Original subtitles

In my hour of misfortune,

I came to sit at the hearth of the British people,

to petition justice.

For they took away the dark red wine of my country.

My wife and son.

Their government's hollow behaviour has forfeited all honour,

and sullied its flag.

I bequeath the horror of my death to England.

Planted here on this hideous rock,

where it rains nothing but salt.

They hope to douse my spirit.

But what will you achieve?

Nothing.

Because you have left me my mind,

which is sharp and will spear history.

MAN: Napoleon wanted to control people's minds.

He was an elitist, not a liberal.

WOMAN: Napoleon didn't love France, he only ever loved himself.

Napoleon made France a police state.

His ambition crippled France.

Oh!

But I am in exile. It is safe to blame me.

His imprint upon history is stained with blood from Moscow to Haiti.

Napoleon was a dictator. He was a dictator.

He was a dictator.

He betrayed the revolution. He betrayed the revolution.

He betrayed the revolution.

I've had medicine once already.

I must defend myself.

I am merely a citizen of France, I am merely a soldier.

Greatness was thrust upon...

Oh, you doctors.

You would promise life to a corpse if only it would take pills.

Sir, you have a fever, you need treatment.

I did not seek this position, you asked for me.

Then go.

If I have dysentery,

it's because Sir Hudson Lowe has me drinking brackish water.

He's trying to kill me by stealth.

What is the news, Las Cases?

The news of the Empress and your son, the King of Rome?

There is no news. That is, we are still awaiting news.

What is the news of me? What are they saying about me?

You're hiding the paper. It is nothing, nothing at all.

Just what you would expect from Bourbon propaganda.

Well, they write here that you are a despot, the scourge of Europe,

and that liberal ideals are all the rage in your absence.

These Bourbon liars.

As if to be free, it was simply enough to desire freedom

and then everybody could be free.

These ideals that come so easily to the pen

were forged in France's revolution,

cemented in the blood of her battles.

Such ideals will become the morality of all nations.

Liberal ideals might even flourish in England.

How easily they forget.

It was I who saved the revolution when it was falling to pieces.

No matter what lies they publish,

their persecution only renders me a messiah.

The revolution will always be inseparable

from the name of Napoleon.

You're from Paris, aren't you? Yes.

Paris, you see.

Had you wanted to be Emperor of France,

you'd have had no problem with your birthplace.

But I was from Corsica.

To be of foreign origin was like being a bastard.

Something that had to be hidden.

Not that I'm ashamed.

What sort of man disowns his birthplace?

We weren't poor, we weren't rich.

I was an ordinary boy.

But I knew I was destined for greatness.

I can still remember the smell of the land.

The light.

Where's Las Cases? He's taking breakfast.

Did you sleep well, Las Cases? It's the air here.

I haven't slept soundly since we left France. Mm.

This morning I found myself wondering about Corsica.

About Corsica? Mm.

What would have happened if I'd stayed in Corsica?

If you'd stayed in Corsica?

I'd have been a nobody. Ah, I see.

The point you're making is that it was your destiny to leave?

I didn't sleep well.

Well, we could have worked. You should have called me.

I am reduced to reading books in an endless journey of words.

Give me a battle!

All these words, your words,

they will be your defence against the historians.

Yes. That will be my greatest victory.

Immortality.

My boyhood was...

My boyhood was spent at the best military school in France,

at Brienne.

From nine years old, I had to be French.

Can you imagine,

if I'd wanted the company of Corsicans?

Obviously, I didn't go back.

As an officer of the revolution, I returned to help Paoli.

But his refuge in England had made him soft.

I wanted Corsica to become completely French.

He still wanted self-government.

He betrayed Corsica.

Inevitably, we came into conflict with one another.

My family property was lost.

Corsica, it's a wart on the face of France.

Of all the insults heaped upon me,

the one, the one that could always get through

was to be called "the Corsican".

To understand Napoleon, I think you have to understand Corsica

and the Corsicans.

The Corsicans, you see, have always had a very strong belief in destiny.

