Note 1 — Chapter I · NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR

“The Eagle for each standard,” said Napoleon, going into details with Berthier, “must be made ‘strong and light’—‘Il convient de la rendre à la fois solide et légère.’” “An Eagle looking to its left, with wings half expanded, and with its talons grasping a thunderbolt, as in the old Roman standard,” was the approved design: the bird measuring eight inches from head to feet, and in the spread of its wings from tip to tip, nine and a half inches. Below the thunderbolt, as base and support, was a tablet of brass, three inches square; bearing in raised figures the number of the regiment. The weight of the whole—the Eagle was to be of copper, gilded over—was just three and a half pounds avoirdupois, and a stout oaken staff was provided, eight feet long and painted bleu impérial, to which the silken regimental colour was attached; the flag being thirty-five inches along the staff and thirty-three lengthwise, in the fly.