The Hundred Days [Illustrated Edition] by Guedalla Philip;

Author:Guedalla, Philip;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wagram Press
Published: 2015-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

IV

DIPLOMACY had failed: so much was evident, when his envoys were stopped at every frontier and every government in Europe left his letters studiously unanswered. He was an outlaw, to whom the world denied the courtesies of diplomatic intercourse; and that, unless he was prepared to efface himself voluntarily, meant a war for his elimination. But as Napoleon had not returned from Elba for the pleasure of an abdication, war was bound to come.

The problem was not complicated. Few military problems are, and Napoleon’s in 1815 was of a simplicity that was almost painful. With every week that he remained in France the Allied armies drew slowly nearer to the French frontier in a great crescent from the Alps to the North Sea; and the only military question for the Emperor, since he could hardly fight on every front at the same time, was where he should oppose them. This was comparatively simple, as his capital was bound to be their main objective. For the last war had virtually ended with the fall of Paris; and this time the event would be still more decisive, because if Napoleon could be dislodged from Paris, he would cease to be a reigning monarch and be-come a mere rebel leader. In that case his sole concern must be to defend his capital from the converging armies of the Allies; and there would be little doubt which front was the most vital for the purpose, since Paris lay much nearer to the northern frontier than to the Alps or Rhine. Besides, a generous profusion of natural obstacles would facilitate delaying actions in the Alpine passes and the Vosges, whilst an invasion from the north could march straight to Paris. These simple elements composed his problem and pointed irresistibly to the conclusion that he must seek for a decision on the northern front.

That once determined, it remained for him to choose his method. The choice was easy, since it lay between a defensive campaign in northern France and an offensive into Belgium. The former was rejected, though Wellington always believed that it offered greater chances of success, saying in later years that Napoleon might have played again the same game which he played so admirably the year before—that campaign of 1814 I consider the very finest he ever made—he might have manoeuvred from one invading army to the other and attacked them separately.... He ought to have taken the same line in 1815, and might have given us great trouble, and had many chances in his favour. But the fact is, he never in his life had patience for a defensive war,’ There was a still more solid reason for rejecting the alternative of a defensive war in France, since it was highly doubtful how French opinion would submit once more to the test of an invasion. His subjects, who had acquiesced without undue enthusiasm in his return, would be most unlikely to retain their loyalty for long, if it became apparent that a fresh invasion was to be the first blessing of the new reign.

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