Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

FIRST NEWS OF WATERLOO. 47
when ready, please write me. They have just published a very
pretty poem, ' Triermain,' which Jeffrey talks of in the highest
terms, and is to review in the next number of the ' Edinburgh.'
I have sent you 20 copies by yesterday's smack, and enclosed
12 ' Widow's Lodgings,' a novel which they have also just pub-
lished. I have not been able to hear who he [the author] is,
nor yet who is the author of ' Triermain.' . . .
you may be sure, is not written by Mr Terry.
' Triermain,'
The occasional item of news which occurs from time
to time in these letters sometimes throws a curious
contemporary light upon a well-known event. Here
is the first intimation of the battle of Waterloo.
There is a solemnity in the tone of the announcement
which must have made the reader fear a great dis-
aster instead of the extraordinary triumph which
changed the whole course of modern history. The
letter is dated June 21, 1815 :
I sent you yesterday the ' Courier,' and have ordered another,
that you may learn more satisfactory particulars of the dread-
ful event than have yet been published by Government, or
(perhaps) received by them. I very much fear the truth to be
that both "Wellington and Blucher were surprised, and that it
was a desperate battle, falling chiefly upon the British, and
that it [here words omitted, " ended well "] only by Bonaparte's
not effecting his too well-designed attack. We have lost onefourth
at least of our army— perhaps one-third of our very best
troops. We ought not to conclude, however, without authentic
despatches, and we shall certainly be more vigilant hereafter.
It is an awful moment.
In the biography of the Murrays, we are informed
that Blackwood ran all over Edinburgh with this
wonderful news ; but the way in which it is stated
would scarcely justify any such outburst of delight.
A great controversy, scarcely silenced even now, arose
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