#2.1.14

All the threads we’ve been building up to, all the layers of symbolism and social commentary, they’ve all led here, to Cambronne surrounded by his martyred troops, shouting defiant expletives at the encroaching English.

As with many pivotal moments in this story, we’re not in anyone’s head for this. We don’t know what Cambronne is thinking, what the men around him are thinking as they die, what the English are thinking as they watch. We get hints -- the English pausing for a moment in the face of the French martyrdom, the English generals being stirred by emotion as they urge the French to surrender -- but nothing concrete. We’re left to parse out what they must be thinking for ourselves.

I love the short sentences and the urgency they convey in this chapter and the terrifying picture that Hugo sketches. The army starts collapsing on all sides, people rush around trying to save themselves. Ney tries to rally the army, but they simultaneously shout ‘Long Live Marshal Ney’ while also fleeing from him. It is chaos, friends kill each other, people desert in large numbers.  Even Napoleon’s cries of trying to form the battle lines fall on deaf ears, the people who had shouted ‘Long Live the Emperor’ only a few hours ago, now cannot say a word. His own army does not want to listen to their leader’s words and are trying everything in their power to escape.

For all the similarities between Waterloo and barricades, this is so different from the last stand of the revolutionaries and I think that may be the point.

Hugo does not blame the army running away but the hand of Providence and destiny which caused them to surrender, it’s a very French perspective of the battle as @melle93 pointed out, but also a perspective Hugo wants to emphasise throughout the book, that the century of ‘Great Men’ like Napoleon is past. I love the imagery that Hugo has used here, with the ‘lions turned into hunted deer’ and the picture of terror on the battlefield he has sketched.

All this had to happen because Napoleon’s demise was essential for the century to flourish, he was a somnambulist trying to keep alive a desperate dream. I cannot say that I disagree with Hugo’s point of view that Napoleon had to go, his time was done. This is why Hugo keeps emphasising the people in his army, the farmers, the peasants, the woman telling the story about the battle, Les Miserables is their story and in these pages, Napoleon becomes just another general, another ordinary man who had grand dreams and fought and lost, not someone Great to emulate, which is the point of Waterloo.

2.1.14

The last remaining Guards in the battle are still noble and heroic and they die magnificently because of that. There is one last square that is still causing a discomfort to Wellington’s army. This square itself is commanded by Cambronne, an unknown soldier. This heroic column of an odd few soldiers is the one countering the Anglo-Dutch army to the last.

It makes sense that everyone is tired, it is the end of the battle, but this column of brave French soldiers keeps replying grapeshot to grapeshot. This group also commands the highest respect from the Anglo-Dutch army and from Hugo himself (I can’t help it, but their defiant stand is so similar to the stand of 1832 revolutionaries towards the end and Enjolras’ defiance before being shot).  

They know they are going to die and are surrounded by the cannons on all sides, like 'tigers’ eyes in the dark’ but they still resist. It’s brave and desperate, but it makes us care for these soldiers in their last moments. It’s their last act of defiance, the view around them, that of corpses also lends pathos to this moment. The English army has to pause, because they too are moved by the scene, they too feel some respect and compassion for their enemy in their last moments.

In the lull of the moment, these brave men are asked to surrender. Cambronne utters a word, ‘Merde’ in response.

It is interesting that the chapter ends on this word and then we learn more about the significance of an unknown soldier like Cambronne, and the word that he utters in the next chapter, but I love the fact that Hugo situates the word and an unknown soldier as the most important part of this chapter and the battle too.

They know they are going to die, it is a hopeless battle, but he says 'Merde' regardless of the impossible circumstances they have found themselves in. It is the little acts that do matter, that do count and this is something that feels very relevant in the present times, unfortunately.

The Guard is vanquished square by square until, at around nine o’clock at night, only one square, led by Cambronne, remains.

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