File:18 June 1815 – Victory at Waterloo – "Aigle blessé".jpg

English: The monument was inaugurated in 1904 in hommage to the French victims of the 18 June 1815 Battle of Waterloo and is still a station for the afficionados of Napoleone Buonaparte – but otherwise easily overlooked along a busy road : The focal point of the Battlefield of Waterloo has long been the 1826 Lion's Mound (bottom right, in the distance), and, at its foot, the recent and balanced Waterloo Memorial inaugurated for the bicentenary of the Battle.

Back in summer 1815, after so many years of endless wars, and deaths by the tens of thousands, and innumerable destructions and uncurable wounds, and shameless looting and ruins all over Europe from Portugal to Russia and Italy to Denmark – the whole lumped as napoléonic wars –, Europe as a whole returned to some respite, a century-long respite.

In the wake, relief and sorrow of the final Victory, Sir Warlter Scott (1771-1832), having visited the battlefield in August that year, wrote The Field of Waterloo. Published in October 1815 and so prefaced : Advertisement. It may be some apology for the imperfections of the Poem, that it was composed hastily, during a short tour on the continent, when the Author's labours were liable to frequent interruption. But its best vindication is, that it was written for the purpose of assisting the Waterloo Subsciption., the long poem concludes, enthusiastically :

Now, Island Empress, wave thy crest on high,
And bid the banner of thy patron flow,
Gallant Saint George, the flower of Chivalry!
For thou hast faced, like him, a dragon foe,
And rescued innocence from overthrow,
And trampled down, like him, tyrannic might,
And to the gazing world may'st proudly show
The chosen emblem of thy sainted Knight,
Who quell'd devouring pride, and vindicated right.

Übersetzung
Nun, Imperial Island, hebe Deinen Kopf und entfalte das Licht Deines Schutzpatrons, des tapferen Heiligen Georg, der Blume der Ritter! Denn Du hast Dich dem Drachen wie ihm gestellt, Unschuld befreit und besiegte Tyrannei mit Füßen getreten. Sie können der Welt stolz das Emblem Ihres heiligen Ritters zeigen, der schamlosen Stolz demütigte und empörte Tugend reinigte.

Traduction
Maintenant, Île Impériale, lève la tête et déploie la lumière de ton Patron, Brave Saint Georges, la Fleur des Chevaliers ! Car tu as affronté comme lui le dragon, délivré l'innocence et foulé aux pieds la tyrannie vaincue. Tu peux montrer fièrement au monde l'emblème de ton saint Chevalier qui humilia l'orgueil éhonté et purgea la vertu outragée.

The profits from the poem were destined to a fund for widows and orphans of soldiers.