After his daring escape from Elba in 1815, the Emperor Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan.It was his last great adventure before Waterloo, and it can be looked back as a tragic comedy. He set out for Cannes at midnight, taking three weeks to arrive in Paris. Napoleon traveled the 555 mile journey by foot, by coach or astride his silver-grey stallion, Tauris, depending on the condition of the terrain.
The escape from Elba on February 26 with barely a thousand men aboard the brig l’Inconstant and six smaller craft. Napoleon on deck, paunchy and sallow in middle age, a tricolor cockade sewn to his bicorn hat, distributing to his officers the proclamation secretly printed in exile:
---Napoleon might, no doubt, have escaped in a balloon ; he might have floated away in a barrel ; and he might have contrived to be thrown into the sea in a sack, pretending that he was a corpse. The famous Monte Cristo story should be taken as a Napoleonic allegory, evolved in the mind of Dumas by his visit to Elba, and his fervent admiration for the great Emperor. " I am a dead man," Napoleon kept saying, until all believed it ; and it was as a corpse thrown into the sea, and emerging alive, that he succeeded in reaching the land, to startle the world. --- Read More:http://www.archive.org/stream/napoleoninexilee00youn/napoleoninexilee00youn_djvu.txt image:http://www.nikolasschiller.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/location/world/europe/
Napoleon was in great good humour. ” It is an Austerlitz day,” he said. Peyrusse was lying on the deck, prostrate from sea-sickness. Napoleonsaid to him : ” The Seine water will cure you, Mr. Treasurer ; we shall be in Paris on the birthday of the King of Rome.” (The 20th March was indeed the date.) …Napoleon appearedon the bridge wearing the tricolour, and the soldiers there- upon abandoned the Elban for the French national colours, which were hoisted on the ships. “Comrades, trample the white cockade underfoot. It is the emblem of shame.” At 1 p.m. the vessels were at anchor in the Golfe Jouan, and the disembarkation in boats commenced, unopposed by the dumbstruck townsfolk. The long march north, Louis XVIII fleeing, Napoleon’s triumphal re-entry into the Tuileries within three weeks after his gamble had begun on that lonely beach.
Read More:http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=marshall&book=napoleon&story=last&PHPSESSID=05bac5b aaa
---The Emperor has definitely rushed into the German trap. The work aims at being mystical: it is clearly stated that God's hand rests on Napoleon's shoulder. The context is that of German romanticism, where budding nationalism is tinged with a sacred dimension. In fact, this print illustrates an idea which is typical of Germany at the time, as Hegel explained: first considered as the "soul of the world", Napoleon, having attempted to twist history in his favour, falls into Prussian hands. On July 5, 1816, the philosopher wrote to his friend Niethammer: « I strongly believe that the spirit of time is being ordered to go forward. This injunction is being obeyed.» It is exactly what is being pointed out by this caricature which goes beyond mere criticism of Napoleon--- Read More:http://www.napoleon.org/en/special_dossier/caricatures/caricatures3.htm
As Napoleon marched north, it was a triumphal return. More or less.It took four days after his landing for word of his escape to reach King Louis, who received it with fatuous unconcern, so sure was he that loyal subjects would stop the invader. “not anxiety, but gout troubles me”. In Lyon, he acted as though he was already re-enthroned. Formally resuming the title of emperor, he commandeered a suite in the archbishop’s palace from which the king’s brother had fled that morning. Napoleon received homage. He issued decrees. He reviewed troops, playfully pulling the old campaigners’ ears and cuffing them. Bonapartist mobs smashed windows of Royalist houses. “Lyonnais, I love you! “, he cried.
About one o'clock the small battalion approached a regiment of the troops of the king, who were drawn up in line across the road. Napoleon dismounted. "Colonel Mallet," he said, "tell the soldiers to put their weapons under their left arms, points down." "Sire," said the colonel, "is it not dangerous to act thus in presence of troops whose sentiments we do not know, and whose first fire may be so fatal?" "Mallet, tell them to put the weapons under their arms," repeated Napoleon. The order was obeyed. The two battalions faced each other, at short pistol-shot, in absolute silence. Napoleon advanced alone towards the royal troops. "Present arms!" he commanded. They obeyed, levelling their guns at their old commander. He advanced slowly, with impassive face. Reaching their front, he touched his cap and saluted. "Soldiers of the Fifth," he cried, loudly, "do you recognize me?" "Yes, yes," came from some voices, filled with barely-repressed enthusiasm. "Soldiers, behold your general; behold your emperor," he continued. "Let any of you who wishes to kill him, fire." Fire?—Their guns went to the earth; they flung themselves on their knees before him, called him father, shed tears, shouted as if in frenzy, waved their shakos on their bayonets and sabres. "All is over," said Napoleon to Bertrand and Drouet. "In ten days we shall be in the Tuileries." Read More:http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage-books.php?Dir=books&MenuItem=display&author=morris&book=french&story=napoleon
aaaIn Autun, Napoleon was distinctly annoyed by his reception there. The inhabitants failed to cheer him and kept their windows shut. The mayor had gone so far as to issue a proclamation against him. Summoning all the town dignitaries to the hotel, the Emperor gave them a fearful tongue-lashing. ” But, after all, Sire,” said the president of the Civil Tribunal, “you did abdicate” “Quiet!” shouted Napoleon. “You’re nothing but a rotten attorney.”
