old city of Ratisbon, which is called Regensburg in German, is situated on the river Danube, in Bavaria. It had been besieged no less than sixteen times since the tenth century when Napoleon, Emperor of the French, attacked it in 1809. Napoleon was at that time waging a victorious campaign against Austria, and had stopped at Ratisbon on his march to Vienna, the Austrian capital. The Austrians defended the city, and Napoleon ordered a bombardment, which destroyed some two hundred houses and a large part of the suburbs.

The poem tells how as Napoleon stood in his favorite attitude, head thrust forward, legs wide apart, arms locked behind his back, watching the attack, and possibly wondering what would happen if his general, Marshal Lannes, should waver, a rider dashed up to him. The rider, a boy, flung himself from his horse, and reported that the French had taken the city, that he had planted the Emperor's eagle flag on the walls, and had ridden back a mile or more to tell him.

Napoleon's eye flashed, then softened as he looked at the brave boy. "You're wounded!" he said. "Nay, I'm killed, sire," the boy answered, and fell dead beside him.

The incident is generally regarded as true, but the hero is said to have been a man, instead of a boy, as in Browning's version of it.

by Robert Browning

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