Actors taking part in a re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo on the historic battlefield itself in 2014 take a well-earned break in one of the tents. Before the battle, Wellington stayed in Waterloo itself, but afterwards met up with his Prussian ally General Blücher. “When all was over, Blucher and I met at La Maison Rouge” he recalled. “We supped afterwards together between night and morning, in a spacious tent erected in the valley for that purpose.”
BUT still more interesting to us was the house where the Duke of Wellington took up his quarters before the battle; and that interest, we are not ashamed to say, was created not so much by the great commander, as the commander’s cook.*
During the battle, as, from hour to hour, thousands on thousands of fugitives poured along towards Brussels, or at least towards the Forest of Soigne,* crying that all was lost — the English beaten — the French victorious, and coming — the incredulous cook continued unmoved his preparations for his master’s dinner. “Fly!” cried one after another, “the French are coming, and you will be killed!”
But the imperturbable cook, strong in his faith of invariable victory, only replied “I have served master while he has fought a hundred battles, and he never yet failed to come to his dinner.” And he cooked on, spite of flying thousands of “brave Belges” and Hanoverians; and the Duke came through, though rather late!
On the battle itself, see The Battle of Waterloo, and for Dickens’s view of the battlefield guides, Serjeant Munday.
The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood (in Dutch, Zoniënwoud, and in French, Forêt de Soignes) is a forest covering almost 11,000 acres (approx. 17 square miles) just to the southeast of Brussels in Belgium. It is about two fifths of the size of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire (approx. 42 square miles).
Précis
Charles Dickens recorded a visit to the battlefield of Waterloo, made in 1851, during which the guides told how the Duke of Wellington’s cook had refused to flee despite continual reports of impending disaster. He said the Duke had never failed yet to come back home for dinner, and once again the chef’s honest faith was justified. (56 / 60 words)
