August 18, 2025 • 20 mins
FOREWORD In the popular imagination, Empress Josephine wears a halo of goodness, making her biographers task particularly challenging. The disdain many hold for Napoleon is often linked to the perceived cruelty he showed towards the woman who stood by him for fourteen years. This biography seeks not to judge but to paint a vivid portrait of Josephine as she truly was, allowing readers to form their own opinions about her character. Join Walter Geer and Celine Major in exploring this complex figure of history.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seventeen of Napoleon, a short biography. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Russell Newton. Napoleon, A short biography by R. M. Johnson,
(00:21):
Chapter seventeen, Waterloo and Saint Helena. Plan of campaign Lygnye
march on Brussels, Waterloo, second Abdication, Saint Helena, Death of Napoleon.
It's curious to find Napoleon confronted in his last campaign
(00:42):
by precisely the same military problem as in his first,
applying the same solution, but meeting with a different result.
In seventeen ninety six, as now, his opponents were superior
in numbers, occupied an extended line, and belonged to two
armies operating from two different bases. In eighteen fifteen, as before,
(01:03):
he decided to strike in full force at the point
of junction of his opponents, and to throw them back
in diverging directions on their respective bases. The French army,
numbering about one hundred and twenty thousand men, was rapidly
concentrated during the first week of June, and on the
eleventh the Emperor left Paris to take command. On the
(01:24):
fourteenth he was at Beaumont on the frontier in the
midst of his troops, and within a few days march
of Brussels. So rapid was the French advance that the
Prussians and English got little warning of the approaching storm. Blucia,
in command of the former, was operating on the line
of the Sombre and Meuse through Liege and Namur, and
(01:46):
his different corps were distributed in the neighborhood of the
last named city and Charleroi. The British, under the Duke
of Wellington, had their base at Antwerp, and their line
of communications ran from that city to Brussels and then
twenty five miles south, where the troops were quartered to
the west of the Prussians in the neighborhood of quatru Bras,
(02:07):
Genappes Neves, and further to the west a road running
east and west through quatro Bras and Linie served to
connect the Prussian right with the British left. It was
at this point that Napoleon aimed on the fifteenth the
armies were in contact the French, driving back such opposition
as they met with and occupying Charleroi. Blucher succeeded, however,
(02:30):
in concentrating the greater part of his troops in the
course of the night, and determined to hold his ground
at Saint Amand and Linnier. The next day. The British
were more completely surprised than the Prussians, yet the small
force occupying Quatre Bras was left there and received such
supports as could be pushed forward. On the sixteenth Napoleon
(02:53):
advanced to the attack of the Prussians, detaching a corps
under Nay to operate against the British. A fierce struggle
took place for the possession of the villages of Saint
Amand and Lignier, that were at last carried by the French. Blucher,
although he had lost, heavily, retired slowly towards Jembleau in
a fairly good order. During the course of the same day,
(03:15):
Ney had been engaged with the British at Quatre Bras,
but had not gained any ground yet. On the whole,
the operations of the sixteenth had been very favorable to Napoleon.
He defeated the Prussians, inspirited his soldiers and broken through
the line of contact between the two allied armies. That night,
Napoleon formed a corps of some thirty thousand men, which
(03:37):
he placed under Grochet, ordering him to follow Blucher's retreat.
The Prussian general might withdraw along the line of the
Sombre and Meuse. This was the obvious course for him
to follow, and the one Napoleon hoped he would take.
But he might play a boulder game, and, leaving his
line of operations, moved north and attempted to join hands
(03:57):
with Wellington in the neighborhood of Brussels Bowler. Yet he
might retreat eccentrically and threaten the French line of communications.
During the early hours of the seventeenth Napoleon waited to
get information, but Blucher moved fast, Grochet slowly. The French
light cavalry was at fault and could get no certain news.
(04:19):
At last, hearing that the British still held Quatre Bras,
Napoleon put the whole army in movement towards that point.
Wellington had no intention of holding Quatre Bras, now that
the Prussians had been forced to retreat, and he had
only a rear guard in position. When Napoleon arrived on
the scene, The Duke got into communication with the Prussians
(04:41):
and believed that Blucher's intention was to move north and
to effect a junction in front of Brussels if possible.
