A Bad Guide to Napoleon; a Good Guide to BulowThe painful surprise of Napoleon is well known. Grouchy hoped for, Blucher arriving. Death instead of life.
Fate has these turns; the throne of the world was expected; it was Saint Helena that was seen.
If the little shepherd who served as guide to Bulow, Blucher's lieutenant, had advised him to debouch from the forest above Frischemont, instead of below Plancenoit, the form of the nineteenth century might, perhaps, have been different. Napoleon would have won the battle of Waterloo. By any other route than that below Plancenoit, the Prussian army would have come out upon a ravine impassable for artillery, and Bulow would not have arrived.
Now the Prussian general, Muffling, declares that one hour's delay, and Blucher would not have found We
