The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-01

rams, they grew thinner and thinner, until Napoleon left them, and with few chasseurs fled the lost field. The British officer yelled to the guard to sur- render But the commander, Cambronne, Was rude, uncouth son of Mars, who, as. fighting man. had succeeded La Tour d 'Auvergne in the honorary post of the First Grenadier of France His reply to the Hriton was not at all the polite and even noble observation, "The Old Guard dies but never surrenders.v. which a. Parisian journalist substituted for thej unprintable original Yet that was whad Cambronne should have said for that was what he did. He and the guard slashed path to the night of La Belle Alliance, Then he fell from ball that struck him in the face and became a captive in the hands of the foe.
 As Marshal Ney had been the first to advance, he was determined tc be the last to retreat In the midst of the wild rout. he implored the soldiers who raced by him to stop and turn their faces to the enemy. But life still held its lure for others, though not for him.
 If you and escape,r Ney warned Count d'irlon, I've shall be hanged" Even his hat and his epaulettes wero gone now, when, brandishing his broken sword, he rallied a brigade for one more stand. Come, my friends" he shouted, come on, and see a marshal of France die." But an unkind fate had decreed that he should not die like a marshal of France In vain he wooed death beside the Brussels road. but only to be caught in the undertow of the ebbing tide of the empire and swept< on to his ignominious fate.
 Victor and Vanquished
 The British moved across the valley and mounted La Belle Alliance, wherS the Prussians joined them, and WsllA ington and Prince Butcher rejoiced tof gether in victory. The dukes forced were too badly winded to continue thd pursuit of Napoleon, and the hard-> hating old prince welcomed the task of baggiBg the eagle of Jena. Besides he had left his pipe in Paris on the last campaign and he wished to re- cover it.
 As Wellington passed \over the field on his way to his sleeping quarters at Waterloo, the moon burst through the clouds and lit up the faces of the dead, who lay in windrows at the foot of Mt. St Jean. The gardens and houses of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte were crowded with with bodies. and the well of the old chateau was all but filled with corpses that had been tumbled into it to clear the ground for the fighting
 The losses were fairly equal. The French killed, wounded and captured aggregated about 25,000, or one third of the force engaged. The British, them- selves, lost $500; the Hanoverians, Dutch and Belgians, 7500, and the Prus- sians 1000, CT total of 23,000 for the allies.
 Wellington suffered keenly from the fatalities to his staff and among his commanders. "The hand of God has been upon me this day. he sighed as he looked back upon the scene of bat tie, where his life was spared, while his companions in arms were falling by his side. Pozzo di Borgo was among the wounded, but with only a slight bruise that did not restrain his re- joicing. T have thrown the last shovel- ful of earth on Napoleon's coffin"
 With the stadow of Waterloo on hfe brow and in the silence of despair. Napoleon rode through the night in the midst of his routed troops. crazed With alarms as they heard the Uhians galloping at their heels The bridle reins fell from his hand and lay on the neck of his horse. At midnight he passed through the battlefield of Quatre Brass where the moon rested like spotlight upon the naked bodies of the dead. de- them.
 Arriving in Charleroi at daybreak, he freed himself from the wretched mob Of 40.000 to hasten to Paris. He cawe aside his treasure wagon, and the populaoe and the drunken soldtery plundered It's bags of gold. He aban-. doned the imperial coach, leaving In ie a lot of diamonds which Prussian mas jor claimed as his~ booty. s s
 As he re-entered France and left tho night of horror behind him he< took heart to argue, All is not lost" But rumor of the catastrophe sped on { before him. A strange hush fell upon the people, who gazed with silent awe and pity as the fallen Colossus passsdi among them.
 (Copyrighted. 1sis-ls1l, by yans3s