#eylau

Eylau: Are you going to let them devour us?

General Jean-Joseph Ange d’Hautpoul, by Edouard Détaille. D’Hautpoul was mortally wounded during Murat’s charge at Eylau. Napoleon’s valet Constant recalls d’Hautpoul’s final charge:

“I seem still to hear the brave d'Hautpoul saying to His Majesty, just as he was galloping off to charge the enemy: "Sire, I am going to show you my big heels; they will go into the enemies' squares as if they were made of butter!" An hour later he was dead. One of his regiments while fighting in an interval of the Russian army, was shot down and cut to pieces by the Cossacks; only eighteen of them escaped. General d'Hautpoul, three times forced to recoil with his division, thrice rallied them to the charge; the third time, he again rushed on the enemy, crying in a loud voice: "Cuirassiers, forward, in the name of God! forward, my brave cuirassiers!" But grapeshot had mowed down too many of these heroes. Very few of them were in condition to follow their leader, who fell, covered with wounds, in the middle of a Russian square into which he had flung himself almost alone.”

Ben Pook Art >> https://twitter.com/BPookArt

Just painted a picture of Jacque and Cheval at Eylau! Words cannot express how happy this makes me! It's like seeing them in real life!