Beneath a great tree in the neighborhood fell the German general，Duplat，descended from a French family which fled on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.An aged and falling apple-tree leans far over to one side，its wound dressed with a bandage of straw and of clayey loam.Nearly all the apple-trees are falling with age.
There is not one which has not had its bullet or its biscayan.[6]The skeletons of dead trees abound in this orchard.
Crows fly through their branches，and at the end of it is a wood full of violets.
[6]A bullet as large as an egg.
Bauduin，killed，Foy wounded，conflagration，massacre，carnage，a rivulet formed of English blood，French blood，German blood mingled in fury，a well crammed with corpses，the regiment of Nassau and the regiment of Brunswick destroyed，Duplat killed，Blackmann killed，the English Guards mutilated，twenty French battalions，besides the forty from Reille's corps，decimated，three thousand men in that hovel of Hougomont alone cut down，slashed to pieces，shot，burned，with their throats cut，——and all this so that a peasant can say to-day to the traveller：
Monsieur，give me three francs，and if you like，I will explain to you the affair of Waterloo！
BOOK FIRST.-WATERLOO
Ⅲ THE EIGHTEENTH OF JUNE，1815
Let us turn back，——that is one of the story-teller's rights，——and put ourselves once more in the year 1815，and even a little earlier than the epoch when the action narrated in the first part of this book took place.
If it had not rained in the night between the 17th and the 18th of June，1815，the fate of Europe would have been different.A few drops of water，more or less，decided the downfall of Napoleon.All that Providence required in order to make Waterloo the end of Austerlitz was a little more rain，and a cloud traversing the sky out of season sufficed to make a world crumble.
The battle of Waterloo could not be begun until half-past eleven o'clock，and that gave Blucher time to come up.
Why？
Because the ground was wet.
The artillery had to wait until it became a little firmer before they could manoeuvre.
Napoleon was an artillery officer，and felt the effects of this.The foundation of this wonderful captain was the man who，in the report to the Directory on Aboukir，said：
Such a one of our balls killed six men.
All his plans of battle were arranged for projectiles.The key to his victory was to make the artillery converge on one point.He treated the strategy of the hostile general like a citadel，and made a breach in it.
He overwhelmed the weak point with grape-shot；he joined and dissolved battles with cannon.
There was something of the sharpshooter in his genius.
To beat in squares，to pulverize regiments，to break lines，to crush and disperse masses，——for him everything lay in this，to strike，strike，strike incessantly，——and he intrusted this task to the cannon-ball.A redoubtable method，and one which，united with genius，rendered this gloomy athlete of the pugilism of war invincible for the space of fifteen years.
On the 18th of June，1815，he relied all the more on his artillery，because he had numbers on his side.
Wellington had only one hundred and fifty-nine mouths of fire；Napoleon had two hundred and forty.
Suppose the soil dry，and the artillery capable of moving，the action would have begun at six o'clock in the morning.The battle would have been won and ended at two o'clock，three hours before the change of fortune in favor of the Prussians.What amount of blame attaches to Napoleon for the loss of this battle？Is the shipwreck due to the pilot？
Was it the evident physical decline of Napoleon that complicated this epoch by an inward diminution of force？
Had the twenty years of war worn out the blade as it had worn the scabbard，the soul as well as the body？
Did the veteran make himself disastrously felt in the leader？
In a word，was this genius，as many historians of note have thought，suffering from an eclipse？
Did he go into a frenzy in order to disguise his weakened powers from himself？Did he begin to waver under the delusion of a breath of adventure？Had he become——a grave matter in a general——unconscious of peril？Is there an age，in this class of material great men，who may be called the giants of action，when genius grows short-sighted？Old age has no hold on the geniuses of the ideal；for the Dantes and Michael Angelos to grow old is to grow in greatness；is it to grow less for the Hannibals and the Bonapartes？
Had Napoleon lost the direct sense of victory？
Had he reached the point where he could no longer recognize the reef，could no longer divine the snare，no longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses？
Had he lost his power of scenting out catastrophes？
He who had in former days known all the roads to triumph，and who，from the summit of his chariot of lightning，pointed them out with a sovereign finger，had he now reached that state of sinister amazement when he could lead his tumultuous legions harnessed to it，to the precipice？Was he seized at the age of forty-six with a supreme madness？Was that titanic charioteer of destiny no longer anything more than an immense dare-devil？
We do not think so.
His plan of battle was，by the confession of all，a masterpiece.To go straight to the centre of the Allies'line，to make a breach in the enemy，to cut them in two，to drive the British half back on Hal，and the Prussian half on Tongres，to make two shattered fragments of Wellington and Blucher，to carry Mont-Saint-Jean，to seize Brussels，to hurl the German into the Rhine，and the Englishman into the sea.All this was contained in that battle，according to Napoleon.Afterwards people would see.
