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Updated: May 13, 2025
On 26 February, 1815, Napoleon slipped away from Elba with some twelve hundred men, and, managing to elude the British guardships, disembarked at Cannes on 1 March and advanced northward. Troops sent out to arrest the arch-rebel were no proof against the familiar uniform and cocked hat: they threw their own hats in the air amid ringing shouts of vive l'empereur.
The national guard turned out and presented arms, drums were beating, the population acclaimed him with cries of 'Vive l'Empereur! The préfet and the general in command had intended to resist his entry into the city, but all the notabilities of the town forced them into submission.
There ensued a most terrible silence; then, all at once, a long file of uplifted arms, brandishing sabres, appeared above the crest, and casques, trumpets, and standards, and three thousand heads with gray mustaches, shouting, "Vive l'Empereur!" All this cavalry debouched on the plateau, and it was like the appearance of an earthquake.
Thousands re-echoed the shout, and the horsemen waved their hats in exultation. "Vive le Roi!" cried the mob, as though the voices had not called "Vive l'Empereur!" but yesterday. "Down with the Napoleonist, down with him!" screamed a savage-looking fellow, who, jammed up in the crowd, pointed towards me, as I stood a mere spectator of the scene.
"Don't give up de sheep!" screamed the parrot. "Come," said Max, "what's the use of trying to talk English: it's quite plain you're a Parly-vous." "Vive l'empereur!" shrieked the parrot. "No doubt you can give us a song, monsieur," pursued Max; "favour us with `Polly put the kettle on, s'il vous plait."
In his way to the place of execution, being assailed by a hired mob with cries of 'Vive l'Empereur, "yes, yes!" said the General, "cry "long live the Emperor" if you please, but you will only be happy when he is no more." He would not suffer his eyes to be covered; and displayed in his last moments a fortitude, that will cause his memory to be long revered by the enemies of despotic power.
Broken are the ranks, white cockades fly in every direction, tricolours appear in their hundreds everywhere. Shakos are waved on the points of the bayonets, and always, always that cry: "Vive l'Empereur!"
A friend of mine, whose Royalist opinions were well known, and whose father had been massacred during the Revolution, told me that while walking with two ladies he heard some individuals near him crying out "Vive l'Empereur!" This created a great disturbance.
About one o'clock the bank was entirely cleared of the Cossacks, and the bridge for the infantry finished. The division Legrand crossed it rapidly with its cannon, the men shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" in the presence of their sovereign, who was himself actively pressing the passage of the artillery, and encouraged his brave soldiers by his voice and example.
Some of his Imperial Guards who were wounded at Waterloo killed themselves on hearing that he had lost the battle, and many, who had been thought to be dead, when brought to consciousness shouted "Vive l'Empereur." The hospitals were full of dying men who uttered the same cry.
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