3. Hence arose the Peninsular War which, with varying success, was persevered in for years as the most effectual way of draining the life-blood of France. That war was to France like a running sore. Napoleon sent his best generals, one after another, to put an end to the war by driving the British out of the country. To Marshal Soult he wrote, "You are to advance on the English, pursue them without ceasing, beat them and fling them into the sea. The English alone are formidable—they alone." But the English refused to be flung into the sea. On the contrary, it was the French that had, in the end, to take their flight homeward.
4. In the course of his seven campaigns in the Peninsula, Wellington found the tide of success ebb and flow. Sometimes he was able to advance and drive the enemy before him, sometimes he was compelled to retreat and stand on the defensive; but whether advancing or retiring he suffered no disaster, he lost no pitched battle. Much of Wellington's success was due to the solidity and steady discipline of his troops, still more perhaps to his own military skill and personal character. By patience and perseverance, by careful attention to details, by never letting a chance slip by, by never sparing himself, by making "duty" his watch-word; by such plain, homely virtues our Wellington fought and won. "Wellington dazzled no one," says a French writer, "but he beat us all the same." After being routed at Vittoria, in 1813, the French were compelled to beat a hasty retreat across the Pyrenees, and to seek safety in France.
5. In the meanwhile, Napoleon's great army of 400,000 men had perished in Russia, and in the retreat from the burning city of Moscow. Henceforth, Napoleon is like a hunted lion whom his enemies were gradually gathering round so as to cut off his retreat and encage him. At length, in 1814, the fallen emperor resigned his crown, and retired to the little island of Elba, which was to serve as his prison.
6. Wellington's work now seemed crowned with success, but really a greater task was in front of him. In March, 1815, the world was startled to hear that the lion encaged at Elba had made his escape, and was now at large in France. Owing to the return, since the peace, of some 200,000 of his veterans from the prisons of Germany, Napoleon was soon at the head of a powerful army. All Europe flew to arms. The first to encounter his troops were the British and the Prussians.
7. In the great battle of Waterloo (18th June, 1815), the fate of Napoleon was finally decided. It was the first time Napoleon had witnessed the unflinching courage and stubborn solidity of British troops, and ere the battle began had only mocked at Soult when he declared, "They will die rather than quit the ground on which they stand." With his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon ceased to be the central figure of the civilised world. He was banished to the Isle of St. Helena, and there he died after six years spent in darkly brooding over his broken fortunes.
8. On Napoleon's fall, the nations of Europe entered on a long peace. A congress was held between the great powers at Vienna, and the map of Europe redrawn, France being thrust back within her ancient borders. During the war England had seized the Colonial possessions of France. Those of Holland shared the same fate, for she had thrown in her lot with her powerful neighbour. The war had cost Britain a vast sum of money and many thousands of lives but she now received large additions to her empire.
9. By the Treaty of Vienna, Britain was allowed to retain what is now called British Guiana, Ceylon, and the Cape of Good Hope, all of which she had taken from Holland. She also obtained the island of Mauritius, which, lying on the sea-route to India, had long enabled the French to strike a blow at our Indian trade and possessions. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies also fell to her share, and above all the island of Malta, placed like a watch-tower in the centre of the Mediterranean, the central sea of the civilised world.
10. Nor do these important additions to the empire include all the fruits of victory in the course of the great war with Napoleon. An Australian writer tells us that the Australian colonies are apt to think of these Napoleonic wars as matters having no direct bearing on their concerns. But in reality, as he reminds them, Australia was made British on the shores of Europe. What Hawke and Wolfe did for Canada, Nelson and Wellington did for Australia. We owe it to Trafalgar and Waterloo that the island-continent to-day is free and peaceful from end to end, instead of being parcelled out among nations of different races, all jealous of one another. We owe it to the success of our arms, under Nelson and Wellington, that when in later years the French asked how much of the Australian continent we claimed, our Minister could say, "The whole," without their being able to say "Nay."
11. We usually associate peace with plenty; but such was not the first results of the long peace which followed the victory at Waterloo. The war had given employment to thousands who now found wherever they turned for work, a notice staring them in the face, "No more hands wanted here." One great advantage to our colonies arose from this state of things. Finding it impossible to make a living in the old country, large numbers in the first years of the peace emigrated to the colonies, where brawny arms were in great demand, and where food was cheap and plentiful. We shall presently follow the fortunes of our countrymen who now go forth to plant nations on the shores of Australia, to people the valleys of Tasmania, to share New Zealand with the Maoris, to take possession of South Africa and lay there the foundation of a great state,—driven across the seas by
"Such wind as scatters young men through the world
To seek their fortunes further than at home,
Where small experience grows,"