Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
the field commanded by Wellington, before Blucher's arrival, amounted to
one hundred and twenty thousand men." The Allies, by their own account,
lost sixty thousand men, viz. eleven thousand three hundred English,
three thousand five hundred Hanoverians, eight thousand Belgians, and
thirty-eight thousand Prussians. This makes a general total of _sixty
thousand eight hundred men_. The losses of the French, including those
sustained during the rout, and till their arrival at the gates of Paris,
was _forty-one thousand men_. Out of twenty-four English Generals,
twelve were killed or badly wounded. The mind quite sickens at the
recital of such a horrid slaughter of human beings, for the sole purpose
of gratifying the malignant passions of a few tyrants, who had sworn to
annihilate the very spirit as well as the substance of liberty. To
destroy NAPOLEON, and to raise up Louis, ONE HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND
lives were sacrificed upon this occasion!
Napoleon repaired to Paris, where he found that traitors of the vilest
cast had been at work. The Chambers were in a state of insurrection,
and on the 22d of June, 1815, Napoleon resigned the government to a
provisional Council. On the 3d of July a suspension of hostilities was
signed at St. Cloud, and on the same day Buonaparte arrived at Rochfort,
while Paris was evacuated by the French troops and occupied by the
allied army. By the articles of capitulation, on which Paris was
surrendered, a complete _indemnity_ was secured to _all_ persons. We
shall soon see how they were fulfilled. On the 5th, the troops under
General Oudinot declared for Louis; and on the 8th, Louis the Desired
returned once more to Paris, and resumed the government under the
protection of a foreign army. On the 15th, Napoleon took the fatal
resolution of throwing himself upon the protection of the British
Government. Relying upon the honour of the English character, he
surrendered himself to Captain Maitland, of the Bellerophon; on the 24th
he arrived in that ship at Torbay, and on the twenty-sixth he sailed to
Plymouth, to which port tens of thousands of persons crowded from all
parts of England to obtain a sight of him. He was not allowed to land,
but on the seventh of August he was removed on board the Northumberland,
Captain Cockburn, which sailed on the following day for St. Helena.
Napoleon is now dead and gone, but his name will live for ever. It makes
my heart ache to think that such a man should have been so deceived and
deluded as to the character of the English Government, so much so, as to
flatter himself for a moment that he would ever receive justice or mercy
at their hands! Noble, generous, forgiving, and possessing all the
attributes of a truly brave man himself, he little dreamt of the
fate that awaited him; he had heard of the generosity of the English
character, he knew the English to be brave, he had always found them so,
but he was deceived as to their power and influence over the Government;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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