Lord Palmerston
responded very cordially, and Louis Philippe's third son, the Prince
de Joinville, in his frigate, the "Belle Poule," attended by other
French war-ships, was despatched upon the errand. Napoleon had died
May 5, 1821. For almost twenty years his body had reposed at St.
Helena. With the Prince de Joinville went Bertrand and Gourgaud,
who had been the Emperor's companions in captivity.

The coffin was raised and opened. The face was perfect. The beard,
which had been shaved before the burial, had apparently a week's
growth. The white satin which had lined the lid of the coffin had
crumbled into dust, and lay like a mist over the body, which was
dressed in a green uniform, with the cocked hat across its knees.

The corpse was transferred to another coffin brought from France, and
was carried over the rough rocks of St. Helena by English soldiers.
All the honors that in that remote island England could give to her
former captive were respectfully offered; and early in December,
1840, news arrived in Paris that the "Belle Poule" had reached
Havre.

This was sooner than her arrival had been looked for, and at once
all Paris was in a scramble of preparation. Laborers and artists
worked night and day. The weather was piercingly cold. Indeed, no
less than three hundred English were said to have died of colds
contracted on the day of the funeral procession.

The body was landed at Courbevoie from a flat-bottomed barge that
had been constructed to bring it up the Seine. Courbevoie is about
two miles from the Arch of Triumph, which is again nearly the same
distance from the Place de la Concorde.

Between each gilded lamp-post, with its double burners, and beneath
long rows of leafless trees, were colossal plaster statues of Victory,
alternating with colossal vases burning incense by day, and inflammable
materials for illumination by night. Thus the procession attending the
body had about five miles to march from the place of disembarkation
to the Invalides, on the left bank of the Seine. The spectators began
to assemble before dawn. All along the route scaffoldings had been
erected, containing rows upon rows of seats. All the trees, bare and
leafless at that season, were filled with freezing _gamins_. All
the wide pavements were occupied. Before long, rows of National
Guards fringed the whole avenue. They were to fall in behind the
procession as it passed, and accompany it to the Invalides.

The arrival of t