about eight o'clock in the evening
There was a rumor a few minutes afterward that General Le Tort had been killed by a ball in the abdomen , very near the place where in his youth he had watched and tended the cattle of a farmer . What strange things happen in life ! The general had fought all over Europe , since he was twenty years old , but death waited for him here ! It was about eight o'clock in the evening , and we were expecting to remain at Chatelet until our three divisions had crossed . An old bald peasant , in a blue blouse and a cotton cap and as lean as a goat , came into camp and told Captain Grégoire that on the side of the beech wood in a hollow , lay the village of Fleurus , and to the right of this , the little village of Lambusart ; that the Prussians had been stationed in these towns more than three weeks , and that more of them had arrived the night before , and the night before that . He told us also that there was a broad road , bordered with trees , running two good leagues along our left ; that the Belgians and Hanoverians had posts at Gosselies and at Quatre-Bras ; that it was the high-road to Brussels , where the English and Hanoverians and Belgians had all their forces ; while the Prussians , four or five leagues at our right , occupied the route to Namur , and that between them and the English , there was a good road running from the plateau of Quatre-Bras to the plateau of Ligny in the rear of Fleurus , over which their couriers went and came from morning till night , so that the Prussians and English were in perfect communication , and could support each other with men , guns , and supplies when necessary . Naturally enough I thought at once , that the first thing to be done was to get possession of this road and so cut off their communication ; and I was not the only one who thought so ; but we said nothing for fear of interrupting the old man .