From bullets of Arcole bridge to poison of a suicide attempt, from car bombing to assassination plans, Napoleon forged the image of an invincible being. The ultimate fight against death, on St. Helena, will be the pinnacle of his glory.
In this month of May 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, deposed emperor and exiled on the island of Saint Helena, is about to breathe his last. This son of a good Corsican family, still a young captain in the revolutionary army, had come close to death many times since he had taken Toulon from the royalists in 1793.