In Auxerre, th mighty Marshall Ney, who had left Paris promising King Louis to “bring Napoleon back in an iron cage,” had announced his submission to the Emperor and march
o join him with six thousand troops. Napoleon purportedly sent a message to Louis XVIII that was pasted to the Vendome column: “My good brother, no use sending me more troops, I have enough!” . In Joigny, the whole town turned out to acclaim him except the nobility. Napoleon said “Is there nothing but scum in this place?” aaa
Napoleon at Laffrey. Charles Steuben.---There was also a very general belief that England was at work in secret for the return to power of Napoleon. The Elbans had seen Napoleon arrive in an English ship ; they heard the Emperor extol the English character and the English nation ; they knew that the British Commissioner was the sole representative of a foreign nation on the island, and that Napoleon received him frequently ; they had to find accommodation for the English tourists who came in numbers unusual in those days, merely to gaze with awe and rapture at the great man.--- Read More:http://www.archive.org/stream/napoleoninexilee00youn/napoleoninexilee00youn_djvu.txt
In Pont-sur-Yvonne , Napoleon embarked a number of his troops on barges, of which the troops were hesitant since navigation by night was hazardous in those waters. “Are you afraid of getting wet?” he chided the pilots. The soldiers chanced it. One barge shattered against a bridge post, drowning all hands. It is said that as the grenadiers sank, they could be heard shouting with their last breath, “Vive l”Emperuer!” Here, Napoleon imposed himself on the Royalist Comte de Broussillon, stretching out fully dressed for a nap in a bedroom. The countess refused to speak to the intruder which amused him; he forced on her a gift of one of his monogrammed handkerchiefs.
---On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and began his "Hundred Days" rule, which lasted 94 days. Days were measures in the metric system back then. read more:http://dcaligari.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
In Fontainbleu, Napoleon entered his old quarters in the palace as casually as if he had never left them. The press of the day provides a good example of journalistic accommodation. Two days earlier Napoleon had been compared to Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun, “only more odious”. Two days later, the journal changed its name to Journal de l’Empire and reported, ” Paris has the aspect of security and joy.” After Waterloo it resumed its formal title.
---This caricature not listed in Clerc, probably because it is in fact anti-royalist, shows two figures, heads dug in rolling over each other in a sort of to and fro motion. They are Napoleon and Louis XVIII. The print dates back to the Cent-Jours episode, the Emperor is once again back on his feet as he says, the king, on the contrary, falling head first while France, a poor emaciated figure, is relieved of the huge weight she had to carry before the king's departure. The game of fart-in-the-face recalls the grotesque brotherhood of the "mad mother" of Dijon, once very lively. It perfectly describes the overthrowing of values established during the carnival and which is here extended to politics. --- Read More:http://www.napoleon.org/en/special_dossier/caricatures/caricatures5.htm
Paris. At nine o’ clock on March 20, Napoleon’s coach roared through the Tuileries gates. The crowd was so demonstrative that he cried, “You’re suffocating me, my friends!” The Emperor and his army completed the journey from beach to palace in twenty days, less than half th time it ordinarily required then. His own appraisal of the expedition: ” the most prodigious march of which history has any record.”
---This caricature is a typical example of a pun in which the text fully completes the image. On the battlefield of May, on June 1, 1815, the field marshal's oath of loyalty to Napoleon is concluded by a "nose pinch" ("Ney" sounds like "nez" which means "nose" in French) since the caricaturist is poking fun by way of scatology, the rallying of the most famous of field marshal's to Napoleon. One has heard of the glory he won at Waterloo and of his tragic fate. Ney was shot on December 7, 1815. --- Read More:http://www.napoleon.org/en/special_dossier/caricatures/caricatures5.htm
Read More:http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/the-dynasts/17/
Read More:http://www.archive.org/stream/lifenapoleonbuo07unkngoog/lifenapoleonbuo07unkngoog_djvu.txt
ADDENDUM:
( Thomas Hardy )All is accomplished, Bertrand! Ten days more, And we are snug within the Tuileries.
[The soldiers tear out their white cockades and trample on them, and disinter from the bottom of their knapsacks tricolors, which they set up.
NAPOLEON'S own men now arrive, and fraternize with and embrace the soldiers of the Fifth. When the emotion has subsided, NAPOLEON forms the whole body into a square and addresses them.]
Soldiers, I came with these few faithful ones To save you from the Bourbons,–treasons, tricks, Ancient abuses, feudal tyranny– From which I once of old delivered you. The Bourbon throne is illegitimate Because not founded on the nation’s will, But propped up for the profit of a few. Comrades, is this not so?
A GRENADIER
Yes, verily, sire. You are the Angel of the Lord to us; We’ll march with you to death or victory! (Shouts.)
[At this moment a howling dog crosses in front of them with a cockade tied to its tail. The soldiery of both sides laugh loudly.
NAPOLEON forms both bodies of troops into one column. Peasantry run up with buckets of sour wine and a single glass; NAPOLEON takes his turn with the rank and file in drinking from it. He bids the whole column follow him to Grenoble and Paris. Exeunt soldiers headed by NAPOLEON. The scene shuts.] Read More:http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/the-dynasts/17/
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