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10 - Story of Napoleon by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall · Story of Napoleon

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of the Story of Napoleon the Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Patrick Seville. Chapter ten Napoleon's last Battle. Meanwhile, the brother
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  Speaker 1: of Louis sixteenth, whom the French had beheaded, was proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: king of France. He was not stupid, but he was
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  Speaker 1: not clever enough to rule at such a time when
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  Speaker 1: all France, and indeed all Europe, was turned upside down
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  Speaker 1: and full of discontent, every one struggling for something they
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  Speaker 1: hardly knew what. When the French soldiers who had been
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  Speaker 1: imprisoned in German fortresses were set free and came back
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  Speaker 1: to France, the discontent grew worse, for they, having spent
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  Speaker 1: so many years fighting, could not settle down to a
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  Speaker 1: life of peace. They longed for their great leader again,
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  Speaker 1: and he was soon weary of playing at empire in
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  Speaker 1: his little island. He had been there just eleven months
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  Speaker 1: when he made up his mind once more to try
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  Speaker 1: his fortune. He escaped from Elba easily enough and landed
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  Speaker 1: near Kannes on March first, eighteen fifteen. It was near
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  Speaker 1: Grenoble that Napoleon met the soldiers sent to stop him.
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  Speaker 1: He had with him a little army, for he had
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  Speaker 1: brought his soldiers from Elba, though a few others had joined.
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  Speaker 1: But now he advanced against the enemy alone. Soldiers. He cried,
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  Speaker 1: if there is one among you who desires to kill
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  Speaker 1: his emperor, he can do so. Here I am, And
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  Speaker 1: he threw back his coat as if awaiting the blow,
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  Speaker 1: But not a weapon was raised. Instead, a shout of
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  Speaker 1: long live the Emperor rang out, and every man marched
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  Speaker 1: over to his old leader's side. At Leon, the Bourbont
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  Speaker 1: generals fled, and Napoleon entered the city in triumph. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: one of Napoleon's old generals, whom he had called the
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  Speaker 1: bravest of the brave, marched to stop him, vowing to
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  Speaker 1: bring his old master back in an iron cage like
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  Speaker 1: a wild beast. But he had not gone before he too,
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  Speaker 1: declared for Napoleon and joined his army. And so as
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  Speaker 1: on and on Napoleon passed the little man in the
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  Speaker 1: big gray coat, which the soldiers knew and loved, drew
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  Speaker 1: them to himself. His army grew larger and larger. Men
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  Speaker 1: tore the white stockade of the Burbon from their hats
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  Speaker 1: and trampled it under foot. Once more, the tricolor was everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: In the middle of the night, King Louis fled from
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  Speaker 1: Paris towards Belgium, and at last, on the nineteenth of March,
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon once more reached Fontainbleau. The next day he entered Paris.
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  Speaker 1: While the Allies were gathered at Vienna trying to bring
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  Speaker 1: order into disordered Europe. They had been suddenly startled by
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  Speaker 1: the news that Napoleon had left Elba and was making
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  Speaker 1: his way to Paris. They had not agreed very well,
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  Speaker 1: but now this new danger made them forget their quarrels.
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  Speaker 1: Quickly they gathered their soldiers, and by June armies were
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  Speaker 1: marching against France from all sides. From Russia, Prussia, Sardinia, Austria,
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  Speaker 1: from Holland and Belgium, and the German states, and not
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  Speaker 1: least from Britain came troops. But Napoleon did not wait
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  Speaker 1: for France to be invaded. He marched northwards. He hoped,
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  Speaker 1: with his usual quick daring, to win some splendid battle
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  Speaker 1: and with one stroke chatter the power of the Allies
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  Speaker 1: and see himself again upon the throne of France. So
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon's last campaign was fought in Belgium. The Duke of
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  Speaker 1: Willington commanded a great part of the Allied troops which
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  Speaker 1: were gathered there, while rim Old Blucher led the Prussians.
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  Speaker 1: And it was upon the eighteenth of June, upon the
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  Speaker 1: field of Waterloo, that Napoleon made his last stand, fought
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  Speaker 1: his last fight, and lost. The night had been wet
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  Speaker 1: and bustery. In the morning rain still fell. The fair
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  Speaker 1: fields of Waterloo, about the farms of Lae Sought and
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  Speaker 1: Ugomo were boggy and sodden, and it was not until
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  Speaker 1: nearly twelve o'clock that the battle began. All day long,
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  Speaker 1: under a cloudy, stormy sky, it raged. It was a
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  Speaker 1: fight of all the nations, and in Willington's army alone,
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  Speaker 1: five languages were spoken. And while at Waterloo the thunder
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  Speaker 1: of war roared and crashed. Blucher, with his Prussians, was
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  Speaker 1: toiling over rain soaked roads, his cannon sinking axle deep
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  Speaker 1: in mud, his men splashing and plomming through deep pools,
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  Speaker 1: stumbling wearily onward to join the battle. We can go
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  Speaker 1: no further, they cried despairingly. We must, my children. I
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  Speaker 1: have given my word to Wellington. You will not have
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  Speaker 1: me break it, replied Blucher. So they struggled on, but
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  Speaker 1: it was late in the afternoon before they reached the battlefield.
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  Speaker 1: The end of the long contest was now near. Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: ordered his old guard, which he had kept in reserve,
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  Speaker 1: to advance, but when he saw them bend and then
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  Speaker 1: break and scatter before the British charge, he turned deadly pale.
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  Speaker 1: Why they are in confusion, he cried, hardly, able to
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  Speaker 1: believe it possible. All is lost. Let us save ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: In utter route and panic, the French fled from the field.
