Page 525 - les-miserables

CHAPTER III

THE EIGHTEENTH

OF JUNE, 1815

Let us turn back,—that is one of the story-teller’s rights,—
and put ourselves once more in the year 1815, and even a
little earlier than the epoch when the action narrated in the
first part of this book took place.
If it had not rained in the night between the 17th and
the 18th of June, 1815, the fate of Europe would have been
different. A few drops of water, more or less, decided the
downfall of Napoleon. All that Providence required in or-
der to make Waterloo the end of Austerlitz was a little more
rain, and a cloud traversing the sky out of season sufficed to
make a world crumble.
The battle of Waterloo could not be begun until half-past
eleven o’clock, and that gave Blucher time to come up. Why?
Because the ground was wet. The artillery had to wait until
it became a little firmer before they could manoeuvre.
Napoleon was an artillery officer, and felt the effects of
this. The foundation of this wonderful captain was the man
who, in the report to the Directory on Aboukir, said: Such

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