Address to the Guard

Address to the Guard by Napoleon Bonaparte

As published in Joseph Knight's 1896 Napoleon's Addresses: Selections from the Proclamations, Speeches and Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte, edited by Ida M. Tarbell.

Soldiers: The enemy has stolen three marches on us, and has made himself master of Paris. We must drive him thence.

Frenchmen, unworthy of the name, emigrants whom we have pardoned, have mounted the white cockade and joined the enemy. The wretches shall receive the reward due to this new crime.

Let us swear to conquer or due, and to enforce respect to the tri-colored cockade, which has for twenty years accompanied us on the path of glory and honor.