Page:Kickerbocker Feb 1833 vol 1 no 2.djvu/7

Europe now for a space seemed to breathe in peace—and the disorganization consequent upon years of war and suffering, and the fancied derangement of that blood bolstered illusion—the balance of power—were to be remedied by congresses of sovereigns and protocols of ministers. Diplomacy was now to bind anew those whom the sword had loosed, and with "Louis XVIII as a principle,"—for in that light alone the wily Talleyrand told the assembled despots in Paris, could he be presented to the French; that is, as representing the conquest of legitimacy over the revolution—the nations were parcelled or parcelling out among the heaven-born—when lo! a sound from an obscure town on the shores of the Mediterranean, reverberating in instant thunder throughout France and Europe, scattered at once congress, and sovereigns, and ministers; and Napoleon, the exile, stood again unquestioned sovereign in the palace of the Thuilleries. Faithful to his new duties and to his country, General Chassé prepared himself in the war that immediately ensued, to defend the menaced frontier of the Netherlands; and on the field of Waterloo he displayed anew the peculiar qualities, both as a soldier and a chief, which had marked so honorably his previous career. At a critical period of the battle, perceiving, at a moment when an English battery having exhausted its ammunition, had ceased firing, that it was menaced by an attack from the old imperial guard, and aware of the fatal consequences of such an attack if successful, he detached instantaneously his artillery under Major Van Smissen, to repulse at all hazards the advancing French columns. The manceuvre was gallantly performed, and the fire of the artillery was so well directed and murderous, that the assailants were compelled to fall back, leaving the declivity of Mont St. Jean covered with their wounded and their dead. This was the moment for the Bayonet-chief—his Dutch and Belgic corps was led to the charge, and soon completed the route which the artillery had prepared. This eminent and timely service was remarked by the Duke of Wellington, and publicly acknowledged by letter in the July following. The final overthrow of Napoleon, consequent upon this bloody day, again promised peace to the nations; and the sword of our warrior, which had been bared in so many climates and so many combats, was quietly rusting in its scabbard, when the revolution of the three days in Paris, which overturned at once and at a breath, as it were, the throne of a thousand years, and the more recent combinations of the Holy Allies,