Napoleon's last horse to strut his stuff after makeover

Paris

VISITORS to the Army Museum in Paris are being treated to the rare sight of two taxidermists at work restoring a stuffed horse - the last one ridden by Napoleon Bonaparte. Le Vizir is a little worse for wear more than 200 years after carrying the emperor to victory against the Prussians and the Russians - not to mention being stuffed not just once, but twice. "It's a specimen that has suffered," was the expert, if understated, assessment of taxidermist Yveline Huguet as she worked putty into a crack in Le Vizir's chest.

The white Arabian stallion, a gift to Napoleon from an Ottoman sultan in 1802, sports a brand on his rump made up of an N topped with a crown. One of the emperor's favourites - recalling great victories at Jena and Eylau - he accompanied his master to exile in Elba after Napoleon's first forced abdication in 1814.