English Original
For decades, the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte has been debated and studied. Now a French historian is locked in an uphill battle against the government over a DNA test he says could end the doubts.
Historian Bruno Roy-Henry believes British authorities may have removed Napoleon's remains before his coffin was returned to France in 1840 - and that the body under the gilded dome of Les Invalides is that of another man.
But France's Defense Ministry has refused, at least for now, to allow a DNA test, which Roy-Henry contends would put an end to all questions about the identity of the body in Napoleon's Tomb.
"I have a feeling that the French authorities are very perturbed," Roy-Henry said.
Roy-Henry points to a series of anomalies surrounding Napoleon's death on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena in 1821, and the transfer of his remains to Paris 19 years later.
He cites the disappearance of the emperor's silver spurs. These were fastened to Napoleon's boots when he was buried in St. Helena, but missing when the coffin was opened in Paris in 1840. Witnesses to the opening of the coffin said the body appeared well-preserved - not in a state of decomposition that one would expect from a body buried 19 years earlier.
To prove his theory, Roy-Henry wrote to France's Defense Ministry last month to request a DNA test on a strand of Napoleon's hair.
Doctors took the strand from the body currently lying in Les Invalides just before the coffin arrived in Paris. It was later given to Bonaparte's nephew, Emperor Napoleon III, before being put in a permanent exhibit at the Army Museum in Paris in 1936.
"The simplest way to put an end to all of this is a DNA test, but it has been refused," said Roy-Henry. "So I have deduced that there is something to hide."
The ministry also told Roy-Henry he must seek the agreement of Napoleon's descendants, some of whom live in Italy and the emperor's birthplace of Corsica, to provide a DNA sample before the case can proceed further.
But what would have been the British motive for removing the body? The circumstances surrounding Napoleon's death are a subject of fierce debate.
While textbooks say Napoleon died of stomach cancer, claims that the British poisoned him with arsenic are rife. If that were the case, they would have tried to hide the crime, Roy-Henry argued.
He concedes that there is no proof for any of those theories. But a DNA test could at least settle the question about who lies in the tomb.
中文翻译
几十年来，拿破仑·波拿巴的命运一直是人们争论和研究的对象。如今，一位法国历史学家正与政府进行一场艰难的斗争，他希望通过一项DNA测试来终结这些疑虑。
历史学家布鲁诺·罗伊-亨利认为，英国当局可能在1840年拿破仑的棺椁运回法国之前，就已经转移了他的遗体——如今安放在巴黎荣军院镀金穹顶下的，是另一个人的尸体。
然而，法国国防部拒绝了进行DNA测试的请求，至少目前如此。罗伊-亨利坚称，这项测试可以一劳永逸地解决关于拿破仑墓中尸体身份的所有疑问。
"我有一种感觉，法国当局对此感到非常不安，"罗伊-亨利说。
罗伊-亨利指出，围绕拿破仑1821年在南大西洋圣赫勒拿岛上的死亡，以及19年后其遗骸被运回巴黎的过程，存在一系列异常情况。
他引用了皇帝银马刺失踪的证据。这些马刺在拿破仑于圣赫勒拿岛下葬时是固定在他的靴子上的，但在1840年于巴黎打开棺木时却不翼而飞。开棺现场的目击者称，尸体保存完好，完全不像是一具已被埋葬19年的尸体应有的腐烂状态。
为了证明他的理论，罗伊-亨利上个月致信法国国防部，请求对拿破仑的一缕头发进行DNA测试。
这缕头发是医生在棺木抵达巴黎之前，从当时安放在荣军院的尸体上取下的。后来，它被交给了波拿巴的侄子拿破仑三世皇帝，并于1936年被放入巴黎军事博物馆的永久展览中。
"结束这一切最简单的方法就是进行DNA测试，但遭到了拒绝，"罗伊-亨利说。"因此我推断，有些事情被隐瞒了。"
国防部还告诉罗伊-亨利，他必须征得拿破仑后裔的同意，其中一些人居住在意大利和皇帝的出生地科西嘉岛，以便为案件的进一步推进提供DNA样本。
但是，英国人转移尸体的动机可能是什么呢？围绕拿破仑之死的情况是一个激烈争论的话题。
虽然教科书上说拿破仑死于胃癌，但声称英国人用砷毒死他的说法也广为流传。罗伊-亨利认为，如果情况属实，他们就会试图掩盖罪行。
他承认，目前还没有证据支持这些理论中的任何一种。但DNA测试至少可以解决谁躺在坟墓里的问题。