HISTORY

OF THE

WAR IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM IN 1815.

as

CHAPTER I.

HE history of Europe records but few events so universally and so intimately involving the policy and interests of her component States, the escape of NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE from the island of Elba, on the 26th of February 1815 -his landing in France, and his again ascending, unopposed, that throne from which Louis XVIII. had fled with precipitation, upon learning the triumphal approach towards the capital of his successful and formidable rival. With the rapidity of lightning the intelligence spread itself over the whole Continent, and with all the suddenness and violence of an electric shock did it burst amidst the delegates from the different States, who were then assembled in Congress at Vienna. This important Assembly, so unexpectedly interrupted, had been called together to deliberate upon measures of international security and prosperity; and to solve those intricate questions of policy necessarily arising out of the various combinations, which,

48

The Congress of Vienna.

March.

in the course of a general War, carried on with unmitigated violence, and but little intermission, for nearly a quarter of a century, had so fatally unhinged and dismembered the previously existing social order and polity of Europe. With one accord, a fresh appeal to the sword was decided upon; the military resources of every nation were again called into requisition. From State to State the cry "To arms!" was responded to with cheerfulness and alacrity, and immense Armies were put in motion towards the French frontier: all animated with the sole object and fixed determination of annihilating, for ever, the common foe whom they had already conquered; but whom, as it would then appear, they had but ineffectually humbled.

The openly declared project of the Allied Sovereigns to employ all their means, and combine all their efforts, towards the accomplishment of the complete overthrow of the resuscitated power of NAPOLEON, with whom they had determined, thenceforth, to enter into neither truce nor treaty, was singularly favoured by the circumstance of their Armies being still retained upon a war establishment. The forces of the several Powers were continued on that scale, in consequence of the difficulties experienced in the Congress in dealing with and settling many perplexing questions of international policy, and moderating the warmth of the discussions that took place upon them. It was considered expedient to keep up powerful reserves, available both for home service, and for any contingencies that might arise out of combinations and revolts among those minor States, whose aversion to the new political arrangements was more than suspected. Thus it had been found necessary to detach bodies of troops from the main bulk of the forces, in consequence of the state of the Poles placed under the protection of Russia, and of the Saxons inhabiting that

March to June.

The Belgian frontier.

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portion of their country which had been ceded to Prussia; as also, in consequence of the powerful diversion, as regarded Austria, caused by the sudden irruption of MURAT, King of Naples, into the north of Italy. Notwithstanding these necessary deductions, however, it was found practicable to assemble, by the end of May, an efficient force of not less than 500,000 men, upon different points contiguous to the French frontier, with all the supplies necessary for the prosecution of a vigorous Campaign.

The most important portion of this extensive line of frontier was undoubtedly that which fronted the Netherlands; for although it had been planned by the Allies that no advance was to be made by the troops in Belgium until the remainder of their forces had reached a line of connecting points along the French frontier, when all their Armies were to march, in combined movement, upon the capital: still it was reasonably to be expected that NAPOLEON would not wait for the completion of this plan, but rather that he would endeavour, by a decisive effort, if not to frustrate its accomplishment, at least to diminish its efficacy. It required no great exercise of military sagacity or political foresight to predict, that after having adopted a maturely considered disposition of force on the most important points along his general line of defence, and placed his frontier Fortresses upon a respectable footing, NAPOLEON would open the tremendous game, upon which his crown, his political existence, and the fate of France, were now fairly staked, by a bold, sudden, and resolute advance into Belgium-straining every nerve to vanquish, in detail, the Allied forces in that densely populated country; of which a vast portion was already prepared to declare in his favour. His authority once established in

151. W.L. Siborne.

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The English Army.

March to Jane.

Brussels, through the means of some great and signal triumph, the accession to his moral influence over the entire mass of the French nation would be immense; and then, flying to the succour of his nearest Corps menaced from the banks of the Rhine by the approach of hostile forces (upon which his possession of Belgium would operate as a powerful check by the facilities thus afforded for a combined attack in front and flank), a series of brilliant successes, supported by fresh levies from the interior, might enable him even to dictate terms to the Allies, who had indignantly rejected all his overtures.

Hence the importance of narrowly watching the Belgian frontier, and of making due preparations for meeting any attack in that quarter, was too obvious not to form a principal feature in the general plan of the Allies. Its defence was assigned to an Army under the Duke of WELLINGTON, comprising contingent forces from Great Britain, from Hanover, the Netherlands, Brunswick, and Nassau; and to a Prussian Army, under Field Marshal Prince BLÜCHER VON WAhlstadt.

At the moment of the landing of NAPOLEON on the French shore, the only force in the Netherlands consisted, in addition to the native troops, of a weak Anglo-Hanoverian Corps, under the command of His Royal Highness the Prince of ORANGE; but the zeal, energy, and activity displayed by the Government of Great Britain, in engrafting upon this nucleus a powerful Army, amounting at the commencement of hostilities, to about 100,000 combatants, notwithstanding the impediments and delays occasioned by the absence of a considerable portion of its troops in America, were truly surprising. At the same time, the extraordinary supply of subsidies furnished by the British Parliament, without which not one of the Armies of the

March to June.

The Prussian Army.

51

Allied Sovereigns could have commenced operations, and by means of which England thus become the great lever whereby the whole of Europe was set in motion towards the attainment of the one common object, was admirably illustrative of the bold, decided, and straightforward policy of the most determined, the most indefatigable, and the most consistent, enemy of NAPOLEON.

Within the same period, the Prussian forces, originally limited to a corps of 30,000 men, under General Count KLEIST VON NOLLENDORF, occupying the Prussian territories bounded by the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle, were augmented to an effective Army of 116,000 combatants, with all the rapidity and energy which a keen sense of the wrongs and miseries their country had endured under the ruthless sway of their inveterate foe, and a salutary dread of a repetition of such infliction, could not fail to inspire.

Great Britain and Prussia thus occupied the post of honour, and formed the vanguard of the mighty masses which Europe was pouring forth to seal the doom of the NAPOLEON dynasty.

A Russian Army, under Field Marshal Count BARCLAY DE TOLLY, amounting to 167,000 men, was rapidly traversing the whole of Germany, in three main Columns: of which the Right, commanded by General DOCHTEROW, advanced by Kalisch, Torgau, Leipzig, Erfurt, Hanau, Frankfort, and Hochheim, towards Mayence; the Centre, commanded by General Baron SACKEN, advanced by Breslau, Dresden, Zwickau, Baireuth, Nuremberg, Aschaffenburg, Dieburg, and Gross Gerau, towards Oppenheim; while the Left Column, commanded by General Count LANGERON, took its direction along the line of Prague, Aube, Adelsheim, Neckar, and Heidelberg, towards Mannheim. The heads of