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cated to him the contents of despatches which announced the iuvasion of Belgium by Napoleon . -In an instant the news emulated through the hall-room : the music ceased , the dancers dispersed , and the ladies felt and trembled for those that were aear to them ; the princes and di plomatists fell into groups to exchange hastily their first impressions ; the officers retired alJd Wellington disappeared to send instantly to all the divisions the necessary instructions and orders U march » Wellington galloping to the advanced posts of his army was enabled , by help ot his telescope , from the summit of the Dlatean in the neighbourhood of Quatre-Bras to distinguish the masses of the French . He immediately said to his officers "We must stand or fall here to the'last man ! This is the knot of the war and the key of the position . " ated to Mm the contents of d utches which aanonn ^ ^
At Quatre-Bras the Duke of Brunswick fell « struck with that soldier s death of which he had expressed a presentiment while chatting the evening before witli the Duke of Wellington . " s The details of the struggle at Quatre-Bras we must pass over to hasten to the crowning at carnage Waterloo . THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE . " The Emperor left his bivouac on foot in the middle of the ni * ht accorapaniedonly by the marshal of his palace , Bertraud , an officer who had replaced Durocin his confidence and in his heart . He passed through his line of guards T he forest of Sojgnies in his front appeared one entire conflagration amidst the trees , from the multitude of bivouac fires of the English troops . There was no longer any d jubt as to the presence of Wellington's whole array on the morrow
The whole space between the skirts of the forest and the hamlets of Braisnela-Leud , Belle Alliance , and La Haie Sainte , was occupied by fires and bivouacs . The most profound silence reigned over the two armies and between them . The Emperor advanced as far as . the shelter of a thick shrubbery which served as an inelosure and a natural palisade to the castle of Hongouinont , a fortified advance post of the English army . It was then half-past two o ' clock in the morning While listening to the slightest noise , he heard the step of an enemy ' s column marching in the dark . He thought for a moment that Wellington was profiting by the night to raise his camp , and that this column was his rear guard , ascending from the plain towards the forest , to escape before day the pursuit of the French . The rain , which fell in torrents , drowned the noise of these footsteps in the dark . The Emperor could sot comprehend the nature of the noise he had heard , nor of the subsequent silence . Some officers whom he had sent
further forward to reconoitre , returned to tell him that nothing was stirring in the English army . At four o ' clock his scouts brought him a peasant who had served as a guide to a brigade of Wellington ' s array , marching to his post on the extreme left . Two Belgian deserters who had just quitted their regiment , repeated that nothing in the enemy ' s army indicated any intention to retreat . Day at length began to break , and the clouds were partly dispersed by the morning breeze that blew over the forest . " A few faint sunbeams played upon the brushwood and the waving corn—the last sun that was to be seen by so many thousands of men , sacrificed before the close of the day , not in the cause of humanity , but for the unbounded ambition of one man . "
Napoleon and his generals were full of exultation at the certainty of their victory and the annihilation of the English . The Emperor passed along the lines of his 80 , 000 devoted soldiers , everywhere bailed by cries of " Vive VEmpereur ! " l . Lamartine numbers thef English , exclusive of the allies , at 37 , 000 men ; but according to Siborne the effective strength of the Angloallied array that fought at Waterloo was 67 , 655 ; of these , only 23 , 991 -we'e British .. Throughout this work , Lamartine speaks in the hig hest terms of the obstinate valour and unyielding devotion of the British troops .
By a strange fatality , Napoleon allowed hour after hour to pass away without commencing the attack - Shortly before eleven o ' clock , the tirailleurs of both armies commenced a scattered fire . At eleven o ' clock the battle commenced in earnest . Four hundred pieces of cannon Tanged in line on both sides of the basin of Waterloo commenced vomiting death and destruction . " The thundering noise of these batteries rent and scattered the clouds which had hung until then upon the heights , and the summer sun shone then for a moment in the pure sky ; but the immense smoke of the cannonade rose up the hills and covered the valley , like a heavy mist torn by a hundred thousand flashes of lightning .
