The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 904: Chapter 21: The First Step of the Emperor of France

In the golden afterglow of the sunset, a lavishly decorated open-top four-wheeled carriage leisurely wove its way through the ancient yet newly invigorated city of Paris.

How would the two passengers in the carriage describe the city of Paris?

First and foremost, it is of course a large city. In today’s world, there are a total of 19 large cities with populations over 500,000, among which only 5 are located in Europe: London, Constantinople, Naples, Saint Petersburg, and Paris.

The Luxembourg Palace, Tuileries Palace, the Académie Française, the Paris Observatory, and the renowned Hôtel des Invalides are all located here. More importantly, it is also the cartographic center of all of France and even the whole of Europe.

At this moment, the two passengers held a map of Paris in their hands.

Among countless maps of Paris, it is neither the newest nor the most detailed, not the oldest historically, but it holds the most commemorative historical significance.

It was drawn in 1789, the start of the French Revolution, the inaugural year of the French Republic.

In that year, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General.

In that year, the National Assembly issued the Tennis Court Oath, where all the representatives of the Third Estate swore in the rain in the Royal Tennis Court: “The meeting shall not dissolve until a constitution is established.”

In that year, Louis XVI ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly at the Council of State, and Count Mirabeau shouted angrily at the king’s usher: “Go back and tell your master that we are here by the will of the people, and unless driven out by bayonets, we will not leave!”

In that year, the stuttering young journalist Camille Desmoulins, upon learning that reformist Chancellor of the Exchequer Jacques Necker had been dismissed by the king, leapt onto a café table and called on the people of Paris to rise up: “This dismissal is a signal for the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of patriots! Citizens, the German soldiers employed by the king are marching on Paris, they bring with them blood and slaughter, take up arms to fight, wear the tricolor cockade to recognize each other, it is our only chance!”

In that year, “To arms! To the Bastille!”

In that year, Louis XVI asked the Duke of Liancourt: “Is this a rebellion?”

In that year, the Duke of Liancourt answered: “No, Sire, this is a revolution.”

In that year, women, furious at the long-standing lack of food and bread, rang the church bells at the market near Saint Antoine, demanding the expulsion of ‘foreign mercenaries led by the Flanders Regiment and the Royal Swiss Guard, and the restoration of sufficient food supplies’, marching under the leadership of Stanislas Maillard towards the Palace of Versailles with a vanguard of six thousand women.

In that year, Marquis Lafayette, commander of the Paris garrison, told Louis XVI: “Sire, I regret to inform you that the soldiers of the National Guard refuse to suppress the mass demonstration, and there is a high likelihood of mutiny in my army.”

In that year, under the protection of the National Guard led by Marquis Lafayette, Louis XVI left the Palace of Versailles, hurriedly relocating to the Tuileries Palace.

In that year, France passed the “August Decrees” and the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”, announcing the nationalization of church properties and the abolition of feudalism.

For all the French people, this was an extraordinarily special year.

However, for the two French gentlemen in the carriage, the significance of the year was not just the Great Revolution.

Because in the same year, their uncle and father—Second Lieutenant of the Raphaël Artillery Regiment, Napoleon Bonaparte, also saw his opportunity. This young officer from Corsica seized the outbreak of the French Revolution to join a Corsican nationalist group led by the Jacobin Party, attempting to help the Corsican people break free from French rule through revolutionary means.

Although it sounds quite amusing, this young man, only 20 years old at the time, indeed was a separatist who would later deeply loathe his own past actions.

As Voltaire said: Human nature is so complex that a person can play multiple roles in their lifetime, sometimes a hero, sometimes a coward, sometimes a sage, sometimes a fool.

This applies not only to the most ordinary Parisian citizen but also to the most renowned French Emperor.

The carriage swayed as Louis Bonaparte looked up at the banks of the Seine River, where the plane trees lined the boulevards. The wind swayed their mottled shadows.

Perhaps it was the young man beside him who bore a striking resemblance to his uncle that stirred his memories, and Louis couldn’t help but be nostalgic.

He suddenly pointed at the faintly visible Élysée Palace behind the buildings ahead and said: “I still remember, when my uncle had just returned to Paris from Elba Island, my mother brought my brother and me to see him. Although he reproached my mother for defecting to the restored Bourbon Dynasty when he fell, he was still delighted to see my brother and me.

He took me to the window at the Élysée Palace to watch the troop review in Carrousel Square. Marshal Soult was also there, and he said to Marshal Soult: ‘Hold this child, Marshal! One day, he may become the hope of our family.’

Later, my uncle’s Hundred Days Empire failed. He lost to Wellington and the coalition forces at Waterloo. Before being exiled to Saint Helena Island, I saw him once more. He held me, letting me look down at the entirety of Paris, and told me that if he had twenty more years of rule and a bit of leisure, people would search in vain for the old Paris; nothing would remain but relics.