Napoleon leaves Elba; lands in France.—Louis XVIII quits Paris.—Napoleon, joined by the army, arrives in Paris.—Hostile declaration of the great powers of Europe against Napoleon, which he treats with contempt, and prepares for war.—France soon appears one vast camp.—Allied armies assemble in Belgium.—The duke of Wellington arrives and takes the command; adopts precautionary measures.—In consequence of rumours, his Grace issues a secret memorandum, and draws the army together.—Strength, composition and distribution of the allied, Prussian, and French armies.—Continued rumours; and certain intelligence of the enemy’s advance.—Importance of holding Brussels.—Napoleon’s attempt to surprise us frustrated.—Blücher concentrates his forces.—Napoleon joins his army, and issues his order of the day; attacks the Prussian outposts, and takes Charleroi.—Intelligence reaches the Duke.—Distribution of the enemy.—The Duke orders the army to prepare, and afterwards to march on Quatre-Bras.—The duchess of Richmond’s ball.—The troops in motion at early dawn.—His Grace proceeds by Waterloo to Quatre-Bras, and from thence to Ligny, where he meets Blücher, whom he promises to support, and returns to Quatre-Bras.—Picton’s division and the Brunswickers arrive at Quatre-Bras, and are attacked by the French left column under Ney; more of our troops arrive.—Outline of the battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny.—Observations.
On the 26th of February 1815, Napoleon, accompanied by about a thousand of his guards, and all his civil and military officers, secretly left the isle of Elba, and landed the 1st of March, near Cannes, on the coast of Provence. The Emperor immediately marched towards the French capital; and arrived in Paris on the evening of the 20th; the same day that Louis XVIII set out for Ghent.
Joined by all the troops which had been sent to oppose him, Napoleon was enabled to re-establish his authority in France. Amongst those who rejoined him, was marshal Ney, “le Brave des Braves;” he who had so warmly expressed himself in favour of the restoration of the Bourbons, and who, when appointed to the command of a body of troops to oppose his former master, declared, whilst kissing the king’s hand, that “he would bring back Napoleon in an iron cage.” Ney and the iron cage was the chief topic of conversation in Paris, when the news of his having joined Napoleon with his corps d’armée reached that capital[1].
The great powers of Europe, then assembled in congress at Vienna, instantly declared, that Napoleon, by breaking the convention which established him as an independent sovereign at Elba, had destroyed the only legal title on which his political existence depended, placed himself without the pale of the law, and proved to the world, that there could neither be truce nor peace with him. The allied powers, in consequence, denounced Napoleon as the enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of Europe, and resolved immediately upon uniting their forces against him and his faction, to preserve, if possible, the general peace.
Notwithstanding the hostile declaration of the allied sovereigns, they were utterly unable to put their armies in motion without that most powerful lever, English gold, the real sinews of war. Britain’s expenditure in 1815, was no less than 110,000,000l. sterling; out of which immense sum 11,000,000l. were distributed as subsidies amongst the contracting powers: Austria received 1,796,220l.; Russia, 3,241,919l.; Prussia, 2,382,823l.; and Hanover, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands, with the smaller German states, shared the remainder amongst them.
Menacing as the position of the allies towards Napoleon appeared to be, and imposing as were their armies assembling to oppose him, he assumed a bold and resolute posture of defence. The general aspect of France at that time was singularly warlike; nearly the whole nation appeared to be electrified, and buckled on its armour to join the messenger of war. The exaltation of Napoleon was soon however sobered down by the arrival in Paris of the declaration of the allied powers, which document was little calculated to produce a favourable impression as to the ultimate success of the Emperor’s enterprise. The war-cry of nearly every state in Europe was, To arms! Draw the sword, throw away the scabbard, until the usurper shall be entirely subjugated and his adherents put down.
