rals, Ney, Soult, Bertrand, Drouot, Corbineau, de Flahaut,
Labedoyere, Gourgaud, &c. drew their swords, and became soldiers. The
old grenadiers, incapable of fear for their own lives, were alarmed at
the danger that threatened the life of the Emperor. They conjured him
to withdraw. "Retire," said one of them: "you see, that Death shuns
you." The Emperor resisted, and ordered them to fire. The officers
around him seized his bridle, and dragged him away. Cambronne and his
brave fellows crowded round their expiring eagles, and bade Napoleon
an eternal adieu. The English, moved by their heroic resistance,
conjured them to surrender. "No," said Cambronne, "the guard can die,
but not yield!" At the same moment they all rushed on the enemy, with
shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" Their blows were worthy of the
conquerors of Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram, and Montmirail. The English
and Prussians, from whom they still detained the field of victory,
united against this handful of heroes, and cut them down. Some,
covered with wounds, fell to the ground weltering in their blood;
others, more fortunate, were killed outright: in fine, they whose
hopes were not answered by death, shot one another, that they might
not survive their companions in arms, or die by the hands of their
enemies.

Wellington and Blucher, thus become quiet possessors of the field of
battle, traversed it as masters. But at what expense of blood was this
unjust triumph purchased! Never, no never, were the blows of the
French more formidable or more deadly to their adversaries. Thirsting
after blood and glory, they rushed daringly on the blazing batteries
of their enemy; and seemed to multiply in number, to seek, attack, and
pursue them in their inaccessible intrenchments. Thirty thousand
English or Prussians[53] were sacrificed by their hands on that fatal
day; and when it is considered, that this horrible carnage was the
work of fifty thousand men[54], dying with fatigue and hunger, and
striving in miry ground against an impregnable position and a hundred
and thirty thousand fighting men, we cannot but be seized with
sorrowful admiration, and decree to the vanquished the palm of
victory.

[Footnote 53:

Men.

The general loss of the army of the Duke of
Wellington, in killed and wounded, was about 25,000

And that of Prince Blucher 35,000