en
and boys in blue fought each other until the Elbe ran red with blood.
On the afternoon of the 17th of October, the massed reserves of Russian
infantry broke through the French lines and Napoleon fled.

Back to Paris he went. He abdicated in favour of his small son, but the
allied powers insisted that Louis XVIII, the brother of the late king
Louis XVI, should occupy the French throne, and surrounded by Cossacks
and Uhlans, the dull-eyed Bourbon prince made his triumphal entry into
Paris.

As for Napoleon he was made the sovereign ruler of the little island
of Elba in the Mediterranean where he organised his stable boys into a
miniature army and fought battles on a chess board.

But no sooner had he left France than the people began to realise what
they had lost. The last twenty years, however costly, had been a period
of great glory. Paris had been the capital of the world. The fat Bourbon
king who had learned nothing and had forgotten nothing during the days
of his exile disgusted everybody by his indolence.

On the first of March of the year 1815, when the representatives of the
allies were ready to begin the work of unscrambling the map of Europe,
Napoleon suddenly landed near Cannes. In less than a week the French
army had deserted the Bourbons and had rushed southward to offer their
swords and bayonets to the "little Corporal." Napoleon marched straight
to Paris where he arrived on the twentieth of March. This time he was
more cautious. He offered peace, but the allies insisted upon war. The
whole of Europe arose against the "perfidious Corsican." Rapidly the
Emperor marched northward that he might crush his enemies before they
should be able to unite their forces. But Napoleon was no longer his old
self. He felt sick. He got tired easily. He slept when he ought to have
been up directing the attack of his advance-guard. Besides, he missed
many of his faithful old generals. They were dead.

Early in June his armies entered Belgium. On the 16th of that month he
defeated the Prussians under Blucher. But a subordinate commander failed
to destroy the retreating army as he had been ordered to do.

Two days later, Napoleon met Wellington near Waterloo. It was the 18th
of June, a Sunday. At two o'clock of the afternoon, the battle seemed
won for the French. At three a speck of dust appeared upon the eastern
horizon. Napoleon believed that this meant the approach of his own
cavalry who would now turn the English de