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  Speaker 1: The wearied British soldiers left the pursuit to the Prussians
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  Speaker 1: under the light of the moon, and till the dawning
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  Speaker 1: of the day, the chase went on for many miles.
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  Speaker 1: The roads were ghastly and horrible. Again and again the
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  Speaker 1: French tried to take refuge in the villages by the way.
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  Speaker 1: Again and again they were driven forth, fleeing before the
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  Speaker 1: terrible hurrah of the exultant Prussians, who slaughtered them without mercy.
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  Speaker 1: To France. Napoleon fled, tears of anger and despair running
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  Speaker 1: down his pale cheeks on the tenth of June. He
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  Speaker 1: reached Paris. There next morning the news that the Emperor
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  Speaker 1: had returned alone, and that the great army of France
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  Speaker 1: was no more spread fast and now Napoleon learned that
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  Speaker 1: as he was no longer great and successful, the people
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  Speaker 1: of Paris did not want him. Of the soldiers who
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  Speaker 1: adored him, few were left. So once more he abdicated.
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  Speaker 1: His second reign, which had lasted only a hundred days,
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  Speaker 1: was over by his own people. Napoleon was ordered to
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  Speaker 1: leave Paris, to leave France, but British men of war
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  Speaker 1: were watching every port, and escape was impossible. So at
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  Speaker 1: last he gave himself up to the commander of the
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  Speaker 1: Bellerophon and was taken to England. To the Prince Regent,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, I come to seat myself on the hearth
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  Speaker 1: of the British people. I put myself under the protection
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  Speaker 1: of their laws, which I claimed from your Royal Highness
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  Speaker 1: as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most
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  Speaker 1: generous of my enemies. Sadly, Napoleon watched the shores of
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  Speaker 1: France disappear. He never set foot in his adopted land again,
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  Speaker 1: never more saw its sunny shores. He was only forty five,
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  Speaker 1: but his life of splendor and excitement was done. It
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  Speaker 1: had been Napoleon's dream to conquer Britain and add these
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  Speaker 1: islands to his empire. Now, as a fugitive, he was
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  Speaker 1: not even allowed to land there. He was kept on
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  Speaker 1: the Bellerophon until a letter was brought to him which
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  Speaker 1: told him that Rolle Buonaparte was to be sent to
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  Speaker 1: Saint Helena, a little island in the South Atlantic. At Elba,
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  Speaker 1: small though his empire was, Napoleon had been still a
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  Speaker 1: ruler there. He could still make laws in levy taxes,
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  Speaker 1: was still surrounded by an army and a court. At
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  Speaker 1: Saint Helena, he was a prisoner, and a prisoner in
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  Speaker 1: a lonely island twenty thousand leagues from Europe, nine hundred
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  Speaker 1: leagues from the nearest continent. Saint Helena is very small
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  Speaker 1: and not more than twenty one miles all around, and
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  Speaker 1: from a distance it looks like a shapeless mass of
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  Speaker 1: black rock rising out of the sea. To Napoleon, it
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  Speaker 1: seemed a hateful place in little wonder. After his life
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  Speaker 1: splendor and excitement, it was terrible to be shut away
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  Speaker 1: in this lonely island in the middle of the wide ocean.
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  Speaker 1: He who had played with kings and kingdoms, made making
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  Speaker 1: and unmaking them, moving them here and there at will
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  Speaker 1: like chessmen on a board, had now nothing to do.
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  Speaker 1: He who had been dreaded by half the world, was
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  Speaker 1: now of no importance. It mattered not whether he lived
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  Speaker 1: or died. So the dreary years dragged on, and petty
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  Speaker 1: quarrels about petty things and reading, writing and chess playing. Then,
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  Speaker 1: after five years, the great Conqueror lay dying. And as
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  Speaker 1: he lay already muttering and unconscious, a great storm swept
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  Speaker 1: the island. It dashed the waves against the rocky shore.
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  Speaker 1: It bent, broke, and uprooted the willows about his house.
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  Speaker 1: But Napoleon lay unheeding it. His wandering mind was dreaming
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  Speaker 1: of other days. France, Army, Josephine, he muttered. Then he
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  Speaker 1: lay still. The wind too sank to rest, And when
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  Speaker 1: the golden sun of May, shining once more over calm
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  Speaker 1: blue waters slipped beneath the waves, the great, restless spirit
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  Speaker 1: passed with it. A few days later, followed reverently by
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  Speaker 1: those few of his friends who had clung to him
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  Speaker 1: to the last, sharing his lonely exile. He was laid
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  Speaker 1: to rest under the willow trees where he had once sat.
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  Speaker 1: British soldiers carried the coffin, upon which was laid the
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  Speaker 1: sword and cloak he had worn at Maringo. British soldiers
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  Speaker 1: fired a volley and lowered their banners and salute over
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  Speaker 1: the grave of the great enemy, and there they left
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  Speaker 1: him in a nameless tomb. Eighteen years later, in the
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  Speaker 1: darkness of an October night, by the faint light of lanterns,
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  Speaker 1: the coffin was once more dug up and carried away
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  Speaker 1: to France with the permission of the British government. At
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  Speaker 1: the Hotel the Invalid and Paris, it was received by
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  Speaker 1: the nobles and the King of France, who brabon, though
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  Speaker 1: he was desired to do honor to the great Emperor dead. Sire,
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  Speaker 1: I present the body of the Emperor Napoleon, said the
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  Speaker 1: Prince de Joinville, who had brought it from Saint Helena.
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  Speaker 1: I receive it in the name of France, replied the King.
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  Speaker 1: So for the last time, the greatest soldier the world
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  Speaker 1: has ever seen was laid to rest beside the sea
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  Speaker 1: inn among his people, as he himself had wished. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter ten, end of the Story of Napoleon by
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  Speaker 1: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall