we set off running towards the town, crying must arrive whatever it were. During this time L'Empereur! l'Empereur! I looked out in the maps for Waterloo, the name "We arrived breathless, and only preceding of which even I could not find; and began to the Emperor by some five hundred paces. I think the place was imaginary as was the men's thought he would not stop, whatever might be account of the battle. the crowd awaiting him: and so made for the post-house, when I sunk down half dead with the running but at any rate I was there. In a moment, appeared turning the corner of a street, the foaming horses; then the postillions all covered with ribbons; then the carriages themselves; then the people following the carriages. The carriages stopped at the post. "I saw Napoleon! "He was dressed in a green coat, with little epaulets, and wore the officer's cross of the Legion of Honour. I only saw his bust, framed in the square of the carriage window. "His head fell upon his chest-that famous medallic head of the old Roman emperors. His forehead fell forward; his features, immovable, were of the yellowish colour of wax; only his eyes appeared to be alive. "Next him, on his left, was Prince Jerome, a king without a kingdom, but a faithful brother. He was at that period a fine young man of sixand-twenty or thirty years of age, his features regular and well formed, his beard black, his hair elegantly arranged. He saluted in place of his brother, whose vague glance seemed lost in the future-perhaps in the past. "Opposite the Emperor was Letort, his aidede-camp, an ardent soldier, who seemed already to snuff the air of battle: he was smiling too, the poor fellow, as if he had long days to live! "All this lasted for about a minute. Then the whip cracked, the horses neighed, and it all disappeared like a vision. "Three days afterwards, towards evening, some people arrived from St. Quentin: they said, that as they came away they had heard cannon. "The morning of the 17th a courier arrived, who scattered all along the road the news of the victory. "The 18th nothing. The 19th nothing: only vague rumours were abroad, coming no one knew whence. It was said that the Emperor was at Brussels. "The 20th. Three men in rags, two wounded, and riding jaded horses all covered with foam, entered the town, and were instantly surrounded by the whole population, and pushed into the courtyard of the town-house. "These men hardly spoke French. They were, I believe, Westphalians, belonging some how to our army. To all our questions they only shook their heads sadly, and ended by confessing that they had quitted the field of battle of Waterloo at eight o'clock, and that the battle was lost when they came away. "It was the advanced guard of the fugitives. "We would not believe them. We said these men were Prussian spies. Napoleon could not be beaten. That fine army which we had seen pass, could not be destroyed. We wanted to put the poor fellows into prison: so quickly had we forgotten '13 and '14 to remember only the years which had gone before! "My mother ran to the fort, where she passed the whole day, knowing it was there the news "At four o'clock more fugitives arrived, who confirmed the news of the first comers. These were French and could give all the details which were asked for. They repeated what the others had said, only adding that Napoleon and his brother were killed. This we would not believe; Napoleon might not be invincible, invulnerable he certainly was. "Fresh news more terrible and disastrous continued to come in until 10 o'clock at night. "At 10 o'clock at night, we heard the noise of a carriage. It stopped, and the postmaster went out with a light. We followed him as he ran to the door to ask for news. Then he started a step back, and cried, 'It's the Emperor!" "I got on a stone bench and looked over my mother's shoulder. "It was indeed Napoleon: seated in the same corner, in the same uniform, his head on his breast as before. Perhaps it was bent a little lower; but there was not a line in his counten ance, not an altered feature, to mark what were the feelings of the great gambler, who had just staked and lost the world. Jerome and Letort were not with him now, to bow and smile in his place. Jerome was gathering together the remnants of the army, Letort had been cut in two by a cannon-ball. "Napoleon lifted his head slowly, looked round as if rousing from a dream, then with his brief strident voice "What place is this?' he said. "Villers-Coteret, sire.' "How many leagues from Soissons?' "Six, sire.' "From Paris?' "Nineteen.' "Tell the postboys to go quick:' and he once more flung himself back into the corner of his carriage, his head falling on his chest. "The horses carried him away as if they had wings. 66 The world knows what had taken place between those two apparitions of Napoleon! "I had always said I would go and visit the place with the unknown name, which I could not find on the maps of Belgium on the 20th of June, 1815, and which has since been inscribed on that of Europe in characters of blood. The day after arriving in Brussels, then, I went to it." How much of this, one cannot fail to ask, with that unlucky knowledge of the author's character which a perusal of his works will force upon one, how much of this is true? It certainly is doubtful that Alexander Dumas's father, the general who must have been killed in Italy when his son was scarce four or five years of age, should have discoursed much to the lad regarding the character of Bonaparte." * Since this was written a satisfactory evidence occurs to us. In another volume of M. Dumas, we find the following passage: It certainly is impossible that King Joachim spot where the Prince of Orange fell, struck in could have spent much time at Villers-Coteret the shoulder while charging chivalrously, his arguing with Master Alexander with regard to hat in his hand, at the head of his regiment. It the merits of the Emperor. Public business, fifty feet high, which you ascend by means of a is a sort of round pyramid, some hundred and and his absence on military duty in Germany, stair cut in the ground and supported by planks. Spain, Russia, and in his kingdom of Naples, The earth of which the hill is formed was taken must clearly have prevented Murat from very from the soil over which it looks, and the aspect intimate conversation with the little boy who of the field of battle is in consequence somewhat was to become so famous a dramatic author. changed; the ravine in this place possessing an With regard to Marshal Brune we cannot be abruptness which it had not originally. On so certain let us give our author full (the tail of which our soldiers on their return the summit of this pyramid is a colossal lion benefit of all the chances in his favour. from Antwerp would, had they not been preThe rest of his evidence is no doubt true vented, have cut off), which has one paw placed in the main, and is told, as the reader on a ball, and with its head turned to the east we fancy will allow, with great liveliness menaces France. From this platform, round and an air of much truth. It is a pity, sometimes, therefore, that a man should have a dramatic turn for our impression on reading this brilliant little episode regarding Napoleon, instead of being perfectly satisfactory, was to try to ascertain whether he had passed through Villers-Coteret on his road to the army; then, whether he had returned by the same route, and at what time? And though-failing in certain decisive proofs-we are happy to leave M. Dumas in possession of the field (or road) on this occasion, it is not, we are forced to say, without strong suspicion and uncertainty. From his account of Napoleon, let us turn to our author's description of Waterloo: "In three hours we had passed through the fine forest of Soignées, and arrived at Mont Saint-Jean. Here the cicerones come to attend you, all saying that they were the guides of Jerome Bonaparte. One of the guides is an Englishman patented by his government, and wearing a medal as a commissionnaire. If any Frenchman wish to see the field of battle the poor devil does not even offer himself, being habituated to receive from them pretty severe rebuffs, On the other hand he has all the practice of the English. "We took the first guide that came to hand. I had with me an excellent plan of the battle, with notes by the Duke of Elchingen (who is at this moment crossing his paternal sabre with the yatagan of the Arabs), and asked at once to be led to the monument of the Prince of Orange. Had I walked a hundred steps farther, there would have been no need of a guide, for it is the first thing you see after passing the farm of Mont Saint-Jean. "We ascended the mountain which has been constructed by the hand of man upon the very "I am the son,' said I, of General Alexander Dumas, the same who, being taken prisoner at Tarentum, in violation of the laws of hospitality, was poisoned at Brindisi with Mauscourt and Dolomieu. This happened at the same time that Caracciolo was hanged in the bay of Naples.'" Caracciolo was hanged in the year 1799; General Dumas was poisoned in the same year; his son was scarcely twelve years old in 1815, and perfectly remembers how his father used to curse Napoleon!! the lion's pedestal, you look upon the whole field of battle from Braine L'Allend and the extreme point reached by the division of Jerome Bonaparte, to the wood of Frichermont whence Blucher and his Prussians issued; and from Waterloo, which has given its name to the battle no doubt because the rout of the English was stopped at that village, to Quatre Bras where the wood of Bossu where the Duke of BrunsWellington slept after the defeat of Ligny, and wick was killed. From this elevated point we awoke all the shadows, and noise and smoke, which have been extinguished for five-and-twenty years, and were present at the battle. Yonder, a little above La Haye Sainte, and at a place where some farm buildings have since been erected, Wellington stood a considerable part of the day, leaning against a beech, which an Englishman afterwards bought for two hundred francs. At the same time fell Sir Thomas Picton charging at the head of a regiment. Near this spot are the monuments of Gordon and the Hanoverians; at the foot of the pyramid is the plateau of Mont Saint-Jean, which would be about as high as the monuments which we have just mentioned, were it not that for the space of about two acres around this spot, a layer of ten feet of earth has been taken away in order to form the hill. It was on this point, on the possession of which depended the gain of the day, that for three hours the main struggle of the battle took place. Here took place the charge of the 1200 cuirassiers and dragoons of Kellermann and Milhaud. Pursued by these from square to square, Wellington only owed his safety to the impassability of his soldiers, who let themselves be poignarded at their post, and fell to the number of 10,000 without yielding a step; whilst their general, tears in his eyes, and his watch in his hand, gathered fresh hope in calculating that it would require two hours more of actual time to kill what remained of his men. Now in one hour he expected Blucher, in an hour and a half Night: a second auxiliary of whose aid he was certain, should Grouchy prevent the first ally from coming to his aid, To conclude, yonder on the plateau, and touching the high-road, are the buildings of La Haye Sainte, thrice taken and retaken by Ney, who had in these three attacks five horses killed under him. Now, turning our regards towards France, you will see on your right, in the midst of a little wood the farm of Hougoumont, which Napoleon ordered Jerome not to abandon were he and all his troops to perish there. In the face of us is the farm of Belle Alliance, from which Napoleon, having quitted the observatory at Monplaisir, watched the battle for two hours, calling on Grouchy to give him his living battalions, as Augustus did on Verres, for his dead legions. To the left is the ravine where Cambronne, when called upon to surrender, replied, not with the words La garde meurt (for in our rage to poetize everything, we have attributed to him a phrase which he never used), but with a single expression of the barrack-room much more fierce and energetic, though not perhaps so genteel. In fine, in front of all this line was the high-road to Brussels, and at the place where the road rises slightly, the spectator will distinguish the extreme point to which Napoleon advanced, when seeing Blucher's Prussians (for whom Wellington was looking so eagerly) debouch from the wood of Frichermont, he cried, 'Oh, here's Grouchy at last, and the battle's ours.' It was his last cry of hope: in another hour that of Sauve qui peut sounded from all sides in his ears. "Those who wish to examine in further detail this plain of so many bloody recollections, over the ensemble of which we have just cast a glance, will descend the pyramid, and, in the direction of Braine L'Allend and Frichermont, will take the Neville road which conducts to Hougoumont. It will be found just as it was when, called away by Napoleon at three o'clock, Jerome quitted it. It is battered by the twelve guns which General Foy brought down to the prince. It looks as if the work of ruin had been done but yesterday, for no one has repaired the ravages of the shot. Thus you will be shown the stone where Prince Jerome, conducted by the same guide whom he had employed before, came to sit another Marius on the ruins of another Carthage. ، time since his return from Elba, thou wilt take the 12,000 men of Milhaud and Kellermann; thou wilt wait until my old grumblers have found thee; thou wilt give the coup de boutoir; and then if Grouchy arrives the day is ours. Go.' Ney went, and gave the coup de boutoir: but Grouchy never came. "From this you should take the road to Genappes and Brussels across the farm of Belle Alliance, where Blucher and Wellington met after the battle; and following the road, you presently come to the last point to