BOOK IX.
The Duke is received at Brussels by the King of the Netherlands with great magnificence.He is informed of the approach of the armies of all the confederate kings.The poet, however, with a laudable zeal for the glory of his country, completely passes over the exploits of the Austrians in Italy, and the discussions of the congress.England and France, Wellington and Napoleon, almost exclusively occupy his attention.Several days are spent at Brussels in revelry.The English heroes astonish their allies by exhibiting splendid games, similar to those which draw the flower of the British aristocracy to Newmarket and Moulsey Hurst, and which will be considered by our descendants with as much veneration as the Olympian and Isthmian contests by classical students of the present time.In the combat of the cestus, Shaw, the lifeguardsman, vanquishes the Prince of Orange, and obtains a bull as a prize.In the horse-race, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Uxbridge ride against each other; the Duke is victorious, and is rewarded with twelve opera-girls.On the last day of the festivities, a splendid dance takes place, at which all the heroes attend.
BOOK X.
Mars, seeing the English army thus inactive, hastens to rouse Napoleon, who, conducted by Night and Silence, unexpectedly attacks the Prussians.The slaughter is immense.Napoleon kills many whose histories and families are happily particularised.He slays Herman, the craniologist, who dwelt by the linden-shadowed Elbe, and measured with his eye the skulls of all who walked through the streets of Berlin.Alas! his own skull is now cleft by the Corsican sword.Four pupils of the University of Jena advance together to encounter the Emperor; at four blows he destroys them all.Blucher rushes to arrest the devastation;Napoleon strikes him to the ground, and is on the point of killing him, but Gneisenau, Ziethen, Bulow, and all the other heroes of the Prussian army, gather round him, and bear the venerable chief to a distance from the field.The slaughter is continued till night.In the meantime Neptune has despatched Fame to bear the intelligence to the Duke, who is dancing at Brussels.The whole army is put in motion.The Duke of Brunswick's horse speaks to admonish him of his danger, but in vain.
BOOK VI.
Picton, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Prince of Orange, engage Ney at Quatre Bras.Ney kills the Duke of Brunswick, and strips him, sending his belt to Napoleon.The English fall back on Waterloo.Jupiter calls a council of the gods, and commands that none shall interfere on either side.Mars and Neptune make very eloquent speeches.The battle of Waterloo commences.Napoleon kills Picton and Delancy.Ney engages Ponsonby and kills him.
The Prince of Orange is wounded by Soult.Lord Uxbridge flies to check the carnage.He is severely wounded by Napoleon, and only saved by the assistance of Lord Hill.In the meantime the Duke makes a tremendous carnage among the French.He encounters General Duhesme and vanquishes him, but spares his life.He kills Toubert, who kept the gaming-house in the Palais Royal, and Maronet, who loved to spend whole nights in drinking champagne.
Clerval, who had been hooted from the stage, and had then become a captain in the Imperial Guard, wished that he had still continued to face the more harmless enmity of the Parisian pit.
But Larrey, the son of Esculapius, whom his father had instructed in all the secrets of his art, and who was surgeon-general of the French army, embraced the knees of the destroyer, and conjured him not to give death to one whose office it was to give life.
The Duke raised him, and bade him live.
But we must hasten to the close.Napoleon rushes to encounter Wellington.Both armies stand in mute amaze.The heroes fire their pistols; that of Napoleon misses, but that of Wellington, formed by the hand of Vulcan, and primed by the Cyclops, wounds the Emperor in the thigh.He flies, and takes refuge among his troops.The flight becomes promiscuous.The arrival of the Prussians, from a motive of patriotism, the poet completely passes over.
BOOK XII.
Things are now hastening to the catastrophe.Napoleon flies to London, and, seating himself on the hearth of the Regent, embraces the household gods and conjures him, by the venerable age of George III., and by the opening perfections of the Princess Charlotte, to spare him.The Prince is inclined to do so; when, looking on his breast, he sees there the belt of the Duke of Brunswick.He instantly draws his sword, and is about to stab the destroyer of his kinsman.Piety and hospitality, however, restrain his hand.He takes a middle course, and condemns Napoleon to be exposed on a desert island.The King of France re-enters Paris; and the poem concludes....