They believe that each person has a particular destiny

all through their life.

Napoleon believed that his destiny was to be great

and he often spoke of it.

Can you imagine, I was so thin then...

But Corsicans have always produced warrior heroes.

Some were military leaders,

but some were also enlightened rulers

and law givers.

Like Pasquale Paoli, who gave Corsica a democratic constitution

in the mid 18th century.

As a young man, Napoleon idolised Paoli.

He wanted to be like him.

He was in Corsica to greet Paoli when he returned

at the time of the French Revolution after 20 years of exile in England.

He thought he could play a great role

as Paoli's right-hand man in Corsica,

but that was a mistake.

He misjudged the situation,

and Civil War broke out,

and Napoleon found himself on the losing side.

HE HUMS

Toulon was the turning point for me.

Before then, I was only a captain.

After Toulon, they made me up to a Brigadier General.

Do you remember, there were...

18,000 counter-revolutionaries, mostly English, holed up in Toulon?

There were mountains to the north,

there were fortifications to the east.

And the English fleet in the port below.

I had a plan. My idea was not to attack Toulon itself at all.

Instead, we took the high ground to the south of the fleet

and then bombarded them in the port below.

They would have to set sail or be destroyed.

Toulon would fall.

Toulon fell.

And I was bloodied.

By an English pike to the inner thigh,

if memory serves me.

A half pike.

Victory was mine.

Well...

Well.

NAPOLEON HUMS A TUNE

Napoleon would have us believe that he saved the French Revolution.

But Napoleon always had his eye on the main chance.

He very carefully avoided any postings where there was

no chance for glory or where he might get forgotten, although

he himself didn't mind forgetting or losing the occasional army.

He left one in Egypt in 1799, arriving back in Paris just

after the news of a great victory that he'd won over the Turks.

Now, it's very difficult to court-martial a successful

general, even if he has just deserted his army.

Once back in Paris, Napoleon began mixing with politicians who didn't

like the way the revolutionary government was shaping up.

Those politicians thought that they could use Napoleon for

a coup d'etat.

In fact, Napoleon used them.

Morning, sir.

So, has he slept at all?

He just had a bad night. He's had them before.

He hardly slept at all while on campaign.

But how would you know?

I thought that you'd only recently become so well acquainted.

I was present at the moment of the Emperor's abdication.

Well, when did you come back from England?

What?

Well...

..I thought that you weren't in France in the revolution.

I was a nobleman, which was devoid of its traditional advantages

for a period in France.

I visited England but I hurried back to

my own country as soon as it was civilised to do so.

I lost track of your movements.

That was all.

London was hard work.

Whilst there I wrote the Atlas.

No doubt you've heard of it?

Oh.

I'm led to believe it has sold a considerable number of copies.

Oh, you're being modest, Las Cases.

No, it wasn't only writing that occupied your time.

Weren't you on the expeditionary force that sailed to Quiberon?

When nobody got off the boat.

Be careful with those papers.

I've just put them in order.

We cannot afford any further delay to my work.

I hadn't realised he was so young.

24 when he won his first battle,

29 when he conquered Egypt.

30 when he took over France.

Well, that is why I'm here, to ensure, through his own words

of course, that the Emperor's fame endures.

You were saying, when the call came...?

Well, when the question of the Emperor's removal was discussed

I immediately asked permission to participate in his fate.

Of course.

What an opportunity, eh?

What foresight!

He was amazed.

I shall never forget it.

"Do you know where your offer might lead you?"

Those were his exact words.

"I have made no calculation of it," I replied.

My offer was accepted.

So...

Here you are on St Helena, eh?

Some men are like candles.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Well, they burn with this light while other men spend their lives

waiting to be consumed by it.

That is not my case.

I am here because I've enjoyed modest success as a writer.

Surely, you would not wish his deeds to go unrecorded?

Oh, no, no. I'm sure you're right.

I was in Egypt, you know?

In the English fleet.

Yes, I believe you have told me that story before.

