
After midnight, 19 June 1815... On the battlefield more than 50, 000 men & 7, 000 horses lie dead & wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armee struggles in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian lancers; & Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted & stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication & captivity. In the days, weeks & months that followed, news of the battle shaped the consciousness of an age. Drawing on a multiplicity of contemporary voices & viewpoints, Paul O` Keeffe brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds & smells of the battlefield, of conquest & defeat, of celebration & riot.