I was singing traditional songs about Napoleon in the car as we drove to Fountains Abbey and when we got there I realised that I knew nothing about his time on Elba and, from out of nowhere, the first line of this song popped into my head and I recorded it on my phone. What I had made up was all speculation and conjecture but I was pleased with the idea and the song.
It so happened, later in the day, that at another NT site they had a hefty tome on Napoleon and his battles in the second hand store and there were two chapters dedicated to his life on Elba.
That night I was watching the grandchildren in their swimming lessons and, by the side of the pool, I continued to make up verses and snatches of the song and it emerged that my speculations were nowhere near the complete mismanagement of his incarceration. It is a mixture of 'washing their hands of him' and misplaced, middle-management trust and carelessness.
His gaoler "Combell" went off to meet his mistress in Florence on the promise that Napoleon would not try to escape even though he had been furnished with two vessels, 600 men and they were blatantly preparing their weapons, horses, ordnance and supplies.
The reference to Ireland is based on the fact that Napoleon had promised that he would set the Irish free of their bonds with England, after he had destabilised the English economy... something that we did with aplomb and of our volition with our leaving of the EU. (Just saying)
I know it's a long song but I don't care. There's a lot of story to cover in a few verses and, at one time, it was seen as a good thing to have a full story.
Негізгі бет Ойын-сауық TONY WILSON "Boney's Escape from Elba" 2024
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