to constitutional regulations; nor to intimate, in plain terms, that France fought solely for a peace founded on the recognition of her national independence, and that her institutions were a guarantee to Europe that the French Government" could not be carried away by the seductions of victory." The Representatives, in their address, were not content with a passing allusion to the liberal concessions of the Emperor. They dwelt, with emphasis, on the fact that constitutional liberty was established, as if they doubted the sincerity of him who had laid aside his " extraordinary powers;" and they took care to record their intention of consolidating and amending the constitution. The nation had resumed its rights, and had once more trusted Napoleon, but trusted him only as a constitutional sovereign. In attacking him Europe attacked her, and she would defend her independence; but she cherished no ambitious projects, and even the will of a victorious prince, they said, would be powerless to drag her beyond the limits of her own defence. The Emperor was assured that he should be supported, but he was told significantly that he must seek in victory nothing except a lasting peace. As to the Representatives, while his Majesty was fighting for national independence, they would labour unremittingly to perfect that constitutional pact which would cement the union of the throne and people, and strengthen, in the eyes of Europe, the guarantee of their engagements. Confiding in its tone, this address is substantially one long expression of distrust. The repeated reference to the surrender of absolute power, and the imperfection of the Imperial constitutions; the menacing intimations, disguised in respectful phrases, that the prince would not be allowed. to drag the nation into wars of ambition, show that the Chambers reposed only a half-confidence in the Emperor. The answers of Napoleon were in accordance with the

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character of the two addresses. To the peers he said with some sarcasm, that the danger which menaced the country was not the allurements of victory, but 'the Caudine Forks;" and he declared that, in the hour of reverses, be should count upon the devotion of the Chamber of Peers. To the Representatives he spoke at greater length. He told them that all his thoughts were absorbed in the war —that very night, indeed, he should set out for the army. They were free to "meditate" upon the Imperial constitutions, and in more tranquil times he would second their efforts by the exercise of his prerogatives. But he warned them that all public discussions tending directly or indirectly to diminish the confidence of the public in the constitution, would be a misfortune for the State; and, enforcing his view by stronger language, he said:"Don't let us imitate the example of the Lower Empire, which, pressed on all sides by the barbarians, made itself the laughing-stock of posterity by indulging in abstract discussions at the moment when the battering-ram was breaking down the gates of the city." The Representatives must have seen that the tone of their address was appreciated thoroughly by the Emperor; mistrust on both sides was but thinly veiled under the respectful forms and expressions which custom and good sense have decided should be the ordinary medium of communication between a sovereign and his subjects.

That night Napoleon constituted a Council of State to perform the political and administrative functions of Government during his absence, and placed the ex-King Joseph at its head. It consisted of the eight departmental Ministers, and the four Ministers of State, and of Prince Lucien Bonaparte. Early on the morning of the 12th of June Napoleon quitted Paris for the northern frontier, to attack the most advanced and threatening of the Armies of the Coalition.

CHAPTER II.

THE ALLIES IN THE LOW COUNTRIES.

§ 1. Character and Growth of the Allied Armies.

WHE

HEN Napoleon broke out of Elba and assumed command once more of the military resources of France, the great Powers had considerable armaments, but in no nation was the army on a war footing. On the frontier of France, between the Meuse and the Moselle, there were in cantonments some 26,000 Prussians under the command of General Kleist, and in Belgium, much scattered, about 40,000 English, Hanoverians, and DutchBelgians, under the orders of the Prince of Orange. The King of the Netherlands, to whom Belgium had been allotted in the general distribution of territory at Vienna, had made some efforts to raise, equip, and organize a national army. His earlier attempts had not been attended with much success, but after the abdication of Napoleon and his retirement to Elba in 1814, many Dutch and Belgian officers serving in the Imperial armies returned home, found employment under the King. and greatly improved the quality of his embryo army. Still many of the battalions were raw militia, and the officers were not

efficient. Both were more numerous and in somewhat

better order in 1815, but still imperfect.

The King of the Netherlands joined promptly the coali

D

tion against his imperious neighbour, whose proximity inspired apprehension. His allies were quickly on the alert. The officers of the British Sappers and Miners, who were engaged in restoring the Belgic fortresses, no sooner heard of the escape of Napoleon than they increased their exertions to render the fortresses defensible against a coup de main. The measures they adopted were approved; and after the arrival of Wellington at Brussels, and as fast as Sapper companies could be landed at Ostend, and distributed through the country, their labours were directed to the restoration of all the chief posts along the frontier from Ostend to Liége; and at one time not less than 20,000 labourers, men and women, exclusive of strong military fatigue parties, were employed upon the works on the line from Ostend to Mons. Between the 24th of March and the 10th of June, the British Government supplied the Duke, not with what he demanded-" the whole corps of Sappers and Miners,"-but with seven fresh companies, making a total, in the Low Countries, of 782 men; only a little more than one-fourth of the force at the disposal of the Government.1

The Duke of Wellington reached Brussels on the 4th of April, and took command of the Dutch-Belgians as well as of the British and Hanoverians. He found that he had at his disposal, for every purpose, exclusive of garrisons, 25,000 Anglo-German troops, of which 5,000 were cavalry, and 20,000 Dutch-Belgians, of which 2,000 were cavalry. The quality of these latter was not good, because the army was raw and young; and the British, said the Duke, were not what they ought to have been to maintain our military character in Europe. The Duke desired 40,000 British infantry and German Legionaries, exclusive of garrison troops; 18,000 cavalry of the same stamp, and 150 British 1 The strength of the corps in 1815 was 2,861..

field guns; but he does not appear to have been very hopeful of obtaining them. The Government displayed some energy, but not enough. Lord Castlereagh promised the Prussian Minister that, in May, Wellington should have 50,000 British troops in the Low Countries; but Lord Bathurst, the War Minister, did not redeem the pledge of the Foreign Secretary to Hardenberg. Wellington sent home blunt remonstrances and plain speaking letters; but the Horse Guards and the War Office were more intent on exercising patronage than on embarking every available man for Belgium. On the 21st of April the Duke was compelled to write the cutting request, that before they sent him any more generals they should let him see more troops. Indeed, the staff grew upon him. He did not know what to do with "the young gentlemen " sent out to act as staff officers. The Ministry at home never consulted the first of British captains on the selection of a staff. "If you will speak to Sir Henry Torrens," the Duke wrote to MajorGeneral Darling, in answer to an application for employment, "he will tell you that I have nothing to say to any appointment to the staff of this army, of any rank. . . . I have no choice, and I beg you to apply in the quarter in which you will certainly succeed without reference to my wishes." Such was the sway of "influence," or of infatuation, that the Horse Guards sent him a Provost-Marshal to the army utterly unfit for the situation," and when the army moves, he wrote, "I shall be under the necessity of leaving him in the rear, as I did in the Peninsula."

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Nevertheless, troops of various kinds trickled into Belgium through Ostend and from Germany. The AngloBelgian army had increased by the 3rd of May to 70,000 men fit for service in the field, and the 26,000 Prussians had become 80,000. Blucher had also arrived, and the Duke saw him at Tirlemont on the 2nd of May, and