Belgium, the frequent battle-ground of Europe, whose every stream and
every town is associated with the memory of bygone deeds of arms,
was destined, in 1815, to witness another and a mighty struggle--a
struggle in which were arrayed, on the one side, the two foremost of
the confederated Armies advancing towards the French frontiers; and, on
the other, the renowned _Grande Armée_ of Imperial France, resuscitated
at the magic call of its original founder--the great NAPOLEON himself.
During the months of April and May, troops of all arms continued to
enter upon, and spread themselves over, the Belgian soil.
Here might be seen the British soldier, flushed with recent triumphs
in the Peninsula over the same foe with whom he was now prepared once
more to renew the combat; and here the Prussian, eager for the deadly
strife, and impatiently rushing onward to encounter that enemy whose
ravages and excesses in his Fatherland still rankled in his memory.
The Englishman was not fired by the desire of retribution; for it had
pleased Divine Providence to spare Great Britain from the scourge of
domestic war, and to preserve her soil unstained by the footprint of
a foreign enemy. The Prussian soldier looked forward with a sullen
pleasure to the prospect of revenge: vengeance seemed to him a sacred
duty, imposed upon him by all the ties of kindred, and by all those
patriotic feelings, which, in the hour of Prussia's need, had roused
her entire people from the abject state to which they had been so
fatally subdued; which, when the whole country lay prostrate at the
conqueror's feet, so wonderfully, so powerfully, and so successfully
prompted her sons to throw off the yoke. History will mark this
deliverance as the brilliant point in Prussia's brightest era,
affording as it does, a clear and beautiful parallel to that in which
an equally forcible appeal to the energies of the nation was made with
similar success by that illustrious Statesman and General, FREDERICK
THE GREAT, when opposed single-handed to the immense Armies and
powerful resources of surrounding States. France was about to expiate
by her own sufferings the wrongs she had wrought upon his country and
his kind, and the Prussian panted for an opportunity of satiating his
revenge.
The Briton, if he had no such spur as that which urged the Prussian
soldier forward, did not want a sufficiently exciting stimulus; he
cherished, in an eminent degree, that high feeling and proud bearing
which a due sense of the obligations imposed on him by his country, and
of her anxious expectations of his prowess, could not fail to inspire;
determined resolutely and cheerfully to discharge the former, and, if
possible, to more than realise the latter.
[Illustration: Wellington]
[Illustration]
These feelings and dispositions of the soldiery in the two most
advanced of the Allied Armies were concentrated with remarkable
intensity in the characters of their respective Chiefs.
* * * * *
With peculiar propriety may it be said of the illustrious WELLINGTON,
that he personified, as he ever has done, the pure ideal of the
British soldier--the true character of his own followers. Resolute,
yet cool, cautious and calculating in his proceedings; possessing
a natural courage unshaken even under the most appalling dangers
and difficulties; placing great yet not vain reliance upon physical
and moral strength, as opposed to the force of numbers;--it was not
surprising that he should have inspired with unbounded confidence,
soldiers who could not but see in his character and conduct the
reflection and stamp of their own qualities, the worth of which he
so well knew, and which he had so often proved during the arduous
struggle that had been brought to so brilliant and so glorious a
conclusion. But besides these traits in his character, which so
completely identified him with a British Army, there were others which
peculiarly distinguished him as one of the greatest Captains that his
own or any other nation ever produced, and which might well inspire
confidence as to the result of the approaching contest, even opposed
as he was to the hero of a hundred fights, with whom he was now, for
the first time, to measure swords. The eagle glance with which he
detected the object of every hostile movement and the promptitude with
which he decided upon, and carried into effect, the measures necessary
to counteract the Enemy's efforts; the lightning-like rapidity with
which he conducted his attacks, founded as they frequently were upon
the instantaneously discovered errors of his opponents; the noble and
unexampled presence of mind with which he surveyed the battlefield, and
with which he gave his orders and instructions; unaffected by merely
temporary success, unembarrassed by sudden difficulties, and undismayed
by unexpected danger; the many proofs which his operations in the
Peninsula had afforded of his accurate knowledge, just conception,
and skilful discrimination, of the true principles of the Science of
Strategy--all tended to point him out as the individual best fitted by
his abilities, his experience, and his character, to head the military
array assembled to decide the all-important question whether the Star
of NAPOLEON was to regain the ascendant, or to set in darkness; whether
his iron despotism was again to erect its mighty head, or to be now
struck down and crushed--finally and effectually crushed.