He therefore decided to fall back some miles from Quatre
Bras to a strong position at Mont Saint Jean, where
he hoped for support. On the morning of the seventeenth
he had not yet decided whether he would risk of
battle at that point or not, that, as he explained
(05:03):
to one of Blucher's staff officers, entirely depended on whether
Blucher could undertake to support him with one of his corps.
All through the afternoon of the seventeenth of June, Napoleon
pushed on with cavalry and horse artillery after the British
rear guard from Quatro Bras northwards towards Brussels. In the evening,
(05:25):
he had reached the farm of La Belle Alliles, and
thence saw a mile in front the whole of Wellington's army.
Evidently prepared to give battle, the Emperor now stopped, and
as the evening passed into night, long columns of soldiers
came up and were bivouacked right and left of the
road between Jenappe and La Belle Alliance. At that same night, Grachet,
(05:49):
marching with painful hesitation and slowness, had only reached Jembleu.
He had, now, however, ascertained that the Prussians had retreated
towards Wavra, and proposed marching in in that direction the
following morning. Blucher had indeed acted with the boldness, decision,
and promptitude of a good soldier, and on the night
of the seventeenth he had his whole army concentrated near Wavre.
(06:13):
Thence he dispatched a staff officer to inform Wellington that
not one corps but three under his personal command, would
march to the assistance of the British early in the morning.
This message reached the Duke about two o'clock in the
morning of the eighteenth, and he determined, in consequence to
hold his ground. On the eighteenth of June was fought
(06:36):
the Battle of Waterloo, so called from a village some
way from the scene of action, the last and most
disastrous field of the greatest soldier known to history. Napoleon
had some seventy thousand men actually present. Wellington rather less Blucher,
who came up late, engaged his troops gradually, and probably
(06:58):
at the last had not more than thirty thousand in
the fighting. Wellington's army was of mixed composition, and many
of his troops newly recruited in Holland were of very
poor quality. He relied chiefly on his excellent British and
German infantry. He had disposed his line according to his
favorite method, some fifty or one hundred yards back from
(07:21):
the summit of a slope that the French would have
to top in their advance. His infantry was in part
further protected by a transversal sunken lane that acted as
a sort of natural ditch. Wellington's position stretched out east
and west of the Brussels Road. On his right, the
manor house and enclosures of Hugemoal formed a strong natural bastion.
(07:46):
In the center, the farm of Lejesinth formed another advanced position.
The British left was more open, but a move in
that direction led over ground, heavy and in part impassable
for horses. While it might it also result in exposing
the French to a flank attack from the Prussians. Napoleon,
(08:06):
contrary to the opinion of all those of his generals
who had fought the British in Spain, decided not to
maneuver but to attack frontally. In this it's hard to
believe that he was right, for the French troops maneuvered
more rapidly than any in Europe, while the British were
equally pre eminent for their unflinching steadiness under attack and
(08:27):
their deadly musketry. Heavy rains since the preceding day had
turned the roads into quagmires. Guns and transport wagons could
be moved only with the greatest difficulty. Napoleon could not
get his army ready for action, and the morning hours
slowly passed. During that time, Gruchet was marching steadily towards Wavra,
(08:50):
while Blucher was struggling hard to get his columns on
towards Mon Saint Jean, but made hardly any progress in
the muddy lanes in the valley of the Dial. At last,
at twelve o'clock, the Emperor opened the battle by sending
the King of Westphalia to the attack of the Hugemont.
This was only a demonstration, though fierce fighting took place
(09:11):
at this point throughout the day. The real attack was
to be made at the center, where Napoleon intended to
force the British line and establish himself at the crossroads
of Mont Saint Jean. Heavy columns of infantry twenty thousand
men in all, marched forward to the attack, faced the
fire of the British artillery, breasted the slope, topped it,
(09:35):
and then received the volleys of the British infantry. There
was a fierce struggle. Piction led forward his brigade with
the bayonet and was killed. The British cavalry charged, and
finally the French rolled back from the slope, beaten, while
the horsemen wrought havoc among them. The British cavalry went
too far in pursuit and was now assailed and routed
(09:58):
by the French cavalry. The emperors, supported the first by
fresh squadrons, and a great mass of horse soon climbed
the slope from which the French infantry had been so
disastrously driven. The British infantry was now thrown into squares
alternating on two lines in Chessbourne patterned, and the cavalry
(10:19):
charged in among them, but with no success, a new
and more determined effort was made. Ney led the attack.
