A BATTLE LOST AND WON
Ties of Blood: 9
The long years of war in Europe seemed to have come to an
end with the banishment of the Emperor Napoleon to the Mediterranean island of
Elba. Peace descended on the continent and its nations settled to reconciling
their differences over the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield.
The British army which had served Lord Wellington so well
in his Peninsular campaigns was broken up. A number of regiments were sent to
North America, where there had been a war since 1812, when the United States
invaded Canada. There was heavy fighting, with significant losses for both
sides. But, by the beginning of 1815, even this unhappy conflict had come to an
end.
It appeared that normal, peace-time life could resume:
businessmen needed to repair the losses of the long years of war and it was
possible for the curious to remind themselves of what lay on the far side of
the English Channel. Europe’s major cities quickly became playgrounds for the
fashionable set.
But the peace was to be short-lived. Napoleon wearied of
his exile. He believed that his destiny was to rule Europe, not a small island.
In the spring of 1815 he was back in Paris and there was little doubt that the
continent would once again be plunged into war.
There would be one last
battle – and few involved would escape its bitter sting.
|
