War Drama of the Eagles

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 under-went 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 once 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.