Chapter I: Preface

This book breaks fresh ground in a field of romantic and widespread interest; one that should prove attractive, associated as it is with the ever-fascinating subject of Napoleon. Incidentally, indeed, it may also help to throw a new sidelight on certain characteristics of Napoleon as a soldier.

I venture to hope at the same time that it will arouse interest further as offering independent testimony to the valour of our own soldiers, the Old British Army which, under Wellington, defeated on the battlefield the veterans of the Eagles whose feats of heroism and hardihood are described in the book. Magnificent as were the acts of fine daring and heroic endurance of the men whom Wellington led to victory, no less stirring and deserving of admiration were the deeds of chivalrous valour and stern fortitude done for the honour of Napoleon’s Eagles by the gallant soldiers who faced them and proved indeed foemen worthy of their steel. All who hold in regard cool, self-sacrificing bravery and steadfast courage in adversity and peril will find no lack of instances in the stories of what the warriors of the Eagles dared and underwent for the name and fame of the Great Captain.

The record of Napoleon’s Eagles in war has never before been set forth, and the centenary year of Badajoz and Salamanca and the Moscow Campaign seems to offer a befitting occasion for its appearance.

The world, indeed, is in the midst of a cycle of Napoleonic centenaries. Our own centenary memories of Talavera--the victory of which Wellington said, in later years, that if his Allies had done their part, “it would have been as great a battle as Waterloo”--of Busaco ridge and Torres Vedras, of heroic Barrosa and desperate Albuhera,--these are only just behind us. Immediately ahead lie the centenaries of yet greater events. In less than a twelvemonth hence England will mark the centenary of Vittoria, Wellington’s decisive day in Spain, the crowning triumph of the Peninsular War; and yet more than that in its import and sequel for Europe. It was the news of Vittoria that, in July 1813, decided Napoleon’s father-in-law to throw Austria’s sword into the balance against the Man of Destiny, compelling Napoleon, with what remained of the Grand Army, to stand at bay for the “Battle of the Nations” on the Marchfeldt before Leipsic. Within six months from then, the world, in like manner, will recall the Farewell of Fontainebleau, and Elba; and finally, in the year after that, the British Empire will commemorate the epoch-making centenary of the greatest of all British triumphs in arms on land--

“Of that fierce field where last the Eagles swooped,
Where our Great Master wielded Britain’s sword,
And the Dark Soul the world could not subdue,
Bowed to thy fortune, Prince of Waterloo!”

--the triple-event, indeed, of Waterloo, the _Bellerophon_, St. Helena.

The stories told here exist indeed, even in France, only in more or less fragmentary form, scattered broadcast amongst the memoirs left by the men of the Napoleonic time. They have not before been brought together within the covers of a book.

I have utilised, in addition to the personal memoirs of Napoleon’s officers, French regimental records, bulletins, and despatches (noted in my List of Authorities), other official military documents, contemporary newspapers, both British and foreign, and information kindly placed at my disposal by the authorities of Chelsea Royal Hospital and the Royal United Service Institution, and by friends abroad.

EDWARD FRASER.

CONTENTS

PAGE
LIST OF AUTHORITIES XV

CHAPTER I

NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 1

CHAPTER II

THE DAY OF THE PRESENTATION ON THE FIELD OF MARS 16

CHAPTER III

IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN:

UNDER FIRE WITH MARSHAL NEY 60

THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE BY THE DANUBE 80

CHAPTER IV

ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 96

CHAPTER V

IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN:

JENA AND THE TRIUMPH OF BERLIN 123

THE TWELVE LOST EAGLES OF EYLAU 150

CHAPTER VI

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE:

THE “EAGLE-GUARD” 181

CHAPTER VII

BEFORE THE ENEMY AT ASPERN AND WAGRAM 197

CHAPTER VIII

“THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH” IN LONDON 214

CHAPTER IX

OTHER EAGLES IN ENGLAND FROM BATTLEFIELDS OF SPAIN 240

CHAPTER X

IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER:

AFTER MOSCOW: HOW THE EAGLES FACED THEIR FATE 263

AT BAY IN NORTHERN GERMANY--1813 291

CHAPTER XI

THAT TERRIBLE MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 316

CHAPTER XII

THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 345

CHAPTER XIII

AT WATERLOO:

“AVE CAESAR! MORITURI TE SALUTANT!” 375

HOW WELLINGTON’S TROPHIES WERE WON 388

THE LAST ATTACK AND AFTER: THE EAGLES OF THE GUARD 405

THE EAGLES ANNOUNCE VICTORY TO LONDON 424