CHAPTER XL

Napoleon heads his army on the Belgian frontier—­Passes the Sambre at Charleroi—­Defeats Blucher at Ligny—­Battle of Quatre-Bras—­The English fall back on a position previously selected by Wellington—­THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO—­Napoleon returns to Paris.

Napoleon had now, among other preparations, strongly fortified Paris and all the positions in advance of it on the Seine, the Marne and the Aube, and among the passes of the Vosgesian hills.  Lyons also had been guarded by very formidable outworks.  Massena, at Metz, and Suchet, on the Swiss frontier, commanded divisions which the Emperor judged sufficient to restrain Schwartzenberg for some time on the Upper Rhine:  should he drive them in, the fortresses behind could hardly fail to detain him much longer.  Meantime the Emperor himself had resolved to attack the most alert of his enemies, the Prussians and the English, beyond the Sambre—­while the Austrians were thus held in check on the Upper Rhine, and ere the armies of the North could debouche upon Manheim, to co-operate by their right with Wellington and Blucher, and by their left with Schwartzenberg.  Of the Belgian army, and even of the Belgian people, he believed himself to possess the secret goodwill, and that one victory would place the Allies in a hostile country.  By some daring battle, and some such splendid success, he yet hoped to shatter the confidence of the European confederacy; nor—­even had he entertained little hope of this kind—­was the situation of affairs in Paris such as to recommend another protracted and defensive warfare within France.  The fatal example of 1814 was too near:  it behoved Napoleon to recommence operations in the style which had characterised his happier campaigns.

He left Paris on the evening of the 11th of June, exclaiming, as he entered his carriage, “I go to measure myself against Wellington.”  He arrived at Vervins on the 12th, and assembled and reviewed at Beaumont, on the 14th, the whole of the army which had been prepared to act immediately under his own orders.  They had been carefully selected, and formed, perhaps, the most perfect force, though far from the most numerous, with which he had ever taken the field.  Buonaparte saw before him 25,000 of his imperial guard, 25,000 cavalry in the highest condition, 300 pieces of artillery admirably served, and infantry of the line, almost all veterans, sufficient to swell his muster to at least 135,000 men.  He reminded them that this was the anniversary of Marengo and of Friedland, and asked, “Are they and we no longer the same men?  The madmen!” he continued, “a moment of prosperity has blinded them.  The oppression and humiliation of the French people is beyond their power.  If they enter France they will there find their tomb.  Soldiers! we have forced marches, battles and dangers before us.  For every Frenchman who has a heart the moment is arrived to conquer or to perish!” Such was his oration:  and never was army more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its chief.