Note 1 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
I had put in the text une véritable Journée des Eperons,[2] and must not omit to state what led to its being expunged.
The Emperor who alone knew I kept a journal at St. Helena, one day expressed a wish that I should read a few pages to him: on coming to this expression, inadvertently thrown in, he suddenly exclaimed, “What have you done! Erase, erase, sir, quickly! Une Journée des Eperons! what a calumny! Ah! unfortunate army! brave men! you never fought better!” Then after a pause of a few moments, he added in a tone expressive of deep feeling:—“We had some base wretches amongst us! May heaven forgive them! But as to France, will she ever recover from the effects of that ill-fated day!”