Every available horseman was thrown in long lines surged upwards,
steel breasted courissaires, tall horse grenadiers and bearskins, carabineers with
gilded armor and enormous curved helmets, Polish lancers with fluttering pinions, dragoons, hussers.
(10:44):
The British gunners from the crest line plowed great holes
in their ranks, then at the last moment ran back
to the infantry squares for protection. But though the French
cavalry easily overran the guns and swallowed the squares of
red Coat soldiers in their midst they could make little
impression on the coolly leveled bayonets, while a destructive fire
(11:07):
mowed them down in hundreds. Three times was the charge renewed,
but after the fourth failure it was no longer possible
to hope that the Emperor's cavalry would turn the fortunes
of the day. A great part of it lay dead
and mangled along the front of the British position. The
battle had not been long in progress when Napoleon observed
(11:28):
a dark column of soldiers winding along a road some
miles away to the east. Before long it became clear
that some Prussian movement was to be expected from that direction,
and the French right was thrown back and reinforced. The
Prussians attacked as soon as they could be brought into action,
fighting in a line that may be roughly described as
(11:49):
at right angles with the British left and parallel with
the Brussels Quatre Brais road. This they were beginning to
threaten to the rear of the French right, while the
great cavalry charges against Wellington's center were progressing. Napoleon, however,
was still hopeful of forcing the British line before the
(12:10):
Prussian attack had developed sufficient force. He also hoped that
Gruchet might come up on his right, and sent orders
for that marshal to march in the direction of the
main army. But Gruchet, obeying his original orders in a
strict sense, was following the Prussian rear guard, which kept
him engaged during the whole day in the neighborhood of Wavre.
(12:32):
The Emperor now ordered Nay to resume the attack and
to carry Lehy Saint at any cost. Nay led his
men in person, and after a fierce struggle drove the
defenders from the farm. He had now obtained a foothold
in the British center, and getting some guns in position
at short range, opened a deadly fire. Several of the
English brigades were now nearly shattered. Some German and Dutch
(12:56):
troops gave way, and a stream of fugitives set in
from the field towards Brussels, but Wellington and his splendid
infantry remained firm. Gaps were filled as best they could be,
and Nay could get no response to his pressing call
for some fresh troops to drive home the attack. Napoleon had,
in truth at that moment no troops to spare. All
(13:19):
the reserves had been used save a few regiments of
the infantry of the Guard, and the Prussians had just
carried the village of Planchenois with striking distance of his
line of retreat. The position was fast getting desperate for
the Emperor. Two regiments of the Guard, however, drove the
Prussians out of Planchenois, and taking advantage of this respite,
(13:41):
Napoleon aimed one last blow at Wellington's center. Some four
thousand infantry of the Guard were masked into column and
Nay advanced at their head over the ground where he
had led the cavalry earlier in the day. The exhausted
combatants to the right and left from Leahy Saint Jugement
paused and watched the slow advance of that magnificent infantry,
(14:05):
the last remnant of veterans of the great armies of
the Republic and the Empire. From along the crest, the
English gunners poured down grape and canister. The commander of
the infantry of the Guard, Comte Frian, fell dead. Ney's
horse was shot down, but the Marshal jumped to his feet,
drew his sword, and marched on through the smoke dauntlessly.
