before help from the Prussians could reach them. These trusted veterans came gallantly forward, but when near the British lines they met with such a deadly volley of musketry, followed by such a fierce bayonet charge of the British infantry, that they wavered, turned, and fled. The victory was won, Napoleon's career was ended, and Europe was saved. The Prussians pursued the fleeing French far into the night, cutting down the fugitives without mercy. Napoleon himself fled to Paris, and a little later surrendered to the captain of a British man-ef-war. He was banished to the lonely and rocky island of St. Helena, where six years after he died, May 5, 1821. Louis X VIII. came back to the French throne, and the great struggle for European freedom was over.
14. Condition of the Nation—.The long war was ended, and the nation found itself with over 800 millions of debt, much of it contracted in paying great sums to the Allies to keep their armies in the field. No nation had suffered so little from this desperate struggle as England, partly because she was free from invasion, and partly because she was the mistress of the sea, and controlled the carrying trade of the world. Her manufactures were sold in every European market and her industries suffered little check, until the poverty of other nations became so great as to prevent them from buying. But now that the war was over thousands of men were thrown out of employment, and when the crops failed in 1816, the high duty on wheat made food so dear as to cause a famine. The labour-saving machines were blamed for taking away employment from starving working-men, and riots followed in which organized efforts were made to destroy the new and hated machinery. The war had so fully taken the attention of the king's ministers and of Parliament, that all political reforms had ceased. George III. had become permanently insane in 1810, and his son George was appointed Regent. The Regent was a worthless profligate, and his base actions made him unpopular with the people. So, for some years after the war, there was great distress and much political discontent among the people, which was increased by the harsh laws passed by Parliament against freedom of speech.
15. Literature and Inventions.—George III. died in 1820, after the longest reign in our history, and was succeeded by his son George IV. The chief features of this eventful reign have been
