[The following takes place after Napoleon’s exile, in which he made landfall and began marching on Paris, picking up sympathetic French units on the way.]
Easily the most dramatic moment of the journey came the following day a few hundred yards south of the town of Laffrey, where Napoleon encountered a battalion of the 5th Liner in a narrow area between two wooded hills on what is today called La Prairie de la Rencontre. According to Bonapartist legend, Napoleon, standing before them well within musket range, with only his far smaller number of Imperial Guardsmen protecting him, threw back his iconic grey overcoat and pointed to his breast, asking if they wanted to fire on their Emperor. In a testament to the continuing power of his charisma, the troops threw down their muskets and mobbed him.
Napoleon had previously been informed by two officers of the pro-Bonapartist attitudes of the demi-brigade, but a shingle shot from a royalist officer could have brought about a very different outcome.
Savary, who wasn’t present, told a slightly less heroic version, in which Napoleon’s conversational style and habit of question-asking saved the day.
The Emperor approached; the battalion kept a profound silence. The officer who was in command ordered them to aim their muskets: he was obeyed; if he had ordered Fire we cannot say what would have happened. The Emperor didn’t give him time; he talked to the soldiers and asked them as usual: ‘Well! How are you doing in the 5th?’ The soldiers answered ‘Very well, Sire.’ Then the Emperor said: ‘I’ve come back to see you; do some of you want to kill me?’ The soldiers shouted ‘Oh! That, no!’ Then the Emperor reviewed them as usual and thus took possession of the 5th Regiment. The head of the battalion looked unhappy.
When Napoleon himself told the story he said he had adopted a jovial, old-comrade attitude towards the troops: ‘I went forward and held out my hand to a soldier, saying, “What, you old rascal, were you about to fire on your Emperor?” ”Look here,” he answered, showing me that his musket was not loaded.’
Source:
Roberts, Andrew. "Elba." Napoleon: A Life. New York: Penguin, 2014. 735-36. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Cockburn, Buonaparte’s Voyage pp. 41-2.
Hobhouse, Substance of Some Letters p. 58.
Rovigo, Mémoires VII pp. 351-2.
ed. Lattimer, Talks p. 55.
Further Reading:
Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte / Napoleon I
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