(14:28):
Once more the crest was won. Once more, the British
infantry behind it poured in their withering musketry. The Old
Guard deployed its melting lines as best it could, and
for five or ten minutes struggled to hold its ground,
but the fire was too deadly. The French began to recede,
and soon their broken lines were flowing backwards. At this moment,
(14:51):
the Duke of Wellington rode forward to the crest. His
figure could be seen for some way along the British
line he raised his hat high in the air and
waved it toward the enemy. At this victorious signal, the
British regiments advanced along the whole line, fifes and drums,
bugles and bagpipes, urging the men forward. The French army
(15:13):
was beaten. The sight of the old Guard rolling back
in confusion of fresh columns of Prussians closing in on
the right told the defeated French that all was lost
on the high road by La Belle alliance. A few
squares of grenadiers still held their ground and gave Napoleon shelter,
but all attempts to stay the panic that had now
(15:34):
seized the whole army was hopeless. The pursuit was taken
up by the Prussians, and it was not till three
days later, and many miles within the French frontiers, that
the army could be restored to some semblance of order.
Napoleon had appealed to the Supreme political test and failed,
and now apparently entertained no hope of being able to
(15:57):
recover his position. He arrived in the capitol on the
night of the twentieth, and on the following day of
the Chamber on the Motion of Lafayette declared itself in
permanent session and directed the ministers to report to it.
In effect, this was a withdrawal of authority from the
hands of Napoleon, and he accepted it in that sense.
(16:19):
On the following day he abdicated for the second time
in favor of his son. A week later, the Allies
were nearing Paris and the provisional government, led by Fouchet,
was intriguing with the Bourbons. There was nothing Napoleon could
now do but to try to leave France. He proceeded
to Rochefort, where he expected to be able to find
(16:41):
ship for the United States, but a British cruiser blockaded
the port, and Napoleon, finding no other course possible, finally
went on board HMS Bellerophon, Captain Maitland, and threw himself
on the generosity of Great Britain. The arrival of the
Bellerophon and her illustrious pas assenger at Portsmouth created great
(17:02):
excitement in England. It's easy to see at this distance
of time that Napoleon's career was run and that a
magnanimous treatment would not have been dangerous. But the feeling
of those days was violent. Never had great Britain been
so threatened and alarmed as she had been when the
army of Austerlitz was encamped along the shores of the Channel.
(17:24):
The generation that had struggled with and defeated Napoleon could
not forgive him, and General Bonaparte, as the British government
childishly insisted on addressing him, was sent to the island
of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic as a state prisoner.
Of his six years residence in that island, there is
(17:44):
but little that can be said here with advantage. Controversy
has raged about the trivial matters over which the illustrious
prisoner and his gowler, Sir Hudson Lowe disputed. Englishmen have
written to prove that Napoleon was insulted and shabbily treated,
Frenchman to prove that he spent his whole time lying
and intriguing against Sir Hudson Lowe. It is altogether fortunate
(18:09):
that these matters are of minor importance, and that they
need not be discussed in a work of these dimensions.
It is a self evident proposition that, under the most
favorable circumstances, the coupling of Napoleon with the British military officer,
not remarkable for tact or urbanity on a barren rock
in mid Atlantic could hardly lead to agreeable results. For
(18:32):
those who have noted the peculiarities of Napoleon's character, it
will appear natural that his constant occupation at Saint Helena
was to dictate to some of his companions in exile
statements of a biased and misleading character as to his history.
He was busy elaborating the Napoleonic legend, creating an artificial
(18:54):
atmosphere of fact from which he hoped would emerge in
some future time and empire for his son. Towards the
Little King of Rome, his thoughts frequently turned, and when,
in eighteen twenty it became clear that an illness he
had felt before at intervals was now becoming dangerously acute,
he dictated long instructions for the future guidance of his son.
(19:17):
The last sentence of his will was of an extraordinary character.
Was it hallucination or was it astute calculation that made
him right? My wish is to be buried on the
banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French
people whom I so dearly loved. He died on the
fifth of May eighteen twenty one of cancer in the stomach,
(19:39):
and was buried under a weeping willow near Longwood, where
he had spent six weary years of exile. British soldiers
accompanied him to his rest with reversed arms and fired
a parting salute over his grave. Twenty years later, as
if the violent contrasts of his life had not yet
been exhausted, his box was ceremoniously transferred to Paris and
(20:03):
buried in the Invalise, with every circumstance of military pomp
and national mourning, and under the auspices of a Bourbon king.
