EPISODE 12: WATERLOO ## PROLOGUE: THE END IS THE BEGINNING Saint Helena, 1821. The man who conquered Europe lies dying. The room is small—nothing like the palaces he once commanded. The wallpaper peels. The furniture is cheap. Through the window, he can see only volcanic rock and crashing waves. Six years he has endured this exile. Six years of dictating his memoirs, rewriting his legend, waiting for death. Now death has come. "France... Army... Head of the Army... Joséphine..." His last words. The things that mattered most. The nation he made great. The soldiers who made him great. The woman he loved and lost. They will debate his legacy for centuries—tyrant or liberator, genius or monster, blessing or curse. But as the life leaves him, Napoleon Bonaparte has no doubts. He changed the world. Whether for better or worse, he changed the world. This is how it ended. --- ## CHAPTER 1: THE EMPIRE CRUMBLES France, 1813-1814. After Russia, the deluge. Prussia rises in rebellion. Austria abandons its alliance. The German states revolt. By autumn of 1813, all of Europe marches against France. Napoleon fights brilliantly. The Campaign of Germany produces masterpieces—Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden. With conscripts and remnants, he defeats superior forces again and again. But he cannot be everywhere. What he wins, his marshals lose. The Coalition learns...