The life of Regula Engel is known only through her own account: At the age of sixty, she wrote in 1821 the life story of the widow of Colonel Florian Engel. In her narrative, she takes us alongside her husband, a Swiss officer in the service of Napoleon, across Europe, to the foot of the pyramids, and to the battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo, where she loses her husband and two sons, and ultimately is herself severely wounded in officer's clothing and taken to the hospital. Regula Engel's life story is one of the most exciting autobiographical texts in 19th-century German literature, a moving and often delightful account of a highly vital and humorous woman from the common people. When do we ever read the memories of a woman who went into battle, gave birth to 21 children, and referred to Napoleon as "my little Switzerland"?.