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6 April 1814
France is defeated. The Coalition ranged against it insists on its return to its pre-revolutionary borders and that Louis XVIII takes the throne lost by Louis XVI. Napoleon, after making one last effort to get his remaining army to march on Paris, is forced to abdicate. Humiliatingly, he is exiled to the island of Elba, where he is given a kingdom as tiny as his ambitions have been great. 'Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell. For 20 years I have constantly accompanied you on the road to honour and glory. In these latter times, as in the days of our prosperity, you have invariably been models of courage and fidelity. With men such as you, our cause could not be lost; but the war would have been interminable; it would have been civil war, and that would have entailed deeper misfortunes on France. 'I have sacrificed all of my interests to those of the country. 'I go, but you, my friends, will continue to serve France. Her happiness was my only thought. It will still be the object of my wishes. Do not regret my fate; if I have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory. I intend to write the history of the great achievements we have performed together. Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart.' Napoleon, 20 April 1814, in a speech to his veteran soldiers |
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