Latest / A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo / 41 - A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson

Transcript

41 - A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson · A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section forty one of a short History of France by
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Mary Ducloux. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Read by Pamelinagami Part four, Chapter six, Waterloo, Part one,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in order to understand the fight at Waterloo, it is better,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I think, not to have visited the field of battle,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: which I remember forty years ago as a pleasant rolling plain.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Landscapes change, and here the cannon, the woodsman's axe, the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: plow have been at work. In eighteen fifteen, all the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: country round Saint Ement was so thick with trees that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: it appeared of forest when looked at from a distance,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a land of bosquey fields, deep lanes and hidden villages,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: admirable as a cover for troops. These wide, wavy valleys,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: which follow each other like billows and rise to the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: forests of Swanne, appeared deeper far when their ridges were
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: fringed with trees. It was through a wooded country that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Napoleon crept invisible till on the sixteenth of June he
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: fell on the Prussians just beyond Florus as the panther
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: springs on his prey. His plan, as we know, was
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to attack the Allies at the point where their forces
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: joined to cut them in two as one cuts through
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the waste of a hornet, to fling the British an
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: al and the Prussians on Tongre, and then rushing on
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Brussels before they had recovered that first stunning blow, to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: throw the Germans beyond the Rhine and the English into
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the sea. After that the Emperor could reflect and determine
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: what to do next. Lignyi is the first act of Waterloo.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Early in the morning on that sixteenth of June, the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: cannon boomed three times in the direction of Florus. That
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: deep salutation was succeeded by the strains of fife and drum,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a great noise of singing, an endless acclamation, a prolonged roar, which,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: as it approached Saint Ament resolved itself into the words
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: vivre l'Empereur. The Prussians, hidden in the basquy, hedges and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: orchards of the village, remained motionless, silent until the first
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: line of the French was seen nearing the church and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the graveyard. Then the invisible Germans let loose, as with
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: one rifle a rolling fire of musketry. The French dashed
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: on in a superb bound forward, and soon every barn, garden,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: outhouse was a scene of carnage, and men were knifing
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: each other's ribs with unfixed bayonets in a struggle too
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: close for rifle. Fire from the eaves to the cellars
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: of every cottage in Saint Toment. This first day's fight
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: could only be what it was, a thundering onset, a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: crashing attack, a position carried married by decision and surprise.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Blucher and his eighty thousand men were thrown back from
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Saint Ament and Lignyi, having suffered terrible losses. Their retreat
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: left the English flank uncovered, and Wellington was forced to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: withdraw in good order on Waterloo. The furious cannonade of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Lignie had surprised the English, Wellington was not quick or ready.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: The Battle of Waterloo is the Battle of the Hare
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and the Tortoise. On the very day when Napoleon entered Belgium,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Wellington was riding a long dispatch to the Emperor Alexander,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: proposing a new plan of campaign for the invasion of France.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Little did he dream that his enemy was already in
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the gate. On the eve of Lignyie. He still suspected nothing.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And it was at the Duchess of Richmond's ball in
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Brussels that the English commander in chief and his staff
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: learned the news of Napoleon's presence between Charlott and lin Yi.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: But which of us does not remember the scene in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Vanity Fair and in the Dynasts. Lign Yi, one of
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the most terrible battles of the century, was a victory
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: for the French, and might have been a decisive victory
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: but for a lack of energy and coherence in the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: carrying out of Napoleon's command, which was to have a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: sequel infinitely more important on the morrow. The French army,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: though it contained a great proportion of conscripts, had never
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: been more ardent, braver and ne gucci sulte der lent.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Gerards had fought victoriously on many a field beside their Emperor.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: What had robbed them now of their speed, their decision,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: their self assurance, their certitude of victory. Was it the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: defeat and capitulation of eighteen fourteen. Was it that they had,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: if not betrayed, at least abandoned a year ago their
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: emperor their general of today? Or was it the absence
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: of Berthier, Prince of Wagram. Bertier was no thunderbolt of war,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: no genius. He was the administrator of the battlefield. He
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: saw that the orders were clear, that they were duly
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: carried in sufficient doubles, that one officer or more shot
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: down by the way did not stop communications between the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: center and the wings. He was an admirable major general.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Waterloo was perhaps lost by Napoleon for lack of the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: inconspicuous Bertier on a suvon beszois d'An plupeitqus sois. But Bertier,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: like the other marshals, had capitulated to the Bourbon, and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: on his master's sudden return, would not, like sult and Nay,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: forsake the king for the Emperor, nor like Marmond and MacDonald,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: immolate Napoleon to the Bourbon king. Inextricably torn between his
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: honor and his conscience, Bertier had refused to take either
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: part and had retired to Bamberg, where on the first
