NAPOLEON hated Britain so much that besides fighting against
her with soldiers he tried to fight in another way. He tried to
ruin British trade. Napoleon forbade other countries to trade
with Britain. But it was of little use, and so ill did he succeed
that his very own soldiers were dressed in British-made cloth
and wore British-made boots.
As Portugal still traded with Britain, Napoleon made that an
excuse for invading Portugal. At the same time he seized the King
of Spain and his son, and forced them to sign a paper saying that
they gave up the throne of Spain. Napoleon then made his own brother,
Joseph Bonaparte, King. But although the King and Prince had been
forced to sign away the throne, the people of Spain had something
to say about it. They refused to have Joseph Bonaparte as their
King. They rose to a man and rebelled against him, and they asked
the British to help them. So two years after Trafalgar the Peninsular
war began. It is called the Peninsular war because it was fought
in and for the Peninsula formed by Spain and Portugal.
At first the war was not very successful, but when Arthur Wellesley,
afterwards Lord Wellington, took command, things went better.
Gradually the French were driven back to France, and the war ended
with the battle of Toulouse, on 14th April 1814 A.D.
While this war was going on, Napoleon had also been fighting
with Russia. There he was utterly crushed. Everywhere the peoples
he had conquered revolted against him, and, a few days before
the battle of Toulouse, he had been made to give up the throne
of France, and was banished to the island of Elba.
Of the many kingdoms which Napoleon had conquered, this little
island in the Mediterranean Sea was all that he was allowed to
keep. But he soon grew tired of playing at being Emperor there.
The following year, while the Kings and Princes of Europe were
gathered at Vienna, trying to bring order and peace to the lands
which Napoleon had upset with his wars and conquests, he left
Elba and made straight for Paris. Cruel and selfish though he
was, his soldiers loved him, for he had so often led them to victory.
When he suddenly appeared among them, they flocked to him, and
the people cheered and welcomed him.
Once more Napoleon was Emperor of the French, but this time his
rule only lasted one hundred days.
The Kings and Princes at Vienna had not been able to agree about
settling the affairs of Europe, but, when they heard that Napoleon
was once more in Paris, fear of him made them all unite. They
gathered their armies for a great struggle against the terrible
Emperor.
Wellington had command of eighty thousand men, but only about
half of these were British. The rest were Dutch, Belgian, and
German. Blücher, the great German general, had another army
of one hundred and fifty thousand men, and there was yet a third
army of Russians and Austrians, and all these armies marched towards
France.
But Napoleon did not wait for them to come. He marched out to
meet them, and a great battle took place on 18th June 1815 A.D.
at Waterloo, not far from Brussels.
"Ah," said Napoleon, "at last I shall measure
swords with this Vilainton." For although the French and
British troops had often met, Napoleon had always been fighting
elsewhere, and had never met Wellington in battle.
The fight was fierce and long, and as Wellington watched and
directed, he anxiously looked for Blücher and his Prussians,
who had promised to join and help him.
"Night or Blücher," said Wellington, "night
or Blücher," for he knew that the coming of either would
put an end to the dreadful fight. At last, about seven in the
evening, Blücher and his Prussians came.
Then Napoleon made one more desperate struggle for victory. The
soldiers of his Old Guard, who had been kept in reserve, were
ordered forward, but they broke and fled before the British charge.
Napoleon, as he watched, became deathly pale. "All is lost,"
he said, turning to his officers, who surrounded him, "we
must save ourselves." And he rode from the field.
Not till after the battle did Blücher and Wellington meet.
In German fashion, the old Prussian general threw his arms round
Wellington, and kissed him. It was a great victory, and by it
Europe was saved from tyranny, yet Wellington was sad as he looked
round on the dead and the dying.
The British troops were worn out with the long day's fighting,
but the Prussians were still fresh, and Blücher started off
to chase the flying Frenchmen, who ran as fast as they were able.
They hid in the woods and ditches, and threw away their arms,
knapsacks, and every thing they could, so that they might run
the faster and escape from the pursuing Prussians. They fled till
they passed the borders of France, where they scattered to their
homes, a broken, beaten army, never to be gathered together again.
Napoleon gave himself up to the British. He was taken to England
on board a British man-of-war called the Bellerophon, but he was
not allowed to land.
He was kept on board the Bellerophon until the Kings of Europe
decided to send him to St. Helena, a lonely island in the Atlantic
ocean. There he could do no harm, and there he stayed until he
died, six years later.
three men on horseback greeting each other
NOT TILL AFTER THE BATTLE DID BLUCHER AND WELLINGTON MEET.
