In the summer of 1815, the English war against Napoleon (S557), which
had been carried on almost constantly since his accession to power,
culminated in the decisive battle of Waterloo.[1] Napoleon had crossed
the Belgian frontier in order that he might come up with the British
before they could form a junction with their Prussian allies. All the
previous night rain had fallen in torrents, and when the soldiers rose
from their cheerless and broken sleep in the trampled and muddy fields
of rye, a drizzling rain was still falling.
[1] Waterloo, near Brussels, Belgium.
Napoleon planned the battle for the purpose of destroying first the
English and then the Prussian forces, but Wellington held his own
against the furious attacks of the French. It was evident, however,
that even the "Iron Duke," as he was called, could not continue to
withstand the terrible assaults many hours longer.
As time passed on, and he saw his solid squares melting away under the
murderous French fire, as line after line of his soldiers coming
forward silently stepped into the places of their fallen comrades,
while the expected Prussian reenforcements still delayed their
appearance, the English commander exclaimed, "O that night or Blucher
would come!" At last Blucher with his Prussians did come, and as
Grouchy, the leader of a division on which Napoleon was counting, did
not, Waterloo was finally won by the combined strength of the allies.
Not long afterwards Napoleon was sent to die a prisoner on the
desolate rock of St. Helena.
When all was over, Wellington said to Blucher, as he stood by him on a
little eminence looking down upon the field covered with the dead and
dying, "A great victory is the saddest thing on earth, except a great
defeat."
With that victory ended the second Hundred Years' War of England with
France, which began with the War of the Spanish Succession (1704)
under Marlborough (S508). At the outset the object of that war was,
first, to humble the power of Louis XIV that threatened the
independence of England; and, secondly, to protect those American
colonies which later separated fromthe mother country and became,
partly through French help, the republic of the United States.