THE FIGHT FOR HOTJGOUMOXT . "In spite of tbe murderous fire of the English troops , who defended from tree to tree the wood which surrounded the castle , Jerome Bopaparte , Guilleminot , and Eeille carried this enclosure , which was strewn with dead bodies . But ou reaching the walls , the dykes , and the hedges , which served as so many defences to the castle , the French columns falliug fast , Tecoiled , hesitated , advanced , aud again recoiled under the grape shot of forty pieces of artillery , and the musketry of the battalions ensconced within the courtyards , in the gardens , and behind the walls . Keille reinforced his columns in proportion to the desperate resistance they experienced . Wellington galloping up , surrounded by his staff ,
to the extremity of the terrace which commands Hougoumont , encouraged by his presence and his gestures the intrepidity of his troops . He dispatched GeneralByng with a last brigade of the Guards , to mix in the action . A long terrible , and ° furious combat took place , with varying success , under the walls and in the orchards of Hougoumont . Seven times the French troops penetrated through the breach to the courtyard of the castle , and as often were they driven back with the bayonet , by the grenadiers of the Guards . At length the howitzers more destructive even than men , set fire to the great barn , the out-houses , stacks of corn and the timber work . The strong walls of the old castle resisted the fire , but the ' rebonnding of the flames , and the dense volumes of smoke which
enveloped it made its further occupation intolerable . No one could hope to return from it alive , The wounded officers and soldiers deposited in the barns perished there from suffocation , and nothing but the chapel escaped the fury of the raging element . This appearing to them a signal of divine protection , the troops regained fresh courage , and swore to hold out until death . Neither side was vanquished , nothing was victorious except the fire which devoured all . The English , unshaken upon the rising ground , which commands the castle , retired only out of the reach of the flames , and were merely separated from the enemy by the conflagration ! 2 , 500 men of both armies ^ found their death and their tomb under the burning fragments of the building . "
"The conflagration at Hougoumont had not slackened the action on that point , where Keille and his divisions , after having attacked , had to maintain their own position aud defend themselves in turn . The Seoteh regiments , dislodged from the castle , aud now strengthened by two fresh brigades , under cover of the English batteries , threatened to charge the battalions and turn their centre . Pour hundred pieces of cannon approaching each other at each discharge , ploughed with their shot and sheik the earth , the trees , the crops , and the combatants .
Every hillock every eminence in the ascent of both positions , attacked by turns , occupied one moment , cannonaded the next , became a scene of fresh carnage . Prostrate horses , exp loded shells , mutilated bodies of cavalry aud infantry strewed the soil , and drenched the plains with blood to the extent of a square league- but neither the flre , nor the steel , nor the death of so many brave men could make either array yield an inch of ground . The bodies of the English , French ,- and Scotch troops , fallen at their posts and keeping their ranks even after death still occupied ihe positions no longer held by living combatants . "
