XLIV. be expected from abroad. Of all the sovereigns that CHAP. Napoleon had elevated, Bernadotte and Murat alone remained. Both had been opposed to him in the previous campaign. The Swede, of course, would be still SO. But Murat had felt himself ill-treated by the allies. The English would not add their sanction to his recognition by Austria, nor could Austria itself keep its promise. Murat, therefore, on learning Napoleon's resuscitation and return, marched to support him, and win for himself the crown of Italy. He advanced to the Po, hesitated to cross it, and at the first reverse retreated. Followed by the Austrians, he was defeated at Tolentino, and instead of bringing an army to the support of Napoleon, came merely himself as a discomfited fugitive. In the allies there was no hope. The Emperor of Austria found no difficulty in persuading his daughter to prefer the Duchy of Parma for herself to the chance of resuming the imperial throne of France. She refused to return to Napoleon, who stole an hour from his many cares and occupations to visit with Hortense his old abode of Malmaison. Josephine had expired there the previous year, and Napoleon found but the melancholy remembrance of past happiness. "Josephine at least would not have abandoned me," was his sad reflection. The French population, with the exception of the military class, treated him much as Maria Louisa had done. Instead of the million of votes which had hailed his election to the empire, scarcely as many thousands gave their voices for the Additional Act, which meant the continuance of the empire. The same lukewarmness and abstention was observable in the election of the chamber representatives. Had Napoleon ordained a new and direct election from Lyons, when he dissolved the old chambers, he might have profited by his ascendency and the enthusiasm of the moment. But he delayed till his constitution had been concocted, and then it preserved the old electoral colleges or electoral XLIV. CHAP. body, consisting exclusively of notables, the class least open to enthusiasm and most dominated by fears and by interest. He tried to modify the influence of the landed proprietor, so imbued with royalism, by ordering that special members should be chosen to represent commerce and manufactures. He also made large use of the permission to include members of the Legion of Honour in the colleges. Notwithstanding, the new chamber as well as the electoral body were precisely of that class least inclined to show zeal or make sacri fices for any cause or any emperor. The attendance in the Champ de Mars, which took place on the 1st of June, thus brought together anything but a popular assembly. Napoleon, indeed, did not intend it for such. He proceeded to open and preside over it in the white satin garments of imperial state. He had better have donned the old cocked hat and grey surtout. So accoutred, he would have commanded with far more effect the applause of the people and the soldiers. It was followed by a distribution of eagles. The chambers met on the 3rd. Instead of electing Lucien Buonaparte president, as the Emperor desired, they seemed to wish to protest against the conduct of that person on the 18th Brumaire, and in his place chose Lanjuinais president, who was best known as a leader of opposition in the senate. They also disputed at some length the form of the oath of fidelity to the Emperor. That Napoleon had nothing to hope from such chambers was manifest. The Emperor, however, opened them in a speech of cordiality and confidence. Scarcely awaiting their answer, he appointed a provisional government in his absence, being his ministers, Fouché, Carnot, Cambacères, and Caulaincourt, with some councillors of state added. Caulaincourt preferred joining the army. Napoleon dissuaded him, saying, "If you go, I shall not have left one sure friend behind me." His parting words to Fouché were, "Remember, if I fall, there is an end of either patriots or republicans. I am your last dictator." With these prophetic words, Napoleon left for the army on the 12th of June. Of the 150,000 men that the Emperor counted on mustering to fall upon the English and Prussians, the remainder of his forces being necessarily scattered along his eastern and southern frontiers, under different generals, to keep head against the enemy, he was obliged to detach 20,000 to suppress a rising in La Vendée. Fouché partially quieted the Royalists of that region by representing that the struggle would soon be decided on the field of Flanders, and that the blood spilt on the Loire would then be in vain. All the chiefs listened to him save the Marquis de la Rochejacquelein, who with more courage than skill rushed to an encounter with the opposing force, and fell in the action. The English student eager for details of the campaign of Waterloo will find it described at length in his own country's memoirs and