NAPOLEON

GENERAL SIMON

I thought for a moment I could make

out the colors of Prussian uniforms.

What do you think?

All eyes stare with concern through their telescopes.

Napoleon puts his telescope down.

NARRATOR

At 12:30 pm, the column approaching

on the right flank was identified as

Prussian. Napoleon could have

called off the battle at this point,

but the campaign would have been

lost, and he preferred the chance of

smashing Wellington before the

Prussians could arrive in strength.

EXT. ROAD - DAY

Marshal Grouchy at breakfast. Dismounted cavalry are

along the sides of the road, as far as the eye can see.

All ears are cocked, listening to the distant sound of

guns. Grouchy looks worried and uncertain.

NARRATOR

Had Marshal Grouchy maintained

aggressive contact with the

retreating Prussians, they would

have been prevented from entering

the battle. Having failed to do

this, had he now marched his 34,000

men to the sound of the guns, he

would have increased Napoleon's army

by fifty percent and would most

probably have ensured a French

victory. But this was not to be,

and Grouchy's inadequacies would be

the ruin of Napoleon's last battle.

ANIMATED MAP

Shows the battlefield, the Prussians coming up, and

Grouchy out of the battle.

NARRATOR

With Grouchy's force out of the

battle, and the Prussians moving

against his flank, Napoleon was in a

strategically compromised position,

but there was still time to achieve

a tactical triumph on the

battlefield before the Prussians

arrived.

EXT. INN - DAY

Three quarters of a mile behind the battlefield. Napoleon

is seated in an arm-chair. Dry straw has been spread on

the ground around him. He sits with his head in his

hands. He is in pain. His staff waits fretfully at a

respectful distance.

NARRATOR

But Napoleon was painfully ill, and

spent most of the day three-quarters

of a mile behind the battle.

EXT. FRENCH RIDGE - DAY

Marshal Ney, mounted and surrounded by his staff, looks

through his telescope.

NARRATOR

He left the tactical handling of the

battle entirely to Marshal Ney, who,

having deserted Napoleon the year

before at Fontainebleau, was the

only one of that group of Marshals

who had since then reconciled with

him. Berthier had committed suicide

when he heard of Napoleon's return

from Elba, and Ney's eleventh hour

switch of allegiance to Napoleon,

had left his soldier's mind in a

clouded and uneasy state. He would

now make tactical blunder after

blunder, while gallantly rushing

around the battlefield like a young

subaltern.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

French columns march up a slope to the British positions

on top. Suddenly, a wall of redcoats rise up from behind

the protection of the ridge and fires a devastating

volley. The French line wavers. A second line of

redcoats appears and fires another volley. The French

line breaks, and they begin to fall back.

NARRATOR

At 1:30, Ney launched the first main

attack, when four densely massed

infantry columns, unsupported by

cavalry or horse artillery, were

repulsed with heavy loss.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

Massed columns of French horsemen riding up the slope at a

slow canter, their helmets and breast-plates glittering

like a stormy wave of the sea, when it catches the

sunlight. They are riding stirrup, unhurried, confident,

deliberate.

NARRATOR

At 3:30 pm, Ney misinterpreted

movements in the English line as

signs of a general retreat and, now,

blundered again, sending in the

cavalry alone, unsupported by

infantry.

EXT. BRITISH ARTILLERY - DAY

Opens fire.

EXT. BRITISH INFANTRY - DAY

Opens fire.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

Terrible losses of horses and men.

EXT. BRITISH SQUARES - DAY

An incredible stalemate has developed in the battle. Dead

men and horses are everywhere. But the British infantry,

in their defensive squares, hold their fire, and merely

exchange stares with the hundreds of French heavy cavalry

who prowl around them, at a distance of no more than

twenty yards.

NARRATOR

After two hours of savage fighting,

the British infantry had learned

that when the French cavalry were

close, the artillery stopped. And

they also realized that each time

they fired a volley, the cavalry

would try to break through them,

before they could reload. So they

stopped firing.

A French colonel rides too close to one of the German

squares, his horse stumbles and he falls, dazed. Two

Brunswick soldiers dash out, take his purse, his watch and

his pistols, and then blows his brains out.

A cry of "shame" goes up from the nearby British square.

EXT. FRENCH RIDGE - DAY

Napoleon giving orders. Ney, covered with mud and

bloodstains, has become a wild-looking creature.

