WATERLOO:

THE

DOWNFALL OF THE FIRST NAPOLEON:

A

HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1815.

BY

GEORGE HOOPER,

AUTHOR OF 66 THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS OF GENERAL BONAPARTE."

The great phenomenon of war it is, this and this only, which keeps open in man a spiracle
--an organ of respiration—for breathing a transcendent atmosphere, and dealing with an
idea that else would perish-viz., the idea of mixed crusade and martyrdom, doing and
suffering, that finds its realization in a battle such as that of Waterloo-viz., a battle fought
for interests of the human RACE, felt even where they are not understood; so that the tute-
lary angel of man, when he traverses such a dreadful field, when he reads the distorted
features, counts the ghastly ruins, sums the hidden anguish, and the harvests

"Of horror breathing from the silent ground,"

nevertheless, speaking as God's messenger, “blesses it and calls it very good.”

Un gouvernement est lié par ses antécédents.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

NAPOLEON III. TO VICTOR EMMANUEL.

WITH MAP AND PLANS.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.

M.DCCC.LXII.

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

B

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

WILLIAM L. FISH NAPOLEON COLLECTION GIFT OF JOHN A. ROEBLING JUNE 11, 1932

PREFACE.

THE following work (for eight years past the subject of study and meditation in the leisure hours of a busy life) was completed early in the present year. It has not been prepared for those who have themselves studied the subject deeply: the author does not presume to think that he has anything new to tell them. He has rewritten the history of the campaign of 1815 for three reasons. First, because he honestly believes that there is no account of it in English, at once full, well-arranged, accurate, and adapted for general reading; secondly, because foreign histories are not exact, and, if they were, are not accessible to the bulk of Englishmen ; thirdly, because recent and passing events have made it desirable (especially when we are asked to put faith in France, and to disarm) that attention should be recalled to the period of her grandest attempt to become dominant in Europe.

That there is in France a large party who profess honestly not to desire aggrandizement, the author is willing to believe. But the national satisfaction at the

a B

seizure of Nice and Savoy, at the interventions in Rome and Syria, shows that these professions, really believed in, at the moment they are uttered, are only transitory; and they weigh as nothing against the teaching of history. Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor partly because he was supposed to represent the policy of Napoleon I. In broad characteristics the French people are unchanged, and unchanged is the policy of their rulers.

As to histories of the last campaign of Napoleon I. there are many. The work of Captain Siborne is the fullest and most careful. But for the general reader it is not suitable, because it is so full of minute details, and so purely military in its character. It is a mass of material of the greatest value, and the author is proud to acknowledge his obligations to Captain Siborne. The other works in the English language have not appeared to him to do justice to the story. Of the foreign writers, Colonel Charras is the best; and to him also ample acknowledgments are due. In reconstructing this history, the author has had recourse to the best authorities in English, French, German, and Dutch; and from this wealth of material he has endeavoured to produce a complete and accurate work. This he has sought to accomplish by including in his narrative the career of Napoleon from Elba to St. Helena; by giving due place to political as well as military events, and by aiming at simplicity in arrangement and unity in design.