Defeated by the British at Waterloo and held on the remote Atlantic island of Saint Helena until his death in 1821, the French emperor used his time in captivity to learn English — although the scraps show the military mastermind to be a less-than-model pupil.

Written in Napoleon's spidery handwriting, the remnants of his lessons from a French count also in exile on Saint Helena show how the headstrong leader doodled to combat boredom, and struggled with the intricacies of English grammar.

"Even learning English, he couldn't shake off the soldier, the army man inside him. His doodles are of walls and designs of military fortifications," said Jean-Pierre Osenat, chairman of Paris-based auction house Osenat, which is handling the sale. The auction house expects the paper scraps, mounted on three framed boards, to fetch up to 9,500 euros ($13,660) in total at Sunday's auction.

As ruler of France from 1804 to 1815, Napoleon established a powerful military empire extending over much of Western Europe before being defeated by the Duke of Wellington's forces at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. But the fearless leader and military strategist, who successfully invaded Egypt and Italy and famously escaped exile in Elba, appears to have stumbled over the idiosyncrasies of irregular English verbs, like many before and after him.

"Run, runned, running," Napoleon wrote on one piece of paper. On another he translates the French "Qu'est-ce qui etait arrive?" as "What was it arrived," rather than "What has happened?"