'The City of Brussels, from the entrance to the Foret de Signe', 1815

Aquatint by James Rouse, published by H Colburn, Conduit Street, London 1816.

Rouse's Waterloo prints were produced in conjunction with William Mudford's 'An Historical Account of the Campaign in the Netherlands, (London, 1817). It is highly likely that these views of the Waterloo battlefield were drawn on the spot.

Brussels was a centre for fashionable British travellers at the time of Napoleon's escape from the island of Elba. Many Allied officers attended a ball held by the Duchess of Richmond in the city on the 15 June 1815, the eve of the first major engagement of the campaign, at Quatre Bras. When the Duke of Wellington arrived and confirmed the rumours of the Emperor Napoleon's advance, many officers hurried away to prepare, while others remained, later leaving directly for the final clash at Waterloo on the 18 June 1815.