Evening star., 1915-06-13

0UsT 100 years ago next Friday
June IS. 1slo-the battle of Wa
III terloo was fought. What name
" can conjure up thoughts of greater
disaster, of mighty strife and desperate
valor or Of such wreck and ruin OF tenn
poral power and prosperity. as when Ma
poleon Bonaparte the Corsican man OF
destiny the greatest soldier OF the mod
ern world and emperor of the trench.
who fills more pages Of the world SOL
emn history than any other mortal
calmly met his fate on the frightrui
field Of Waterloo
few weeks later he was being
borne over the seas on BRUSH
frfgate of war to the Island OF ST
Helena, to spend the last few years OF
his life in bitter contrast TO all that
makes his name one of the most mar
velous in the worlds history He died
in exile, at St Helena, May 5, 1871.
Waterloo. Belgium, then even is now
the cockpit for the armies of Europe,
will go rolling down the centuries as
a byword for all that spells defeat
and ruin of earthly ambitions and hu
man endeayors. for il was that
destiny of the great Corsican ceased
to shine. and went out in utter dark
ness in the crowning defeat of the man
who had conquered almost half of the
civilized world by the sheer force of
his genius. Waterloo was the last
battlefield oe the mighty CorsiCan.
Napoleon Bonaparte. first emperor of
the French.
One sees the child of destiny. born
in obscurity. rise from a poor lieu
tenancy in the French army until, in
a few short years. he takes the en-
perors diadem from the hands of the
Pope and places 1t upon hts own head.
Then one can picture him putting
down the mobs in the streets of Paris:
IN the plains of Lombardy, with his
ragged army crushing host after host
of Austrians by those brilliant nlaneu-
vers and rapid marches that stunned
and annihilated his foes; battling in
the shadow of the pyramids of Egypt,
and crossing the snow-clad Alps.
marching to that great victory of
Marengo, where his star of destiny
never shown brighter.
Later. at the head of his victorious
French leeions, at Uin, Jena, Auster-
1itz. Friedland. Wagram and host of
other great battles, where victory ever
perched upon his eagle banners. and
where his star of destiny seemed ever
but to shine more brilliantly. Again
he appeals to the ina magination in Rus
sia. leading the grand army, nearly
'HdII Tllli1OH StTonS. TO lne walls OF
Moscow, where the infantry of the
snow and cavalry of the wild blasts
scattered his legions like winters
withered leaves.
And that terrible retreat from the
elements and hunger. pursued by the
savage Cossacks. the staggering,
frozen columns of pitiful wretches who
had marched into Russia as certain
conQuerors. and only q sad remnant of
whom returned to tell the frightful
tale of suffering. misery and death.
Beaten by fire. snow and hunger, that
rabble of gaunt and almost crawling
creatures staggered back to France,
where the great Corsican seemed but
to stamp upon the earth when new
legions sprang from the soil. to cry
with their last breath: Long live the
emperor"
Then Leipsic, and-"driven by a mil
Hon bayonets back upon Paris, ciutched
like wild beast. banished to Elba"
Then he escapes and retakes an en-
pire by the force of his genius; the
Bourbon king fees from the throne of
France as he is borne in triumph to
Paris on the shoulders of his comrades.
in arms. and then, the hundred days
reign. Waterloo and st. Helena. He
passes from the pages of history for
ever.
But Waterloo-Napoleona and France,
against Blucher and his Prussians,
WeIljn and his ich froopS