Napoleon, however, appeared undismayed, and endeavoured, by every means, to conceal the determined resolution of Europe from the French nation, who, for the most part, cheerfully responded to their leader’s call. Troops were organized, as if by magic, all over the country. The scarred veterans of a hundred battles, they who had followed their “petit caporal” through many a gory fight, heard with joy the voice of their idolized Emperor, summoning them again to glorious war and the battle field. There was a generation of fierce, daring, war-breathing men, ever ready to range themselves under the Imperial banners. Davoust states that France, on Napoleon’s return, was overrun with soldiers just released from the prisons of Europe, most of whom counted as many battles as years, and who quickly flocked round the Imperial eagles. Transports of artillery, arms, ammunition waggons, with all the materials of war, were to be seen moving from every point towards the frontiers. France, in a short time, bore the appearance of one vast camp.
To completely surround Paris with fortifications, as Louis-Philippe has since done, was also the desire of Napoleon, who inquired of Carnot, how much time and money it would require. “Three years and two hundred millions,” replied the minister, “and when finished, I would only ask for sixty thousand men and twenty-four hours to demolish the whole.”
Early in April 1815, the allied troops began to assemble in Belgium. The Anglo-Hanoverian army, commanded by the prince of Orange, (afterwards William II,) had occupied the Low-Countries for the protection of Belgium and Holland, which had been constituted by the congress of Vienna a new monarchy, under the name of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This army comprised about 28,000 men, 15,000 being British and German troops; a part of these were the remains of lord Lynedoch’s army, and the remainder young Hanoverians. 20,000 Dutch-Belgians were raised to act in concert with these troops. The general appearance of the army is thus described by sir Henry, now lord Hardinge, in a letter to lord Stewart: “This army is not unlike lord Randscliff’s description of a French pack of hounds: pointers, poodles, turnspits, all mixed up together and running in sad confusion.”
The duke of Wellington arrived in Brussels from the congress of Vienna on the night of April 4th, and took the command of the allied army; but the Dutch-Belgian army had not been placed immediately under the Duke’s command. His Grace being strongly convinced that his power of regulating the movements of the Dutch-Belgian troops ought not to be left open to any cavil or dispute, demanded the most unequivocal statement upon this matter from the king of the Netherlands. Nothing less than this measure could have made those troops serviceable to the cause of their country; such was still the fascinating power of Napoleon’s name over countries in which his rule and conscriptions had subdued and enervated the minds of men. On the 4th of May, Wellington received copies of the king’s decrees, making him field-marshal in his service, and placing the Dutch-Belgian army entirely under his command[2]. The Duke immediately put matters in a better condition, and instructed the prince of Orange how to keep up the necessary communications[3]. He transferred prince Frederick’s corps to lord Hill[4], warned the Prussian commandant at Charleroi, the duke of Berry, and all others concerned, to be on the alert; he also gave them exact accounts of the movements and strength of the enemy between Valenciennes and Maubeuge. All this was accomplished by the Duke before the 10th of May. On the 11th, he wrote to sir Henry Hardinge, then attached to the Prussian head-quarters for the purpose of communication, that he reckoned the enemy’s strength on the frontiers at 110,000 men; and was glad that Blücher was drawing his forces nearer to the British. His Grace adopted the most effective measures for placing all the fortified towns and strong places in a condition to embarrass the enemy; and notwithstanding the objections made, by interested parties, to the necessary inundations, he was firm in ordering them, wherever the general security required it. The Duke sent able engineers to limit, as much as possible, the injury arising from letting out the waters, and to inundate with fresh instead of salt water, when practicable. For this timely care of the general interests, and even, as far as it was possible, of private property, the return he met with was unceasing complaints from the authorities of the several towns, where these measures had been applied. But the Duke did his duty firmly, and, after some expostulation with unreasonable grumblers, compelled them to do theirs. On the 7th of June, he issued his orders for the defence of the towns of Antwerp, Ostend, Nieuport, Ypres, Tournay, Ath, Mons and Ghent. The governors of these respective towns were required to declare them in a state of siege, the moment the enemy should put his foot on the Belgian territory: the towns were to be defended to the utmost; and if any governor surrendered before sustaining at least one assault, and without the consent of his council, he should be deemed guilty, not only of military disobedience, but of high treason. Such decisive measures were rendered necessary, in consequence of the equivocal loyalty of many who held municipal and military rank in the Netherlands. The king had prudently invested Wellington with these important powers, and no man could have exercised them more effectively.