According to several authorities , six thousand men of both armies perished in the attack and defence of Hougoumont alone . Napoleon bad seen this frightful contest "with comparative indifterence . His serious thoughts were directed to an attack on Mount St . Jean , Wellington s centre , and the very heart of the struggle . He designated Marshal Key to lead this enterprise ; and the latter recovering all the energy of his oreatest days , galloped off to form his columns , and to storm the position indicated . A moment afterwards the emperor was disquieted by other thoughts . In the direction of the defiles of St . Lambert , he thought he could perceive the movement of a dark mass on the horizon . Was it a cloud ? a forest ? or an army ? Was it
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^ nZ ^^^^ * ^ **« ^ 1 S ^ k £ = 3 ££ E PruSs S ' anCe i WSS the adTanced S ™ <* 30 , 000 , Jf ; ? ° ' T f "S "P ° ae wttal of Grouchy , counted also K ? 5 «^ ^ == « S sS ^^ 11 ^ ° hti 0 n * *** ™ £ gton had fixef them » ° ' tmpaW ** ° n the sl ° Pes whereon he h * d trhf T l N ? ° minenced his at * onWdlLMton ' s . cea-J ^ ff ^ ^^ T ^* Belle Alliance > to storm L eminence oi Mount St . Jean . At the first shock ] % appeared irrem ible . General Picton fell dead into the arms of hisoldiers The
s Bei ge s retreated m disorder ; and the first English line gave way . Shouts of victory arose on tbe side of the French At this moment the pn-carriages of the French artillery of reserve under Ney ' s command , ordered to sustain the charge , sunk up to the axle-trees in mud . A terrible charge , executed by two regiments of English dragoons , carried this artillery , sabring the gunners , cutting < & traces , and overturning the guns . In their turn the dragoons were chafed by the I rench cuirassiers , and numbers were cut to pieces . SANGUINARY STRUGGLE—BONAPARTE IMAGINES HIMSELF VICTOR
Meanwlule Ney was advancing slowly , but constantly , with his columns of attack . " On reaching the palisaded entrenchments , he charged the Hanoverians who occupied them with Milhaud ' s cuirassiers , and his light cavalry , who routed the Hanoverians , and killed General Ompteda , who commanded them . Major-General Ponsonby , who had been sent to replace the Hanoverians with three regiments of dragoons , also fell beneath the deadly thrusts of a party of lancers Ney succeeded in reaching , under a canopy of flre , of shell and round shot , the topmost slope which led to the terrace of Mount-Saint-Jean . Here , as at the foot of the walls of a fortress , French and English , officers , soldiers , men and horses to
some endeavouring scramble up , others dashing them down again , all striking , were mingled together , under a continuous shower of balls from 200 pieces of English artillery ; firing into each others breasts , sabring , bayoneting , tearing each other , making of the dead bodies of men and horses , some a rampart and others bloody steps , to defend , or to escalade the glorious summit . Key , who saw amidst the smoke the first French uniforms at the brink of the plateau rushed forward to seize his victory , sending word at the same time to the Emperor , that one last effort of the reserve would give him the battle , and that the English , in confusion , were already sending off their field equipage to Brussels .
I have them , then , these English ! " cried the Emperor , with triumphant visage , voice , and gesture , in the midst of his staff ; his bosom at length relieved from a terrible load of anxiety . He remounted his horse , and galloped to the generals of the guard , whom he ordered to form their columns and fly to the support of ISey . ¦ . * * - * * * * * The slackened fire of the English artillery seemed , by these long intermissions , to indicate batteries silenced in succession by the sabres . of Ney ' s cuirassiers . Nearly all the Emperor ' s staff being sent off in different directions , bearers of the final orders to the reserves and the guard , Rossomme presented the aspect of a bivouac full of leisure and security , after the fatigues of a victory , in which the general has nothing further to do than to order the pursuit , and complete the glorious result .
