1.C.1.4. A
THOSE persons who wish to gain a clear idea of the battle of
Waterloo have only to place, mentally, on the ground, a capital
A. The left limb of the A is the road to Nivelles, the right
limb is the road to Genappe, the tie of the A is the hollow road
to Ohain from Braine-l'Alleud. The top of the A is Mont-Saint-Jean,
where Wellington is; the lower left tip is Hougomont,
where Reille is stationed with Jerome Bonaparte; the
right tip is the Belle-Alliance, where Napoleon was. At the
centre of this chord is the precise point where the final word of
the battle was pronounced. It was there that the lion has been
placed, the involuntary symbol of the supreme heroism of the
Imperial Guard.
The triangle included in the top of the A, between the two
limbs and the tie, is the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean. The
dispute over this plateau constituted the whole battle. The
wings of the two armies extended to the right and left of the
two roads to Genappe and Nivelles; d'Erlon facing Picton,
Reille facing Hill.
Behind the tip of the A, behind the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean,
is the forest of Soignes.
As for the plain itself, let the reader picture to himself a
vast undulating sweep of ground; each rise commands the
next rise, and all the undulations mount towards Mont-Saint-Jean,
and there end in the forest.
Two hostile troops on a field of battle are two wrestlers. It
is a question of seizing the opponent round the waist. The one
seeks to trip up the other. They clutch at everything: a bush
is a point of support; an angle of the wall offers them a rest to
the shoulder; for the lack of a hovel under whose cover they
can draw up, a regiment yields its ground; an unevenness in
the ground, a chance turn in the landscape, a cross-path
encountered at the right moment, a grove, a ravine, can stay
the heel of that colossus which is called an army, and prevent
its retreat. He who quits the field is beaten; hence the necessity
devolving on the responsible leader, of examining the
most insignificant clump of trees, and of studying deeply the
slightest relief in the ground.
The two generals had attentively studied the plain of
Mont-Saint-Jean, now called the plain of Waterloo. In the preceding
year, Wellington, with the sagacity of foresight, had
examined it as the possible seat of a great battle. Upon this
spot, and for this duel, on the 18th of June, Wellington had
the good post, Napoleon the bad post. The English army was
stationed above, the French army below.
It is almost superfluous here to sketch the appearance of
Napoleon on horseback, glass in hand, upon the heights of
Rossomme, at daybreak, on June 18, 1815. All the world has
seen him before we can show him. That calm profile under
the little three-cornered hat of the school of Brienne, that
green uniform, the white revers concealing the star of the
Legion of Honor, his great coat hiding his epaulets, the corner
of red ribbon peeping from beneath his vest, his leather
trousers, the white horse with the saddle-cloth of purple velvet
bearing on the corners crowned N's and eagles, Hessian boots
over silk stockings, silver spurs, the sword of Marengo,— that
whole figure of the last of the Caesars is present to all imaginations,
saluted with acclamations by some, severely regarded
by others.
That figure stood for a long time wholly in the light; this
arose from a certain legendary dimness evolved by the
majority of heroes, and which always veils the truth for a
longer or shorter time; but to-day history and daylight have
arrived.
That light called history is pitiless; it possesses this peculiar
and divine quality, that, pure light as it is, and precisely
because it is wholly light, it often casts a shadow in places
where people had hitherto beheld rays; from the same man
it constructs two different phantoms, and the one attacks the
other and executes justice on it, and the shadows of the despot
contend with the brilliancy of the leader. Hence arises a
truer measure in the definitive judgments of nations. Babylon
violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Caesar,
Jerusalem murdered lessens Titus, tyranny follows the tyrant.
It is a misfortune for a man to leave behind him the night
which bears his form.