ined as they had been in the best of
schools, not one of them was a Napoleon; all of them together were not,
for that matter. Would the luster of Wellington's fame, which extended
from the Ganges to the Ebro, be tarnished when he met the Emperor? It
was a foregone conclusion, of course, that Schwarzenberg would command
the Austrians; Bluecher, the "Hussar General," the hard-fighting,
downright old "Marshal Vorwaerts," the Prussians; and the Emperor
Alexander, with his veteran captains, the vast horde of Russians.

To assemble, arm, equip and move two hundred and fifty thousand men was a
great task in those days even for a rich and populous country flushed
with victory and in the enjoyment of an abundance of time and unlimited
means. The organizing, it almost might be said the creative, ability of
Napoleon was not shared by his opponents. Try as they would, June found
their preparations still woefully incomplete. The Austrians had scarcely
moved at all. The slower Russians, who were farther away and were to
constitute the reserve army, could be discounted from any present
calculation of the enemies of the Empire. The English and their smaller
allies from the Low Countries, and the Prussians, whose hatred of France
and the Emperor was greater than that of any other nation, were quicker
to move. Two hundred and fifteen thousand men, half of them Prussians, a
third of the other moiety English, the remaining two-thirds Belgians,
Hollanders, and other miscellaneous nationalities, had joined the colors
on the northwestern frontier of France. One-half of this joint assembly
was commanded by Bluecher and the other half by Wellington.

Leaving the weaker half of his own great army to complete its equipment,
and placing strong detachments in fortress and at strategetic points to
oppose the Austrians should they advance, the Emperor, as has been said,
with about one hundred and twenty-five thousand men took the field.
Naturally, inevitably, Belgium, the immemorial battleground of the
nations, and the great English-Prussian army were his objectives. He saw
clearly the dangers that encompassed him, the demands he must meet and
the conditions over which he must triumph.

It was by no means certain, even if he decisively defeated his enemies in
Belgium and occupied Brussels, that his trouble would be over. There
would still be left a possible five hundred thousand trained and
disciplined men with whom he would have to deal,