WATERLOO-THE LAST OF THE GUARD

Long and earnestly, one from the heights of Mont St. Jean, the other from those of Rossomme, the two great Captains scanned the opposing line.  Napoleon seemed to have recovered from his indisposition.  Indeed, he had undergone frightful fatigues which would have been incredible if sustained by a younger man, and which would have been impossible to any other man than he.  To add to his fatigue, he was ill.  He could not sleep and the nature of his illness was such that it was agony for him to mount a horse.  This condition had been aggravated by the awful exertion, physical and mental, he had made and the strain of that long afternoon of desperate fighting.  Nor had he eaten anything the livelong day.  Yet at about half after six that night he did get into the saddle again.  Conquering his anguish, he rode down to the fifteen battalions of the Guard still held in reserve at La Belle Alliance, all that was left intact of that proud and gallant army.

“My children,” he said hoarsely in last appeal, “I must sleep in Brussels to-night.  There is the enemy.  Go and break the English line for me.”

Cambronne, to whom nature and education alike had denied every attribute of grace or greatness except unbounded devotion and stubborn courage, mustered the Guard.  Ney, lé terrible Rougeaud, the soldiers’ idol, his torn uniform covered with dust, one of his epaulets slashed from his shoulder, his coat open, his shirt likewise, his bared breast black with powder, his face red-streaked with blood, for many bullets had grazed him, his hair matted with sweat-the weather had grown frightfully hot, the air was terribly humid-his eyes blazing, flecks of foam about his mouth, placed himself in the lead.  Every staff officer left joined the great Marshal.

With the brass drums beating “La Grenadière,” that famous grenadier quick-step, the great Guard moved out.  Here, again, in the excitement of the conflict, an opportunity was overlooked.  They could have gone up in rear of La Haye Sainte with practically no danger, but they went straight out into the open, between farm and chateau.  Up the road, over the fields of bloody grain, through the torn hedges, trampling over the bodies of their comrades, the last hope advanced to meet the enemy.

All over the field the tide of battle ebbed and flowed.  The armies came together for the last try.  Off to the right Lobau still held his appointed station, but now the Prussians in great masses were swarming on the field about Planchenoit.  Division after division, avoiding Lobau meanwhile, mounted the ridge to join the English line.  It had almost been broken by d’Erlon at La Haye Sainte.  Mouffling, Wellington’s Prussian aide, had galloped over to Ziethen in command of the advance with the news that unless the English were reinforced heavily at once their line would be pierced and they would be routed.  On to the field opposite La Haye Sainte came the Prussians.  Still raged the battle around Hougomont and the English right, but the eyes of every spectator not engaged in fighting for his life were concentrated on the advance of the Guard.

Napoleon had ridden down from Rossomme to La Belle Alliance.  He sat his horse within easy cannon-shot of the English as the devoted Guard passed by in its last review.  His physical pain was forgot in the great anxiety with which he watched them.  The battle was practically lost.  This was the last desperate throw of the gambler, the last stake he could place upon the board.  He knew it, every officer knew it, perhaps even the more experienced grenadiers like old Bullet-Stopper of the Guard knew it.  That did not matter to them.  They were his men and at his word, for him, they were going forward to conquer or die.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, keeping time to the long continuous rolling of the drums whose notes were heard even above the roar of the cannon and the tumult of the battle, the Guard, from whose lips came one continuous cry of “Vive l’Empereur!” marched forward.  Covered as usual by the fire of one of those great batteries of concentrated guns so conspicuous in Napoleonic tactics, through the smoke and the mist and the shadows of the evening, they passed on.  Napoleon himself with three battalions in reserve followed a little distance behind them.

Now they were mounting the hill, now they were abreast of La Haye Sainte; now the ridge in front of them was topped with English.  Away off could be heard the thunder of the oncoming Prussian horsemen, the roar of the Prussian guns.  Back of the ridge the brigades of light cavalry stood ready.  The infantry reserve with brave Colborne and the Fifty-second, thirteen hundred strong, in the lead, were quivering with excitement.  Even the stolid British phlegm had vanished.  This was the last supreme moment.  Throbbed wildly the usually steady hearts of the cool islanders.  If they could stop this grand advance the battle would be gained.  The hill would be held.  Could they do it?  And if not !

Out of the smoke and mist opposite the English soldiers of the Royal Guard came their Imperial enemies.  The waiting British saw the black bearskins of the tall Guard, the imperial insignia on cross-belts and uniforms.  They were so near that they could see the grim faces of the old soldiers, their mustaches working, their lips drawn back over their teeth, snarling, sputtering like savage beasts.  Here and there mouths were tight shut in a firm line.  Here and there men came silently, but mostly they were yelling.  And they came up, arms aport, after the precept and example of Dorsenne, lé beau Dorsenne, alas, no longer with them, to try conclusions for the last time with the soldiers’ white weapon, the bayonet, cold steel!  Would the English wait for that?  They would not.

“Fire!” cried an English voice just when the suspense had become unbearable.

The heavens were shattered by the discharge.  Ney pitched from his horse, the sixth that day to be shot under him.  He was up in a moment, his sword out.  He advanced on foot at the head of the Guard.  It was his last charge.  He was to face muskets again, but in Paris, in the hands of a firing-squad, with his back to the wall.  He was not given the coveted privilege of dying on that stricken field, though he sought for it wildly everywhere, but when he did die it was as he had lived, undaunted.  Now, his great voice uplifted, he led forward the devoted and immortal band.  His sword was shot out of his hand.  Seizing a gun and a bayonet from a falling grenadier, he fought in the ranks as in Russia.

