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

IHS II itlu OI HdIeTlOO
 The stage which Napoleon enacted that closing scene in the pageantry of his career is little changed after the passing of a century True, the Bel Sians have defaced the field by heaping up an enormous mound of earth 200 feet high and placing Il huge lion on top of it, while half dozen other more modest memorials rise here and there The ground is more or less cluttered with inns ard shops. The wooded baclground of Welilngton's army has vanished, while the sunken road has half disappeared ana not a tramway runs along it. Not withstanding these latterday ntrusfons however, the field of Waterloo is still the same checker board of small well-tended farms, dotted with the same villages, as when the battle burst upon it. One who stands today on La Belle Alliance needs to put forth only a slight effort of the imagination to call back the shades or the two warning armies, victor and Vanquished, and see them aagin facing each other in serried lines.
 Like Austerlitz, Waterloo was not fought in Waterloo, but two and three miles south of that village, which itself is only 10 miles out of Brussels. And, unlike most battles, 1t was not for the posses sion Of a fortress, river or a mountain pass. It was fight to capture a country wagon road, which, like main aisle. runs through the very center of the bat tlefield. From La Belle Alliance, where the French troops were drawn up, this road dips down into the narrow, tum- bling valley, which divided the two ar- mics on the battle morning, and ascends the opposite night of Mt. St. Jean, on whose southern slope Wellingtons troops awaited the advance of their foe.
 The Duke won the toss for the choice of position and he exercised his adyan- tage with good tactical Judgment. He w h tired from Quatre Bras. for he had ex- amlned Mt. St. Jean while passing by, year before. But the original discoverer or waterloo was, of all men, Hudson Lowe, or at least he was among the first to commend it's military advantages.
 When Wellington posted his troops there he cleverly took advantage of ev- cry favorable condition in a most re- markable battlefield. Down close to the foot of La Belle Alliance and at the western end of this tilting ground of the nations, rise the shattered walls of the old chateau of Hougoumont They are covered with wounds and the very trees are battle scared. Out in the center, beside the Brussels road is a group of buildings within a high stone wall. These are the farmhouse and sheds of La Have Sainte. At the eastern end of the field is the little hamlet of Papelotte with two other hamlets nearby.
 
 irgs, garrisoned them, cut loopholds in them and turned them into forts. Thus the stone walls of Hougoumont and Papelottle became in effect the brass knuckles on the right and left fists of John Bull, while La Haye Sainte served him as q breastplate in his finish fight with Napoleon. For it was behind those fortified outposts that the Briton formed his battle line. which stretched nearly three miles from west to east, from Hou- goumont to Papelotte, with La Haye Sainte in the very center At their flaming gates thousands fell, and upon their stony sides the full fury of tho French assault broke before it reached the British front.
 Not only did Wellington shield his troops behind that strange chain of inn provised fortresses but he posted them back of the road to Wavrc, which was most peculiarly contrived to protect them A high, thick hedge bordered the easterly reach of the highway and formed good screenfi while to the west the road sank fully six feet below the field, a perfect intrenchment ready made.
 Back of the road the Duke stood his soldiers on the slope of Mt. St. Jean where in every attack the enemy had an uphill task. He also made the hill serve him in still another way, its crest snugly sheltering and indeed quite concealing his reserves and wounded.
 Two Men, Two Armies
 The two armies were not very un. equal in numbers. Although Wellington used to say that Napoleon on the bat tlc field was worth 10000 men, the Iron Duke himself was no small reinforce ment to an army he commanded. Ip the outlines of their lives, the two chieftains were strangely matched. They were born on conquered islands within a few months of each other: they were educated in French military schools at the same time; they re- ceived their commissions and they