Word: napoleons
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Well,' [said the Emperor], 'that's not very bright for an engineer-God's teeth!'" Reason for Napoleon's impatience: he only hoped to get some exercise seesawing with his grand marshal...
...after the first thrill of emotion, what a formidable surprise!" says Transcriber Paul Fleuriot de Langle. The papers comprise a diary which records Napoleon's conversations throughout the exile, and a regular summary of daily court life. But everything was written in a private shorthand of hieroglyphic complexity, e.g., "N.a. j. et. d. sa. sal. de bil une Ba; il. dde au Gm. sil sa. ce. q. c'e. C'une ma. de G. il d. dab. q. cest un bal. p. ses enf. Est ce p. ser. a desc. sur un remp...
Armed with a magnifying glass and cheered on by old Napoleon buffs, De Langle began to unscramble the gibberish. He found that General Bertrand had made the job still more difficult by referring to himself not as "I," but as "Bertrand," or "the Grand Maréchal," or worst of all, since it invited confusion with Napoleon himself, as "he." It was three long years before De Langle could figure out who was talking to whom about what (at times even proper names were abbreviated to initials), and could interpret the above example...
...Napoleon has had a seesaw installed in the billiard room, and he asked the Grand Maréchal if he had any idea what...
...suddenly tells the doctors: "It's a lost cause." He enters a half-waking trance, broken only by his groaning, hiccuping and incomprehensible muttering. In the small hours of May 5, 1821, he cries: "Who retreats?", and then.: "At the head of the Army!" In the late afternoon, Napoleon sighs three times, his pupils flicker, his chin twitches up & down with "clockwork regularity"-and an equerry hurries off to inform the British governor that it is all over...