left-centre was another. All the night of the 17th, the French were taking up their position on a range of heights in front. At ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th, the French made the attack. All day, they strove for the farm-house in front of the British right-centre; and all day it was held against them. They won the other farm-house-the German legion within it having expended their ammunition; and being, at the moment, cut off from supply. A heavy cannonading along the whole line accompanied and sustained these assaults; and during the whole day, the British in their lines sustained the fierce charges, in constant succession, now of cavalry, now of infantry, now of cavalry and infantry together. There is nothing in the history of battles more sublime than the generalship which could order, and the patient valour that could sustain, such a method of fighting as this. It foiled Napoleon in his strongest point. He had always hitherto broken through the enemy's line, by bringing his force to bear upon one part (a weak one, if he could find it); but here he tried after it for the whole day without succeeding. He had now "to measure himself with this Wellington;" and he had met his match. He gathered his artillery en masse, and made dreadful havock on certain points :-the vacant space was instantly filled up again. He arranged his bodies of cavalry so as to support each other, and sent them to make desperate efforts to pierce the British line of infantry. In a moment, the line became squares, and the ground was maintained. At six in the evening, not a point was gained by the French. Any advantage which had been yielded in the shock of a moment had been immediately resumed. In the quiet words of, Wellington, "these attacks were uniformly unsuccessful." It was impossible, after these eight hours of slaughter, to say where the victory would rest. The most doubtful moment for the Allies was soon after this-about seven o'clock. By this time Bülow's corps had come up; and Blücher himself was on the heights on the British left-ready to take charge of the French right. Napoleon was now about to make a final desperate effort to rout the Allies by an attack of a vast force upon the British left-centre. Wellington saw it; and ordered every disposable man to the spot. Presently, the continued roar of cannon and musketry was "the most dinning" ever heard by those on the field. Presently again, there was a sudden, complete, brief pause; and then again, a tremendous outburst of mingled sounds. The French had been checked, cast in heaps of dead and wounded; the remainder turned, fled, and were in an instant pursued by the whole British line. When Napoleon saw that the British had broken in upon his Old Guard, he turned pale as death, and said, in a tone of dismay, They are all mixed!" Wellington's word to his Guards in a ditch—“ Up, Guards, and at them!” had been potent. They were all mixed, as the British bore down the best reserve and last hope of Napoleon. 66 ¢ The success of the battle was, however, mainly secured by the arrival of the Prussians. Napoleon had foreseen that the Germans would advance upon his right flank when he made his grand attack; and the heads of his reserve columns appeared, one behind another, with their supports of artillery-an army in themselves, to oppose the Prussians. The Prussians out-flanked them, however, penetrated their force on that side, and pressed in upon the main body so severely, while the British were bearing them along in front, that the crush was complete. The French army was annihilated. From an army it became a mass of panic-stricken fugitives -and over they went over the heights which they had so splendidly descended in the morning, pursued by the victors till eleven o'clock, when the British, worn out at the end of thirteen hours from the first attack, left it to the fresher Prussians to continue the pursuit through the night. During the night, Blücher and his Prussians took sixty more pieces of cannon-the cannon of the Imperial Guard; and much baggage and several carriages belonging to Napoleon. One hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, with their ammunition, had been taken on the field. For the third time Napoleon returned to Paris without an army. After Moscow, after Leipsic, he had rallied his forces, and gone forth again. All was over now; and he never went forth again, but to the captivity in which he ended his days. It was four o'clock in the morning of the 21st that he reached Paris. When the Prussians, who had followed him, broke into the palace at Malmaison in the evening of the 29th, he had just driven away, after taking leave for ever of the few faithful friends who had remained with him. From the 3rd to the 14th of July he lingered at Rochefort, hoping against hope for some chance of restoration. He thence wrote a letter to the Prince Regent, as "the most generous" of his enemies, craving leave to live in England, as a private individual. Early in the morning of the 15th, he went on board the Bellerophon, which immediately conveyed him to England. For some days, Torbay was crowded with boats, from which he was seen on the deck of the vessel by multitudes to whom he had been a prominent object of thought since the opening of the century. On the 30th, he was officially informed that he