Click2Flicks - Vanity Fair - Waterloo Highlights - Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>VANITY FAIR</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 6 - WATERLOO HIGHLIGHTS</p></b></font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">What of the Waterloo combatants? The British (23,000 men) together with 44,000 allied Germans, Belgians, Dutch and Prussians (and their 160 guns) fought against 74,000 members of the French Grande Armée (and their 250 guns). Approximately 141,000 men take the Waterloo battlefield that day.</p><ul> <li>The French Army <a target="_blank" href="images/before.battle.jpg"><b>before the battle</b></a> begins.</li><br><br> <li>French Cuirassieres <a target="_blank" href="images/attacking.jpg"><b>attacking</b></a> a Highland square.</li><br><br> <li>Wellington decides that <a href="http://www.trabel.com/waterloo/waterloo-hougoumont.htm" target="_blank"><b>Hougoumont Chateau</b></a> is key to his position. During the night of June 17th, British troops fortify the palace. Despite <a target="_blank" href="images/tremendous.efforts.jpg"><b>tremendous efforts</b></a>, the French are unable to take Hougoumont. Their dead fill the fields nearby. <a target="_blank" href="images/defending.jpg"><b>Defending</b></a> their position, British losses are also horrific.</li><br><br> <li>French cavalry attack a British square with <a target="_blank" href="images/hougoumont.burning.jpg"><b>Hougoumont burning</b></a> in the background.</li><br><br> <li>British <a target="_blank" href="images/cavalry.charged.jpg"><b>Cavalry Charge</b></a> at the Battle of Waterloo.</li><br><br> <li>One day later, <a target="_blank" href="images/british.casualities.jpg"><b>British casualties</b></a> still lie <a target="_blank" href="images/on.the.field.jpg"><b>on the field</b></a> of battle.</li></ul> <p>The British, Belgians, Dutch and Germans sustained 15,000 casualties - or approximately 1 out of 4 who fought. The Prussians lost 7,000 men. French losses were estimated at 25,000 dead and wounded with 8,000 prisoners taken and 220 guns lost.</p> <p>Every year, while he lived, the Duke of Wellington held a “Waterloo” banquet for his officers. After he died, the banquet continued and is still held to this day.</p> <p>It was against the backdrop of Waterloo, as England finally settled into peace in the 1820s, that <a target="_blank" href="images/thackeray.jpg"><b>William Makepeace Thackeray</b></a> wrote his classic novel, <a target="_blank" href="images/vanity.fair.JPG"><b><i>Vanity Fair</i></b></a>.</p> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="vanity_fair_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="vanity_fair_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>    <a href="vanity_fair_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>