NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON, from the painting by W. Q. Orchardson, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”
FRIDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON
The Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, was the final blow to Napoleon’s power. On that day hung the fate of Europe. Napoleon faced the allied forces of Prussia, England, Germany, and the Dutch, and had assembled an army of 70,000 to meet them. The allied forces were under command of the Duke of Wellington. They were bound together by one stern purpose,—to annihilate once for all the man whom they called the scourge of Europe. A heavy rainstorm prevented the emperor from carrying out his original plan of attack, which was to meet the enemy in two sections. The night of June 17 was stormy. A heavy rainstorm made the roads so heavy that the emperor could not move his cannon into the place desired until a short time before the enemy’s forces joined. Then, too, General Grouchy had been instructed to intercept the Prussian forces under Blücher, and hold them back while Napoleon fought his fight with Wellington. If he could not do that, he was at least to follow Blücher to Waterloo. The arrival, therefore, of Blücher and his forces in good fighting trim put the French into such confusion that a crushing defeat was inevitable. In the rout men had to save themselves as best they could.
Napoleon left the field, and took the road to Paris, where he found his power gone. He resigned as emperor in favor of his son, and went to Rochefort in hope of finding a ship going to the United States. The English vessel Bellerophon blockaded the harbor, and Napoleon boarded it, throwing himself on the mercy of Great Britain. He reckoned, however, without his host; for England had never forgotten that Napoleon had threatened an invasion of Great Britain. Moreover, within the year Napoleon had been declared an international outlaw, “outside the pale of social and civil relations, and liable to public vengeance.”
So, as Napoleon crossed the English Channel from Rochefort to Portsmouth, with Captain Maitland, on board his Majesty’s ship Bellerophon, he had sought safety in the lion’s mouth. England assumed charge of him on behalf of all Napoleon’s European enemies, and consigned him to exile on the island of St. Helena.