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After the their defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, the French Army of the North, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte retreated in disarray back towards France. As agreed by the two Seventh Coalition commanders in chief, the Duke of Wellington, commander of the Anglo-allied army, and Prince Blücher, commander of the Prussian army, the French were to be closely pursued by units of the Prussian army. During the following week, although the remnants of the main French army were joined by the undefeated right wing of the Army of the North, the French were not given time to reorganise by the Coalition generals and they steadily retreated towards Paris. By the end Saturday 24 June (the end of the first week after the defeat at Waterloo) the French who had fought at Waterloo were at Laon under the command of Marshal Soult, while those of the right wing who had fought at the simultaneous Battle of Wavre, under the command of Marshal Grouchy, were at Rethel. The Prussians were in and around Aisonville-et-Bernoville with Blücher's headquarter were at Hannapes, and the Anglo-allies were in the vicinity of Cambrai, Englefontaine, and Le Cateau-Cambrésis which is where Wellington had his headquarters. The next week (25 June – 1 July) would see the French reach Paris with the Coalition forces about a days march behind them. In the final week of the campaign (2–7 July) the French surrendered, Coalition forces entered Paris and on 8 July Louis XVIII was restored to the throne. ==Night 18 June== The 4,000 Prussian cavalry, that kept up an energetic pursuit during the night, under the guidance of the indefatigable Marshal Gneisenau, helped to render the victory at Waterloo still more complete and decisive; and effectually deprived the French of every opportunity of recovering on the Belgian side of the frontier and to abandon most of their cannons. After the Battle of Ligny the French had given little quarter as they as the harried the stranglers of the Prussian army and the Prussians now returned like with like and showed little mercy. Gneisenau later wrote that "it was the finest night of my life". He used mounted drummers to fool the French into thinking that Prussian infantry was close behind his cavalry, which helped to spread panic and make it more difficult for French officers to rally their men. On the main French retreat Genappe was a possible defensive position for a rearguard to delay an enemy, as there was a defile and only one bridge over the river Dyle (Anglo-allied cavalry under the command of Lord Uxbridge had used this feature to help delay the French cavalry the previous day (17 June), as Wellington withdrew his army from Quatre Bras to the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment ). It was here that Marshal Lobau collected three hundred men together and tried to make a stand. However the Prussians quickly dispersed his men and captured him. A Prussian officer reported that The cavalry of the Brunswick contingent in the army command of Wellington had been engaged both at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, but they sought and were given permission to join in the pursuit. They eagerly headed the chase and slew all they came across. Incident was recorded in contemporary British accounts as indicative of the Brunswickers' attitude while heading the pursuit. General Duhesme (commander of the Young Guard) who was then commanding the French rearguard was standing by the gate of an inn in Genappe when a Black Brunswicker Hussar seeing that he was a general officer rode up to him. Duhesme requested quarter, the hussar declined and cut him down with his sabre commenting as he slew him "The Duke [of Brunswick] fell the day before yesterday and thou also shalt bite the dust". This account of the death of Duhesme was also propagated on the histories based on Napoleon's account of the affair, but it was refuted by a relative of Duhesme and his aide-de-camp on the day who said he was mortally wounded at Waterloo and captured in Genappe where he was cared for by Prussian surgeons until he died during the night of 19/20 June. It is difficult to discover, in the whole history of the wars of modern times, an instance in which so fine, so splendid, an army as that of Napoleon, one composed almost exclusively of veterans, all men of one nation, entirely devoted to their chief, and most enthusiastic in his cause, became so suddenly panic stricken, so completely disorganised, and so thoroughly scattered, as was the French army when it lost the Battle of Waterloo. A defeated army usually covers its retreat by a rearguard, but here there was nothing of the kind: and hence that Army of the North cannot be said to have retreated; but truly to have fled, from the field of Waterloo. No concerted attempt to rally was made on the Belgian soil, and it was not until some of the scattered fragments of the immense wreck had been borne across the French frontier that their partial junction on different points indicated the revival of at least some portion of that mighty mass of warriors; who, but three days before, had marched across this same frontier in all the pride of strength, and in all the assurance of victory. The rearmost of the fugitives having reached the river Sambre, at Charleroi, Marchienne-au-Pont, and Châtelet, by daybreak of 19 June 1815, indulged themselves with the hope that they might then enjoy a short rest from the fatigues which the relentless pursuit by the Prussians had entailed upon them during the night; but their fancied security was quickly disturbed by the appearance of a few Prussian cavalry, judiciously thrown forward towards the Sambre from the vanguard at Gosselies. They resumed their flight, taking the direction of Beaumont and Philippeville. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18–24 June)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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