In his highly detailed letter of the 31st May 1841, Count Willem van Bijlandt recollected the actions of his brigade during the Battle of Waterloo and the attack by Comte d’Erlon’s 1st Corps during the early afternoon: ‘At this time I personally received the order from the Prince of Orange to move forward and to attack with the bayonet without giving the enemy time to deploy. A Scottish Brigade which was placed in rear of my position followed the movement and arrived almost at the same time upon the enemy. The confusion was great, the mêlée horrific, and it was in this confusion that I received a bayonet thrust in my thigh; my wound was such that, to my great regret, I could not see the conclusion of the battle. The English cavalry protected our movements, turned two closed enemy columns and took twelve to fifteen hundred prisoners.’ It should be noted that the extraordinary contents of this file are also available within the new on-line archive. 

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