WELLINGTON AT SIX O CLOCK IN THE EVENING . " In the midst of the battle—Wellington , straitened and almost forced from his final position , between the skirt of the forest and the slopes of Mount-Saint-Jean , the summit of which was nearly attained by Key , and subsequently carried by the terrible guard of Napoleon—his regiments dreadfully cut up , and thousands of their dead left behind them upon the slopes of La Haie Sainte , of Hougoumont , and of Waterloo—eleven of his generals dead around him , and amongst them his friend and right-hand general , Picton—eight of his seventeen aides-de-camp killed or wounded—Blucher vanquished and wandering at a distance from him in the plains of Namur—and Bulow , whom he had been expecting all the day , invisible to the officers whom he sent every hour to observe the horizon on the side of Warre J
" But the fortune of Wellington , entirely at fault in everything that surrounded him , was all centred in himself , and in the unshaken resolution of dying or conquering with which he had inspired his army . " We have not space to follow Lamartine ' s explanations of the movements of Grouchy and Blucher . He appears to satisfactorily clea * the former from the charge of treachery to Napoleon . At length the long dark columns of the Prussians , surmounted by tbe banner of the black eagle , became only too visible to the Emperor and his staff ; but Grouchy came not . The messengers sent to him had wandered and lost their way . He had not received the Emperor ' s orders . The
eeeral attack on the English was countermanded and attention turned to the Prussians . Ney had to do his best with the left , the centre , and the reserve already engaged . In spite of tbe efforts of Count Lobau the Prussians continued to gain ground . Ney made another desperate effort though unsupported by the reinforcements he had looked for . At this moment the sound of the Prussian cannon was heard by the English . " Forward my lads ! " exclaimed Wellington , waving his sword to his troops ; " we have stood long enough to be attacked , it is now our turn ! " Another horrible struggle ensued but fruitless for either side .
Observing . Ney repulsed by Wellington ' s horse-soldiers , Napoleon ordered Kellermann , Milhaud , and Guyot to unite all their divisions of cuirassiers , to the lancers , the dragoons , the chasseurs , and mounted grenadiers of the guard to support Ney : TERRIBLE CHARGE OF THE FRENCH CAVALRY—HEROIC ENDURANCE OF THE ENGLISH "SQUARES "—HORRIBLE CARNAGE . "Thisimmense mass of horse , the most warlike and redoubtable oi all Europe , the final thunderbolt of all the great French battles , to tke number of 10 , 000 horses , charged at a gallop the English cavalry , which were deployed to receive them . But Wellington did not wait for the shock ; on the approach of tlie
French squadrons , dashing on amidst cries of " Vive I'Empereurt" the English regiments were thrown back in two masses to the right and left , unmasking sixty pieces of cannon in battery , which pourred a terrible shower of grape shot upon the devoted guards . The whole of the front ranks instantly strewed the ground with the dead or mutilated bodies of men and horses ; but the remainder rushed forward , silenced a second time the English artillery , and charged the squares of Wellington—living citadels posted by him at intervals to support and cover each other . They withstood the rolling fire of these squares , penetrated to the last reserves of the English army : charged them , but could make no impression , retired and re-formed after the charge , to renew their onset upon other squares ; forcing them occasionally with the bleeding chests of their horses , but more
frequently rolling upon the ground under their bayonets . After every charge the English squares spread themselves out like a fan , to extend the surface of their fire , and re-formed squares again to meet with greater solidity another shock . One brigade atone resisted in this manner no less than eleven charges , contracting its square at every successive charge . Some regiments were reduced to twothirds of their original number , but remained immovable notwithstanding , resolved to die to the last man rather than yield their position and give up the victory . One Scotch division of 4 , 000 men was reduced to 400 , and asked for a reinforcement . They may die , " replied Wellington , " but they must keep their ground . Nothing but night or Blucher can now give us reinforcements ! " The division obeyed and stood its ground .
" Never were the French so desperately bent on victory , and never were the English so unshaken by defeat : they felt that they were now contending for the last time for the prey of the world . Modern ages have never witnessed so terrible a struggle of two nations , hand to hand , upon so narrow a spot of ground . All was blood , dead bodies of men and horses , cannons , gun-carriages , and broken arms !" The field of battle was drenched with blood and kneaded like one vast mass of red clay . Wellington had only three aides-de-camp at his side out of seventeen , the remainder having been killed or wounded . The fight continued to rage , and , says Lamartine , " Nothing could shake those English brigades , which incessantly renewed the manoeuvre
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of deploying to extend their fire on the retiring of the Frenchsquadrons , and reforming square on their approach in a fresh charge . " § Napoleon still flattered himself with hope of victory , and affected to pity while he admired the English . "What brave troops ! " he exclaimed to Marshal Soult , "the English fight well , it must be confessed , we have taught them the way . (?) They are worthy of us ; but they must very soon retire . " But it was the French who began to show symptoms of defeat . Ney , striking everywhere and penetrating nowhere , had been partially driven back . Napoleon saw that the supreme moment of decision was at hand . He ordered the footgrenadiers of his guard to attack the English .
