Description

The scream of General Pierre Jacques Étienne (1770-1842), viscount of Cambronne: "Merde!".

Painted by Théodore Géricault.

Legend has it that at the end of the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, some French soldiers commanded by the General continued to put up a strenuous but useless resistance, therefore they were asked several times to surrender by the British officers, but Cambronne, evidently annoyed by the progress of the battle, replied with a dirty word. The French General, despite a strong predisposition to be massacred, survived the battle of Waterloo, in fact he was only wounded and taken prisoner by the British. He died in Nantes in 1842.