How would you describe your style of writing?

Describe?

Why?

I'm curious.

Do I ask how you cure your patients?

I am a writer. You are a doctor.

Let us leave it that way.

How can you describe such a gift?

It alights, defying analysis.

Well, he will be waiting.

Ah, Las Cases...

You know that he thinks that the Empress will visit him

here with his son?

Yes.

Well, what is your inclination from the English camp?

Is there any truth to these rumours?

Well, I'm worried the effect they have on him,

his morale.

We should be careful not to raise his hopes.

I am certain there is no chance of any such visit taking place.

My only concern is to protect him,

so that he can finish this most important work without distractions.

Ahem. Oh, he's waiting?

I'm coming!

Ah, Las Cases?

Oh.

MEN SINGING IN FRENCH

Soldiers...

..of the army of Italy!

You are ill-fed.

And almost naked.

Your patience and courage do you honour.

I shall lead you to the most fertile plains on Earth.

There you will find great cities...

..and rich provinces.

There you will find honour...

..glory...

and wealth!

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

Morning.

Morning, sir.

So how was your ride?

Ride?

The horses barely have a chance to stretch their legs

on this rock, O'Meara.

When I think of the rides I have undertaken, across mountains

covered with cloud through the dust of Europe's great plains,

the horses I've lost in battle, the distances my army has marched...

Where is my illustrious memorialist?

THEY LAUGH

I was still a boy when I discovered this talent

that was to make me the most famous man in France.

I had an instinct for war.

I understood its pure geometry. I loved to calculate.

I constantly reinvented.

Planning.

Like a woman before labour.

THEY CHUCKLE

I fired men to fight for the chance to share in my destiny.

So you had them march to music from the opera?

Yes!

Yes, I did.

Yes.

Oh, death, well...

It has taken some of my finest men.

Generals who were my best friends.

And the battles that we won...

..against the Austrians at Ulm and Austerlitz.

The Prussians at Jena.

We conquered Europe.

We changed the face of the world.

You're my best friend in the world.

We were France's finest men.

Ha-ha-ha!

You had another night in the English drinking clubs, O'Meara.

Don't you lecture me on my health!

Well, I am the doctor.

It's expected of me, eh?

It's the walk up the path.

My head wasn't ready for it.

Oh, you're an honest man.

What do you think of me?

What do I think of you?

Mm-hm.

I think you're ruthless.

Well, the dead of one of my battles could always be made up.

A few wild nights in Paris.

Does that offend the sanctity of life?

Well, I'm a doctor. I'm not a priest. I...

I wasn't thinking of the men your ambition has killed,

but of your brother.

My brother?

You forced your brother Jerome to divorce his wife.

Well, he was underage.

He had deserted ship.

Anyway, she was an American and came without a throne.

I had to think of France.

And of her empire.

He thanked me later.

And what of his wife?

I never met her.

I...

I've been hearing these...

..voices.

Perhaps it's your conscience.

No.

Do you ever think that you made a mistake?

The greatest mistake I ever made...

..was with the colonies.

I should've let them keep self-government with

their own black leaders like Toussaint Louverture.

I should not have re-enslaved them.

Look after yourself, Doctor.

Look after yourself.

"People wanted me to be Washington,

"a great liberal.

"Give me America and I will be Washington.

"But put Washington in a France which was crumbling to the core

"and invaded from outside,

"he would've done the same as I."

BIRDSONG

So will you not take lunch?

No.

Well, he's still asleep.

I'm not sure he'll eat today.

That was an extremely fine cheese.

You would've enjoyed it.

Come here.

Where have you been?

I-I came earlier. You let me sleep!

I-I-I was told... We should have been working.

I get no peace at night but that is when you sleep

so that we have to make use of the day.

Oh, look at the shadows creeping across the floor!

But I have been working.

You have been working?

Yes, catching up in my notes.

And what will all your notes be worth when the source is dead?

What will your catching up be worth then?

But I... Or will you just make it up?

