At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender

We find ourselves on a chilly and snowy Friday. Fret not, the precipitation is just flurries, nothing but a dusting expected as the winter without snow continues. Alas, this Friday is not pay day. That comes Monday. I’m always in a better mood come an infusion of funds in the old checking account. 

I’ve been reading a book about Napoleon’s One Hundred Days. That would be the time after his first abdication after the Emperor was exiled to Elba. It was 100 days between his return to France and the end at Waterloo.  I have learned a few things I didn’t know. The Treaty of Versailles sent Napoleon to Elba, but allowed him a certain number of troops and expenses. The Allies promised him a stipulated sum of money every year. The re-installed French Monarchy promptly refused to pay and seized Napoleon’s assets in France, leaving Napoleon broke. 

Napoleon likely would never have been satisfied ruling the little island, but Louis XVIII is responsible for Napoleon’s return in great part. 

According to the book (I don’t have the title/author at hand just now), Wellington was furious the treaty allowed the vast amount of art France had acquired in the conquest of Europe and Egypt to remain in Paris where Napoleon had stashed it in —- The Louvre Palace. And now, to quote an old famous radio show, you know the rest of the story.

The grandgirls will be spending the night with us. I anticipate a lot of fun. I am a lucky man.

Why not?