which Napoleon advanced, and where he saw that it was not Grouchy but Blucher who was coming up, like Desaix at Marengo, to gain a lost battle. Fifty yards off the right you stand in the very spot occupied by the square into which Napoleon flung himself, and where he did all he could to die. Each English volley carried away whole ranks round about him; and at the head of each new rank as it formed, Napoleon placed himself: his brother Jerome from behind endeavouring in vain to draw him back, while a brave Corsican officer, General Campi, came forward with equal coolness each time, and placed himself and his horse between the Emperor and the enemy's batteries. At last, after three quarters of an hour of carnage, Napoleon turned round to his brother: 'It appears,' said he, 'that death will have none of us as yet. Jerome, take the command of the army. I am sorry to have known thee so late.' With this, giving his hand to his brother, he mounted a horse that was brought him, passed like a miracle through the enemy's ranks, and arriving at Genappes, tried for a moment to rally the army. Seeing his efforts were vain, he got on horseback again, and arrived at Laon on the night of the 19-20th. 66 Five-and-twenty years have passed away since that epoch, and it is only now that France begins to comprehend that for the liberty of Europe this defeat was necessary: though still profoundly enraged and humiliated that she should have been marked out as the victim. In looking too, round this field where so many Spartans fell for her; the Orange pyramid in the midst of it, the tombs of Gordon and the Hanoverians round about; you look in vain for a stone, a cross, or an inscription to recall our country. It is because, one day, God will call her to resume the work of universal deliverance commenced by Bonaparte and interrupted by Napoleon,-and then, the work done, we will turn the head of the Nassau Lion towards Europe, and all will be said.” "If the corn is down you may go across the fields from Hougoumont to Monplaisir where Napoleon's observatory was, and from the observatory to the house of Lacosto, the Emperor's guide, to which, thrice in the course of the battle, Napoleon returned from Belle Alliance. It was at a few yards from this house, and seated on a little eminence commanding the field of battle, that Napoleon received Jerome whom he had sent for, and who joined him at three in the afternoon. The prince sat down on the Emperor's left, and Marshal Soult was on his right, and Ney was sent for, who soon joined them. Napoleon had by him a bottle of Bordeaux wine, If in future ages, when the French nation and a full glass which he put every now and have played the part of liberators of the then mechanically to his lips; and when Jerome and Ney arrived he smiled (for they were cov-world (which it seems they will play whether ered with dust and blood, and he loved to see the world asks them or not), it will be any his soldiers thus), and still keeping his eyes on accommodation to France, that the tail of the the field, sent for three glasses to Lacosto's Lion of Nassau should be turned towards that house, one for Soult, one for Ney, and one for country, according to Dumas's notable plan, Jerome. There were but two glasses left, how there can be no harm in indulging her in so ever, each of which the Emperor filled and gave to a marshal, then he gave his own to Jerome. "Then with that soft voice of his, which he knew so well how to use upon occasion, Ney, my brave Ney,' said he, thouing him for the first very harmless a fancy. Conqueror never surely put forward a less selfish wish than this. Meanwhile the English reader will be pleased, we think, with M. Dumas's lively and picturesque description of the ground of transported or whipped very likely for your this famous field: which is written too, as we pains. 'Rome, Delphi, Jerusalem, Vienna,' believe, with not too much acrimony, and and the rest, are so many instances of the syswith justice in the main. As for the déroute tem: but though religion is always commenof the English being stopped at the village dable, it is surely in this instance misapplied; of Waterloo, the tears of the duke as he was nor has the footpad who cries "Money or chassé from one square to another-these and your life," much right to say Deus dedit as other points stated we leave to be judged by he pockets the coin. Let M. Dumas, a man military authorities, having here no call to of the pen, expose the vainglories of these contradict them. But what may be said hon- hectoring practitioners of the sword, and corestly with regard to the author, without stop-rect them as one with his great authority ping to question