Victor Hugo pictures a man who is so maddened by failure and
misfortune that he resolves on suicide. He is at the end of
his resources, and he capitulates to death. No sooner has he
committed suicide than the postman drops a letter in at his door
which contains the information that a distant relative has left
him a large fortune. If he had waited but one hour longer! For
want of patience he lost all!
(1546)
* * * * *
Sergeant Cotton in his book “A Voice from Waterloo,” tells us what
Wellington thought Napoleon ought to have done:
Napoleon never had so fine an army as at Waterloo. He was
certainly wrong in attacking at all. He might have played again
the same defensive game in the French territory which he had
played so admirably the year before; that campaign of 1814 I
consider the very finest he ever made. He might have given us
great trouble and had many chances in his favor. But the fact is
he never in his life had patience for a defensive war.
(1547)