Conscious that they were about to die, they shouted, “ Vive l’Empereur! ” History records nothing more touching than that agony bursting forth in acclamations.

The sky had been overcast all day long. All of a sudden, at that very moment⁠—it was eight o’clock in the evening⁠—the clouds on the horizon parted, and allowed the grand and sinister glow of the setting sun to pass through, athwart the elms on the Nivelles road. They had seen it rise at Austerlitz.