was to be conveyed to St. Helena, to spend the rest of his days on a rock in the midst of the Altantic. His wrath was great, as might have been expected. He protested that he was not a prisoner. It was true that he had gone on board the Bellerophon uninvited but it was also true that he had gone untempted, and under the warning that the commander, Captain Maitland, could make no promises. His long course of perfidy had deprived him of all right to claim trust and his unscrupulous ambition made him too dangerous to be left at large. For the security of the human race, he must be outlawed; and he had outlawed himself by proving that no engagements and no principles could bind him. He was carried to St. Helena, by the agreement of the sovereigns of Europe, who committed the charge of him to that nation which he had most constantly and most bitterly hated. The French force on the field of Waterloo was about 72,000 men; the army under Wellington 68,000; the Prussians bringing 36,000 more in the evening. Napoleon had 240 pieces of cannon: Wellington 180. The loss, in killed and wounded, of the Allies was nearly 11,000, besides 6,000 Prussians. That of the French was 40,000. But their force was besides wholly broken and dispersed ; and it never rallied. After passing their own frontier the infantry melted away among the villages of France; and the artillery sold their horses, and returned to their homes. An attempt was made to defend Paris, under the dread of the return of the Bourbons; and on the third of July the capitulation of Paris was signed. The soldiery marched out, with their arms and equipments, and proceeded to the Loire, beyond which they were to transport themselves. On the 7th, Wellington led the army of the Allies into Paris. The Bourbons were close behind; and Louis XVIII. made his entry the next day. All was silent and forlorn. The streets were almost deserted; and the clang of the horses' feet echoed from the lofty houses. The Prussians were with difficulty prevented from hauling down the public monuments of Napoleon's victories, and blowing up bridges; and in the environs, their troops were pillaging without mercy. The works of Art which Napoleon had gathered together from the conquered cities of Europe were sent back to their places: and the inhabitants of Paris felt, for the first time, what subjugation was. England, meantime, was almost mad with joy. The previous suspense had been terrible; and in London, people could hardly sleep for the expectation of news from Belgium. At last, the Park and Tower guns told that the news was good. The Gazette was read to crowds in the streets. Every house was lighted up. A day of Thanksgiving was appointed; and the collection in the churches. and chapels of the kingdom on behalf of those widowed, orphaned, and maimed, by the battle of Waterloo amounted to 500,000l. Both Houses of Parliament voted thanks to Wellington and his army; and the Waterloo medal was struck-to be worn by every man engaged on that memor able 18th of June. It was not till November that the Second Treaty of Paris was signed and during the whole interval 800,000 foreign troops were quartered on the inhabitants of France. It was on the 20th of Nov. that the Treaty was signed and ratified. On the 30th, Wellington issued his last General Order, on breaking up his army. After commending the good conduct of his troops, in their camps and cantonments, not less than in the field, he took his leave of them in these words: "Whatever may be the future destination of those brave troops, of which the Field Marshal now takes his leave, he trusts that every individual will believe that he will ever feel the deepest interest in their honour and welfare, and will always be happy to promote either." Their destination was never more to be the battle-field in Europe. That General Order was issued thirty-five years ago; and England is still at Peace. CHAPTER X. Steam Navigation-Death of Boulton-Chain Cables-Steam Carriages THE history of a people during the time of war is nearly the same with the history of the war and its effects. There is little left to be told of the condition of the English people between 1800 and 1815. At the opening of the century, Messrs. Boulton and Watt's steam engine was at work at the Mint, and found capable of new applications, from year to year. The Americans discovered one application which has proved of some importance since, and which will mark our century in the history of the arts for ever. Just before the opening of the century, a great man in New York, Chancellor Livingstone, obtained from the State Legislature an exclusive privilege for the navigating of boats by means of a steam engine on board. He forfeited his privilege by being unable, within the assigned time, to impel a boat at the rate of four miles an hour. At Paris, however, in 1803, the thing was accomplished-Mr. Livingstone having there met his countryman, Fulton, who was ready enough to try the necessary series of experiments. Meantime, Lord Dundas had been encouraging the experiments of Symington in Scotland; and in 1802, a steam tug, with Lord Dundas on board, towed two loaded vessels, against a strong head wind, nineteen miles on the Forth and Clyde canal, in six hours. The thing was certainly done before Fulton succeeded in his Seine voyage in 1803. But the canal |