To show the connection which this disposition would have secured with NAPOLEON's movements, it is only necessary to state, that the Third Cavalry Division, under Lieutenant General DOMON, had been detached from the Emperor's Column to reconnoitre the country between the Dyle and the high road to Brussels; and that the 4th Regiment of _Chasseurs à Cheval_ pushed as far as the Bridge of Moustier, on which line its Skirmishers exchanged a few carabine shots with some Prussian Dragoons, who did not, however, appear willing to engage further with them. It was by means of this reconnaissance that NAPOLEON ascertained the retreat, through Tilly and Gentinnes, of the principal Prussian Column, consisting of ZIETEN's and PIRCH's Corps, although the line by which they retired was undiscovered by GROUCHY, in whose immediate sphere of operations it was situated.
But if such good grounds exist for inferring that, on the 17th, an earlier and a clearer insight into the Enemy's movements might have been obtained by the Corps detached in pursuit of the Prussians, and that when obtained, it would have rendered the communication with the operations of the main Army on the left of the Dyle, a matter not only important in the highest degree, but also perfectly practicable; and if a failure in this respect be attributable to the absence of sufficient energy and vigour on the part of GROUCHY, how much more forcibly does it not expose the extraordinary, the unaccountable, dilatoriness of NAPOLEON himself during the whole of the precious morning of the 17th! How striking a view it unfolds of what might have been accomplished, had the bivouac at Ligny been broken up a few hours earlier! Then, WELLINGTON's Army was still between Quatre Bras and the narrow Defile of Genappe, open to an attack in front by NEY, simultaneously with one in flank by the force collected at Marbais (a part of which might have been detached across the Genappe, towards the rear of the Anglo-Allied Army, by Villers la Ville and Bousseval, masked by the Wood of Berme); and the rearmost Corps of the Prussian Army (THIELEMANN's), which was retreating through Gembloux, might have been attacked with effect, by the superior force of all Arms under GROUCHY.