The emperor’s “Marengo” was an Arabian of good size and style and almost white. He rode him in his last battle of Mont St. Jean, where the famous war-horse received his seventh wound. I mounted him once in my youth, and only a short time before his death in England at the age of thirty-six. Another favorite was “Marie,” and was used by the emperor in many of his hundred battles. Her skeleton is to be seen in the ancient castle of Ivenach on the Rhine, the property of the Von Plessen family. Of the other sixty or seventy steeds owned by Napoleon and used in his campaigns, perhaps the most celebrated were “Ali,” “Austerlitz,” “Jaffa,” and “Styrie.” He had nineteen horses killed under him.
The American might have mentioned, but did not, that Field-Marshal Blücher had twenty shot in battle, while in the American Civil War Generals Custer of the North and Forrest of the South are believed to have lost almost as many in the short period of four years. “Marie” is thus described by Victor Hugo in the words of a soldier of the Old Guard:
On the day when he [Napoleon] gave me the cross, I noticed the beast. It had its ears very far apart, a deep saddle, a fine head marked with a black star, a very long neck, prominent knees, projecting flanks, oblique shoulders, and a strong crupper. She was a little above fifteen hands high.
When “Marengo” was slightly wounded in the near haunch, Napoleon mounted “Marie,” and finished his final battle on her. On his downfall, a French gentleman purchased “Jaffa” and “Marengo” and sent them to his English estate at Glastonbury, Kent. The tombstone of the former may be seen there, with the inscription, “Under this stone lies Jaffa, the celebrated charger of Napoleon.”
The last trumpet-call sounded for “Marengo” in September, 1829. After his death the skeleton was purchased and presented to the United Service Institution at Whitehall, London, and is at present among its most highly treasured relics. Another interesting souvenir of the famous steed is one of his hoofs, made into a snuff-box, which makes its daily rounds after dinner at the King’s Guards, in St. James’s Palace. On its silver lid is engraved the legend, “Hoof of Marengo, barb charger of Napoleon, ridden by him at Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram, in the Russian campaign, and at Waterloo,” and round the silver shoe the legend continues: “Marengo was wounded in the near hip at Waterloo, when his great master was on him in the hollow road in advance of the French. He had frequently been wounded before in other battles.” Near his skeleton may be seen an oil painting of “Marengo,” by James Ward, R.A., who also was commissioned by Wellington to paint a picture of “Copenhagen,” Napoleon’s pocket-telescope, and other articles found in his carriage at Genappe, near Waterloo, where he was nearly captured, but escaped by mounting the fleet “Marengo.” In the museum is also displayed the saddle used by Blücher at Waterloo, and a letter written by the fiery old field-marshal, the day after the fierce battle, of which the following is a translation:
Gossalines June 19, 1815.
You remember, my dear wife, what I promised you, and I have kept my word. The superiority of the enemy’s numbers obliged me to give way on the 17th; but yesterday, in conjunction with my friend Wellington, I put an end forever to Bonaparte’s dancing. His army is completely routed, and the whole of his artillery, baggage, caissons, and equipage are in my hands. I have had two horses killed under me since the beginning of this short campaign. It will soon be all over with Bonaparte.
From a recent Paris publication, written by General Gourgaud, we learn that at St. Helena Napoleon said that the finest charger he ever owned was not the famous “Marengo,” but one named “Mourad Bey,” of which, unfortunately, no further information is afforded by the French general. In his St. Helena diary, Gourgaud writes:
L’Empereur passé à l’equitation. Il n’avait pas peur à cheval, parce qu’il n’avait jamais appris. “J’avais de bons chevaux le Mourad-Bey etait le meilleur et le plus beau à l’armée d’Italie. J’en avait un excellent: Aussi, pour invalide, l’ai-je mis à Saint-Cloud, où il passait en liberté.”
The last horse used by Napoleon was purchased at St. Helena. He was a small bay of about fifteen hands called “King George,” but afterward named by the emperor “Scheik,” which became much attached to him. Captain Frederick Lahrbush of the Sixtieth Rifles, who was then stationed on the island and who, as he could speak French, became intimate with Napoleon, gave me a description of “Scheik” and bequeathed to me his silver Waterloo medal and a lock of the emperor’s hair, received as a parting gift on his departure from St. Helena.