Napoleon’s March

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In the early seventies, my work on a PhD required that I demonstrate a reading knowledge of two foreign languages. The University of North Texas provided a course that was specifically designed to prepare the student to pass a test to demonstrate that knowledge.
The course was taught by a exquisitely well-dressed middle-aged man named Dr. Richard(?) Crowder. He was an outstanding teacher who treated our lack of interest in French as perfectly normal and made the course interesting for us and (presumably) bearable for him. He discussed concepts and French verbs in delightful terms. The subjunctive meant “might could”. “Sauter” meant “to jump” and therefore when the cook sautéed mushrooms he “jumped them in the skillet”.

The thing that I remember most was his telling us of Former French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s escape from Elba (a small island off the western coast of Italy) to which he had been banished by the victorious English and their allies. It was believed that the restored monarchy would crush Napoleon’s little revolt, because he had only a few dozen supporters when he started.

The Paris newspaper Moniteur covered the story in 1815. Excerpts from their headlines include:

March 9 The Monster has escaped from his place of banishment.

March 10 The Corsican Ogre has landed at Cape Juan

March 11 … Troops are advancing on all sides to arrest his progress.

March 12 The Monster has advanced as far as Grenoble

March 13 The Tyrant is now at Lyon.

March 18 The Usurper [is] within 60 hours' march of the capital.

March 19 Bonaparte is advancing by forced marches, ….

March 20 Napoleon will arrive … .

March 21 The Emperor Napoleon is at Fountainebleu.

March 22 Yesterday evening His Majesty the Emperor made his public entry [into Paris]. Nothing can exceed the universal joy.

The story is that when Napoleon met the National Army he told his little band to wait and he went on alone, saying that if even one of his former soldiers was willing to shoot him then that was the way it should end. Instead, they fell upon him and wept for joy at his return.

The result of his little revolt was that he ruled France a few more months and caused the slaughter of many thousands in one more battle - Waterloo. For his second exile the British changed his status to closely watched prisoner on the remote island of St. Helena where he died in 1821.
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