Exactly 200 years ago the one who is remembered as one of the greatest military geniuses in history was shut down. Definitely the greatest of the last centuries. Alessandro Manzoni dedicated a famous poem to Napoleon, on ′′ May 5 “. I learned it by heart in middle school (then it was mandatory, but it was so long that teachers were satisfied with the first 4-5 verses). Since then I never read it again. Yet Napoleon was so great that today, after over half a century, I remember perfectly the first half of that magnificent ode.

As Napoleon is known, he was exiled to Saint Helena, a lost island of the Atlantic, one of many English possessions. Here he died on May 5, 1821, almost 6 years after Waterloo’s defeat. With his last will he asked to be buried in France, but the wicked English, who even feared his body, did not concede the translation. It took another 19 years for this to happen.

When Napoleon’s remains were spread in Paris, in December 1840 (25 years after Waterloo) an uncontrollable crowd began to head towards the capital. Tens of thousands of old soldiers and officers, especially almost all of the ′′ Old Guard “, dusted off their uniforms and began marching, camping in the suburbs of Paris. People offered to give them hospitality, but the old grognards preferred to camp in tents, even though their age was advanced.

Over 80.000 troops were needed to contain the crowd (someone computed over a million people), which was largely made up of peasants and craftsmen, who came from every corner of France.

To Manzoni’s famous question, ′′ was it true glory? To posterity the hard ruling!” we can answer that, yes, it was true glory.