The Bronze Eagle

by Baroness Orczy

First published 1915

Amazon

3.4(15)

France, 1815. Crystal de Cambray, daughter of a fiercely royalist émigré, is expected to marry Victor de Marmont, whose loyalty to the restored Bourbons conceals his devotion to Napoleon. The Englishman Bobby Clyffurde loves Crystal but is distrusted by her father, while Napoleon’s landing from Elba overturns every political calculation. Victor and his allies seek a fortune removed from Empress Marie Louise’s convoy, money that could finance the emperor’s return.

The private rivalry follows Napoleon’s march through Grenoble and Paris into the final campaign of the Hundred Days. Political allegiance becomes inseparable from theft, accusation and romantic betrayal as Crystal must judge the men competing for her trust. The conclusion moves to the Battle of Waterloo, where Orczy sets the fictional struggle against Napoleon’s final attack, Ney’s cavalry charges and the collapse of the imperial army.