he funeral barge had been retarded while the authorities
hastened the preparations for its reception. When the body of Napoleon
was about to re-land on French soil, "cannon to right of it, cannon
to left of it, volleyed and thundered." The coffin was received
beneath what was called a votive monument,--a column one hundred
feet in height, with an immense gilded globe upon the top, surmounted
by a gilded eagle twenty feet high. Banners and tripods were there
_ad libitum_, and a vast plaster bas-relief cast in the "Belle
Poule's" honor.

The coffin, having been landed, was placed upon a catafalque, the
cannon gave the signal to begin the march, and the procession started.
The public was given to understand that in a sort of funeral casket
blazing with gold and purple, on the top of the catafalque, twenty
feet from the ground, was enclosed the coffin of the Emperor; but
it was not so. The sailors of the "Belle Poule" protested that the
catafalque was too frail, and the height too great. They dared
not, they said, attempt to get the lead-lined coffin up to the
place assigned for it, still less try to get it down again. It was
consequently deposited, for fear of accident, on a low platform
between the wheels.

First came the gendarmes, or mounted police, with glittering brazen
breastplates, waving horse-hair crests, fine horses, and a band
of trumpeters; then the mounted Garde Municipale; then Lancers;
then the Lieutenant-General commanding the National Guard of Paris,
surrounded by his staff, and all officers, of whatever grade, then
on leave in the capital. These were followed by infantry, cavalry,
sappers and miners, Lancers, and Cuirassiers, staff-officers, etc.,
with bands and banners. Then came a carriage containing the chaplain
who had had charge of the body from the time it left St. Helena,
following whom were a crowd of military and naval officers. Next
appeared a led charger, son of a stallion ridden by Napoleon, and
soon after came a bevy of the marshals of France. Then all the
banners of the eighty-six departments, and at last the funeral
catafalque.

As it passed under the Arch of Triumph, erected by Napoleon in
commemoration of his victories, there were hundreds in the crowd
who expected to see the Emperor come to life again.

Strange to say, the universal cry was "Vive l'empereur!" One heard
nowhere "Vive le roi!"

The funeral car was hung with purple gauze embroidered with golden
bees. As I said, the