Laffrey

France

Description

Napoleon passed through the village on March 7, 1815, during his return from Elba at the beginning of the Hundred Days. At a site in Laffrey now known as the "field of the encounter" (prairie de la Rencontre), Napoleon and the handful of troops accompanying him were met by a battalion of soldiers of the royal 5th Regiment of the Line, who had come to arrest him. Leaving behind his men, Napoleon presented himself to the soldiers and declared, "If any of you will shoot his Emperor, here I am". The soldiers defected to his cause, crying Vive l'Empereur! ("Long live the Emperor!"). An equestrian statue of Napoleon by Emmanuel Frémiet, installed on the field in 1930, commemorates this event. [Source Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffrey).