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A
Those persons who wish to gain a clear idea of the battle
of Waterloo have only to place, mentally, on the ground, a capital
A. The left limb of the A is the road to Nivelles, the right limb
is the road to Genappe, the tie of the A is the hollow road to
Ohain from Braine-l'Alleud. The top of the A is Mont-Saint-Jean,
where Wellington is; the lower left tip is Hougomont, where Reille
is stationed with Jerome Bonaparte; the right tip is the Belle-Alliance,
where Napoleon was.
At the centre of this chord is the precise point where the
final word of the battle was pronounced.
It was there that the lion has been placed, the involuntary
symbol of the supreme heroism of the Imperial Guard.
The triangle included in the top of the A, between the two
limbs and the tie, is the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean. The dispute
over this plateau constituted the whole battle.
The wings of the two armies extended to the right and left
of the two roads to Genappe and Nivelles; d'Erlon facing Picton,
Reille facing Hill.
Behind the tip of the A, behind the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean,
is the forest of Soignes.
As for the plain itself, let the reader picture to himself
a vast undulating sweep of ground; each rise commands the next
rise, and all the undulations mount towards Mont-Saint-Jean, and
there end in the forest.
Two hostile troops on a field of battle are two wrestlers.
It is a question of seizing the opponent round the waist.
The one seeks to trip up the other.
They clutch at everything:
a bush is a point of support; an angle of the wall offers
them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack of a hovel under whose
cover they can draw up, a regiment yields its ground; an unevenness
in the ground, a chance turn in the landscape, a cross-path encountered
at the right moment, a grove, a ravine, can stay the heel of that
colossus which is called an army, and prevent its retreat.
He who quits the field is beaten; hence the necessity devolving
on the responsible leader, of examining the most insignificant
clump of trees, and of studying deeply the slightest relief in
the ground.
The two generals had attentively studied the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean,
now called the plain of Waterloo.
In the preceding year, Wellington, with the sagacity of foresight,
had examined it as the possible seat of a great battle.
Upon this spot, and for this duel, on the 18th of June, Wellington
had the good post, Napoleon the bad post. The English army was
stationed above, the French army below.
It is almost superfluous here to sketch the appearance of
Napoleon on horseback, glass in hand, upon the heights of Rossomme,
at daybreak, on June 18, 1815.
All the world has seen him before we can show him.
That calm profile under the little three-cornered hat of the
school of Brienne, that green uniform, the white revers concealing
the star of the Legion of Honor, his great coat hiding his epaulets,
the corner of red ribbon peeping from beneath his vest, his leather
trousers, the white horse with the saddle-cloth of purple velvet
bearing on the corners crowned N's and eagles, Hessian boots over
silk stockings, silver spurs, the sword of Marengo,--that whole
figure of the last of the Caesars is present to all imaginations,
saluted with acclamations by some, severely regarded by others.
That figure stood for a long time wholly in the light; this
arose from a certain legendary dimness evolved by the majority
of heroes, and which always veils the truth for a longer or shorter
time; but to-day history and daylight have arrived.
That light called history is pitiless; it possesses this peculiar
and divine quality, that, pure light as it is, and precisely because
it is wholly light, it often casts a shadow in places where people
had hitherto beheld rays; from the same man it constructs two
different phantoms, and the one attacks the other and executes
justice on it, and the shadows of the despot contend with the
brilliancy of the leader. Hence arises a truer measure in the
definitive judgments of nations. Babylon violated lessens Alexander,
Rome enchained lessens Caesar, Jerusalem murdered lessens Titus,
tyranny follows the tyrant. It is a misfortune for a man to leave
behind him the night which bears his form.
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