Page 528 - les-miserables

man into the Rhine, and the Englishman into the sea. All
this was contained in that battle, according to Napoleon.
Afterwards people would see.
Of course, we do not here pretend to furnish a history of
the battle of Waterloo; one of the scenes of the foundation of
the story which we are relating is connected with this battle,
but this history is not our subject; this history, moreover,
has been finished, and finished in a masterly manner, from
one point of view by Napoleon, and from another point of
view by a whole pleiad of historians.[7]
[7] Walter Scott, Lamartine, Vaulabelle, Charras, Qui-
net, Thiers.
As for us, we leave the historians at loggerheads; we
are but a distant witness, a passer-by on the plain, a seek-
er bending over that soil all made of human flesh, taking
appearances for realities, perchance; we have no right to
oppose, in the name of science, a collection of facts which
contain illusions, no doubt; we possess neither military
practice nor strategic ability which authorize a system; in
our opinion, a chain of accidents dominated the two lead-
ers at Waterloo; and when it becomes a question of destiny,
that mysterious culprit, we judge like that ingenious judge,
the populace.

528 Les Miserables