cavalry and other supplies. During the same period the expenditure of
the Grande Armee was 212,879,335 francs. The protracted campaigns in
Prussia and Poland had therefore cost the French taxpayer nothing, but
this situation was about to change with a vengeance. At the beginning of
r8o9 Napoleon's Empire still looked secure, but in retrospect we can see
him already at the edge of a precipice.
Perhaps unconsciously Napoleon even realized this for, as if by pre
established harmony, his health began to decline before his fortunes
dipped, and this process can be dated to r8o8. His features coarsened, his
body grew heavier, his stomach protruded, his look grew less alert and his
voice less commanding. The gastric attack at Bayonne in r8o8 and the
eczema at Vienna in May r8o9 were pointers to a valetudinarian future. It
was almost as though the colossus began to crack in anticipation of the
unravelling of his life's work.
marcin
(Marcin)
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