SLAUGHTER OF THE FRENCH GRENADIERS . "These 6 , 000 grenadiers advanced with shouldered arms amidst cries of " Vivel'Empereur ' . " Wellington contemplated them witb a degree of alarm springing from the prestige of this corps , immortalised upon so many battle-fields . He > felt that he must act against soldiers like these not as with men , bnt as with aw element . He awaited them , therefore , with a battery of forty pieces of cannon-, with lighted matches . As they ascended and approached , the battery fired a volley point blank into the invading mass , which as the smoke arose was » een
to waver for a moment , then to close upas solid as before , and to advance as silent and as compact as ever ; still with shouldered arms , without firing , and without hastening or slackening their pace . On a second discharge the same oscillation took place , the same closing up , and the same silence ; only that the immense battalion was observed to press upon its centre , like some enormous , reptile concentrating its folds when its head had been touched by the steel . On ? the third discharge the English gazing down from the ridge on which they were stationed , saw the column reduced to an immovable block of men , decimated toy these three discharges of grape shot ; two of the battalions were struck down upon the slopes , with their still loaded muskets beside them ; the other two hesitated ^ reflected , and at length recoiled before this rock of living flame , to go and seek another means of access to these impregnable heights . But Wellington covering his whole army with 200 pieces of cannon , awaited them everywhere behind the
same rampart of bronze . Napoleon turned pale , and doubted at length of victory . Ho mounted his " white charger , and himself directed several battalions hitherto un-engaged to make another effort with Ney . On they went , shouting " Vive l'Empereur ! " Two hundred pieces of cannon- on the one side , and 300 on the other , covered them with a canopy of balls . " It rained death around Wellington . His surviving companions of the battleVincent
, , Alava , and Hill , thought all was lost ; but he ' alone continued to hope . " Have you any orders to give ? " asked thechief of his staff , with an anxious voice , which seemed to hint at theprudence of retreat . " None , " replied the general . " But you maybe killed , " said the other , " and your Grace may wish to communicates your thoughts to the next in command . " " My thoughts ! " replied the Duke ; "Iham no other than to stand my ground here to the last man !
At this juncture , General Friant assured the Emperor that everything was triumphant , and that the advance of the old guard was only necessary to finish all . The Old Guard , calm , grave , collected , fero--cious in visage , silent as disci pline , marched . Napoleon encouraged then * with a smile and a gesture , to which they replied by brandishino their arms , and shouting " Vive l'Empereur ! " " They were , however astonished that in the very extremity and crisis of the battle , Napoleon remained so far from the scene of action , sheltered from thai deathi which so many thousand men were braving for him . They expected : tosee him quit his shelter at a gallop , and throw himself intotli& midst of them as on former occasions .
DEFEAT AND DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD GUARD , "The old guard , shattered in vain by the English artillery , clambered to the crest of the ridge of Mont-Saint Jean . All gave way before them . Tho Prince of Orange , while rallying his troops , was struck by a bullet in the shoulder . The English squares received him in their flank , and opened , as in the morning , to give passage to a volley of grape-shot from the artillery within . The old guard rolled back in its turn at the unexpected discharge , and whole , " companies , shattered by it , detached themselves from the rest , and fled in confusion past the spot where the Emperor was sheltered . Some cries of despair and of
treason were uttered by the discomfited group . Napoleon , no longer able to withstand this dreadful spectacle , urged his charger forward three times to go . himself and support , or lead on again his old guard ; whileBertrand and Drouot , his friends , as often seized his bridle , and pushed him back into shelter from theballs . 'What are you going to do , Sire ? ' said these brave officers to him . ' Recollect that the salvation of Prance and of the army is in you alone . If ; you perish here all must perish with you J' The Emperor yielded , and passively . ' resumed his post , whence he could neither see nor be seen till the termination . o& the struggle .
