Note 45 — Chapter XIII · AT WATERLOO
Reading edition
The news of Waterloo reached Paris just twenty-four hours earlier than it reached London—during the night of Tuesday, June 20. How it was broken to the French capital forms a story little less dramatic than the other story of how the news of Waterloo arrived in London. In Paris they had had news of the successful opening of the campaign. On the 18th, just as Napoleon was holding his last review, before Waterloo opened, the “triumphal battery” of the Invalides was firing a feu de joie in honour of victory over Blücher at Ligny. On Monday and Tuesday, the 19th and 20th, Napoleon’s Ligny Bulletin, with details, was published in the Moniteur. When the cafés closed that evening, there was as yet no word of Waterloo. But at that same moment the news was arriving—in a private message to Carnot, the Minister of the Interior. What had happened leaked out first at his house.
“On that evening,” describes M. Edgar Quinet, “several persons were assembled at the house of M. Carnot, and they vainly asked him for news. To evade these importunate questions, Carnot went to a card-table and sat down with three of his friends. He from whom I have this story sat opposite the Minister. By chance he raised his eyes and looked at Carnot; he saw his countenance, serious, furrowed, with tears pouring down it. The cards were thrown up; the players rose. ‘The battle is lost!’ exclaimed Carnot, who could contain himself no longer.” The news spread through Paris like wild-fire. It was not believed at first; the catastrophe was too stunning, too terrible. To that succeeded a gloomy stupor (une morne stupeur).
“They had not long to wait. All was known next morning. The astounding news of the rout of the army in Belgium, and the still more astounding news of the arrival of Napoleon in Paris, were spread through the great city almost simultaneously, and stirred to the depths its restless and volatile population. Twice before had Napoleon suddenly returned to Paris—from Moscow, from Leipsic—and each time alone, without an army. Thus had he again presented himself.”