Blücher decided that the Pont d’Iéna, named in commemoration of Napoleon’s victory over the Prussians in 1806, was an insult to Prussian arms, and his troops set about mining the bridge in order to blow it up. At Talleyrand’s suggestion, Louis XVIII, who had entered Paris two days after the Prussians, announced that he would seat himself on the bridge and defy them to blow him up with it. He also signed an edict to the effect that all streets, squares and bridges in the capital would reassume the names they bore in 1790. More to the point, Wellington wrote to Blücher in protest and sent a
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