is
theme, he exclaims to his neighbour, Glover, "that at one time he
[Gourgaud] might have taken the Duke of Wellington prisoner, but he
_desisted from it, knowing the effusion of blood it would have
occasioned_."[550]--It is charitable to assume that this utterance was
inspired by some liquid stronger than the alleged "stale water that
had been to India and back."

On the whole, was there ever an odder company of shipmates since the
days of Noah? A cheery solid Admiral, a shadowy Captain Ross who can
navigate but does not open his lips, a talkative creature of the
secretary type, the soldierly Bingham, the graceful courtly
Montholons, the young General who out-gascons the Gascons, the
wire-drawn subtle Las Cases, the melancholy Grand Marshal and his
spasmodic consort--all of them there to guard or cheer that pathetic
central figure, the world's conqueror and world's exile.

Meanwhile France was feeling the results of his recent enterprise.
Enormous armies began to hold her down until the Bourbons, whose
nullity was a pledge for peace, should be firmly re-established.
Bluecher, baulked of his wish to shoot Bonaparte, was with difficulty
dissuaded by the protests of Wellington and Louis XVIII. from blowing
up the Pont de Jena at Paris; and the fierce veteran voiced the
general opinion of Germans, including Metternich, that France must be
partitioned, or at least give back Alsace and Lorraine to the
Fatherland. Even Lord Liverpool, our cautious Premier, wrote on July
15th that, if Bonaparte remained at large, the allies ought to retain
all the northern fortresses as a security.[551] But the knowledge that
the warrior was in our power led our statesmen to bear less hardly on
France. From the outset Wellington sought to bring the allies to
reason, and on August 11th he wrote a despatch that deserves to rank
among his highest titles to fame. While granting that France was still
left "in too great strength for the rest of Europe," he pointed out
that "revolutionary France is more likely to distress the world, than
France, however strong in her frontier, under a regular Government;
and that is the situation in which we ought to endeavour to place
her."

This generous and statesmanlike judgment, consorting with that of the
Czar, prevailed over the German policy of partition; and it was
finally arranged by the Treaty of Paris of November 20th, 1815, that
France should surrender only the frontier strips around Marienburg,
Sa