Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Grenadier a Story of the Empire Good reader, I'll not burden you with a long preface nobody likes a long preface. This is a story of the Empire. Follow with me, then, the French eagles, from the towers of Saragossa to the Kremlin's gilded dome at Moscow, in that stirring epoch which, as even the Prince de Metternich was forced to admit, can receive no more fitting appellation than The Age Napoleon. If when you have finished you feel that you have derived some pleasure and some profit from my labor, I shall say, like Gaspard in my story, That will be nice. I would like that - and so, good-bye. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.