The Second Funeral of Napoleon
Page: 34

side of

THE CAR.

[Hush! the enormous crowd thrills as it passes, and only some few
voices cry Vive l'Empereur! Shining golden in the frosty sun--with
hundreds of thousands of eyes upon it, from houses and housetops,
from balconies, black, purple, and tricolor, from tops of leafless
trees, from behind long lines of glittering bayonets under schakos
and bear-skin caps, from behind the Line and the National Guard
again, pushing, struggling, heaving, panting, eager, the heads of an
enormous multitude stretching out to meet and follow it, amidst long
avenues of columns and statues gleaming white, of standards rainbow-
colored, of golden eagles, of pale funereal urns, of discharging
odors amidst huge volumes of pitch-black smoke,

THE GREAT IMPERIAL CHARIOT ROLLS MAJESTICALLY ON.

The cords of the pall are held by two Marshals, an Admiral and
General Bertrand; who are followed by--

The Prefects of the Seine and Police, &c.

The Mayors of Paris, &c.

The Members of the Old Guard, &c.

A Squadron of Light Dragoons, &c.

Lieutenant-General Schneider, &c.

More cavalry, more infantry, more artillery, more everybody; and as
the procession passes, the Line and the National Guard forming line
on each side of the road fall in and follow it, until it arrives at
the Church of the Invalides, where the last honors are to be paid to
it.]


Among the company assembled under the dome of that edifice, the
casual observer would not perhaps have remarked a gentleman of the
name of Michael Angelo Titmarsh, who nevertheless was there. But
as, my dear Miss Smith, the descriptions in this letter, from the
words in page 298, line 20--THE PARTY MOVED--up to the words PAID TO
IT, on this page, have purely emanated from your obedient servant's
fancy, and not from his personal observation (for no being on earth,
except a newspaper reporter, can be in two places at once), permit
me now to communicate to you what little circumstances fell under my
own particular view on the day of the 15th of December.

As we came out, the air and the buildings round about were tinged
with purple, and the clear sharp half-moon before-mentioned was