The Second Funeral of Napoleon
Page: 31

all his glory, forsooth--Imperial Caesar, with his crown over his
head, laurels and standards waving about his gorgeous chariot, and a
million of people looking on in wonder and awe.

His Majesty the Emperor and King reclined on his shield, with his
head a little elevated. His Majesty's skull is voluminous, his
forehead broad and large. We remarked that his Imperial Majesty's
brow was of a yellowish color, which appearance was also visible
about the orbits of the eyes. He kept his eyelids constantly
closed, by which we had the opportunity of observing that the upper
lids were garnished with eyelashes. Years and climate have effected
upon the face of this great monarch only a trifling alteration; we
may say, indeed, that Time has touched his Imperial and Royal
Majesty with the lightest feather in his wing. In the nose of the
Conqueror of Austerlitz we remarked very little alteration: it is of
the beautiful shape which we remember it possessed five-and-twenty
years since, ere unfortunate circumstances induced him to leave us
for a while. The nostril and the tube of the nose appear to have
undergone some slight alteration, but in examining a beloved object
the eye of affection is perhaps too critical. Vive l'Empereur! the
soldier of Marengo is among us again. His lips are thinner,
perhaps, than they were before! how white his teeth are! you can
just see three of them pressing his under lip; and pray remark the
fulness of his cheeks and the round contour of his chin. Oh, those
beautiful white hands! many a time have they patted the cheek of
poor Josephine, and played with the black ringlets of her hair. She
is dead now, and cold, poor creature; and so are Hortense and bold
Eugene, than whom the world never saw a curtier knight," as was said
of King Arthur's Sir Lancelot. What a day would it have been for
those three could they have lived until now, and seen their hero
returning! Where's Ney? His wife sits looking out from M. Flahaut's
window yonder, but the bravest of the brave is not with her. Murat
too is absent: honest Joachim loves the Emperor at heart, and
repents that he was not at Waterloo: who knows but that at the sight