historians. Here he will find but a succinct account, much as that given of the Peninsular war, both of them told fully in English annals. Napoleon, whose army lay scattered along the northern frontier, concentrated his forces secretly at Maubeuge. Wellington had disposed his 90,000 men, of whom one half were English, between Brussels and the frontier, some at Tournay, some at Nivelles. Blücher's 110,000 men were similarly dispersed between Cambray and Namur. To get between them, and beat one after the other, was Napoleon's design, a happy one if he could inflict a total defeat on either of his enemies, but dangerous if he only succeeded in repelling one; for, as the Prussian and English forces were each almost equal to him, any failure or incompleteness of success on his part would expose his army to be crushed between those of his enemies. The latter is precisely what happened. On the 15th of June, the French army crossed the frontier, and afterwards the Sambre, driving the enemy CHAP. XLIV. СНАР. from Charleroi, and came on the 16th in front of the greater part of the Prussian army, some 100,000 strong, drawn up on the rising ground of Ligny. The French were inferior in number, 40,000 of them having marched with Ney in the direct road to Brussels to prevent the English coming to the aid of Blücher. Napoleon commanded Ney to take possession of the cross-roads at Quatre-Bras. The marshal's orders were not only to do this, but to despatch a large part of his force to fall on the rear of the Prussians, whilst Napoleon should be engaged with them. French writers, notably M. Thiers, characterise this order as an emanation of genius. Now the device of attacking an enemy in front, and sending a division round to attack him in flank and rear, is one of the most obvious of manoeuvres, requiring, we should say, no particle of genius. If there were genius, it was on both sides, for Blücher besought the Duke of Wellington to do precisely the same thing by the French. Ney and Wellington were both too much pressed to do either. Ney did detach D'Erlon's corps to execute the desired manœuvre, but was obliged to recall it in his distress. The British repelled all the attempts of Ney to establish himself at Quatre-Bras, but the Prussians were driven from the field of Ligny. A seasonable and well-directed charge of the French guards broke through Blücher's centre, and drove him in some disorder, but not in rout, from the field. Napoleon then joined Ney in pursuit of the English, who, learning the defeat of Blücher, retired on the 17th from Quatre-Bras to take position before Waterloo, some four or five leagues distant from Wavre, to which spot Blücher had withdrawn. Napoleon had despatched Grouchy with 34,000 men to pursue, harass, and prevent him from coming to the succour of the English. Grouchy's corps, however, not one-half the Prussian, was very insufficient for this purpose, which, no doubt, chiefly caused the delays and hesitations of the CHAP. general. On the morning of the 18th, Napoleon marshalled his 75,000 men, all veteran French soldiers, in front of the Duke of Wellington's army, numbering some 70,000, one-half of whom alone were English, and of these a great portion were under fire for the first time. The veterans of the Peninsula were in America. There were some 20,000 Belgians, belonging to a country so lately constituted that it is no reproach to its soldiers that they were neither zealous nor staunch. Napoleon did not give the signal for attack till half-past eleven, waiting, according to some, for the ground to dry after a heavy night's rain-according to others, giving time for Grouchy to join him. Pressing orders had been despatched to the marshal. The first efforts of the French were directed to drive the English from the château of Hougoumont and the farm of La-Haye-Sainte. The obstinate resistance of the English preventing their enemies from clearing away these obstacles, Napoleon resolved notwithstanding to direct the mass of his infantry upon the English left. It was to mount the height, and establish its position there in face of the enemy. The French ascended the hill in three columns, and, gaining its crest, were deploying under a heavy fire, when the Scots Greys and other regiments of English heavy cavalry charged them, broke through and so thoroughly disorganised them that in little more than an hour's time the French fell back into the vale below. Such was the fortune of the first French attack. Ere a second could be organised, the Prussian columns were seen advancing in the distance, and the Emperor was obliged to detach a large body of infantry, especially the guards under Lobau, to prevent the threatened irruption. He ordered Ney, however, to carry the farm of La-Haye-Sainte, and await there with his cavalry, until Lobau had first repelled the Prussians, when the foot guards should be sent to his succour, and foot and XLIV. |