Napoleon's sword

Among the many weapons in the State History Museum in Moscow is Napoleon's sword. It has its own history.

Manufactured by the best armories of Versailles, it has a Damascus steel blade on which is inscribed: "To Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of the French Republic". The hilt is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and has bronze and filigree work as ornamentation. At the end of the hilt is a lion's head and a ring. The scabbard is of black leather, ornamented in bronze. The signature of Bouttle - the armorer -is engraved on the scabbard. The only time Napoleon ever parted with his sword was under the following circumstances.

When the French army was routed and the allied troops entered Paris, on March 31, 1814, the high command decided to exile Napoleon to the Island of Elba. Among the three allied commissars who were to accompany him was Count Pavel Shuvalov, aide-de-camp of Alexander I. When he learned that an attempt was to be made on Napoleon's life at one of the pots through which they would pass, Count Shuvalov offered to change clothes with Napoleon, and gave him his army greatcoat. As a token of gratitude Napoleon presented him with his sword.

In 1912 the sword was shown at an exhibition for the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812. After the exhibition it was returned to Countess Vorontsova-Dashkova, nee Shuvalova, and was preserved for a long time at her estate in the Ukraine.

In 1926, a Red Army officer, whose name is not known, presented Napoleon's sword to the Museum of the Red Army as the weapon he used in the war. A little later one of the museum's staff discovered the inscription and the sword was given to the State History Museum.

Appointment in samara By w.Somerset Maugham

Death speaks: "There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, "Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samara and there Death will not find me". The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?" "That was not a threatening gesture", I said, "it was a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samara".