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