April 28 his motion for an address to the prince regent, deprecating
war with Napoleon, was defeated by 273 votes against 72. This was
Whitbread's last prominent appearance in parliament. On July 6, during a
fit of insanity, he died by his own hand. The subsidies to the allies
were opposed by Bankes, but were carried on May 26 by 160 votes against
17. There can be no doubt that the majorities in the house of commons
correctly expressed the national sentiment. Nobody wished to dictate to
France the form of government which she was to adopt, but it was
generally felt that Napoleon's character rendered peace with him
impossible.

[Pageheading: _THE CAMPAIGN OF 1815._]

In the end, about 80,000 men were assembled in Belgium under
Wellington's orders, but of these not half were British soldiers,
including untrained drafts from the militia, who replaced veteran
Peninsular regiments still detained in Canada and the United States. Yet
Napoleon admitted the British contingent to be equal, man for man, to
his own troops, while he estimated these to be worth twice their own
number of Dutchmen, Prussians, or other Germans. The first blow in the
war was struck by Murat. Already in February, dissatisfied with his
ambiguous position, he had levied troops and summoned Louis XVIII. to
declare whether he was at war with him. As soon as he heard of
Napoleon's return, he invaded the Papal States, and summoned the
Italians to rise in the cause of Italian unity and independence. Though
disowned by Napoleon, he persevered in this plan, but he was attacked
and twice defeated by an Austrian army. On May 22 the British and
Austrians took the city of Naples, and Murat fled to France. In October
he made an attempt to recover his kingdom, but was captured and shot. It
is noteworthy that, on hearing of his fate at St. Helena, Napoleon
showed but little sympathy with his brother-in-law.

On the morning of June 12, Napoleon left Paris, saying as he entered his
carriage that he went to match himself with Wellington. All his troops
were already marshalled on the Belgian frontier, and numbered 124,588
men, with 344 guns. The Imperial Guard alone was 20,954 strong, and the
whole army was largely composed of seasoned veterans. The Prussian army
consisted of 116,897 men, with 312 guns under Marshal Bluecher, whose
headquarters were at Namur. Though the majority of these were veterans,
there was a considerable leaven of inferior troops, hastily raised fro