Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/32

28 him to drive at once to St. Cloud. There an unexpected sight met him. The Palace had been lit up in his honour. Guards holding torches were on the main staircase, and at the top stood Blücher and his staff. He came down the stairs to the ambulance and embraced him, saying, 'Mein lieber Freund, to-night you shall be in comfort; you shall sleep in Marie Louise's bed.' The Guards then carried him up and placed him in the Imperial bed, whilst the staff saluted him with those 'hochs,' for which the Germans are famous. In the morning he espied his servant cleaning his boots in an Imperial jar of Sèvres china. Such are the vicissitudes of war, and the events of 1870 show but too clearly how history repeats itself.

After Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington devoted a special Gazette to Sir H. Hardinge's services, and at a review of the Prussian army on the plains of Sedan in 1816 he took from his own side Napoleon's sword and presented it to him. At the same time the King of Prussia decorated him with the Order of Merit and conferred on him the Red Eagle. Many years afterwards he wore Napoleon's sword in the battles of the Sutlej; and when matters appeared desperate during the eventful night of the 21st December, 1845, he sent his surgeon with it to a place of safety, lest it should fall into the hands of the Sikhs.

During the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns Sir Henry Hardinge was four times wounded and had four horses shot under him.