The Second Funeral of Napoleon
Page: 41

saw that the hour of the ceremony was drawing near.

Imprimis, came men with lighted staves, and set fire to at least ten
thousand wax-candles that were hanging in brilliant chandeliers in
various parts of the chapel. Curtains were dropped over the upper
windows as these illuminations were effected, and the church was
left only to the funereal light of the spermaceti. To the right was
the dome, round the cavity of which sparkling lamps were set, that
designed the shape of it brilliantly against the darkness. In the
midst, and where the altar used to stand, rose the catafalque. And
why not? Who is God here but Napoleon? and in him the sceptics have
already ceased to believe; but the people does still somewhat. He
and Louis XIV. divide the worship of the place between them.

As for the catafalque, the best that I can say for it is that it is
really a noble and imposing-looking edifice, with tall pillars
supporting a grand dome, with innumerable escutcheons, standards,
and allusions military and funereal. A great eagle of course tops
the whole: tripods burning spirits of wine stand round this kind of
dead man's throne, and as we saw it (by peering over the heads of
our neighbors in the front rank), it looked, in the midst of the
black concave, and under the effect of half a thousand flashing
cross-lights, properly grand and tall. The effect of the whole
chapel, however (to speak the jargon of the painting-room), was
spoiled by being CUT UP: there were too many objects for the eye to
rest upon: the ten thousand wax-candles, for instance, in their
numberless twinkling chandeliers, the raw tranchant colors of the
new banners, wreaths, bees, N's, and other emblems dotting the place
all over, and incessantly puzzling, or rather BOTHERING the beholder.

High overhead, in a sort of mist, with the glare of their original
colors worn down by dust and time, hung long rows of dim ghostly-
looking standards, captured in old days from the enemy. They were,
I thought, the best and most solemn part of the show.

To suppose that the people were bound to be solemn during the
ceremony is to exact from them something quite needless and