THE SQUARE OF THE OLD GUARD AT BAY AFTER WATERLOO.
From the picture by H. Bellangé.
THE OLD GUARD MARCH AWAY
The Grenadiers of the Guard escorted Napoleon for four miles from the battlefield, beating back repeated efforts that were made by Prussian cavalry to break up their ranks. To maintain their formation to the last was their only hope of safety; and terrible were the measures they took to safeguard themselves and keep their ranks intact. Friend or foe who attempted to get in among them was mercilessly shot down. “Nous tirons,” describes General Petit, “sur tout ce qui presentaient, amis et ennemis, de peur de laisser entrer les uns avec les autres.” They took their way along the Charleroi road; the 2nd Grenadiers marching on the chaussée itself, the 1st Grenadiers to the left of the road. With marvellous calmness and cool courage did the veterans proceed on their way. “Every few minutes they stopped to rectify the alignment of the faces of the square, and to keep off pursuit by means of rapid and well-sustained musketry.”
Erckmann-Chatrian’s soldier of the 25th, who was amongst the fugitives streaming across country on either side of the high-road, tells how he heard from afar the stately drum-beat of their march. “In the distance La Grenadière sounded like an alarm-bell in the midst of a conflagration. Yet, indeed, this was much more terrible—it was the last drum-beat of France! This rolling of the drums of the Old Guard sounding forth in the midst of disaster had in it something infinitely pathetic as well as terrible.”
And of the scene with Napoleon in the square of the Grenadiers as it tramped its way along, we have this from Thiers: “With sombre but calm countenance, he rode in the centre of the square, his far-seeing glance as it were probing futurity and realising that more than a battle had been lost that day. He only interrupted his gloomy meditations to inquire now and again for his lieutenants, some of whom were among the wounded near him. The soldiers all round seemed stupefied by the disaster. The men moved stolidly on, almost without a word to one another. Napoleon alone seemed to be able to speak; occasionally addressing a few words to the Major-General (Soult), or to his brother Jerome, who rode beside him. Now and again, when harassed by the Prussian squadrons, the square would halt, and the side that was attacked fired on the assailants, after which the sad and silent march was resumed.”
Throughout the march, keeping their position at a little distance from the squares of the Grenadiers, rode the Horse-Grenadiers and the Mounted Chasseurs of the Guard. One of the finest displays of soldierly endurance ever made, perhaps, was that given by the Horse-Grenadiers of the Guard as the magnificent regiment left the field, “moving at a walk, in close columns and in perfect order; as if disdaining to allow itself to be contaminated by the confusion that prevailed around it.” So describes a British officer who saw them ride away. They beat off all attacks and kept steadily and compactly together. “They literally walked from the field in the most orderly manner, moving majestically along, with their Eagle in their midst, as though merely marching to take up their ground for a field-day.” This, further, is what a British officer of Light Dragoons, who came up with them in the pursuit, says of their heroic demeanour: “Seeing the men of our brigade approach, they halted, formed line, and fired a volley—a rare thing for dragoons—and waited a few minutes, as much as to say, ‘We are ready to receive your charge if you are so disposed’; then finding we did not advance, they again continued their slow retreat.”
A FAMOUS EAGLE NOW IN FRANCE
The Eagle of the Horse-Grenadiers has disappeared since Waterloo: that of the Mounted Chasseurs of the Guard is in existence, in France, in the custody of a member of the Bonaparte family. It was preserved by General Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment, who commanded the Chasseurs at Waterloo. Carried in safety to France, the Eagle was then taken to America, when the General, on whose head a price had been placed, escaped across the Atlantic in the autumn of 1815. He presented it later to Joseph Bonaparte, in the possession of whose representatives the Eagle is now. It still bears attached to the staff the green silk guidon-shaped flag, inscribed “Chasseurs de la Garde,” and embroidered with gold and silver laurel-leaves, which it bore at Waterloo.