Battle of Waterloo and withdrew in good order—though at the cost of 33,000 French troops that never reached the Waterloo battlefield. Wellington sent describing the battle to England on 19 June 1815; it arrived in London on 21 June 1815 and was published as a "London Gazette Extraordinary" on 22 June. Wellington, Blücher and other Coalition forces advanced upon Paris. Napoleon announced his second abdication on 24 June 1815. In the final skirmish of the Napoleonic Wars, Marshal Davout, Napoleon's minister of war, was defeated by Blücher at Issy on 3 July 1815. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the
The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo using a waterglass technique, applying paint to dry plaster and then fixing it with potassium silicate. The completed painting measures . The scene is set in front of La Belle Alliance, an inn a few miles south of Brussels, around which was fought the Battle of Waterloo. At the centre of the painting is Wellington, soberly dressed in a plain uniform with cloak and "fore-and-aft" bicorn cocked hat, holding a telescope, and mounted on his horse Copenhagen, shaking hands with Blücher. A French eagle standard lies discarded beneath his horse's feet. He is attended by Captain Lord Arthur Hill, Major-General