I... Is that how history is going to remember me,

as a figment of a righteous imagination?!

I was instructed not to... You were instructed?

Who gave you such instructions?!

I have dysentery. No more.

Oh, the light's gone now!

Well, there are still two hours if we go outside.

Next time somebody tells you I am ill, Las Cases,

and my door is shut, you knock.

I...understand.

It's beautiful.

I want you to have it.

Oh, no, I couldn't. It must be worth a fortune.

200,000 francs.

It is a gift.

Once I could've given you any order you wanted.

Now I trade in baubles.

You insult me by refusing?

Oh, no, no, no. I...

I didn't mean it.

Just that I don't know what to think.

Josephine's daughter wore that at my coronation.

When your book is a success and you're attending fashionable

dinners, you must find a pretty neck to wear it, Las Cases.

Josephine...

Now, there was a woman who had mastered the art of extravagance.

HE LAUGHS

But she could conduct herself with such grace.

Even when lying down in bed.

She must have been the most difficult woman I ever met.

She would say no to everything I said.

It's not because she disagreed.

Just as a defence.

"Would you like to go to Malmaison?"

"No.

"I mean, yes."

I loved her.

Yet she made me lose my faith in women.

She betrayed me.

A son by Josephine would have completed my happiness.

But I needed an heir to carry on the succession.

Marie-Louise.

Ah, she was sweet.

And innocent.

She was only 18.

She would say to me,

"I've come. I want more," then blush.

HE LAUGHS

She gave me an heir.

Well, she was the niece of the last King of France.

Napoleon loved the trappings of empire.

He wanted to establish a dynasty.

He created a court full of courtiers to flatter him.

Josephine is alleged to have spent more money than

Marie Antoinette, the guillotined wife of Louis XVI,

much criticised for her extravagance.

And yet Napoleon criticised what he called

the decadence of the courts of the 18th century.

He thought the French state had been made effeminate and weak

by the unnatural influence of the women of the 18th-century salon.

His state was to be, above all, virile and masculine.

And women at his court were to be decorative and docile.

Paradoxically, as a young man Napoleon had been strongly

attracted to a woman very much in the mould of the 18th-century

salon hostesses, Josephine,

an older woman, a woman with power and patronage to dispense.

As he grew older and acquired his own power,

the attraction waned.

But women were clearly fascinated by Napoleon.

Everyone pays tribute to his charm and his charisma.

But when matters of politics intervened, Napoleon could be

cynical and ruthless in his dealings with men and women alike.

He divorced Josephine to marry the daughter of the Emperor of Austria.

By the criteria of the English government,

every throne in Europe would be shaken to its foundations

if I were not a legitimate sovereign.

THUNDER

Oh, this island!

William III was a usurper of the English throne as he was

brought in chiefly by the aid of foreign bayonets.

George I, hoisted to power by a few nobles.

But I, Napoleon Bonaparte, was called to the throne

of France by the votes of over four million Frenchmen.

So what is legitimacy?

"I, Napoleon Bonaparte,

"was called to the throne of France

"by the votes of four million Frenchmen.

"So what is legitimacy?

"I rest my case."

BAND PLAYS LA MARSEILLAISE

I created order

and harmony.

I restored the Church.

I gave France a belief in its laws.

I needed a symbol of power.

The crown of France was lying in the gutter.

I simply passed by and pick it up.

The world was on its knees, begging me to govern it.

The coronation of 1804 was really an attempt to congregate

various levels of French society around a crown.

Although I doubt at this stage whether Napoleon was

seriously considering hereditary monarchy, he was however very

keen on entering the European club of kings and queens.

And partly in pursuit of this he put his relatives on the various

empty thrones of Europe.

His brother Louis was given the throne of Holland.

Another brother, Joseph, the throne of Spain.

European kingdoms were being transformed into a system

of outdoor relief for the Bonapartist family.

And in 1808 he gilded this imperial edifice with

a system of aristocrats, counts, dukes and barons in an attempt

to confer an aristocratic prestige upon the regime.