* * * * *
The character of the Commander of the Prussian Army in this memorable
Campaign, the veteran Marshal Prince BLÜCHER VON WAHLSTADT, was, in
like manner, peculiarly adapted for concentrating within itself all
those feelings and emotions already adverted to as animating this
portion of the enemies of France--possessing, to a degree bordering
on rashness, a high spirited daring in enterprise; distinguished, on
critical occasions in the field, when the unrestrained feelings and
nature of the _ci-devant_ bold Hussar started forth in aid of the
veteran Commander, by a personal display of chivalrous and impetuous
bravery; ever vigilant for an opportunity of harassing his Enemy;
and fixedly relentless in the pursuit, so long as he retained the
mastery; qualities, which, in his own country, had acquired for him the
sobriquet of _Marschall VORWÄRTS_--he was eminently fitted to be both
the representative and the leader of the Prussians.
* * * * *
Here, too, in close alliance and amity with the British soldier, were
seen the German Legionary, the Hanoverian, and the Brunswicker, who had
so nobly shared with him, under the same Chief, all the toils and all
the glories of the War in the Peninsula; and who were now prepared to
defend the threatened liberties of their respective countries, the very
existence of which, as independent States, hung upon the issue of the
impending struggle.
Although the British were but little acquainted with their other
Allies, the Dutch, the Belgians, and the Nassau troops in the service
of the King of the Netherlands, still the fact that it was upon their
own soil the brunt of the coming contest was to fall, and in all
probability to decide the question whether it should become a portion
of Imperial France, or continue an independent State, coupled with the
knowledge which the British troops possessed of the character of the
Prince at their head, who had gained his laurels under their own eyes,
and who had thus ingratiated himself in their favour, encouraged great
hopes of their hearty exertions in the common cause.
* * * * *
It was naturally to be expected that NAPOLEON, from the moment he
reascended the throne of his former glory, would devote the utmost
energies of his all-directing mind to the full development of whatever
military means France, notwithstanding her recent reverses, yet
retained; but the rapidity and the order with which so regular and
so well organised a force as that which was now concentrating on the
French side of the Sambre, had been collected and put in motion, were
truly wonderful. The speedy and almost sudden reappearance of the old
Army in all its grandeur, with its Corps and Divisions headed by men,
who, by a series of daring and successful exploits, had proved their
just titles to command, and endeared themselves to the old campaigners,
was such that it seemed as if the French had realised the fable of the
dragon's teeth, which it might be said they had sown as they crossed
their frontiers in the previous year, when retreating upon the capital
before the victorious Allies. Never did any Army contain within itself
so much of that necessary essence in the composition of a military
force,--unbounded enthusiasm, combined with the purest devotion to
its leader. The oft-told tale of the veteran of so many a hard-fought
field, indulging in the hope of aiding by his exertions, at any
sacrifice, in again carrying the Eagles to the scenes of their former
triumphs, excited the ardour of many a youthful aspirant to share with
him the glory of wiping out the stain which had dimmed the lustre of
his country's fame, and darkened a most eventful page in her annals.
* * * * *
Such being the nature of the elements ready to rush into collision, it
was easy to foresee that the shock which that collision would produce,
would be both violent and terrible; but no one could have anticipated
that within the short space of four days from the commencement of
hostilities, the die would be irrevocably cast, annihilating for ever
the imperial sway of NAPOLEON, and securing to Europe one of the
longest periods of peace recorded in her history.
[Illustration]