The Glory of the Eag

He watched, unmoved, as tens of thousands of soldiers from all corners of France, resplendent in their fine uniforms, fought to the death for him. In his twenty years of military service, he had long since become accustomed to conquest and glory, to danger and death; such scenes no longer stirred him.,At first, officers tried to stop the tide of fleeing soldiers, but they soon realized they were powerless and were even swept up in the retreat themselves.,Although the front line troops were retreating piecemeal, the entire battlefield soon crumbled with them. Even the emperor himself could not stop this rout.。