History of the House of Hanover by C.J.B. Gaskoin

Author:C.J.B. Gaskoin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ozymandias Press

WATERLOO

~

1. The Return of the Exile

LATE IN 1814 THE REPRESENTATIVES of the Powers met at Vienna to arrange a settlement of Europe. But the settlement was hard to make. The Powers not only quarrelled but almost came to blows. And Napoleon in his exile, hearing of their disputes and of the growing discontent of France with the rule of Louis XVIII, thought his chance had come.

So one March evening he escaped from Elba, unnoticed by the British warships, and—landing in France—by the mere magic of his name, without the firing of a shot, he upset the Bourbon throne and made Louis XVIII once more an exile.

Napoleon professed the most peaceable intentions. He would never attempt to reconquer his Empire. He asked only that France might keep the ruler she had chosen. But England and her allies dared not trust him. They declared him an outlaw and the enemy of Europe. They pledged themselves to raise vast armies and maintain them till he had been utterly overthrown. And they hoped that, having now only French troops at his command, he would never raise a force sufficient to withstand them.

But Austrian and Russian troops themselves had to come from distant lands, and for the time Napoleon had only two considerable forces to face. By mid-June the Prussian army on the Rhine and in the Netherlands, under Field-Marshal Blücher, numbered nearly 120,000 men, and the English in Belgium under Wellington about 30,000, while Hanoverians and other Germans, Belgians, and Dutch raised Wellington’s command, including garrisons, to some 105,000. Blücher ‘s army, however, and still more Wellington’s mixed multitude, included many raw and untrustworthy troops; many utterly untrained; many trained indeed, but as soldiers of Napoleon.

Napoleon’s one chance was to defeat these armies before their allies arrived. He himself could spare only 120,000 men from the defence of France, but then they were all tried veterans. He could not hope to beat the united forces of Wellington and Blücher, but for the moment they were scattered along a line a hundred miles in length, and a sudden unexpected onslaught might crush each in turn before they could concentrate.

So he collected his troops on the frontier, when Wellington and Blücher thought him far away. He drove the Prussian advance-guard back at the point nearest to the English position. He himself defeated the main Prussian army at Ligny (June 16th), compelling it to retreat, while Marshal Ney fought against Wellington the drawn battle of Quatre Bras. And Wellington (though—partly through Ney’s mistakes—he more than held his ground, in spite of being taken unawares) was forced by the Prussian retreat to fall back himself, on June 17th, to the hill-side of Mont St. Jean, not far from the village of Waterloo.

But meanwhile the French had lost sight of Blücher ‘s army, and believed most of it to be marching away from the scene of conflict, whereas really it was slowly but surely approaching Wellington’s chosen battleground. Also Napoleon, with extraordinary slackness, had neglected to pursue either foe till it was too late.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.