Page 551 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VIII

THE EMPEROR PUTS

A QUESTION TO THE

GUIDE LACOSTE

So, on the morning of Waterloo, Napoleon was content.
He was right; the plan of battle conceived by him was, as
we have seen, really admirable.
The battle once begun, its very various changes,—the re-
sistance of Hougomont; the tenacity of La Haie-Sainte; the
killing of Bauduin; the disabling of Foy; the unexpected
wall against which Soye’s brigade was shattered; Guillem-
inot’s fatal heedlessness when he had neither petard nor
powder sacks; the miring of the batteries; the fifteen une-
scorted pieces overwhelmed in a hollow way by Uxbridge;
the small effect of the bombs falling in the English lines,
and there embedding themselves in the rain-soaked soil,
and only succeeding in producing volcanoes of mud, so
that the canister was turned into a splash; the uselessness
of Pire’s demonstration on Braine-l’Alleud; all that caval-
ry, fifteen squadrons, almost exterminated; the right wing

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