Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-15

the other from the Rhine. 1t was the poncy of Napoleon to prevent the union of his ene- mics. The l5th of June found him on the Bel gian. frontier with 1240O0 men. On the next day he defeated Butcher at Ligny The attack of Ney on the English at Quatre Bras was un- successful. The impetuous marshal, who was now the Epperor's right arm, fell back on the
 village of Waterloo. The place was about nine miles from Brussels. It was skirted by the forest of Soignes. There the allied command CTS had agreed to form junction Napoleon ordered Marshal Grouehy with his division of 1 34,OOO to follow up Butcher on his retreat from Ligny to Waterloo. The plain put pose was that if Butcher should join Wellington, then
 Grouehy should unite his fssas sion with that of Ney. The failure of Grouc1y to do this-to l hang upon Butchers rear-was q fatal cir
 cumstance of the final catastrophe
 On the night of June 17th the British and French armies encamped only a short distance
 apart. A modern feld-p1ece could easily throw a shell from La Belle Alliance over La Haie
 Sainte to Mont St. Jean and far beyond into
 the forest. During the afternoon of the 17th
 and the greater part of the night, there was
 heavy rainfall-another fact in the catastro-
 phe. On the following morning the Emperor
 viewing the situation from his headquarters | at the farm of La Belle Alliance was unwill- ing to precipitate the battle until his artillery
 might deploy over dry field.
 Hugo has made the place and the scene inn
 mortal Ill the greatest battlepiece since Ho-
 mer. The field of Waterloo is an undulating
 plain. Strategieally, it has the shape of an in- mense harrow. The clovis is on the height
 called Mont St. Jean. Behind that is the vil-
 lage of Waterloo The right leg of the harrow
 terminates at the hamlet of La Belle Alliance.
 The left leg is the road from Brussels to Nj
 yelles. The cross-bar intersects the right leg
 at La Haie Sainte The right leg is the high
 way from Brussels to Charleroi. The intersee-
 tion of the bar with the left leg is near the
 old stone chateau of Hougomont. The battle
 was fought on the line of the cross bar and in
 the triangle between it and the clovis.
 The conflict began just before noon. The armies engaged were of equal strength, num-
 bering about S0, GOO men on each side. Napoleon
 was superior in artillery; but Wellington's sol diers had seen longer service in the field. They were his veterans from the Peninsular War, 1 perhaps the stubbornest fighters i'll Europe. 1 Napoleons first plan was to double back the l allied left on the center. This involved the capture of La Haie Sainte, and as a strategic 1 eoronary the taking.of Hougomont. The lat | ter place was first attacked The field and 1 wood were carried but the chateau was held | in the midst of horrid carnage by the British.
 Early in the afternoon a Prussian division, i under Bulow, about 10000 strong, came the l field, and Napoleon had to withdraw a diyi- l sion from his center to repel the oneoming Ger
 mans For two or three hours, i'll the l between La Haie Sainte and Hougomont the l battle ragged, the lines swaying with uncertain l fortune back and forth. La Haie Sainte was i 1 British lines feceded. Wellington's attempt to 1 retake La Haie Sainte ended in a repulSe. Ney l on the counter-charge called on Napoleon for 1 endorsements, and the latter at that moment, 1 changing his plan of battle, determined to l make the principal charge on the British cen l ter. The support which he sent to Ney was l not as heavy as it should have been, but the 1 Marshal concluded that the crisis was at 1 hand, and Napoleon sought to support him 1 with Milhauds cuirassiers and division of 1 the Middle Guard. Under this eounter-c charge i the British lines reeled and staggered, but l still clung desperately to their position. They 1 gave little, and then hung fast and could be l moved no farther. In another part of the l field Durutte carried the allied position of Pa l pelotte, and Lobau routed Bulow from Plan 1 Ghehols. AZ nalI past four every yUhlhg seemed l to portend disaster to the allies and victory l to the French
 Just at this tuneture, however, an uproar l was witnessed far to the right The woods
 seemed to open, and the banners of Butcher l shot up in the horizon Grouchy was not on his rear or tiankl Napoleon saw at a glance l that it was then or never. His sun of Auster- 1 litz hung low ill the vest The British center l must be broken, or the Empire which he had
 builded with his genius must pass away like i phantom. He called out four battalions of the 1 Middle and six of the Old Guard. Ill the last l fifteen years that Guard had been thrown ! hundred times on the enemies of France, and never yet repulsed. 1t deemed itself inyinei- ble.
 At seven o'clock, just as the June sun was
 sinking to the horizon, the bugles sounded, and the finest body of horsemen in Europe 1 started to it's doom on the squares of Yelling l ton. The grim horsemen rode to their fate like heroes. The charge rolled on like an ava lancho. 1t plunged into the sunlzen road of i O'Hain. It seemed to roll over. It rose from the low grounds and broke on the British squares. They reeled under the shock; then 1 reformed and stood fast. Around and around
 those immovable lines the soldiers of the Elm pire beat and beat in vain It was the war of
 races at its climax. It was the final death=grip 1 of the Gaul and the Teuton. The Old Guard
 recoiled. The wild cry of La Garde reculle was heard above the roar of battle. The crisis Modern blood and the past was suddenly victorious The Guard was broken into flying squadrons. Ruin came with the counter charge of the British
 Ney, glorious in his despair, sought to stay i the tide For an hour longer he was specta- cle to gods and men,. Five horses had been l killed under him. He was foot. He was hatless. He clutched the hilt of broken sword. 1 He Was covered with dust and blood. But his 1 grim face was set against the victorious ene- my in the hopeless and heroic struggle to ral- l ly his shattered columns.
 Meanwhile the Prussians rushed in from the right. WellingtOn's guards rose and charged. Havoc came down with the darkness. A sim gle regiment of the Old Guard was formed by Napoleon into last square around which to rally the fugitives The Emperor stood in the midst and declared his purpose to die with them. Marshal Soult forced him out of the melee, and the famous square, commanded by l Cambronne-ffinging his profane obJurgatlon into the teeth of the English-perished with the wild cry of Vive lEmpereuri
 On that spot French patriotism has planted a bronze lion to commemorate forever the eX- tinction not of the Old Guard only, but of the Empire and of Napoleon the Great. There the traveller from strange lands pauses, at the distance of eighty years from the horrible cataclysm, and reflects with wonder how within the memory of living mon human na- ture could have been raised by the passion of battle to such sublime heroism as that dis played in these wheatfelds and orchards where the Old Guard of France sank into oblivion, but rose to immortal fame.
 
 The rest may be briefly summarized. Ma poleon once more in Paris is obliged to abdl- cate without conditions. He becomes a fugi- tive. On the 3rd of July we see him at Roche fort, on the western coast. He would fain reach the United States; but the English fleets patrol the Atlantic. His mind is confused amid the wreeks of his destiny He changes his purpose, and throws himself on the gener- osity of England He claims to be, prisoner of war, and expects the treatment accorded by international law to great captains taken in battle Vain expectation He is conveyed to Torbay on the 18th of July. There are fu- rious debates in the British Commons, For what shall we do with Him2
 That indeed, Great Britain $ question! | iFNNI kl... s T.