and took on) the bullets from the wounds of the soldiers. The Prussians came by. and then the English, shonting their cries of victory. Not far away soldiers were digging trenches in. our fields to bury the dead. There wer^v io many of them, so many of them" and the old peasant covered her face with her bands as though to shut out the terrible* picture. "I saw one woman of (..otat-ville cut off the fingers of a Prussian officer, sorely hurt but still living, to secure the jewelled rings that he wore. At Planchenoit. 4t little further away, they tell inc. the brave French were so beaten dowu by bayonet charges that the river ran with. blood. Near the hill above a general was killed. ">"o. I ditl not see Napoleon, and I still regret it. Poor Napoleon! .... W« did not like the English or the Prussians. . . . . T_o nest day wo knew that -U_po_enn;s power was broken bji' tJ-IQ-linjesl _ ,___* _.e___-i_e «>.«(?Bls ai»j;Jß_;."' ' ~__\\