Chronology sixteen June eighteen fifteen, Lygnier eighteen June eighteen fifteen,
Waterloo twenty second June eighteen fifteen. Napoleon abdicates fifth of
(20:28):
May eighteen twenty one. Death of Napoleon end of Chapter seventeen.
End of Napoleon, A short biography by Robert Matson Johnston
Chapter seventeen of Napoleon, a short biography. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Russell Newton. Napoleon, A short biography by R. M. Johnson,
(00:21):
Chapter seventeen, Waterloo and Saint Helena. Plan of campaign Lygnye
march on Brussels, Waterloo, second Abdication, Saint Helena, Death of Napoleon.
It's curious to find Napoleon confronted in his last campaign
(00:42):
by precisely the same military problem as in his first,
applying the same solution, but meeting with a different result.
In seventeen ninety six, as now, his opponents were superior
in numbers, occupied an extended line, and belonged to two
armies operating from two different bases. In eighteen fifteen, as before,
(01:03):
he decided to strike in full force at the point
of junction of his opponents, and to throw them back
in diverging directions on their respective bases. The French army,
numbering about one hundred and twenty thousand men, was rapidly
concentrated during the first week of June, and on the
eleventh the Emperor left Paris to take command. On the
(01:24):
fourteenth he was at Beaumont on the frontier in the
midst of his troops, and within a few days march
of Brussels. So rapid was the French advance that the
Prussians and English got little warning of the approaching storm. Blucia,
in command of the former, was operating on the line
of the Sombre and Meuse through Liege and Namur, and
(01:46):
his different corps were distributed in the neighborhood of the
last named city and Charleroi. The British, under the Duke
of Wellington, had their base at Antwerp, and their line
of communications ran from that city to Brussels and then
twenty five miles south, where the troops were quartered to
the west of the Prussians in the neighborhood of quatru Bras,
(02:07):
Genappes Neves, and further to the west a road running
east and west through quatro Bras and Linie served to
connect the Prussian right with the British left. It was
at this point that Napoleon aimed on the fifteenth the
armies were in contact the French, driving back such opposition
as they met with and occupying Charleroi. Blucher succeeded, however,
(02:30):
in concentrating the greater part of his troops in the
course of the night, and determined to hold his ground
at Saint Amand and Linnier. The next day. The British
were more completely surprised than the Prussians, yet the small
force occupying Quatre Bras was left there and received such
supports as could be pushed forward. On the sixteenth Napoleon
(02:53):
advanced to the attack of the Prussians, detaching a corps
under Nay to operate against the British. A fierce struggle
took place for the possession of the villages of Saint
Amand and Lignier, that were at last carried by the French. Blucher,
although he had lost, heavily, retired slowly towards Jembleau in
a fairly good order. During the course of the same day,
(03:15):
Ney had been engaged with the British at Quatre Bras,
but had not gained any ground yet. On the whole,
the operations of the sixteenth had been very favorable to Napoleon.
He defeated the Prussians, inspirited his soldiers and broken through
the line of contact between the two allied armies. That night,
Napoleon formed a corps of some thirty thousand men, which
(03:37):
he placed under Grochet, ordering him to follow Blucher's retreat.
The Prussian general might withdraw along the line of the
Sombre and Meuse. This was the obvious course for him
to follow, and the one Napoleon hoped he would take.
But he might play a boulder game, and, leaving his
line of operations, moved north and attempted to join hands
(03:57):
with Wellington in the neighborhood of Brussels Bowler. Yet he
might retreat eccentrically and threaten the French line of communications.
During the early hours of the seventeenth Napoleon waited to
get information, but Blucher moved fast, Grochet slowly. The French
light cavalry was at fault and could get no certain news.
(04:19):
At last, hearing that the British still held Quatre Bras,
Napoleon put the whole army in movement towards that point.
Wellington had no intention of holding Quatre Bras, now that
the Prussians had been forced to retreat, and he had
only a rear guard in position. When Napoleon arrived on
the scene, The Duke got into communication with the Prussians
(04:41):
and believed that Blucher's intention was to move north and
to effect a junction in front of Brussels if possible.
