Mons and
Namur while the forces of Austria and Russia closed in upon Paris by way
of Belfort and Elsass. But Napoleon had thrown aside all thought of a
merely defensive warfare. By amazing efforts he had raised an army of
two hundred and fifty thousand men in the few months since his arrival
in Paris; and in the opening of June 1815 one hundred and twenty
thousand Frenchmen were concentrated on the Sambre at Charleroi, while
Wellington's troops still lay in cantonments on the line of the Scheldt
from Ath to Nivelles, and Bluecher's on that of the Meuse from Nivelles
to Liege. Both the allied armies hastened to unite at Quatre Bras; but
their junction there was already impossible. Bluecher with eighty
thousand men was himself attacked by Napoleon at Ligny, and after a
desperate contest driven back with terrible loss upon Wavre. On the
same day Ney with twenty thousand men, and an equal force under D'Erlon
in reserve, appeared before Quatre Bras, where as yet only ten thousand
English and the same force of Belgian troops had been able to assemble.
The Belgians broke before the charges of the French horse; and only the
dogged resistance of the English infantry gave time for Wellington to
bring up corps after corps, till at the close of the day Ney saw himself
heavily outnumbered, and withdrew baffled from the field.

[Sidenote: Waterloo.]

About five thousand men had fallen on either side in this fierce
engagement: but, heavy as was Wellington's loss, the firmness of the
English army had already done much to foil Napoleon's effort at breaking
through the line of the Allies. Bluecher's retreat however left the
English flank uncovered; and on the following day, while the Prussians
were falling back on Wavre, Wellington, with nearly seventy thousand
men--for his army was now well in hand--withdrew in good order, followed
by the mass of the French forces under the Emperor himself. Napoleon had
detached thirty thousand men under Grouchy to hang upon the rear of the
beaten Prussians, while with a force of eighty thousand he resolved to
bring Wellington to battle. On the morning of the 18th of June the two
armies faced one another on the field of Waterloo in front of the Forest
of Soignies, on the high road to Brussels. Napoleon's one fear had been
that of a continued retreat. "I have them!" he cried, as he saw the
English line drawn up on a low rise of ground which stretched across the
high-road from the chateau of Hougomont o