The Battle of Waterloo was indeed, as Wellington stated after the battle, "a close-run thing".  But even he, so close to the events of that fateful day, could not know just how close.  How, with a few throws of the dice of happenstance Napoleon could have ended the victor.  Had he done so how would Europe have looked thereafter?  What were these chances during, and just before the battle that swayed the outcome so decisively?