of the enthusiastic ardor which the people felt for Napoleon to
the last.

The Duke of Wellington had eighty thousand effective men under his
command, and Marshal Blucher one hundred and ten thousand. These
forces were to unite, and march to Paris through Flanders. It was
arranged that the Austrians and Russians should invade France first,
by Befort and Huningen, in order to attract the enemy's principal
forces to that quarter.

Napoleon's plan was to collect all his forces into one mass, and
boldly to place them between the English and Prussians, and attack
them separately. He had under his command one hundred and twenty
thousand veteran troops, and therefore, not unreasonably, expected to
combat successfully the one hundred and ninety thousand of the enemy.
He forgot, however, that he had to oppose Wellington and Blucher.

[Sidenote: Battle of Waterloo.]

On the 18th of June was performed the last sad act of the great
tragedy which had for twenty years convulsed Europe with blood and
tears. All the combatants on that eventful day understood the nature
of the contest, and the importance of the battle. At Waterloo,
Napoleon staked his last throw in the desperate game he had hazarded,
and lost it; and was ruined, irrevocably and forever.

Little signified his rapid flight, his attempt to defend Paris, or his
readiness to abdicate in favor of his son. The allied powers again, on
the 7th of July, entered Paris, and the Bourbon dynasty was restored.

Napoleon retired to Rochefort, hoping to escape his enemies and reach
America. It was impossible. He then resolved to throw himself upon the
generosity of the English. He was removed to St. Helena, where he no
longer stood a chance to become the scourge of the nations. And there,
on that lonely island, in the middle of the ocean, guarded most
effectually by his enemies, his schemes of conquest ended. He
supported his hopeless captivity with tolerable equanimity, showing no
signs of remorse for the injuries he had inflicted, but meditating
profoundly on the mistakes he had committed, and conjecturing vainly
on the course he might have adopted for the preservation of his power.

How idle were all his conjectures and meditations! His fall was
decreed in the councils of Heaven, and no mortal strength could have
prevented his overthrow. His mission of blood was ended; and his
nation, after its bitter humiliation, was again to enjoy repose. But
he did not live in vain. He li