The battle began at about eleven-thirty on a Sunday morning in June 1815. By nine o'clock that night, forty thousand men lay dead or wounded among the Belgian cornfields, and Napoleon had abandoned his army and all hope of recovering his empire. This is the story of the men who were there. From their recollections, the author has recreated the battle as it appeared to them on the day it was fought. The author follows the fortunes of men of all ranks on both sides: the Duke, who had picked his ground and faultlessly led what he called an infamous army; Sir William De Lancey, his quartermaster-general; Sergeant Morris and Private Clay; and the gallant old Marshall Blucher, who saw to it that his Prussians arrived in the nick of time.