He therefore decided to fall back some miles from Quatre
Bras to a strong position at Mont Saint Jean, where
he hoped for support. On the morning of the seventeenth
he had not yet decided whether he would risk of
battle at that point or not, that, as he explained
(05:03):
to one of Blucher's staff officers, entirely depended on whether
Blucher could undertake to support him with one of his corps.
All through the afternoon of the seventeenth of June, Napoleon
pushed on with cavalry and horse artillery after the British
rear guard from Quatro Bras northwards towards Brussels. In the evening,
(05:25):
he had reached the farm of La Belle Alliles, and
thence saw a mile in front the whole of Wellington's army.
Evidently prepared to give battle, the Emperor now stopped, and
as the evening passed into night, long columns of soldiers
came up and were bivouacked right and left of the
road between Jenappe and La Belle Alliance. At that same night, Grachet,
(05:49):
marching with painful hesitation and slowness, had only reached Jembleu.
He had, now, however, ascertained that the Prussians had retreated
towards Wavra, and proposed marching in in that direction the
following morning. Blucher had indeed acted with the boldness, decision,
and promptitude of a good soldier, and on the night
of the seventeenth he had his whole army concentrated near Wavre.
(06:13):
Thence he dispatched a staff officer to inform Wellington that
not one corps but three under his personal command, would
march to the assistance of the British early in the morning.
This message reached the Duke about two o'clock in the
morning of the eighteenth, and he determined, in consequence to
hold his ground. On the eighteenth of June was fought
(06:36):
the Battle of Waterloo, so called from a village some
way from the scene of action, the last and most
disastrous field of the greatest soldier known to history. Napoleon
had some seventy thousand men actually present. Wellington rather less Blucher,
who came up late, engaged his troops gradually, and probably
(06:58):
at the last had not more than thirty thousand in
the fighting. Wellington's army was of mixed composition, and many
of his troops newly recruited in Holland were of very
poor quality. He relied chiefly on his excellent British and
German infantry. He had disposed his line according to his
favorite method, some fifty or one hundred yards back from
(07:21):
the summit of a slope that the French would have
to top in their advance. His infantry was in part
further protected by a transversal sunken lane that acted as
a sort of natural ditch. Wellington's position stretched out east
and west of the Brussels Road. On his right, the
manor house and enclosures of Hugemoal formed a strong natural bastion.
(07:46):
In the center, the farm of Lejesinth formed another advanced position.
The British left was more open, but a move in
that direction led over ground, heavy and in part impassable
for horses. While it might it also result in exposing
the French to a flank attack from the Prussians. Napoleon,
(08:06):
contrary to the opinion of all those of his generals
who had fought the British in Spain, decided not to
maneuver but to attack frontally. In this it's hard to
believe that he was right, for the French troops maneuvered
more rapidly than any in Europe, while the British were
equally pre eminent for their unflinching steadiness under attack and
(08:27):
their deadly musketry. Heavy rains since the preceding day had
turned the roads into quagmires. Guns and transport wagons could
be moved only with the greatest difficulty. Napoleon could not
get his army ready for action, and the morning hours
slowly passed. During that time, Gruchet was marching steadily towards Wavra,
(08:50):
while Blucher was struggling hard to get his columns on
towards Mon Saint Jean, but made hardly any progress in
the muddy lanes in the valley of the Dial. At last,
at twelve o'clock, the Emperor opened the battle by sending
the King of Westphalia to the attack of the Hugemont.
This was only a demonstration, though fierce fighting took place
(09:11):
at this point throughout the day. The real attack was
to be made at the center, where Napoleon intended to
force the British line and establish himself at the crossroads
of Mont Saint Jean. Heavy columns of infantry twenty thousand
men in all, marched forward to the attack, faced the
fire of the British artillery, breasted the slope, topped it,
(09:35):
and then received the volleys of the British infantry. There
was a fierce struggle. Piction led forward his brigade with
the bayonet and was killed. The British cavalry charged, and
finally the French rolled back from the slope, beaten, while
the horsemen wrought havoc among them. The British cavalry went
too far in pursuit and was now assailed and routed
(09:58):
by the French cavalry. The emperors, supported the first by
fresh squadrons, and a great mass of horse soon climbed
the slope from which the French infantry had been so
disastrously driven. The British infantry was now thrown into squares
alternating on two lines in Chessbourne patterned, and the cavalry
(10:19):
charged in among them, but with no success, a new
and more determined effort was made. Ney led the attack.
