The Second Funeral of Napoleon
Page: 5

clamored for the return of their hero. And if there were some few
individuals in this great hot-headed, gallant, boasting, sublime,
absurd French nation, who had taken a cool view of the dead
Emperor's character; if, perhaps, such men as Louis Philippe, and
Monsieur A. Thiers, Minister and Deputy, and Monsieur Francois
Guizot, Deputy and Excellency, had, from interest or conviction,
opinions at all differing from those of the majority; why, they knew
what was what, and kept their opinions to themselves, coming with a
tolerably good grace and flinging a few handfuls of incense upon the
altar of the popular idol.

In the succeeding debates, then, various opinions were given with
regard to the place to be selected for the Emperor's sepulture.
"Some demanded," says an eloquent anonymous Captain in the Navy who
has written an "Itinerary from Toulon to St. Helena," "that the
coffin should be deposited under the bronze taken from the enemy by
the French army--under the Column of the Place Vendome. The idea
was a fine one. This is the most glorious monument that was ever
raised in a conqueror's honor. This column has been melted out of
foreign cannon. These same cannons have furrowed the bosoms of our
braves with noble cicatrices; and this metal--conquered by the
soldier first, by the artist afterwards--has allowed to be imprinted
on its front its own defeat and our glory. Napoleon might sleep in
peace under this audacious trophy. But, would his ashes find a
shelter sufficiently vast beneath this pedestal? And his puissant
statue dominating Paris, beams with sufficient grandeur on this
place: whereas the wheels of carriages and the feet of passengers
would profane the funereal sanctity of the spot in trampling on the
soil so near his head."

You must not take this description, dearest Amelia, "at the foot of
the letter," as the French phrase it, but you will here have a
masterly exposition of the arguments for and against the burial of
the Emperor under the Column of the Place Vendome. The idea was a
fine one, granted; but, like all other ideas, it was open to
objections. You must not fancy that the cannon, or rather the