Paris, March 19, 1815; midnight. A line of heavy carriages draws up in the courtyard of the Tuilleries, while a crowd of despairing royalists watch the departure of Louis XVIII. Within 24 hours, amid indescribable enthusiasm, Napoleon was taken from his carriage and borne in triumph to his study. The vanquished man of Fontainebleau, the exile of Elba, had recaptured Paris at the head of the troops whom the King had sent to fight him. ‘Have you ever seen a man reconquer his throne merely by showing his hat? It’s the greatest of God’s miracles’, said Balzac’s grenadier. But how was this Revolution of March 20 achieved, and why? —a revolution which, but for Waterloo, might have given a new start to the European revolution? Hour by hour, in the Emperor’s army and at the Royal palace, on Napolean’s road and in the streets, we can through the pages of Napoleon Recaptures Paris (first published in English in 1968) relive and understand every moment of one of the strangest days in history and of the week that led up to it.

Claude Manceron spent many years researching the documentation of the 100 days, and here produced a valuable book. It is a must read for students and researchers of French history. The book will also appeal to general readers.

Claude Manceron was a French historian.