his details, is, that his feeling might do: correcting in future editions such is manly, and not unkindly towards his ene- incendiary passages as that quoted above, and my; and that it is pleasant to find Frenchmen of which the commencement, a manifest at last begin to write in this way. He is provocation to the Prussians, might provoke beaten, and wants to have his revenge: every woes unnumbered," were the latter to take generous spirit they say wishes the same: the hint. and the sentiment is what is called "all fair." As soon as he enters the Prussian territory, But suppose Dumas has his revenge and our author looks about him with a very caubeats the English, let him reflect that the tious air, and smartly reprehends the wellEnglish will want their chance again: and known tyranny of "his Majesty Frederick that we may go on murdering each other for William." ever and ever unless we stop somewhere: and why not now as well as on a future day? Promising mutually (and oh, what a comfort Promising mutually (and oh, what a comfort would it be to hear Waterloo no longer talked of after dinner!) not to boast any more of the victory on this side of the water, and not to threaten revenge for it on the other. Here we have another instance of absurd warlike spirit. "The court of Berlin never allows an opportunity to escape of showing its envious and antirevolutionary hatred of France. France on her side takes Waterloo to heart: so that, with a little good will on the part of the ministers of either country, matters may be arranged to everybody's satisfaction. "For ourselves, who have faith in the future, we would propose to King Louis Philippe, instead of that ridiculous pancarte which is used as the arms of revolutionary France, to emblazon the escutcheon of our country in the following way: "In the first quarter, the Gallic cock with which we took Rome and Delphi. "In the second, Napoleon's eagle with which we took Cairo, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and Moscow. "In the third, Charlemagne's bees with which we took Saxony, Spain, and Lombardy. "In the fourth, the fleur-de-lys of Saint Louis with which we took Jerusalem, Mansourah, Tunis, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Algiers. "Then we would take a motto, which we would try to keep better than William of Holland did his "We arrived in the coach-yard just as the in the interior, which I took, and was putting my horses were put too. There were lucky places ticket into my pocket, when my friend M. Pou lain told me in the first place to read it. "For the convenience of travellers, it is written in German and French. I found that I had the fourth place in the coach, and that I was forbidden to change places with my neighbour, even with the consent of the latter. This discimore than did the infernal jargon of the postilpline altogether military, acquainted me, even lion, that we were about to enter the possessions of his Majesty Frederick William. hour we set off. "As I had a corner place, the tyranny of his together insupportable, and I must confess that Majesty the King of Prussia did not appear alI fell as profoundly asleep as if we had been travelling in the freest country in the world. At about three o'clock, however, that is to say, just at daybreak, I was awakened by the stoppage of the carriage. "I thought at first some accident must have happened; that we were either on a bank or in was mistaken regarding the accident, nothing the mud; and put my head out of window. alone upon the finest road possible, of the kind had happened. We were standing I "I took my billet out of my pocket. I read it tained that I was not forbidden to address my once more carefully through: and having ascerneighbour, I asked him how long we had been stationary. "About twenty minutes,' he said. "And may I, without indiscretion,' I rejoinand we should have just the finest escutcheon in ed, take the liberty to ask why we are stop the world." "Deus dedit, Deus dabit, You rob a man of his purse: you are seized by a posse of constables whom the man calls, and obliged to give up the purse, being ping?' "We are waiting.' "The time when we have the right to arrive.' | understand me? Or if you do dream, dream in "There is then a fixed hour for arriving?' your native language.' 