Little Bony Sneaking into Paris--with a White Feather in His Tail, William Elmes, 1813

After the disastrous russian campaign, napoleon left his army in early december and returned to paris alone. He was almost unrecognizable from the hardships he had undergone, and arrived without escort at the tuileries in the middle of the night, where the porter in his nightshirt admitted him. In the drawing, napoleon trails a huge white feather, thought to be the mark of a poor fighter and linked from the 18th century with cowardice. He is chased by a dog who identifies himself as a "russian cur". An officer, identified by george as napoleon's personal aide armand de culaincourt, crouches at the gate and lifts the knocker, asking entrance for napoleon under several ironic aliases. The gatekeeper has his own alias for the skulking emperor: the devil. Reference source: george #11997. Subjects (lcsh): political cartoons; history--caricatures & cartoons; napoleon i, emperor of the french, 1769-1821. Date: 1813. Place of creation: Cheapside, London. Medium: etching. Collection: University of Washington. Little Bony Sneaking into Paris--with a White Feather in His Tail (NAPOLEON 136)