1815: The Return of Napoleon is history seen through the eyes of the people who were there. This brilliant new book by Paul Britten Austin paints a dramatic picture of Napoleon’s amazing return to power in the spring of 1815 and gives a day-by-day account of the long march from Antibes to Paris. Napoleon’s comeback was an amazing feat, and an audacious gamble. Napoleon was never sure how he was going to be received by a French nation tired of war but equally tired of the returning Bourbon monarchy. He landed at Antibes but quickly marched northwards with a few hundred men. Just outside Grenoble the returning emperor faced one of his greatest challenges as he found the road blocked by an infantry regiment - the 5th Line - sent to capture him and put a swift end to the desperate adventure. Paul Britten Austin recounts the scene where Napoleon approaches the 5th Line in Chapter 6 of his new book: “The national colours are unfurled and the band strikes up with Rouget de l’Isles’s stirring melody: ‘Everyone, both in the Guards battalion and in the troops from Grenoble, was electrified. Clad in the little grey overcoat which so often had a magical effect on the men, and accompanied by Drouot, Cambronne and the Grand Marshal, he came forward to within pistol range.’ Then, ‘taking two or three more paces forwards’, halts. And there’s a sudden silence. Peyrusse thinks he hears him say in a hoarse and - on account of his bad cold - just now not very resounding voice: ‘Here I am. Soldiers of the 5th Line, recognise me ... If there’s a soldier among you who wants to kill his emperor ...’ - unbuttoning his grey overcoat - ‘he can do so.’ Randon of the 5th Line confesses that, ‘It would be impossible to express the feelings this threw us into, or to exactly report my words in these circumstances. The cavalrymen, sabres sheathed, reached the men of the 5th Line, began parleying with them, broke them up; and almost instantly shouts of Vive l’Empereur! rang out on all sides. As if by an electric chain reaction the 5th’s state of exaltation swept through the ranks of the battalion, and in a twinkling of an eye shakos were on bayonet points, and the tricolour cockades they had in their packs had supplanted the white ones.’ Peyrusse’s courage comes back: ‘I joined in the common rapture. His Majesty’s face was radiant with joy. Men and officers, all listened in an intense silence to all the circumstances of our departure, our landing, our march. All felt the enthusiasm His Majesty’s presence among the populations we’d marched through had aroused. This scene took place just before the village of Laffrey.’” 1815: The Return of Napoleon has 336 pages and includes 26 illustrations. Paul Britten Austin will be one of the featured speakers at the International Napoleonic Fair in February. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 112 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com