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of June, just one fortnight before Waterloo, he had been
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: mysteriously murdered by masked assassins. On which side did his
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: ghost call down vengeance? Suell too assumed Berthier's customary charge
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: at Lignyie and Waterloo was a general of rare military
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: talent and a wise administrator, but one of those maundering
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: pedantic talkers who think any sharp, precise contour and speech
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: incompatible with dignity. Instead of saying send Erlon here, bid
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Nago there, he indulged in generalities. Confusion was the result.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: General Derlon was sent from pillar to post, and during
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the whole arduous day at Lignyee wandered up and down
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the battlefield, bringing his men to and fro back and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: forth between Napoleon and neh without placing them at the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: disposal of either. Worse, still, acting on his own discretion
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: in disobedience to orders, put off the attack on Catrebrais,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: where the Prince of Orange and Wellington were blocked with
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: scarce eight thousand soldiers until the Anglo Belgians had time
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to bring up fifty thousand more. Worst of all was
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the inexplicable inaction of Grusche, who, after prodigies of valor
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: at Lignyie, remained, as it were, stunned and passive during
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the two succeeding days. It was to this extraordinary attack
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of military paralysis that Napoleon himself attributed his defeat at Waterloo.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Thus it happened that, owing to inefficient staff work, Napoleon
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: had been obliged to fight at Lignye without Herlon's force,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: indeed without a single man from Nay's command. The Prussians
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: had been forced to retreat. But they were not annihilated
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: as they should have been. Indeed, they were not as
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: damnably mauled as Wellington said a Napoleon supposed on the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: morning after lin Yi the rain fell in Torrents. Perhaps
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: someday our physicists will tell us why it always reigns
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: after a great artillery attack. So far they have either
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: denied the circumstance or murmured something vague concerning the ionization
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of the clouds. Waterloo, at all events, was no exception
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to the rule. The roads were so deep in mire
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: that it was impossible to move the artillery much before noon.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Yet the whole problem for Napoleon was a question of time.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Could he get at the English before the remains of
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the Prussian forces had time to recover and come to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: their assistance. The great thing was to learn which road
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: had been followed by the German general in that retreat,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: which was not as Napoleon still hoped in suppose a route. Grouchey,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: with thirty six thousand men, was told off to pursue
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the enemy and at all hazards to prevent his junction
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: with the British. But Gruchey, after a march of five
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: miles or so, stopped still wasted all this day of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the seventeenth it is true the weather was so appalling
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: that the troops, in their rain soaked clothes could barely
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: move through the mud, and even when they moved, could
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: barely see. Napoleon's chief fear was that the English would
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: escape behind the forest of Swangyee or Swanye, But the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: English had no thought of escaping. Wellington masked his men
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: solidly and squarely in front of the forest, on the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: strong position of the Mont Saint Jean, a low eminence
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: eleven miles south of Brussels, and there he waited. Late
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: on the evening of that wasted day the seventeenth, Napoleon
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: paced his camp with the faithful ern, turning in his
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: mind many somber thoughts and fears of a possible aggression
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of the Austrians from beyond the Rhine. When he saw
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: as he thought, a forest fire in the direction of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: swan ye It was the bivouac of the British soldiers, who,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: under the pouring rain, were trying to dry their coats
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: before their smoky fires of green wood hacked from the trees.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: At five in the morning on the eighteenth of June,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a pale ray of sun lit up the sky, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the Emperor knew a gleam of joy. We have eighty
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: chances out of a hundred, he exclaimed, But the roads
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: were still too wet for the guns. The battle had
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to be put off until almost noon. Napoleon's plan was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to throw himself with the full force of his right
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: on the English left, hammer at them and throw them
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: off the Brussels Road, while at the same time shutting
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: off the chance of retreat through the forest of swan Yee.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: On his extreme right, Gruchey, with his thirty six thousand men,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: was to keep off the Prussians and bring up a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: reserve if wanted. On the left ray was to attempt
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a diversion on the farm of Ugumo, a little in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: advance of the British right. Meanwhile, Wellington awaited his attack.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: The decision to defend the Mont Saint Jean was taken
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: upon the assurance of Prussian help. The British commander had
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: learned that Blucha's army was concentrated at Wavre, a large
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: village which lies some thirteen miles north of the field
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: of Waterloo, and that he might count on them to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: open on the French right. Somewhere about noon on the eighteenth,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Napoleon supposed the Prussians in full retreat to the east,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: harried in their rear by Gruche's division. Had he suspected
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that ninety thousand Prussians were within four hours march and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: proposed relieving Wellington in the course of the day, he
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: would never have waited until thirty five minutes past eleven
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: in the morning before launching his attack on the Duke
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: end of Section forty one