Every available horseman was thrown in long lines surged upwards,
steel breasted courissaires, tall horse grenadiers and bearskins, carabineers with
gilded armor and enormous curved helmets, Polish lancers with fluttering pinions, dragoons, hussers.
(10:44):
The British gunners from the crest line plowed great holes
in their ranks, then at the last moment ran back
to the infantry squares for protection. But though the French
cavalry easily overran the guns and swallowed the squares of
red Coat soldiers in their midst they could make little
impression on the coolly leveled bayonets, while a destructive fire
(11:07):
mowed them down in hundreds. Three times was the charge renewed,
but after the fourth failure it was no longer possible
to hope that the Emperor's cavalry would turn the fortunes
of the day. A great part of it lay dead
and mangled along the front of the British position. The
battle had not been long in progress when Napoleon observed
(11:28):
a dark column of soldiers winding along a road some
miles away to the east. Before long it became clear
that some Prussian movement was to be expected from that direction,
and the French right was thrown back and reinforced. The
Prussians attacked as soon as they could be brought into action,
fighting in a line that may be roughly described as
(11:49):
at right angles with the British left and parallel with
the Brussels Quatre Brais road. This they were beginning to
threaten to the rear of the French right, while the
great cavalry charges against Wellington's center were progressing. Napoleon, however,
was still hopeful of forcing the British line before the
(12:10):
Prussian attack had developed sufficient force. He also hoped that
Gruchet might come up on his right, and sent orders
for that marshal to march in the direction of the
main army. But Gruchet, obeying his original orders in a
strict sense, was following the Prussian rear guard, which kept
him engaged during the whole day in the neighborhood of Wavre.
(12:32):
The Emperor now ordered Nay to resume the attack and
to carry Lehy Saint at any cost. Nay led his
men in person, and after a fierce struggle drove the
defenders from the farm. He had now obtained a foothold
in the British center, and getting some guns in position
at short range, opened a deadly fire. Several of the
English brigades were now nearly shattered. Some German and Dutch
(12:56):
troops gave way, and a stream of fugitives set in
from the field towards Brussels, but Wellington and his splendid
infantry remained firm. Gaps were filled as best they could be,
and Nay could get no response to his pressing call
for some fresh troops to drive home the attack. Napoleon had,
in truth at that moment no troops to spare. All
(13:19):
the reserves had been used save a few regiments of
the infantry of the Guard, and the Prussians had just
carried the village of Planchenois with striking distance of his
line of retreat. The position was fast getting desperate for
the Emperor. Two regiments of the Guard, however, drove the
Prussians out of Planchenois, and taking advantage of this respite,
(13:41):
Napoleon aimed one last blow at Wellington's center. Some four
thousand infantry of the Guard were masked into column and
Nay advanced at their head over the ground where he
had led the cavalry earlier in the day. The exhausted
combatants to the right and left from Leahy Saint Jugement
paused and watched the slow advance of that magnificent infantry,
(14:05):
the last remnant of veterans of the great armies of
the Republic and the Empire. From along the crest, the
English gunners poured down grape and canister. The commander of
the infantry of the Guard, Comte Frian, fell dead. Ney's
horse was shot down, but the Marshal jumped to his feet,
drew his sword, and marched on through the smoke dauntlessly.
(14:28):
Once more the crest was won. Once more, the British
infantry behind it poured in their withering musketry. The Old
Guard deployed its melting lines as best it could, and
for five or ten minutes struggled to hold its ground,
but the fire was too deadly. The French began to recede,
and soon their broken lines were flowing backwards. At this moment,
(14:51):
the Duke of Wellington rode forward to the crest. His
figure could be seen for some way along the British
line he raised his hat high in the air and
waved it toward the enemy. At this victorious signal, the
British regiments advanced along the whole line, fifes and drums,
bugles and bagpipes, urging the men forward. The French army
(15:13):
was beaten. The sight of the old Guard rolling back
in confusion of fresh columns of Prussians closing in on
the right told the defeated French that all was lost
on the high road by La Belle alliance. A few
squares of grenadiers still held their ground and gave Napoleon shelter,
but all attempts to stay the panic that had now
(15:34):
seized the whole army was hopeless. The pursuit was taken
up by the Prussians, and it was not till three
days later, and many miles within the French frontiers, that
the army could be restored to some semblance of order.
