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Austerlitz, 2 December 1805. I have thought about this battle more than any other because it was the most perfectly executed. The Russian and Austrian commanders advanced toward what they thought was my weakened right flank, stripping troops from the Pratzen Heights in the centre. I waited until the heights were half-empty. Then I sent Soult's corps up in the mist.

It took four minutes. Four minutes to take the commanding ground of the entire battlefield. By noon it was over. Sixty thousand French soldiers defeated ninety thousand Russo-Austrian troops. The Holy Roman Empire dissolved within weeks. Prussia surrendered without a battle.

I announced to my soldiers: 'Soldiers, I am pleased with you.' It is the most restrained thing I ever said. I was not merely pleased. I was witnessing the finest piece of work I was capable of. I have never been prouder of anything.