The Second Funeral of Napoleon
Page: 36

Nymphs, Triumphs, Victories, or other female personages, painted in
oil so as to represent marble. Real marble could have had no better
effect, and the appearance of the whole was lively and picturesque
in the extreme. On each pillar was a buckler, of the color of
bronze, bearing the name and date of a battle in gilt letters: you
had to walk through a mile-long avenue of these glorious
reminiscences, telling of spots where, in the great imperial days,
throats had been victoriously cut.

As we passed down the avenue, several troops of soldiers met us: the
garde-muncipale a cheval, in brass helmets and shining jack-boots,
noble-looking men, large, on large horses, the pick of the old army,
as I have heard, and armed for the special occupation of peace-
keeping: not the most glorious, but the best part of the soldier's
duty, as I fancy. Then came a regiment of Carabineers, one of
Infantry--little, alert, brown-faced, good-humored men, their band
at their head playing sounding marches. These were followed by a
regiment or detachment of the Municipals on foot--two or three
inches taller than the men of the Line, and conspicuous for their
neatness and discipline. By-and-by came a squadron or so of
dragoons of the National Guards: they are covered with straps,
buckles, aguillettes, and cartouche-boxes, and make under their
tricolor cock's-plumes a show sufficiently warlike. The point which
chiefly struck me on beholding these military men of the National
Guard and the Line, was the admirable manner in which they bore a
cold that seemed to me as sharp as the weather in the Russian
retreat, through which cold the troops were trotting without
trembling and in the utmost cheerfulness and good-humor. An aide-
de-camp galloped past in white pantaloons. By heavens! it made me
shudder to look at him.

With this profound reflection, we turned away to the right towards
the hanging-bridge (where we met a detachment of young men of the
Ecole de l'Etat Major, fine-looking lads, but sadly disfigured by
the wearing of stays or belts, that make the waists of the French
dandies of a most absurd tenuity), and speedily passed into the