Quid obscurum, quid divinium

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh - Galatians 3:3

How do we gain victory in our lives? Whether victory for our souls, over sin, for God’s work or for those we love?

No battlefield is more synonymous with defeat than Waterloo and of course, defeat for the Emperor Napoleon meant a great victory for the Duke of Wellington.

Even though the British and allies occupied the high ground and had a more complete understanding of the battlefield they were losing the battle and facing certain destruction until something happened to change the course of history.

Here are some excerpts from Les Miserables on this great battle.

“Two hostile armies on a battlefield are two wrestlers. It is a body-grip. One tries to throw the other; they cling to everything; a thicket is a basis; an angle in the wall is a breastwork; for want of a village to support it, a regiment gives way; a fall in the plain, a transverse hedge is a good position, a wood, a ravine, may arrest the heel of that column which is called an army, and prevent its slipping. The one who leaves the field is beaten; and hence the necessity for the responsible chief to examine the smallest clump of trees, and investigate the slightest rise in the ground.

A certain amount of tempest is always mingled with a battle, quid obscurum, quid divinium. Every historian traces to some extent the lineament that pleases him in the hurly-burly. Whatever the combination of the generals may be, the collision of armed masses has incalculable ebbs and flows; in action the two plans of the leaders enter into each other and destroy their shape. The line of battle floats and winds like a thread, the streams of blood flow illogically, the fronts of armies undulate, the regiments in advancing or retiring form capes or gulfs, and all these reefs are continually shifting their position; where infantry was, artillery arrives; where artillery was, cavalry dashes in; the battalions are smoke. There was something there, but when you look for it, it has disappeared; the gloomy masses advance and retreat; a species of breath from the tomb impels, drives back, swells and disperses those tragic multitudes. What is a battle? An oscillation. The immobility of a mathematical plan expresses a minute and not a day. To paint a battle, those powerful painters who have chaos in their pencils are needed. Rembrandt is worth more than Vandermeulin, for Vandermeulin exact at midday, is incorrect at three o’clock. Geometry is deceived, and the hurricane alone is true, and it is this that gives Folard the right to contradict Polybius.

About four o’clock the English line fell back all at once; nothing was visible on the crest of the plateau but artillery and sharpshooters, the rest had disappeared. The regiments, expelled by the French shell and cannon balls, fell back into the hollow, which at the present day is intersected by the lane that runs to the farm of Mont St. Jean. A retrograde movement began, the English front withdrew. Wellington was recoiling. “It is the beginning of the retreat,” Napoleon cried.

The man who had been somber at Austerlitz was gay at Waterloo. The greatest predestined men offer these contradictions, for our joys are a shadow, and the supreme smile belongs to God. Ridet Caesar, Pompeius flebit, the legionnaires of the Fulminatrix legion used to say. On this occasion Pompey was not destined to weep, but it is certain that Caesar laughed.

At mid-day, the Emperor had been the first to notice through his telescope, on the extreme horizon, something which fixed his attention, and he said, “I see over there a cloud which appears to me to be troops.” Then he asked the Duke of Dalmatia, “Soult, what do you see in the direction of Chappelle Saint Lambert?” The Marshall, after looking through his telescope, replied, “Four or five thousand men, Sire.” It was evidently Grouchy; still they remained motionless in the mist. All the staff examined the cloud pointed out by the Emperor, and some said, “They are columns halting”; but the majority were of the opinion that they were trees. The truth is that the cloud did not move, and the Emperor detached Doncoul’s division of light cavalry to reconnoiter in the direction of this dark point.

Bülow, in fact, had not stirred, for his vanguard was very weak and could effect nothing. He was obliged to wait for the main body of the army, and had orders to concentrate his troops before forming line; but at five o’clock, Blücher, seeing Wellington’s danger, ordered Bülow to attack, and employed the remarkable phrase, “We must let the English army breathe” A short time after, Losithin’s, Hiller’s, Hacke’s, and Ryssel’s brigades deployed in front of Lobau’s corps, the cavalry of Prince William of Prussia debouched from the Bois de Paris, Plancenoit was in flames, and the Prussian cannon balls began pouring even upon the ranks of the guard held in reserve behind Napoleon.” – Excerpts from Les Miserables

Wellington held the high ground at Waterloo and when Napoleon advanced against him his infantry poured up a hill and came across an unexpected ravine. The men at the front of the column poured into the ravine and this disaster continued until their bodies filled it to the brim. The remaining troops walked over the human bridge and continued their advance. Even so the Allies were still likely doomed but they fought bravely for every bit of ground. Until a new force arrived “and the Prussian cannon balls began pouring even upon the ranks of the guard held in reserve behind Napoleon.”.

If the Prussian armies though weak, were able to come to the aid of Wellington, how much more will our God who is Omnipotent be able to fight for us when we are weak and unable to defend ourselves? We stand, we fight, we fall and get back up but ultimately our victory comes through Christ Jesus. In his retelling of Waterloo, Victor Hugo described the importance of knowing the battlefield but when the battle finally erupted it became a chaotic tempest. Unpredictable and almost impossible to even tell what was happening. In the end it was his firm belief that it was decided by God. “quid obscurum, quid divinium”. What darkness, what divine. The battle belongs to Lord. Whatever we do whether great or small we should pray and ask for God’s help and will in everything.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:56-57