| Show 1 I L j 1 THE WORLDS WORLD'S GREAT EVENTS ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE f. f br 1 Po Iha Napoleon Napolon Bonaparte Bonapart Part IV EUROPE or the fret time Ume In twell twenty ty years rear could rest rent In p peace ace and repair It its Ita shattered fortunes N Napo Napoleon leon Iwo who had been beeD the bo bogie l. l wan man manof of ot a whole scared continent was wat boat boat- en by br sheer force torce of numbers number disowned disowned dis dl owned by bl hU hll own people I and Il safely towed stowed away on a distant Island where he be could annoy no ono one Small wonder that there was thanksgiving In la Europe I h Dut the calm was waa soon broken Barely ten months after the allies had hall Imprisoned him on Elba Napoleon Napo Napa leon Icon escaped With 1000 of ot his Old Guard he be landed In n France March 1 I 1819 1816 The news new of ot his hll return swept the country like Uke wildfire The French nation which a year lear earlier had bod groaned under his yoke went mad with Joy J Louis had been a n stupid unpopular king After a quarter century of military glory and endless excitement It had been hard bard for tor France to settle down to humdrum peaceful existence People spoke e of ot Napoleon as a. an almost Immortal bero hero With one accord army and populace greeted their returned emperor with witha a frenzy of Joy He lie moved northward north ward prepared for opposition But Dut he hemet hemet hemet met with none Ills Journey to Paris was n a triumphal march Soldiers sent to arrest him flocked to his standard The gates gate were everywhere thrown open to the Poor old Louis fled ld for his lila life and Napoleon entered the French capital without striking a blow In his absence people pee peo pie pi had forgotten his tyranny and aDd selfishness self and the havoc he had wrought They Thoy remembered only his tads glory clory magnetism and genius lIe He was again their Idol Idal But Dut the Napoleon who returned from exile was wal not the same sort of ot otman man who had overawed Europe Ills III early life was Willi beginning to tell ll on hIm lie He could auld no longer loner concentrate his thoughts thought make up his mind mIntS quickly nor even keep awake at critical crit erit- ical teal moments lIe He was living solely on hl his hie past fame tame The Hundred Da Days now set lOt faBy la fa laBy By modifying some lome of hI his former despotism d the emperor won over to toMm toMm Mm him those whose memories had hod at t first proved stronger than their en en- The Royalists crept out of ot sight and bided their time But nut the tho great creat body of the empire rallied about their former tyrant eager to follow fallow him against the Ule whole universe And they had not long to wait for tor a chance to prove provo their devotion For the al nl allies nl lies again rushed to arms patting putting an army of men Into nto the Held field Napoleon could muster barely burely men for tor active service Yet to Sit save France from a A second Invasion he the hurried his llla troops Into Belgium where wiler the English Dutch etc under the duke of ot Wellington ton and the Prussians under Marshal Blucher were encamped Napoleon on knew Wellington and Blucher would try to unite unite- at nt Char Char- lerol so he planned to 10 get Iret there ahead of ot them thrash U them m each In turn and then march ea eastward where the Austrian Austrian Aus Aus- trian and Imd Russian armies were gath eying ering The plan pion was worthy of Na N. Napoleon Napoleon at his best But Its execution showed the Corsican at nt athis athis his worst wort lie He beat the first corps of ot the Prussian army at ot June 13 t and seized Charleroi Then be he besent sent part of ot his army under Ney against Wellington The two twe met at Quatrebras June 10 16 After a n hard battle Ney was repulsed but Welting ton was forced to fall full back on the heights of St st. Jean near the Belgian village of ot Waterloo Meantime Na N. Napoleon polton with the r remainder of th the French army met the Prussians trader tra tm- der Blucher at and utterly defeated defeated de tle tented them killing 1200 It was wall the thelast Lost last of at the emperors emperor's Innumerable bril Rant victories lie Ha sent General ral Grouchy Grouch with 3 men In pursuit of ot the flying Prussians In the tho wrong direction as us It happened happen and himself him himself self started after attar Wellington Tho The French reached Waterloo late on June 17 1815 Th The Th t next day doy they ther attacked Wellington's army arDly in la one of ot the most bloody a and d making epoch-making battles battle ever fought Out of all nIl Wellington's Wellington great grent ann army only 2000 were English the tho rest beIng be be- belag lag Ing Hollanders Belgians and Ger Oer mans mault Thus the popular Impression that Waterloo was won by England Kugland lIgI nd Is not wholly correct All du day daj the French attacked and all day Wellington barely held his own Rut Hut at nt nl nightfall night ht fall Blucher l and his Ills Prussians who had hod eluded elude stupid Grouchy came up The battle had lasted el eight ht nt and 1 one one- half hours boors France had bad lost men the allies Napoleons Napoleon's n tar star had bad set III cn cause use was for fol forever forever ever lout lost Again he ho abdicated In to favor of his bis son eon and threw himself on 1 England's mercy D Ity By a stroke of diplomacy that If is variously described as aa a nece necessary ary measure and as IlS u I na flagrant ant breach of Wit trust the th man moo who for tor twenty years far farhad had defied the whole wi ild wes was seal enl td to the Island bland of St St. Helena and kept there under strict guard until In May 1821 he te died of cancer of ot the stomach So perished Napoleon on Bonaparte genius charlatan wO worker wonder worker holdup of ot I Europe one Europe one one of the greatest men that ever lived A It man however not great rent enough to realize thAt l el ish ambition I and aud purely per per- ennui jOnal glory glor can CUD never oever bring success |