It never really succeeded.

The pure royalists continued to treat Bonaparte with some contempt.

WAVES LAP

France is my only passion, O'Meara.

Do you believe that?

Yes.

She has never betrayed me.

I think I shall soon be free...

STONE SPLASHES

..of this rock.

Hudson Lowe knows he cannot keep me here forever.

I think I shall go to America.

After all, I did give them Louisiana.

And I shall be reunited with my son.

BIRDS SQUAWK

LAUGHTER

What?

This is how my countrymen saw me.

Tunnelling under the sea to pop up in England like some mole.

O'MEARA LAUGHS

It's what we were all led to believe -

how your hunger for power was so insatiable that even

after your fleet was beaten at Trafalgar, you'd stop at nothing!

I'll never understand the English.

I agreed a peace with England in the Treaty of Amiens

and it was your ministers that broke that peace and declared war.

Why couldn't she just live with a revolutionised France?

Because England had been at war with revolutionary France for ten years.

We all thought that Boney would invade.

I was going to invade, but not through some tunnel.

I was going to come in on barges, 3,000 vessels coming in

on the tide, 20 men in a horse apiece, artillery at the ready.

This was the army that was to win at Austerlitz.

It was the finest France ever had.

Had it all planned.

Four days' march would've seen me in London.

Oh, you underestimate the English.

Your first step onto English soil would've been

a signal for a million men to take up arms!

Even if you had triumphed,

they would've burnt London rather than let it fall into French hands.

No!

Remember Moscow burnt around your ears.

True.

But the English aren't Russians.

If I were a Russian,

if I'd had a Russian heart in my army,

I'd rule the world by now.

No, no, no, the English...

The English are far too fond of money to destroy property.

You were offended when I called you "a nation of shopkeepers".

I simply meant that you were men of commerce, of trade.

Trade is the basis of English wealth.

It was not intended as an insult.

No, the ordinary people would have welcomed me as a liberator

who demanded no more taxes,

only offered the hope of a new constitution.

I'd have let them abolish royalty, nobility,

and given themselves liberty,

freedom, equality.

At last, old enemies could have been like family.

You take an Irishman's word for it, I...

..I remember when France had that fellow General Hoche,

to Ireland to export your French Revolution

and then the English came

and slaughtered anybody they thought might have collaborated with them.

Oh, they can be very vindictive, the English.

Believe me, they would have burnt London street by street.

Careful!

And now, I... I drink with them.

HE SPUTTERS

Oh!

Oh, what else is a man to do

with these endless evenings?

HE SIGHS

You rest there for a moment, I'll call for Marchand.

No, no, let...

No, let...

Oh...no...

No, let... Let me be. I...

..I have lots of good friends amongst the English.

HE CHUCKLES

Are you all right?

HE LAUGHS, COUGHS

It...it makes me unfit, that's all.

Hudson Lowe has it in for me.

When I first came here as your doctor, I was fascinated to meet

the famous Napoleon who'd killed his way through Europe. I...

..I did not know I'd grow to admire you.

Now I'm confused by my loyalties.

My concern for your health has alarmed the English

and they confuse concern with loyalty.

You know how they look for plots.

You're leaving.

Not if it is within my power to stay.

HE SIGHS I have always trusted you, O'Meara.

Will they finally let me die quietly? No.

You will have a new doctor, he's a Corsican.

A Corsican? His name is Antommarchi.

Do you know him?

I believe his speciality is anatomy.

His speciality, what does that mean?

Well, as far as I can understand,

his work to date has been in the dissecting rooms.

You mean he is intimate with corpses?

So I am to be looked after by a dissector.

I didn't know Hudson Lowe had that depth of irony within him.

I have never met a man who puts himself

so securely behind bars of his own making.

Ha!

He barely dares sleep for fear that you might escape

whilst his eyes are closed.

He shall surely drive himself insane.

WAVES LAP

Napoleon's big problem was beating the British.

He thought about invasion but the problems of getting an army

across the Channel were horrendous.

