Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook. THE WAR DRAMA OF THE EAGLES [Illustration: PORTE-AIGLE, IMPERIAL GUARD, AND GRENADIER SERGEANT IN PARADE UNIFORM. From St. Hilaire’s _Histoire de la Garde Impériale_.] THE WAR DRAMA OF THE EAGLES NAPOLEON’S STANDARD-BEARERS ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN VICTORY AND DEFEAT FROM AUSTERLITZ TO WATERLOO A RECORD OF HARD FIGHTING, HEROISM AND ADVENTURE BY EDWARD FRASER AUTHOR OF “THE ENEMY AT TRAFALGAR,” “FAMOUS FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET,” “THE ‘LONDONS,’” ETC. “These Eagles to you shall ever be your rallying-point. Swear to sacrifice your lives in their defence; to maintain them by your courage ever in the path of victory.”--_On the Day of the Presentation on the Field of Mars._ “The soldier who loses his Eagle loses his Honour and his All!” _Address to the 4th of the Line after Austerlitz._ “The loss of an Eagle is an affront to the reputation of its regiment for which neither victory nor the glory acquired on a hundred fields can make amends.” _55th Bulletin of the Grand Army_: 1807. NAPOLEON. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1912 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 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.