have become greatly his superior, by the junction of its Allies. His critical circumstances left little room for deliberation, and he preferred trying the event of battle to returning into France, disappointed and disgraced,

In the mind of the philosopher and the Christian moralist, the battle of Waterloo is calculated to inspire contemplations which may be rendered subservient to the best interests of mankind. The days of Marathon, and Thermopyla; of Cannæ, of Zama, and of Philippi; of Crecy, Poictiers, and Agincourt, have, in their turn, been the subjects of historical and poetical delineation; and we have rejoiced while perusing the triumphs of patriotism and the overthrow of ambitious tyranny. But no age or country has ever presented to the imagination a more vivid picture of the evanescent nature of human glory, or the frail tenure by which the despot holds his power, than that stupendous event which we have just attempted to describe. Considered in all its bearings, and with all its accompaniments and results, we conceive it has scarcely a parallel in the history of political occurrences. A man, who, for nearly twenty years had enjoyed the reputation of being the first captain of the age; with whose triumphs the earth resounded, and at whose nod the nations fell prostrate, suddenly issues from that seclusion to which he had been driven by a temporary reverse, and again appears at the head of a formidable

army, raised as by magic, to scatter firebrands, arrows, and death, in his destructive course.On Wednesday morning he marches from the French frontier, in all the pomp of martial glory-on Sunday evening his army is destroyed, scattered, dispersed, and himself a fugitive, indebted for his security to the shades of night. boat of Xerxes does not afford a finer lesson of instruction for the ambitious, than Napoleon, with his eight attendants, taking by stealth, a little refreshment in the meadow of Marcenelle !

The

An event which was to still the alarms of affrighted Europe, first brought consolation to the trembling inhabitants of Brussels. For three days they had been a prey to the most anxious suspense, as the cannonading appeared nearer or more remote. The city was inundated with the most vague and contradictory reports: one moment it was asserted that the enemy were defeated and in full retreat the next, that they had eluded the vigilance of the Allies, and were approaching by a circuitous route to seize the defenceless capital. The intelligence of the repulse of the French at Quatre Bras was qualified by the defeat of Blucher at Ligny, while the subsequent retreas of the Allies, and the arrival of numerous waggons filled with wounded soldiers, excited a general despondency with regard to the final result. So great was the alarm on the evening of the 17th, that one hundred Napoleons were offered in vain for a pair

of horses to go to Antwerp, a distance of only thirty miles; and numbers set off on foot, and embarked in boats upon the canal. On Sunday it was universally believed that the enemy had gained a complete victory, and terror and confusion were at their highest point. A dreadful panic having seized the men left in charge of the baggage in the rear of the army, they ran away with a rapidity that could not have been surpassed by the flight of the French. The narrow road from Waterloo through the forest of Soignies soon became literally choaked up, and a struggle to see who should get foremost ended in a serious scuffle, in which some lives were lost. The road was strewed with overturned abandoned baggage and dead horses, which rendered it impossible for the wounded to be brought from the field.

The panic soon spread to more distant places in the Netherlands. At Antwerp long rows of carriages lined the streets, filled with fugitives who could find no place of shelter. So universal was the anxiety, that during the whole of Sunday, though the rain was incessant, the Great Place was crowded with people, who stood from morning till night under umbrellas, watching for news, and assailing every person who entered the town with fruitless enquiries: a community of danger seemed to level all distinctions, and persons total strangers to each other, conversed together like friends. It has been justly observed, that "none but those who

have been in a similar situation can conceive the strong overpowering anxiety of being so near such eventful scenes, without being able to learn what is really passing to know that within a few miles such an awful contest is deciding to think that in the roar of every cannon, your brave countrymen are falling, bleeding, dying-to dread that your dearest friends may be the victims-to endure the protracted suspense, the constant agitation, the varying reports, the incessant alarms, the fluctuating hopes, and doubts, and fears, which are the constant accompaniments of such circumstances," must be productive of feelings almost insupportable. It was not until eight o'clock on the following morning that the glorious truth burst upon the terrified population, and filled every breast with mingled feelings of triumph and sorrow, admiration and regret: the generally silent thankfulness of the British might be contrasted with the voluble joy of the Belgians, who made the streets resound with their acclamations-and in these they were heartily joined by a party of wounded Highlanders, who had found their way on foot from the field of battle. Regardless of their sufferings they' began to shout with the most vociferous demonstrations of joy; and those who had the use of their arms threw their bonnets into the air, calling out in broad Scotch, "Boney's beat!-Boney's beat! -huzza! huzza!-Boney's beat!"

Vast numbers now flocked from Brussels and the adjacent towns to visit the eventful field of Waterloo; some actuated by the benevolent wish of being serviceable to those wretched sufferers in whom the spark of life might not yet be extinct; others by curiosity, or worse motives. The wreck on the road through the forest of Soignies rendered it almost impassible for carriages, while it was skirted with the lifeless bodies of unfortunate men who had crept from the field of battle, and, unable to proceed farther than the spot where they were found, lay down and died. It would be impossible to describe the desolation which reigned on the immediate scene of action. The high standing corn which had waved there two days before in rich luxuriance, had been so completely beaten into the earth as to have the appearance of stubble: and the ground, ploughed up in many places by the deep impress of the horses' hoofs, pointed out where the most deadly struggles had taken place. In every quarter the field was strewed with the melancholy relics of the horrid fray-soldiers' caps pierced with many a ball-various devices and ornaments-badges of the legion of honour-cuirasses-fragments of broken arms, belts, and scabbards-shreds of tattered clothing, shoes, gloves, cartridge boxes, highland bonnets, feathers steeped in blood and gore, French novels and German testaments, scattered music, cards, letters, and mili tary livrets, or memorandum books, of the French