So he thought he could bring Britain to her knees

by destroying her economy.

Napoleonic France created an European Economic Community,

in which France was the dominant partner.

And through two decrees, Napoleon tried to shut off

that community to British exports.

But the new British Industrial Revolution was creating

the things that the Europeans wanted.

Napoleon couldn't keep them out.

He just didn't realise - and neither did the British

government of the day, for that matter -

they neither realised the strength of the new British economy.

The year 1805 was a real turning point in European history.

The Battle of Trafalgar confirmed Britain as a sea-based superpower.

Whilst Napoleon confirmed France as a land-based power,

by driving his armies into central Europe,

defeating the Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz, near Vienna.

By 1808, France dominated the continent,

either directly or through her allies.

But 1808 was also a turning point for Napoleon.

His invasion of Spain,

another attempt to defeat English penetration of the continent.

The mass resistance of the Spanish against the invading French

armies imposed enormous strains and tensions upon the regime.

No wonder Napoleon referred to it as "the Spanish ulcer".

It ate away at the foundations of the regime itself.

It was Madame de Stael who wrote in 1811,

"France is a garrison where boredom and military discipline rule."

She was right.

FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING

Marchand was worried you might miss dinner. Have you been out?

I have been working on the book.

Do you remember comparing yourself to Washington?

HE SIGHS

O'Meara is leaving.

Leaving?

Hudson Lowe has ordered him off the island.

But I don't understand, O'Meara is one of them.

Lowe will do anything to isolate me, it's a game.

He starts these rumours...

..that I'm to be released, sent to England or America.

I am left with nothing other than to keep you all at arm's distance.

What will I do without O'Meara?!

How will I know if the Empress has arrived?

For all I know, she's here already.

Here, on St Helena?

It is obvious they don't trust O'Meara any more,

what if she has made the journey and has been detained by Lowe?

Who knows what lies he is entertaining her with!

What if he has told her I will not see her?!

I do not think that such a thing as her presence

on this island could be kept secret.

What are you trying to tell me?

Nothing.

She's coming to surprise me -

that is the only explanation for her silence.

I have written entreating her to visit.

Seeking news of my son.

I hear nothing. She's not a cruel woman.

Don't torture yourself with such thoughts.

This news has upset me. I have no appetite for food.

We must work whilst we still have the time.

I have been accused of taking away my fellow citizens' liberty,

but I doubt if any of them suffered such a prison such as this.

Hudson Lowe will not destroy me!

And the world will remember you through this book.

I am loath to mention this matter at this particular time,

but I am forced to do so, nonetheless.

It happens to concern O'Meara.

I have reason to believe that he was planning to write his own book

about our time here.

Now, surely it is better that there should be one true record

and that it should be set down in style.

They're all writing books!

All?

Oh, Count Montholon and General Gourgaud -

everyone except General Bertrand.

Even Marchand keeps a diary.

Marchand...?

But yours will be the best, Las Cases,

because you are the famous writer.

I am not concerned for myself, it's just that the reader

may be saturated with fanciful variations on your deeds.

And it would be a shame if the scribblings of a doctor,

every little cough and splutter, were to be published first.

No single man can know my whole mind,

though there are those who claim to.

Such men must be cleverer than I if they think

they knew my real intentions.

I sometimes think I didn't know them myself.

For years, I worked 16 hours a day.

I used to dictate to six secretaries at once

and do you know how I could do this?

Because I filed away ideas in my mind like a chest of drawers.

When I wanted to interrupt one occupation,

I simply shut its drawer and opened another.

When I wanted to sleep, I simply shut them all and I slept.

I was the most powerful man in France.

Europe.

I could have made you a Duke, Las Cases.

I would have made you a Duke.

You could have had Pedemonte, or Napoli.

HE LAUGHS

Ten years of revolution have not changed the French at all.

They don't love liberty and equality, what they love is honour.

That's why I gave them public distinctions.

A legion of honour.

I understood the public mood.

Every day, I'd have the papers read and analysed for anything

that might influence public opinion.

