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WEL of virtue, an irreproachable probity, and a fund of sound sense that were true miracles amidst that fury of invasions and of conquests which then laid waste the world." He set a noble example of kindness to the French people, and respect to their property. The excesses committed by the Spanish troops under his command on the frontiers of France roused Wellington's deep indignation; and finding that neither threats nor the severest punishments were sufficient to re-establish order, he decided to send the Spanish forces back into their own country, preferring to lose the services of forty thousand excellent soldiers, rather than allow a nation with whom he was at war to suffer outrage and pillage.

On the 14th of June Wellington took leave at Bordeaux of his troops in a farewell general order, and broke up that wonderful army which, under his eye and by his training, had been so hardened and tempered in the furnace of warfare that, as he himself said, "it could go anywhere, and do anything." He arrived in London on the 23rd amidst the most enthusiastic greetings, and having a few weeks before been created Marquis of Douro and Duke of Wellington, on the 28th he entered the house of lords, passing at one sitting through all the stages of the peerage as baron, viscount, earl, and marquis, to the highest title of honour—an incident without a parallel in our national history. The house of commons voted him an annuity of £10,000, which was afterwards commuted for the sum of £400,000; and on the 1st of July the thanks of that august body were conveyed to him by the speaker, in an address of consummate eloquence, while the members stood uncovered. The highest honours were also showered upon the great warrior by our continental allies, and he was soon after made a field-marshal in each of the principal armies of Europe, a Portuguese magnate, and a Spanish grandee.

In the month of August the duke of Wellington proceeded to Paris to represent the British government at the court of the Tuileries, and in his journey made a careful survey of the frontier line of the Netherlands, and selected among other places on which an army could be advantageously posted, the field of Waterloo, on which within less than a year the fate of Europe was to be decided. He remained five months at Paris striving, but in vain, to induce the courts of France and Spain to act with moderation and forbearance. In January, 1815, the duke was accredited to Vienna as the representative of Britain at the famous congress of the European powers, and united with Austria and France in resisting the rapacious and unprincipled demands of Russia and Prussia. But while "the vultures and foxes were quarreling over their spoil," they learned with dismay that the eagle had broken loose from Elba, eager for prey and vengeance. The news of Napoleon's escape from his island retreat, and unopposed restoration to the imperial throne, came like a thunder peal on the wrangling congress. Suspending at once their discreditable contentions, they signed a new treaty of alliance on the 25th of March, pledged themselves to support Louis XVIII. on the French throne, declared Napoleon beyond the pale of the law of nations, and proceeded to adopt vigorous measures to put down at once their terrible antagonist. On the 29th the duke of Wellington set out, at the urgent request of the allied sovereigns, to assume the command of the English and Dutch forces stationed in the Netherlands, the post of honour and peril. On his arrival at Brussels he found, as he expressed it, things "in a bad way." The British government had neglected to make adequate preparations to fulfil the obligations which they had contracted, and were unable to provide one-half the number of troops for which they had become responsible by the treaty of Paris. The greater part of the duke's renowned peninsular forces were either in America or at sea, and their place was poorly supplied by militia, and raw recruits. Little or no progress had been made in restoring the dismantled fortresses, and the Belgian frontier and capital were very imperfectly protected against a French invasion. Immediately on his arrival the duke set to work with his accustomed energy in strengthening the natural and artificial defences of the country, and in making all requisite preparations to assume either an offensive or a defensive position, as the case might demand. It was resolved that no attempt should be made to penetrate into France until the arrival of the Austrian, Russian, and Bavarian armies; and meanwhile the Prussian and English contingents took up a position in front of the Belgian capital, the former occupying the country between Charleroi and Liege, and thus protecting the valley of the Sambre, while the English and Netherlanders had their left at Braine-le-Compte and Nivelle, their right at Ath, and their reserves in and around Brussels, thus keeping open their communications with England and Holland, and at the same time protecting Ghent, to which the exiled royal family of France had retired.

While his enemies were thus preparing to overwhelm him, Napoleon was exerting himself to the utmost to place France in an attitude of defence. Within three months, by almost superhuman efforts, he succeeded in collecting and equipping an army of four hundred thousand men, which he calculated on being able to raise before the 1st of October to seven hundred thousand. As time was everything to him, he resolved to forego the manifest advantages of adopting a purely defensive system of warfare, and to strike an immediate blow at the allied armies stationed in Belgium, in the hope that he might thus paralyse for a while the energies of the whole body of his enemies. There were three lines open to the advance of his army into the Netherlands. He might attack by the Meuse, and cut off the Prussians from their base; he might approach by Mons, and attack the English right; or he might throw his army, by the valley of Sambre, between the English and Prussian forces, and rolling them back, destroy them in detail. Wellington was prepared for every contingency, but he considered the last of these plans the least favourable to Napoleon's success. It proved, however, to be the one which the emperor ultimately adopted. On the 15th of June he crossed the frontier at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand veteran soldiers in the highest state of efficiency, drove in the Prussian outposts, and after an obstinate struggle carried Charleroi. On receiving information of this movement, Blucher concentrated his troops at Ligny in a singularly ill-chosen position, where in consequence, as Wellington predicted, they received from Bonaparte on the 16th "a terrible beating." Meanwhile, a body of about seven thousand Anglo-Netherland troops had taken up their position at Quatre Bras, which they stoutly maintained against the greatly superior numbers of the French under Ney, till one reinforcement after another having arrived, they in their turn became the assailants, drove back the enemy, and at the close of the day were considerably in advance of their original ground. The overthrow and retreat of the Prussians, however, having made it necessary that Wellington also should retire in order to keep open his communications with his allies, he withdrew on the afternoon of the 17th to the position which he had previously marked out near the village of Waterloo, where he resolved to await the attack of the French. He had under his command about sixty-five thousand men of all arms, of whom only thirty-three thousand were British, and many even of these were militia and young soldiers who had never seen a shot fired in earnest. The remainder of his army—"the worst he ever commanded"—was made up of Brunswickers, Hanoverians, Germans, Belgians, and Dutch, who had long served under Bonaparte, were now serving against their will under another flag, and could not be induced by any means to stand the attacks of the French. Napoleon, on the other hand, was at the head of seventy-one thousand veteran troops, the very finest of the empire in equipment, discipline, and experience, all belonging to the same nation, animated by the same spirit, having unbounded confidence in their leader, and flushed with the victory which they had just gained at Ligny. Wellington, however, had no fears as to the result, though the struggle which took place on the 18th was obstinate and sanguinary. The emperor made several grievous and unaccountable mistakes, but his troops fought with their usual bravery, and made a succession of furious attacks, now with infantry, now with cavalry, and then with both arms united, and always covered in the advance with a murderous fire of artillery, on the right, the centre, and the left of their opponents; but they entirely failed to break the allied line. At five o'clock the first division of the Prussians under Bulow began to trouble the French right, and gradually gained ground round Planchenoit. At dusk Napoleon threw his last desperate stake for empire, and lost it. The memorable attack of his famous Old Guard was repulsed with great slaughter, and Wellington, who during the day had done everything that a general could do to insure success, perceiving that the favourable moment had come, ordered his whole line to advance. Nothing could withstand that steady and stern movement, led by the British general in person. The French masses perished where they stood, or threw away their arms and fled; the emperor himself turned away his horse, and galloped from the field,