MAJOR PERCY'S MISSION AFTER WATERLOO.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Everybody has a family tradition of what happened at the time of the battle of Waterloo. Mine is as follows :— General Sir Robert Wilson received a letter describing th,i total defeat of the allied Armies at the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras, and he was with his letter at White's ChM. The desire of all to hear it led them to put a chair on the top of a table and seat him in it, so that he might read it to all present. He had not gone very far in his afflicting com- munication when a disturbance was heard in the street, an I some of the audience, going out to learn the cause of it, saw the postchaise and four, with the Eagles hanging out of thi windows, containing Major Percy. I think it was goin4 either to Lord Castlereagh in St. James's Square or to Lord Bathurst's house (I presume after the Major had missed him at the Colonial Office). The club-room at White's was immediately emptied, and Sir Robert Wilson was left reading his letter without an audience. I may say that the original despatch was in my custody for a short period in 1m57, when I was Private Secretary at the War Office, while some altera- tions were being made in the numerous offices then being amalgamated.
The story of the Rothschilds receiving the good news before the Government, which has been told (and as far as I know, not contradicted), is as follows :—The Rothschild emissary, or one of them, instead of staying at head-quarters, was at Ghent, and merely watched what he saw upon the receipt of the intelligence brought by the courier who had just arrived. When he observed the whole Court of Louis XVIII. fall into one another's arms and give way to every visible expression of joy, he made off for Ostend at once, and getting on board a fast sailing-vessel awaiting him, he brought the news in the early morning to Rothschild, which Major Percy only confirmed about 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon. I think I am right in stating, that after Rothschild had used the information in. the City, he communicated the fact that the news was good, and not bad, to Lord Liverpool by 2 o'clock on the same day. Lord Bathurst then was, as Sir Henry Ponsonby states in the Spectator of January 6th, waiting for the despatch, but I believe with the knowledge that it would probably be satis factory.—I am, Sir, &c., 15 St. James's Place, January 6th. II. R. GRENFELL.
Previous page
