19.

and forming into a line four deep, poured on their front and flank a deadly shower of musketry, which never ceased for a moment. Under this heavy fire the French columns vainly attempted to deploy into line; they halted for the purpose, wavered, and fell at once into remediless confusion. Wellington seized the decisive moment to charge; some unbroken battalions of the French guard for a moment seemed to oppose a formidable obstacle, but they waited not the attack of the British bayonet; with indescribable agony Napoleon saw these his last hope, reel, break, and mingle with the mass of fugitives which lately was an army.

20. The Prussians had now come up, and continued the pursuit of the broken army with terrible effect; the English halted almost on the bloody field, quite spent with the fatigues of this arduous and long-contested fight. They had indeed won a brilliant victory, but it was dearly purchased by the loss of 600 officers, and 15,000 men killed and wounded.

21. Napoleon returned to Paris, and soon found that the army were his only friends in France; in vain he appealed to the chambers, he was a second time forced to sign his abdication, and a provisional government was at once appointed. Had Napoleon at once attempted his escape to the United States of America, he would probably have succeeded; but he lingered, hoping that some chance might yet appear in his favour. When at length he arrived at Rochfort, he found the coast blockaded by the British cruisers, and found it impossible to carry out his design of escaping beyond the Atlantic.

22. On the 15th of July, he surrendered himself to Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon, and on the 24th he arrived in Torbay. After some delay he was informed that the allied sovereigns had resolved to send him as a prisoner to St. Helena. Thither he was sent, and there he died on the 5th of May 1821. We are too near the time and the scene of this great man's career, to form an impartial estimate of his character and conduct; but no stronger proof could be given of the reverence in which his memory is held by his former subjects, than the fact, that after a lapse of nearly twenty years they sent an expedition, commanded by a son of the reigning monarch, to bring back the emperor's remains in order that they might be interred in the capital of France.

23. The battle of Waterloo put an end to the war; a military convention was concluded, according to which the allies took possession of Paris, and the French army retired behind the Loire. Louis XVIII. was once more restored to

the throne of his ancestors; but unfortunately, he adopted harsher measures against the adherents of Napoleon than were prudent, or perhaps justifiable, and thus increased the discon-. tent and dissatisfaction of the nation. The allies did not treat France with the forbearance which they had exhibited in the preceding year; they exacted a contribution to defray the expenses of the war; they compelled the restoration of those works of literature and art which the French had wrested from conquered countries; they took possession of several fortresses on the frontiers, and stationed an army of occupation in the country to prevent any insurrection of the people.

1. FRANCE was in a very unhappy condition, after the restoration of Louis XVIII.; the great body of the nation might have been contented with the king, but he was surrounded by persons whose counsels were justly suspected of a tendency to despotism. The royalists seemed resolved to make an extreme use of the victory which the allies had won for them, and to destroy every vestige of constitutional freedom. The appointments to the magistracy, and to the National guard, were taken from the people; so that the force which ought to have been constitutional, became the mere instrument of a party. The partisans of ultra-royalty were closely allied with the more violent portion of the French clergy, and under their influence several outrages were committed against the protestants in various parts of France; and even when government was forced to interfere, the murderers were allowed tc

escape unpunished. The nobility possessed almost a monopoly of the executive power, and they employed it to deprive the people of the franchises and privileges ceded by the charter. In addition to this, the accusations for treason and sedition brought against all who opposed the government, the violence of the clerical missionaries, who profaned religion to advance political purposes, and the intrigues at the elections for deputies, diffused feelings of general dissatisfaction through the

nation.

2. The accession of France to the "Holy Alliance," at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, engaged the government in a system of policy, designed to secure the power of monarchs throughout Europe; but a considerable body of the French deputies resisted the extension of the royal prerogative, and Decazes, the prime minister, supported by the moderate royalists, endeavoured to frame a system which would strengthen the monarchy, without injuring the constitution. He was, however, fiercely opposed by the ultras or violent royalists, and an unfortunate event gave them a temporary triumph. The duke of Berry was assassinated by a political fanatic named Louvel, Feb. 13th, 1820, and the ultras, or "the extreme right," as they were called, from the part of the chamber which they usually occupied, denounced Decazes for encouraging doctrines subversive of the monarchy. These accusations produced a sensible effect on the court, if not on the chambers, and Decazes resigned. He was succeeded by the Duc de Richelieu, and a ministry was formed of the warmest adherents of monarchical power.

3. Laws were passed, giving the minister the power of arresting suspected persons, imposing consorship on the press, and raising the qualifications for the elective franchise; but even these violations of the charter did not satisfy "the extreme right," and they joined "the left," or liberal party, in strenuous efforts to eject the Richelieu ministry. The debates in the chambers were fierce and stormy, often indeed quite unbecoming the dignity of a deliberative assembly. Richelieu resigned his office, Dec. 17th, 1821, and was succeeded by a ministry still more violently royal: the dissatisfaction of the nation was shown by countless plots, conspiracies, riots, and incendiary fires, which were made the pretext for fresh laws of restriction. 4. Villele, the head of the new ministry, resolved to send a French army into Spain, for the purpose of restoring the king to the power of which he had been deprived by the Cortes; but he was opposed by a party, which more