Note 17 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS, OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. (continued 6)

When I visited London in 1814, public attention was occupied by the recent events of the Continent, and the battle of Leipsic was the general topic of conversation. It was related that, at the moment of the defeat, Napoleon’s presence of mind completely forsook him. He wandered about the city, and lost his way in a lonely street. Though on horseback, faintness obliged him to support himself against a wall, and in this situation he inquired his way of an old woman, and asked her for a glass of water. The blowing up of the bridge was not forgotten, and the story was related precisely as at Paris. These details, which were echoed in the drawing-rooms, and circulated about the streets, were credited among the higher ranks, as well as by the vulgar. Prints, representing the different events of the battle, were exhibited in the shop-windows. The subject of one of these engravings was the above described incident in the street of Leipsic. Such a multitude of absurdities was circulated that people of common sense had no resource but to shrug up their shoulders and patiently endure all that they heard.