NARRATOR

By 6 pm, Napoleon had entered into

the battle himself and was forced to

commit 14,000 men of his general

reserve to hold up Bulow's

Prussians.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

The Imperial Guard infantry being blasted by a wall of

British fire, they falter and retreat. The sound of

musket balls against the French breast-plates sound like a

hail-storm beating on windows.

NARRATOR

At 7:30 pm, Napoleon released 5

battalions of the guard reserve for

Ney's final assault. When this

failed, the French morale cracked.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

British cavalry charge.

NARRATOR

Wellington put in his cavalry, and

the French army broke in panic and

ran.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

Ney, now a bloodspattered demon, trying to stop the

retreat.

NEY

Come on -- follow me and see how a

Marshal of France dies!

He charges into the battle.

NARRATOR

But Ney would survive the battle to

be shot for treason by the returning

monarchy.

TITLE: ST. HELENA

EXT. DECK OF SHIP - DAY

Napoleon on the deck of the "Northumberland" looking at

the cliffs of St. Helena. He is depressed by the mass of

bare volcanic granite rising steeply out of the sea,

barely twenty-eight miles in circumference.

NARRATOR

Napoleon escaped from France where

he might have met the same fate, and

surrendered to the English, hoping

for a congenial exile in Britain.

But he was sent as a prisoner to the

tiny island of St. Helena, in the

South Atlantic, a thousand miles

from the nearest land. He would

live out the last five years of his

life there, amid the petty squabbles

of his own entourage, and his

captors.

EXT. LONGWOOD HOUSE - DUSK

A gloomy sight, situated in a wild landscape.

NARRATOR

His house was a hastily rebuilt

collection of buildings originally

constructed as cattle-sheds.

INT. LONGWOOD HOUSE - DAY

Napoleon dictating his memoirs to Count Bertrand, a large

map is spread on the floor. The room is overcrowded with

books and papers.

A rat is noticed and ignored.

NARRATOR

His four constricted rooms were

infested with rats. His food and

wine, and opened mail were subjects

of continuous dispute.

EXT. BLUFF - DAY

Napoleon stares out at the grey Atlantic, watched by

several British soldiers.

NARRATOR

His walks were so closely guarded

that he eventually gave them up

altogether.

INT. SIR HUDSON LOWE'S OFFICE - DAY

Sir Hudson Lowe opens Napoleon's mail.

NARRATOR

His gaoler, Sir Hudson Lowe, was a

weak, narrow-minded, and petty man,

obsessed with the fear his prisoner

would escape, though a squadron of

ten ships, and a garrison of 3,000

men guarded the island.

INT. NAPOLEON'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Napoleon, grey-faced and looking very ill, being examined

by a hearty English naval surgeon.

NARRATOR

His final illness would, until the

very end, be dismissed by English

doctors as a diplomatic disease.

INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Count Bertrand, a figure of despair in the dimly-lit room,

keeps a lonely death-watch. Napoleon stirs.

NAPOLEON

(weakly)

Who is there?

BERTRAND

Bertrand, sire.

NAPOLEON

I have just had the most vivid...

dream... about Josephine.

BERTRAND

Yes, sire?

NAPOLEON

She was sitting there... and it was

as if I had last seen her only the

night before... She hadn't changed

-- she was still the same -- still

completely devoted to me... and she

told me we were going to see each

other again and, never again, leave

each other... She has promised me.

Did you see her?

BERTRAND

No, sire... I was asleep.

NAPOLEON

I wanted to kiss her, but she didn't

want to kiss me... She slipped away,

the moment I wanted to take her in

my arms.

EXT. GRAVE - DAY

The unmarked grave.

NARRATOR

Napoleon died on May 5, 1821.

Hudson Lowe insisted the inscription

on the tomb should read "Napoleon

Bonaparte." Montholon and Bertrand

refused anything but the Imperial

title -- "Napoleon." In the end, it

was left nameless.

INT. LETIZIA'S BEDROOM ROME - DAY

His mother, dressed in black, sits alone, a study of gloom

and lament. The shutters are closed and the semi-darkness

of the room is broken by bright slivers of sunlight.

The camera moves slowly away from Letizia, to an open

portmanteau. It is filled with very old children's things

-- faded toys, torn picture books, wooden soldiers and the

Teddy bear Napoleon slept with as a child.

FADE OUT.