666 Everything is fixed in Prussia.' "And if we arrived before the hour?' "The conductor would be punished.' "And if after?' "He would be punished in like manner.' Upon my word the arrangement is satisfac tory.' "Everything is satisfactory in Prussia.' I bowed in token of assent, for I would not for the world have contradicted a gentleman whose political convictions seemed to be so firm. My approbation seemed to give him great pleasure, and emboldened by that, and by his polite and succinct manner of answering my former questions, I was encouraged to put some new ones. "I beg pardon, sir,' continued I, 'but will you favour me by stating at what hour the conductor ought to arrive at Aix-la-Chapelle.' We have given this story at full length, not because it is true, which it certainly is not; or because if it were true, the truth would be worth knowing: but as a specimen of the art of bookmaking, which could never have been produced by any less experienced workman than the great dramatist Alexander Dumas. The reader won't fail to see, how that pretty little drama is arranged, and the personages kept up. Mark the easy air which the great traveller assumes in putting his questions; the cool, sneering politeness, which, as a member of the Great Nation, he is authorized to assume when interrogating a subject of "his Majesty Frederick William." What point there is in those brief cutting questions! what meekness in the poor German's replies! All the world is on the laugh, while the great Frenchman is playing his man off; and every now and then he turns "The conductor has before him, in his place, and a grin, bidding us be delighted with the round to his audience with a knowing wink a clock locked up in a case, and that is regulated by the clock at the Diligence office. He knows absurdities of this fellow. He wonders that at what hour he ought to arrive at this or that there should be a fixed hour for a coach to town, and presses or delays his postillions accord- arrive. Why should there? Coaches do ingly, so that he may arrive at Aix-la-Chapelle not arrive at fixed hours in France. There exactly at thirty-five minutes past five.' "At thirty-five minutes past five.' "But suppose his watch goes slow?' "Watches never go slow in Prussia.' "Have the goodness to explain that circumstance to me if you please.' "It is very simple.' "Let us see?' "I am sorry to be so exceedingly troublesome, sir; but your politeness is such that I must venture on one question more.' "Well, sir?' "Well, sir, with all these precautions, how happens it that we are forced to wait now?' they are contented with a dirty diligence (as our friend, the Naturforscher, called it in the last number of this Review), and, after travelling three miles an hour, to arrive some time or other. As coaches do not arrive at stated hours in France, why should they in It is most probably because the conductor any other countries? If four miles an hour did as you did, fell asleep; and the postillion are good enough for a Frenchman, ought profited of this, and went quicker.' "Oh that's it, is it? Well then I think they not to satisfy a German forsooth? This will take advantage of the delay and get out of is point one. A very similar joke was in the Débats newspaper in September; wherein, the coach.' 66 6 sia.' I People never get out of the coach in Prus-speaking of German railroads and engineers, "That's hard, certainly. I wanted to look at yonder castle on your side of the road.' "That is the castle of Emmaburg.' "What was the castle of Emmaburg?' "The place where the nocturnal adventure took place between Eginhard and Emma.' "Indeed! will you have the kindness to change places with me, and let me look at the castle from your side?' "I would with pleasure, but we are not allowed to change places in Prussia.' the Débats said, "at least, without depreciating the German engineers in the least, they I will concede that about railroads our engineers must naturally know more than they do." To be sure there is ten times as much railroad in Germany as in France; but are the French writers called upon to know this fact or if known, to depreciate their own institutions in consequence? No, no: and so M. Dumas does well to grin and sneer at the German. "Peste! I had forgotten that,' said I. "Ces tiaples de Franzés, il être très pavards,' See how he follows the fellow up with said, without unclosing his eyes, a fat German killing sarcasms! You arrive at a certain who sat gravely in a corner opposite to me, and hour do you? and what is this hour, cette who had not opened his lips since we left Liége. heure, this absurd hour, at which the dili"What was that you said, sir?' said I, turn-gence comes in? He is prepared to find ing briskly round towards him, and not over well satisfied with his observation. something comic even in that. Then he is "Che né tis rien, ché tors.' facetious about the timekeeper: a thing that "You do very well to sleep, sir. But I re- must be ridiculous, because, as we presume, commend you not to dream out loud: do you la French conductor does not use one. And, |