Blucher kicked over the Italian-style carved chair with his foot and grabbed the collar of the messenger, his voice sharp as he demanded, "What on earth happened? How many Frenchmen came?"
"Roughly, probably over 10,000…" the other said with a lowered head, trembling, "Their infantry line only launched one attack and broke through the Dutch defense line."
"10,000 men?" Blucher's hand loosened, releasing the messenger, but he shook his head incessantly.
Even if the estimate of the enemy's size was off, but 5,000 from the Netherlands Army, along with the cavalry and artillery I sent, totalled nearly 7,000 men blocking near that mountain pass.
With a defense line already set up in advance, it should have been no problem to hold back the 10,000 French Army for the whole day.
Yet now, they had only held on for a little over an hour!
Was the Duke of Brunswick's assessment of the South Netherlanders' combat prowess wrong? Were those fellows actually just good-for-nothing weaklings...