" Uncheemlby the presence of their Emperor , and seeing the day deoSnue ' perceiving no other reward for their victory over the English than fresh armies to pass through or to conquer behind them during the night , they anxiousJy expected every instant io be called by Napoleon , while they felt the ardour of the English redoubled by the certainty of being soon reinforced by the Prussians The reserve of the English Life Guards , until then held back as a last resource by * Willington , charged with all the energy and vigour of an army which ha& recruited its powers under the united influence of hope and repose . Wellington , himself mounted his eighth horse , charged sword in hand , like a simple sofc
in tho midst of his most gallant troops . Eleven out of twenty-one of his generals who commanded in the morning under him were dead , and lying under their military cloaks by the roadside of Brussels . The French troops new Jooked as-, and questioned each other in dismay , exclaiming as they turned towards the sid * where they had left the Emperor . « What is he waiting for ? What does tto man want ? Is his genius totally eclipsed ? Has he entirely lost his head ?" When an army has reached a point like this , nothing but the person , the voice and the heroism of its chief can restore its confidence . Murmuring under fir . e ia the certain presage of defeat . Napoleon did not appear .
THE LAST CHARGE OF THE ENGLISH—END OF THE BATTtB . Wellington reappeared at the head of the 42 nd light infantry and 95 th Rifles and charging the chasseurs of the Imperial Guard in flank , he broke and Pursued them , putting them to the . sword as they fled . " This irresistible charge of two fresh iegiments upon a broken and dispersed body of troops was the signalBdf general disorder throughout the French line . The English army gave three cheers advanced in five columns , with its artillery upon Key ' s army , which was flvinr in fragments down the heights to its former position . At the same time the English cavalry being pushed forward in a mass upon the French line scarcely yet re-formed , broke through it , and dashed forward to overwhelm under theof their the French
weight impetus , cavalry , still intact , stationed on the left cf the English line to watch the Prussians . Blucher was then advancing tumultu ously , and driving back , from position to position , the army of D'Erlon to Water ! loo , and threatening even to cut off the retreat of Ney and the Imperial Guird The troops were immediately seized with the instinct of defeat and a crv of " S / mvc quipeut , " raised by some panic stricken wretches , made the ' soldipr * believe they were betrayed . They fled immediately in all directions and rushe-l iorward in confused masses to regain the encampment of the morninc Thp voices of their officers , the reproaches of their generals , the sight even of th ** r Emperor , before whom they passed in their flight , could not restrain them Th * heights of Mont-Saint-Jean were covered with their scattered remains '
" Napoleon saw that army which a few hours before was his onlv hone now returning in broken fragments , and exclaimed , « All is lost !» Tor » moment he contemplated the disastrous scene , turned pale , stammered , - and shed some tears , the first he had ever shed upon the field of battle . At length he spurred his horse and galloped forward to try and rally his troops . The current deaf to his voice , swept him off with it , whilst Wellington ' s cannon drowned his words The balls from Mont-Sains-Jean , the English cavahy , and Blucher ' s artillery * which waa already playing upon the road , drove forward these waves of human kings like an uncontrollable tovrent ; night fell and shielded tfapoleon from the eyes and reproaches of his soldiers . " The Prussians now came up in force , completed the rout of the French , and took in hand the merciless work of pursuing and destrovinir the flying enemy . " The English gave three cheers for their victorv 15 , 000 dead , 10 , 000 prisoners and 100 pieces of cannon , were alread ' the spoils of Wellington at Waterloo , Blucher hastened , to commote the rest , " : ^ wi
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 20, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1705/page/13/
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