Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/352

 CHAPTER XXXIV.

AFTER WATERLOO.

GREAT battle! Napoleon is annihilated! Wellington and the English have done it!" Such was the cry with which Tolstoi rushed breathless into the guard-room where Ivan and others were sitting. The tidings were not wholly unexpected, and yet they came with startling swiftness and suddenness. Only a few days before had Napoleon disclosed his real design, and poured his troops into Belgium. So rapidly had this movement been effected, that while Wellington was actually engaged in writing to the Czar to arrange a plan for an offensive campaign, the French had advanced upon the British and Prussian cantonments, and the firing had begun. Wellington's letter was dated the 15th of June, and by the evening of the 18th—one of the most momentous days in the world's history—Napoleon was a ruined and despairing fugitive.

It was only natural if, after the first outburst of exulting joy at the overthrow of the common enemy, the Russians remembered Moscow and the glories of the German campaigns, and said sadly each to the other, "Ah, why were not we there?"

"I do not grudge the English their laurels," said the captain