From the publishers:
In July 1815, just six weeks after the Battle of Waterloo, Sir Walter Scott set out for Flanders to visit the battlefield. He paid for the trip by writing Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, a series of letters written by ‘Paul’ to various members of his fictitious family. This ebook is a selection of those letters, in particular the letters that provide a journalistic account of events leading up to the Battle of Waterloo, the battle itself, and its aftermath.
Scott had the benefit of meeting several participants in the battle who gave him eye-witness accounts, including at least one conversation with the Duke of Wellington himself. As a result the letters give a vivid and authentic picture of the battle, capturing the ferocity of the fighting, the ebb and flow of the action, and the final rout and flight of the French. All the while the figure of Wellington is prominent: “During this scene of tumult and carnage, the Duke of Wellington exposed his person with a freedom which, while the position of the armies and the natures of the ground rendered it inevitably necessary, made all around him tremble for that life on which it was obvious that the fate of the battle depended.”
Written in the characteristic style of the world-renowned poet and novelist, these letters are essential reading for Scott fans and for anyone interested in the Battle of Waterloo.