Part II, Book 1, Chapter 8
The Emperor Asks His Guide Lacoste a Question
My editor once asked for an 1800 word piece and, being me, I proceeded to turn in a first draft of nearly 8000 words. As a result, he had to make some pretty ruthless cuts, in some cases slashing entire pages—it was brutal, but completely necessary. No one should have been subjected to the insanity that was my unfiltered, unedited first draft, and his cuts were a public service that ensured my piece would be something people would actually want to read.
Hugo could have used such an editor, is what I’m saying. This chapter was borderline redundant. Was this man being paid by the word? Did he have some kind of bet going on how heavy he could make the final book?
Napoleon, Hugo says, was overconfident the day of Waterloo. Yes, you’ve literally just told us that. He was assured of victory even in the face of countless things not going well; there is a laundry list of failures and setbacks on the part of the French army, which is a nice little parallel to the similar list in Chapter 6. Napoleon, we’re told, wasn’t concerned by losses or the death toll; he only cared about victory.
This is where I paused to ponder the question: do all generals kind of have to be sociopaths? I would have such a hard time sending masses of people to their deaths and just being told that X people died on my orders would destroy me; I don’t have what it takes to be totally unfazed by all of this.
Anyway, when Wellington fell back (at 4 PM, remember?), Napoleon was absolutely certain of victory, and asked his guide Lacoste a question, to which Lacoste was seen shaking his head. This gave the chapter its title, so it is probably extremely significant.
Napoleon was so confident in his impending triumph that he—according to Hugo, who I have to say I don’t fully trust as a totally accurate historian here—sent a courier to Paris with the news of his victory. Jumping the gun much, dude?
He then ordered troops forward to take the plateau. Oh, the one with the hidden death trench? That plateau?
I’m sure everything will be fine!
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