Napoleon had appealed to the Supreme political test and failed,
and now apparently entertained no hope of being able to
(15:57):
recover his position. He arrived in the capitol on the
night of the twentieth, and on the following day of
the Chamber on the Motion of Lafayette declared itself in
permanent session and directed the ministers to report to it.
In effect, this was a withdrawal of authority from the
hands of Napoleon, and he accepted it in that sense.
(16:19):
On the following day he abdicated for the second time
in favor of his son. A week later, the Allies
were nearing Paris and the provisional government, led by Fouchet,
was intriguing with the Bourbons. There was nothing Napoleon could
now do but to try to leave France. He proceeded
to Rochefort, where he expected to be able to find
(16:41):
ship for the United States, but a British cruiser blockaded
the port, and Napoleon, finding no other course possible, finally
went on board HMS Bellerophon, Captain Maitland, and threw himself
on the generosity of Great Britain. The arrival of the
Bellerophon and her illustrious pas assenger at Portsmouth created great
(17:02):
excitement in England. It's easy to see at this distance
of time that Napoleon's career was run and that a
magnanimous treatment would not have been dangerous. But the feeling
of those days was violent. Never had great Britain been
so threatened and alarmed as she had been when the
army of Austerlitz was encamped along the shores of the Channel.
(17:24):
The generation that had struggled with and defeated Napoleon could
not forgive him, and General Bonaparte, as the British government
childishly insisted on addressing him, was sent to the island
of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic as a state prisoner.
Of his six years residence in that island, there is
(17:44):
but little that can be said here with advantage. Controversy
has raged about the trivial matters over which the illustrious
prisoner and his gowler, Sir Hudson Lowe disputed. Englishmen have
written to prove that Napoleon was insulted and shabbily treated,
Frenchman to prove that he spent his whole time lying
and intriguing against Sir Hudson Lowe. It is altogether fortunate
(18:09):
that these matters are of minor importance, and that they
need not be discussed in a work of these dimensions.
It is a self evident proposition that, under the most
favorable circumstances, the coupling of Napoleon with the British military officer,
not remarkable for tact or urbanity on a barren rock
in mid Atlantic could hardly lead to agreeable results. For
(18:32):
those who have noted the peculiarities of Napoleon's character, it
will appear natural that his constant occupation at Saint Helena
was to dictate to some of his companions in exile
statements of a biased and misleading character as to his history.
He was busy elaborating the Napoleonic legend, creating an artificial
(18:54):
atmosphere of fact from which he hoped would emerge in
some future time and empire for his son. Towards the
Little King of Rome, his thoughts frequently turned, and when,
in eighteen twenty it became clear that an illness he
had felt before at intervals was now becoming dangerously acute,
he dictated long instructions for the future guidance of his son.
(19:17):
The last sentence of his will was of an extraordinary character.
Was it hallucination or was it astute calculation that made
him right? My wish is to be buried on the
banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French
people whom I so dearly loved. He died on the
fifth of May eighteen twenty one of cancer in the stomach,
(19:39):
and was buried under a weeping willow near Longwood, where
he had spent six weary years of exile. British soldiers
accompanied him to his rest with reversed arms and fired
a parting salute over his grave. Twenty years later, as
if the violent contrasts of his life had not yet
been exhausted, his box was ceremoniously transferred to Paris and
(20:03):
buried in the Invalise, with every circumstance of military pomp
and national mourning, and under the auspices of a Bourbon king.
Chronology sixteen June eighteen fifteen, Lygnier eighteen June eighteen fifteen,
Waterloo twenty second June eighteen fifteen. Napoleon abdicates fifth of
(20:28):
May eighteen twenty one. Death of Napoleon end of Chapter seventeen.
End of Napoleon, A short biography by Robert Matson Johnston
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