Again, the tactics were faulty, as d’Erlon’s men the Guard came in solid columns.  Right in front of the rapid-firing English, the muskets and cannon in one continuous roar now, they sought to deploy and return that terrible withering fire.  The Prussian infantry, panting like dogs, now gained the crest of the ridge and, animated by more than human hatred, fell into disorderly but determined lines and opened fire.  Harsh German oaths and exclamations mingled with hearty English curses and cheers.  The Guard was firing rapidly now, straight into the faces of the English.  And still the columns came on.  Like a great wave which rushes forward at first swiftly and then goes slower and slower and slower as it rolls up the beach it advanced.  By and by it stopped.  The end was at hand.  With bent heads the men stood and took the hail of lead and iron.

“Come!” said Ney, frantic with battle fever.  “Come!  See how a Marshal of France can die.”

Now was the crucial moment.  The Iron Duke saw it.  The two armies were face to face firing into each other.  To which side would the victory incline?  He spoke to Maitland, to Adams, to Colborne.  That gallant soldier threw his men on the exposed flank of the column which had obliqued, bent to the right.  Before they could face about out of the smoke came the yelling English!  They found the men on the flank of the column the next morning just where it had stood lying in ordered ranks dead.

Still they did not give back.  Vivian and Vandeleur, daring light horsemen, were now hurled on the devoted division.  At it they ran.  On it they fell.  Still it stood.  It was incredible.  It was almost surrounded now.  The attack had failed.  To advance was impossible, to retreat was dishonor.  They would stand!  Their case was hopeless.  Appeals were made for the survivors to lay down their arms and surrender.  Into the faces of the assailants vulgar but heroic Cambronne hurled a disgusting but graphic word.  No, nobody said so, but the Guard would not surrender.  It would die.

Back of his Guard, the Emperor, having stopped not far from the chateau, watched them die.  He was paler than ever, sweat poured from his face, his eyes and lips twitched nervously and spasms of physical pain added their torture to the mental agony of the moment.  He muttered again and again: 

“Mon Dieu!  Mais ils sont meles ensemble.”

Now the Prussian horsemen, the Death-head Hussars, added their weight to Vandeleur’s and Vivian’s swordsmen and lancers.  Other regiments supplemented the withering fire of the advancing Fifty-second and the reserve brigades.  Now, at last, the Guard began to give back.  Slowly, reluctantly, clinging to their positions, fighting, firing, savage, mad-they began to give way.

“Tout est perdu,” whispered Napoleon.

“The Guard retreats!” cried someone near the Emperor.

“La Garde recule!” rose here and there from the battlefield. “La Garde recule!” Men caught up the cry in wonder and despair.  Could it be true?  Yes.  Back they came out of the smoke.  Now was the supreme opportunity for the allies.  The Duke, recklessly exposing himself on the crest of the hill, bullets flying about him, as they flew about Napoleon, yet leading apparently a charmed life, closed his field-glass and turned to the red line that had made good its defense.

“Up!” he cried, waving his hand and not finishing his sentence.

They needed no other signal.  Their time to attack had come.  Down the hill they rushed, yelling, followed by Belgians, Netherlanders, and all the rest, pressing hard upon their heels.  La Haye Sainte was recaptured in the twinkling of an eye.  The shattered broken remains of the Guard were driven in headlong rout.  The assailers of Hougomont were themselves assaulted.  At last numbers had overwhelmed Lobau.  The survivors of an army of a hundred and thirty thousand flushed with victory fell on the survivors of an army of seventy thousand already defeated.

At half-past seven the battle was lost.  At eight the withdrawal became a retreat, the retreat a rout.  At set of sun lost was the Emperor, lost was the Empire.  Ended was the age-long struggle which had begun with the fall of the Bastile more than a score of years before.  Once again from France, with the downfall of Napoleon, had been snatched the hegemony of the world.

There was no reserve.  There was nothing to cover a retreat.  Someone raised the wild cry not often heard on battlefields overlooked by Napoleon, and it was echoed everywhere: 

“Sauve qui peut.”

The army as an army was gone.  Thousands of men in mad terror fled in every direction.  Still, there were left a few battalions of the Guard which had not been in action.  They formed three squares to receive the English and Prussians.  Into the nearest square Napoleon, bewildered, overwhelmed, stricken by the catastrophe, was led on his horse.  His sword was out.  He would fain have died on that field.  Doubtless, many a bullet marked him, but none struck him.  For a little while these squares of the Guard, Napoleon in the center one, another square on either side of the center one, stayed the British and Prussian advance, but it was not to be.  “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera!” The Emperor gave no order.  Bertrand and Soult turned his horse about and the squares retreated.

It was night.  They were the sole organized body left.  Well, they upheld their ancient fame and glorious reputation and untarnished honor.  Through the calm and moonlit night pursuers and pursued could hear the rolling of the brass drums far and wide over the countryside as the Guard marched away from that field back to stricken France, to that famous grenadier march, “La Grenadière.”

Again and again they stopped to beat off the furious attack of the cavalry.  Again and again the Prussian pursuers hurled themselves unavailingly on quadrangles of steel, worked up to a terrible pitch of excitement by the possibility that they might seize the Emperor at whose behest and for whose purpose fifty thousand men lay dead or wounded on that fatal hill, in that dreadful valley.  Happy the fate of those who were dead-horrible the condition of those who were wounded.  English, Prussians, Germans, Bavarians, Hollanders, French, trampled together in indistinguishable masses.  Horses, guns, weapons, equipment-everything in hopeless confusion.  Every horror, every anguish, every agony was there-incense burned about the altar of one devouring ambition.