The Washington herald., 1914-11-01

was in artillery. the Emperor havins
| $50 guns against the Dukes $50.
| But while Napoleon was well satisfied
sna s srsaT pstro waSe was ShG s
| scribed his own. even after the victory
/ as ''the worst equipped army with ths
worst stan ever brought together. y
l Is true that nea1y two-thirds Of his sob
diers were untrained- The rest had seen
more or less active service in the Span
| ish campaign but the best OF the PENN
sula veterans were lost or still absent on
! the New Orleans expedition.
| There were only H,99l British, all told
| at Waterloo, just about one-third OF the
| total fighting force. More than 5000 OF
Belgium, and more than 5000 were Han
| overians and mercsnaries hired In neigh
| boring German states.
With such a hodge-podge army. Well
| ington would not have dared fight Ma
poleon at Waterloo had he not been as
sured that another army larger than mis-
| own was only eight miles away and hur-
ryinE to his assistance. While Grouchy,
with his 1900 French. was actually
marching farther away from Napoleon,
Marshal Biucher. that old devil" as the
Emperor called his most persistent and
Gi0S Sis "a odS zoe waaSY ~ % PrussSsns nsS zen thrnueh
the mud since 7 o'clock in the morning
and making straight for Waterloo. Well
lington accepted battle, therefore. on the
confident expectation that before the end
versary two TO one.
4 CIoad I'm the sky. ..
Even while the battle was beginning
Grouchy was sending a message to the
Emperor. announcing that he hoped TO
arrive at Wavre In, the evening, where
he would place himself between BlucheT
and wellington, "who is, I presume, re-
treating before your majesty" And he
asked what he should do tomorrow. He
did not know. poor plodding marshal
81 Nk.,N g. y,Nn ell
between him and Napoleon and that there
would be no tomorrow for the army Of
France!
Il was almost noon when one Of his
beautiful daughters" as Napoleon fond Z.
ly called his 12-pounders, tossed the bail
that siynalized the opening of the battle
Of untold, unending consequences.
batteries on La Belie Alliance was for
the purpose Of covering an attack upon
Hougoumont which Prince Jerome Bona
parte led with reckless daring: out OF
the loopholes in the garden walls Of the
chateau flames Of fire shot into the faces
OF the advancing French from the mus
kets Of the invisible British garrison.
Twice Jerome and bis Zoo men dashed
When retreat was sounded, after a-cost-
ly sacrifice, the bodies of the dead who
had died In vain lay In heaps about the
stubborn walls. -'
The Emperor had not intended to incur
such a heavy loss. He had ordered the
attack merely to divert Wellington's At
tenti0n from the British center, where
ne had meant TO deal his hardest blow.
But while he was yet making ready for
that deadly thrust, he discerned at 1
o'clock a cloud of dust on the eastern
horizon, which soon took the shape Of an
advancing column OF troops. In a little
while q scouting party brought in a cap
tured Prussian courier, with q message
TO the British from Gen. Bulow Of Bluch-
er's army. announcing that he was
marching with 5000 men to attack The
right wing of the French.
But Bulow was yet a long way on
and the Emperor was not greatly dis
turbed by this surprise. Indeed he
seemed not to grasp its full import.
When he had sent courier to Grouchy,
ordering him to come In behind Bulow.
who would thus be caught between two
French armies, he was well satisfied with
the provision he had made against the
Pr11ssianH
Turning 70 soult: he merely revised the
gambling odds. 'aThis morning we had
ninety points In our favor" he said. I'VE
still have sixty against forty" But he
did not calculate that Bluch r, too, was
coming upon him. Nor did he know that
his order to Grouchy would not be de-
ivered until 5 o'clock. too late to be OF
any use, even had the absent marshal
not been hotly engaged at that hour with
a division OF Prussians left behind al
Wavre.