Napoleon's Exile (36 page)

On the subject of the injections that the Emperor administered to himself, Dr Patrick Laburthe provided me with their content, and I am indebted to the Countess de Ségur for the chicken soup that is supposed to cure measles. The final idea of measles, incidentally, belongs to Anatole France: he wanted to use it to conclude a novel on the island of Elba of which he never wrote a single word.