Fantastic to be finally catching up with this!
“Good to see you, archduke.” Eugene felt like he was far more amicable than his peer.
Again, tho, unless Eugene is being ironic he would call him "Your Highness" and not by his title.
You don't address someone by their noble title, you use the form of address that is appropriate for it - majesty for king, highness for prince, grace for duke, lord for earl/count and under. Note, tho that the requirement for prince is only for a royal prince - Germany and Russia had a lot of non-royal princes, such as Schwarzenburg, who probably could be addressed by their name, or as a lesser version of highness.
" This mounted figure- more like a bear than a man- seemed to be heading for where the reserves had been, so I surmised they were a ranking general seeking to ensure the retreat route was secure. I captured the officer and lo and behold, it was none other than-“ Murat turned and swept his arm.
Tsar Alexander, flanked by soldiers on either side. He was obviously ruffled, but the man still held himself well.
“My god!” Ney said, dropping his glass.
Holy Crap! No wonder Ney dropped his glass!!! Murat is a barrel of laughs with his dramatic retelling
Talking about Marshals and "should have beens" reading about Eugene you see how much he deserved to be a Marshal, I've always admired Davout, tho whether I would have got on with him unless I had authority behind me I don't know, Murat had style, Ney earnt his epithet "bravest of the brave" not least because of his heroic rearguard actions in the nightmare retreat from Moscow.
Regarding the women Napoleon's sisters are fascinating - and don't forget Elisa! She's a major figure within the make-up of the empire, but because her role was largely administrative she is more or less ignored by history, just a footnote for where she was, and an amused aside for her lesbian daughter, tho said daughter was the ONLY member of the family ever to break through to see the Duc de Reichstadt, who apparently was so confused by her sudden bursting into his presence he didn't say anything at all to his cousin!
Looking at both women and Poland combined, you have Marie Waleska and she has a son by Napoleon who could certainly evolve to play something of an important role in future.
“I have a plan, no fear, milord. Please, you must hurry along though, the guard will be coming round soon.”
Nice, but no way would someone talking to a putative king, even one without a throne, simply call him "my lord"! He would in this case be stressing to reassure the guy and in so doing calling him by the title "majesty" would both achieve this, and be the right form of address. I'm assuming that everyone around knows who he is, and there is no subterfuge engaged here.
“Sir, it shall be about an hour to the English coast.
Who is the speaker? If it is a British naval man, then yes this will do fine. If it is a Frenchman, a royalist etc, or a senior British officer then they would say "Sire" not sir, implying recognition of his noble rank without directly addressing it.
Between Wellesley and Beauharnais, it was a race for Paris…
Nice!
A tiny note I don't really want to have to interject because it disrupts what I think reads very nice, but as Wellington did not go from nowhere to duke, he already holds A title of Wellington - Earl or Marquis, I assume, so he would be more likely even so to be referred to as "Wellington" than as "Wellesley" even if he is not yet the Duke of Wellington.
Xgentis said:
And I doubt the british advance in France will go well etheir they will be faced with guerilla as well as regular army with no allies able to reinforce them retreat in good order is the only option. The british peoples might even get tired of sending their sons to die for nothing.
With Eugene a peace settlement could be found Talleyrand is skilled while the Imperial throne is solid he won't bettray the empire but he always was the kind to have a backdoor just in case.
This is an excellent summary
General Baun deserves a Marshal's baton NOW and I sincerely doubt Eugene is going to deny it to him - every battle needs a hero, it inspires the people, and the people need inspiring.
Hmmm, strange prologue... Are we to assume that since its titled Napoleon II but includes Leon... no, that doesn't make sense. I thought it was a case of mistaken identity, he being mistaken for his half-brother, but you directly refer to him as Emperor... but he can't be if its still in Napoleon II's reign (as opposed to Napoleon III in enumeration)
OK, I don't know what's going on?
Beset Rearguards
Grey Wolf
