Napoleon returns to St Cloud following the Treaty of Tilsit
Napoleon traveled non-stop for 100 hours, arriving so fast that his escort didn’t have time to remove the barrier in front of the triumphal arch that was being built for the Emperor. Napoleon didn’t stop but ordered his coachman to swerve around the barrier and proceed at the same speed.
Napoleon had been away from France for 306 days, the longest absence of his career. ‘We saw Napoleon return from the depths of Poland without stopping,’ recalled Jean-Antoine Chaptal, ‘convene the Conseil when he arrived and show the same presence of mind, the same continuity and the same strength of ideas as if he had spent the night in his bedroom.’