Napoleon was a French military leader. In 1804 he became the emperor of France. A few years later, in 1807, he was attacked by a herd of rampaging rabbits. 

    That last sentence seems unlikely. But it’s true. Napoleon was almost conquered by fluffy bunnies. 
     Here’s what happened. Napoleon had just won a war. He wanted to celebrate. He decided to host a rabbit hunt in honor of his victory. 
    Napoleon asked his friend Alexandre to collect rabbits for the hunt. Alexandre was supposed to round up wild rabbits and put them in cages. When it was time for the hunt, he would release the rabbits. The plan was that the rabbits would flee into the woods. Then the hunters would chase them.
    Napoleon invited a lot of famous military leaders to the hunt. He wanted to impress them. He asked Alexandre to get thousands of rabbits so that the hunt would be exciting. Little did he know how exciting it would be!
    The men lined up for the hunt. The rabbits were released. But they did not run away in fear as the men expected. Instead, they rampaged toward the hunters!

    The fluffy bunnies leaped at Napoleon. They climbed up his arms and legs. They were hard to shake off. The other hunters tried to beat the rabbits off with sticks. Finally, Napoleon got away from them by hiding in his carriage. One rabbit was cute, but thousands of rabbits were scary!

    After the bunny battle was over, Alexandre admitted his mistake. Instead of collecting wild rabbits, he bought tame ones. The tame rabbits were not afraid of humans. They did not think the hunters were there to hurt them. They thought Napoleon would feed them instead. 

    As for Napoleon, he was humiliated. His victory hunt was now just a silly story. Next time, he’d have a parade instead.