It was done in an instant. A box covered with a great red cross--a
dingy-looking crown lying on the top of it--Seamen on one side and
Invalids on the other--they had passed in an instant and were up the
aisle.
A faint snuffling sound, as before, was heard from the officiating
priests, but we knew of nothing more. It is said that old Louis Philippe
was standing at the catafalque, whither the Prince de Joinville advanced
and said, "Sire, I bring you the body of the Emperor Napoleon."
Louis Philippe answered, "I receive it in the name of France." Bertrand
put on the body the most glorious victorious sword that ever has been
forged since the apt descendants of the first murderer learned how to
hammer steel; and the coffin was placed in the temple prepared for it.
The six hundred singers and the fiddlers now commenced the playing and
singing of a piece of music; and a part of the crew of the "Belle
Poule" skipped into the places that had been kept for them under us, and
listened to the music, chewing tobacco. While the actors and fiddlers
were going on, most of the spirits-of-wine lamps on altars went out.
When we arrived in the open air we passed through the court of the
Invalids, where thousands of people had been assembled, but where the
benches were now quite bare. Then we came on to the terrace before the
place: the old soldiers were firing off the great guns, which made a
dreadful stunning noise, and frightened some of us, who did not care to
pass before the cannon and be knocked down even by the wadding. The guns
were fired in honor of the King, who was going home by a back door. All
the forty thousand people who covered the great stands before the Hotel
had gone away too. The Imperial Barge had been dragged up the river, and
was lying lonely along the Quay, examined by some few shivering people
on the shore.
It was five o'clock when we reached home: the stars were shining keenly
out of the frosty sky, and Francois told me that dinner was just ready.
In this manner, my dear Miss Smith, the great Napoleon was buried.
Farewell.