In the late days of the Reign of Terror a sallow faced little man stood up in a spate of gunfire and shouted an order. A dirty Paris mob had started a street fight, and in the interests of peace it must be stopped. There was the rumble of caissons over the cobbles, the dull roar of cannon, the outcries of a dispersing crowd, and Napoleon had ordered his first artillery into action. From that time on his name was writ large on the map of Europe. The Alps, Italy, Egypt, Marengo, and the little figure came out of the mists of Revolution into the garish sunlight of Empire.

For a decade the Old Guard reeled over the continent carving out new thrones. The long shadow of Napoleon fell across the world and brought fear into the hearts of kings. Austrians stacked their guns before him in the slanting summer sunlight at Austerlitz, Prussians furled their flag at Auerstadt, and in Poland one found a camp and not a forum. Then, in an odd lull, the Bearskins marched out of central Europe into the Beresina ice fields and the world learned that the Emperor was mortal.

Leipzig sent the little man to Elba while a Congress sought to forget the last twenty five years at Vienna. And then the Hundred Days, to end at last when Old Blucher set his men to stabbing the Old Guard under the late June starlight. Not quite ended it is true, for six years later on a far isle in the sea a great storm of wind and rain blew up. And whilst it raged the Emperor died murmuring "France, Armee, Tete d'armee", and perhaps, as some say, "Josephine".

Napoleon is a great and fascinating figure about whom a book a day has been written since his death. Today Professor Langer will talk about him in the New Lecture Hall at nine o'clock.

TODAY

9 o'clock

"John Ruskin", Professor Rollins, Emerson H.

"Horace's Satires", Professor Peterkin, Sever 14.

"Napoleon", Professor Langer, New Lecture Hall.

10 o'clock

"Hume: Skepticism", Professor Eaton, Emerson D.

"Huge van der Goes", Dr. Kuhn, Germanic Museum.