Le geai depouillé de ses plumes empruntées

Napoleon, who prominently used the eagle as his personal emblem, is here reduced to the status of a jay or a crow. His profile has been drawn in caricature and appended to the body of a scrawny crow with pitifully weak limbs. In order to make up for his humble nature, he has attempted to disguise his origins by ornamenting his black feathers with those of an ostrich. Napoleon has also donned a crown and wears the cross of the Legion of Honor on his neck. He stands in the middle of a plain outside city walls. All around him, large elegant eagles crowned with symbols of legitimate empire pluck his borrowed plumes and the self-appointed emblems of empire from his body. The four largest eagles are, from left to right: Prusse [Prussia], Autriche [Austria], Suede [Sweden], and Russie [Russia]. In addition, winged crowns inscribed Boheme, Espagne and Pologne [Bohemia, Spain and Poland] arrive at the scene. Napoleon, who prominently used the eagle as his personal emblem, is here reduced to the status of a jay or a crow. His profile has been drawn in caricature and appended to the body of a scrawny crow with pitifully weak limbs. In order to make up for his humble nature, he has attempted to disguise his origins by ornamenting his black feathers with those of an ostrich. Napoleon has also donned a crown and wears the cross of the Legion of Honor on his neck. He stands in the middle of a plain outside city walls. All around him, large elegant eagles crowned with symbols of legitimate empire pluck his borrowed plumes and the self-appointed emblems of empire from his body. The four largest eagles are, from left to right: Prusse [Prussia], Autriche [Austria], Suede [Sweden], and Russie [Russia]. In addition, winged crowns inscribed Boheme, Espagne and Pologne [Bohemia, Spain and Poland] arrive at the scene. This anonymous French satire is a reversed copy of an engraving published in England by S. Knight after a plate attributed to W. Heath. For references to the original British engraving see M. D. George in the British Museum catalog, no.12098.