Saturday 24 October 2009

Napoleon Still Alive?


I understand that letters addressed to Napoleon still sometimes arrive at Longwood House.



Nevertheless, on re-reading Laurie Lee's story of his walk across Spain on the eve of the Civil War, I was somewhat surprised to read the following account of a meeting in a bar in Madrid.



Another man nearby suddenly spun round upon me and thrust his red butcher-face at mine.
'Long Live Spain and Germany" he said, raising his fist. 'Death to America! And long live Napoleon!'
'Napoleon's dead,' I said primly.
He gave me a cunning look.
'Oh, no; we believe he's alive.' He raised his fist again. 'But death to France too! and if you're a Frenchman, excuse me ..'

Others like the lady who blogs on The Emperor and I, accept that Napoleon is dead, but claim to have seen his ghost. I keep trying to resist the comparison with Elvis Presley, but wonder whether Elvis will "live" as long as Napoleon appears to have done. Or, to put it another way, will the King live as long as the Emperor?

4 comments:

MissElisabeth said...

Thanks for the link!
And I was only comparing him to Elvis, because a million people claim to have seen him too.

He even appears in Tacos...
Thankfully, no one ever spotted Napoleon in some food product.

Can you imagine? Buying a croissant with his face on it?

John Tyrrell said...

Glad you are OK with link. I have tidied it up a bit.

John

Melanied'Anjou said...

Cheers John..
I've also happened to experience some mysterious events/feelings when I was in touch with anything that concerned NB. A book, a statue, a place He'd been to, whatever.. Quite intruiging..
Hope you're fine
Greetings!
Melanie d'Anjou

virtual interest said...

John interesting i am from st helena I lived accross the road from napoleon's house
I now live in UK now I have just been back on the island a few months ago
Come and visit http://www.clickonsthelena.com