"In The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape (Profile, 2018), Mark Braude shows how even while rendered ‘invisible’ in his new, tiny dominio

"In The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape (Profile, 2018), Mark Braude shows how even while rendered ‘invisible’ in his new, tiny dominion, Bonaparte remained a figure of fascination for locals and visitors alike. He even became a kind of tourist attraction, with people travelling [sic] from around Europe (and Britain, too) in a bid to catch a glimpse of or even to meet the ‘Corsican ogre’. Some were invited in by Napoleon: the British politician John Macnamara, visiting Elba out of curiosity, had a long conversation with him, during which he could not stop rubbing his eyes in amazement." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macnamara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macnamara [note: this wiki page omits the mention of the above visit] I remember watching a B/W (50s?) film on N. (and wish I could recall the title) where a completely revisionist/conspiracy story of his 'fantastic' return from Elba to France was told. In that film, an English visitor basically green lighted his return to France based on revised geopolitical calculations of the British. So, to conspiracy fans' delight, we find another British "Macnamara" in Wiki (whose bio is rather thin) [1] but at least includes this delicious little factoid: "Macnamara's personal assistant in 1935–36 was the Soviet spy Guy Burgess." Very little is ever said (afaik) in general popular accounts and histories of Napoleon Bonaparte about the role of Bankers in his rise, fall, rise, and final fall. Dickens, in his A Tale of Two Cities (with one of the said "cities" possibly a wink-wink reference to the City of London) does have English characters in the employ of a certain "Tellson's Bank" that mysteriously have rather liberal freedom of movement between the two nations during the general period of the French Revolution. https://askinglot.com/what-is-tellsons-bank https://askinglot.com/what-is-tellsons-bank "Tellson's Bank, Temple Bar, Fleet Street, London, England It is thought that Charles Dickens based Tellson's Bank on Child & Co Bank located at 1 Fleet Street in London. The bank is now owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_%26_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_%26_Co. Oh, fun. Banksters of the world Unite! /g