Philosophy, religion, political ideas, etc,

anything that might cause a ripple among the masses.

That's why I was successful.

Napoleon was mistaken.

You couldn't wipe away ten years of revolution.

Liberalism in France was growing, not withering.

An essential weakness of his regime was its inability to tolerate

any opposition, even discussion.

Napoleon wanted to control what people thought,

as well as what they did.

But his detailed files on people's movements

and his attempt to censor their opinions

only resulted in a culture characterised by philistinism.

And anyway, the criticism went on.

Napoleon refused to listen to public opinion.

He hated the key liberal right and Madame de Stael, for example,

but his attempts to silence her and to send her into exile failed.

Only after his fall from power did Napoleon turn to the Liberals

and ask for help.

But by then, it was too late.

Napoleon's state arguably was the first modern police state.

He used his police to keep an eye on the threats from the political left

and that threats from the political right.

He also used his police to ensure that he got his annual supply

of conscripts for his armies.

Napoleon allegedly said,

"I have an income of half a million men a year."

Now that's one quote that didn't get into Las Cases.

Nobody loves peace more than I do.

Each of my battles was a diplomatic step toward peace in Europe.

What my enemies call peace...

HE COUGHS

..is another name for my destruction.

For me, peace is simply their disarmament,

so who is the more moderate?

The country I fear...

..is Russia.

I do not want war with Russia.

I should not have stayed at the Kremlin for 35 days.

I should have left after 14.

You were unlucky with the weather.

HE LAUGHS

I remember reading that Voltaire said the Russian winter

began in November, not December.

But I've never trusted his stories.

HE COUGHS

I went to war to bring about a general peace,

because Tsar Alexander broke our alliance against the English.

HE COUGHS

I thought if I could deliver a blow at the very

heart of his empire...

If I could just strike at Moscow...

It was the most sublime...

..the most terrifying sight the world has ever seen -

that city, submerged under a sea of rolling flame.

HE COUGHS

But what did Alexander gain by burning his capital?

100 years from now...

..Europe, and especially England, will regret my failure,

when they see the finest countries of Europe overrun.

They will say, "Napoleon was right."

The French people will remember my achievements.

They're there for everyone to see.

Nobody can deny my achievements.

I fear your enemies will try to do just that.

Then my enemies will find they bite against granite.

My history is made of facts, which no words can destroy.

Well, let us make a list of your achievements.

Well, there were the great harbours of Antwerp and Cherbourg.

The canals linking the Dutch ports with the Mediterranean.

And the roads you built over the Alps were grander than anything...

You don't understand!

I have sacrificed everything for my dream.

I wanted to unite the great European interests,

these nations united by geography but separated by politics.

I wanted to make all of these peoples one single national body.

One race European family with...

..with France at its hub.

Universal education, one constitution, one currency.

A European Supreme Court, one set of laws.

If I had succeeded, how might Europe be now?

And no-one dare question that I was the greatest man known to history.

KNOCK AT THE DOOR Yes?

Yes, Marchand.

I'm sorry for disturbing your game, Your Majesty,

but Governor Lowe has asked if Count Las Cases could call upon him.

At this hour of the night?

Yes, sir.

Inform Mr Hudson Lowe that the gentlemen will finish

their game first.

Yes, sir.

HE SIGHS

Who will I play now?

I won't be...

..needing you any more tonight, Marchand.

HE EXHALES HEAVILY

Hold me, Josephine.

Oh, it's so cold in here. Mm...

Why won't you hold me?

I will be with you soon.

And my brave generals.

We are drawn to the marvellous...

..the unknown, as an irresistible attraction.

As I sit here, I'm back in Paris and about to enter the opera.

I can see the public.

I can hear their acclaim, I can see the actors walking across the stage.

I can hear the music.

Why can I not leap across the distance of the centuries?

Why can I not see the future...

..as well as the past?

Is the one more extraordinary, more miraculous than the other?

HE SIGHS

I am here.

I'm only a man.