[The following details Napoleon’s final speech to the Old Guard that served him, shortly after his forced abdication and shortly before his official exile to the island of Elba.]
After shaking hands with the soldiers and few remaining courtiers and ‘hastily descending’ the grand staircase, Napoleon ordered the two ranks of grognards to form a circle around him and addressed them in a firm voice, which nonetheless, in the recollection of the Prussian commissioner, Count Friedrich von Truchsess-Waldburg, occasionally faltered with emotion. His words recorded by Campbell and several others bear repetition at some length, both because they represent his oratory at this great crisis in his life and because they indicate the lines of argument he was to employ when he later tried to construct the historical narrative of this period:
Officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of the Old Guard, I bid you adieu! For twenty years I have found you ever brave and faithful, marching in the path of glory. All Europe was united against us. The enemy, by stealing three marches upon us, has entered Paris. I was advancing in order to drive them out. They would not have remained there three days. I thank you for the noble spirit you have evinced in that same place under these circumstances. But a portion of the army, not sharing these sentiments, abandoned me and passed over to the camp of the enemy… I could with the three parts of my army which remained faithful, and aided by the sympathy and efforts of the great part of the population, have fallen back upon the Loire, or upon my strongholds, and have sustained the war for several years. But a foreign and civil war would have torn the soil of our beautiful country, and at the cost of all these sacrifices and all these ravages, could we hope to vanquish united Europe, supported by the influence which the city of Paris exercised, and which a faction had succeeded in mastering? Under these circumstances I have only considered the interests of the country and the repose of France. I have made the sacrifice of all my rights, and am ready to make that of my person, for the aim of all my life has been the happiness and glory of France. As for you, soldiers, be always faithful in the path of duty and honour. Serve with fidelity your new sovereign. The sweetest occupation will henceforth be to make known to posterity all that you have done that is great… You are all my children. I cannot embrace you all so I will do so in the person of your general.
He then kissed Petit on both cheeks, and declared, ‘I will embrace these eagles [standards], which have served as guides in so many glorious days’, whereupon he embraced one of the flags three times, for as long as half a minute, before holding up his left hand and saying: ‘Farewell! Preserve me in your memories! Adieu, my children!’ He then got into his carriage and was taken off at a gallop as the Guard band played a trumpet and drum salute entitled ‘Pour l’Empereur’.
Needless to say, officers and men wept – as did even some of the foreign officers present – while others were prostrated with grief, and all the others cried ‘Vive l’Empereur!’
Source:
Roberts, Andrew. "Elba." Napoleon: A Life. New York: Penguin, 2014. 719-20. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Wolff, Island Empire p. 159.
Frain, Memoirs of the Invasion p. 267.
ed. North, Napoleon on Elba pp. 34-5, AN 400AP/5.
Further Reading:
Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoleon Bonaparte / Napoleon I
[Major-General Sir Neil Campbell CB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Campbell_(British_Army_officer)
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