IN THE CHAPEL ROYAL, WHITEHALL
The escort entered the Chapel Royal by the two doors in equal divisions, the band playing and marching up to the steps of the Communion Table, where they filed off to right and left. As soon as the band had ceased, the two sergeants bearing the Eagles approached the Altar and fixed upon it their consecrated banners. Both the Chaplain-General to the Forces (Archdeacon Owen) and the Bishop of London, with two Royal Chaplains (“the Rev. Mr. Jones and the Rev. Mr. Howlett”), officiated in the service; the Bishop preaching a special sermon, with for his text Psalm xx. verses 7 and 8:
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
“They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen and stand upright.”
“After the customary blessing, the band played ‘God save the King!’ the whole congregation standing. Among those who attended were a considerable number of persons of fashion and distinction in public life, the Dukes of Gloucester and York, and the Earl of Liverpool, and several officers of the Army and Navy, with many elegant and distinguished females.”
CHAPTER XIV
AFTER THE DOWNFALL
The remnant of the Waterloo army, as mustered and officially reported to Paris on July 1, 1815, after it had been withdrawn by convention with the Allies beyond the Loire, numbered some 23,000 of all arms.[46] The soldiers had their Eagles with them. The Eagles were still the standards of the army, although all was over with Napoleon, and he had set out on his flight from Malmaison to the coast near Rochfort—to find the Bellerophon awaiting him there.
PRESENTED AFTER WATERLOO
The last occasion on which an Eagle of Napoleon’s Army had its part on parade was one day, near the Loire, with a regiment not at Waterloo. It was when the news of Napoleon’s abdication reached its colonel. He was Colonel Bugeaud of the 14th of the Line, in after years the famous Marshal who gained Algeria for France. As it happened, the 14th had not long received their Eagle from the “Champ de Mai.” It had been brought by the deputation of the regiment sent to Paris to receive it at the hands of the Emperor, but had not yet been formally presented on parade, owing to the regiment being on the march from the south-eastern frontier of France. The 14th joined the rallied remnants of the Waterloo army to the south of the Loire, and there Colonel Bugeaud made the presentation of the Eagle. For the occasion he made use of the Napoleonic formula of address at such ceremonies, but with a variation to suit the altered situation. He took the opportunity to remind the regiment that, if the Chief had fallen, they yet owed allegiance to their country. “Soldiers of the 14th,” began the colonel, “here is your Eagle. It is in the name of the nation that I present it to you. If the Emperor, as it is stated, is no longer our Sovereign, France remains. It is France who confides this Eagle to you as your standard; it is ever to be your talisman of victory. Swear that as long as a soldier of the 14th exists no enemy’s hand shall touch it!” “We swear it!” responded the soldiers all together, and then the officers stepped forward in front of the ranks, waving their swords and again shouting, “We swear it!”
The end for the Eagles of Napoleon came on August 3, 1815. On that day the Ministerial decree was promulgated, abolishing them and the tricolor flag, and disbanding the entire Army. The white Bourbon flag was restored once more, with a new form of Army organisation, which substituted “Departmental Legions” in the place of regiments. As in the year before, it was notified that all Eagles were to be sent to the Artillery dépôt at Vincennes for destruction there, according to law—the metal of the Eagles to be melted down, their silken tricolor flags to be burned.