Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington, door Sir Thomas Lawrence (1814).
“Wellington’s comment as he surveyed the heaps of dead [at La Belliance on 18 June 1815 at about 9 p.m.] is well known: that next to a battle lost the saddest thing he knew was a battle won. The day after the battle he wrote: ‘It was the most desperate business I was ever in: I never took so much trouble about any battle, and never was so near being beat. Our loss is immense, particularly the best of all instruments, the British infantry. I never saw the infantry behave so well.'” [During the three days of the Battle of Waterloo – 16,17 and 18 June 1815 – the Allies had lost 55,000 against 60,000 of the French: dead, wounded, missing and prisoners. The British casualtie were 15,000, including more than 50 % of the officers.] (F. MacLynn, Napoleon [London 1998], p. 626-627)