The wrapper had not touched the ground before he turned, waving the letter over his head as if it had been a sabre.
"Dismiss!" he cried.

"General parade and march in half-an-hour." Then in an instant all was buzz and bustle, and the news on every lip.
Napoleon had crossed the frontier the day before, had pushed the Prussians before him, and was already deep in the country to the east of us with a hundred and fifty thousand men.

Away we scuttled to gather our things together and have our breakfast, and in an hour we had marched off and left Ath and the Dender behind us for ever.

There was good need for haste, for the Prussians had sent no news to Wellington of what was doing, and though he had rushed from Brussels at the first whisper of it, like a good old mastiff from its kennel, it was hard to see how he could come up in time to help the Prussians.
It was a bright warm morning, and as the brigade tramped down the broad Belgian road the dust rolled up from it like the smoke of a battery.
I tell you that we blessed the man that planted the poplars along the sides, for their shadow was better than drink to us.

Over across the fields, both to the right and the left, were other roads, one quite close, and the other a mile or more from us.