Wood, Sir Evelyn: Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign.
(Note.—This list is approximately complete, representing about 90 per cent. of the total of authorities consulted and laid under contribution.)
THE WAR DRAMA OF THE EAGLES
CHAPTER I
NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR
Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor, “by Divine Will and the Constitution of the French Republic”—Imperator and hereditary Caesar of the Republic—on Friday, May 18, 1804. Three weeks later it was publicly announced in the Moniteur that the Eagle had been adopted as the heraldic cognisance of the new régime in France.
Its selection for the State armorial bearing of the Empire was one of Napoleon’s first acts. That the Roman lictor’s axe and fasces surmounted by the red Phrygian cap, with its traditions of revolution, which had supplanted the Fleur-de-Lis of the Monarchy, and had served as the official badge on the standards of the Republic and the Consulate, should continue under the Imperial régime, was obviously impossible. But what distinctive emblem should be adopted in its stead?
Napoleon had the question debated in his presence at the first séance of the Imperial Council of State. He had, it would seem, not made up his mind in regard to it. At any rate, a few days before the meeting of the Council, he had directed a Committee to draw up a statement and offer suggestions.
The matter was brought forward at the first meeting of the Imperial Council, held at the Château of Saint-Cloud on Tuesday, June 12, 1804, after a preliminary discussion on the arrangements for the Coronation, when and where it should be held, and what was to be the form of ceremonial. The Coronation, all agreed at the outset, must take place in the current year. Rheims, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Paris, in turn, were suggested as suitable places for the ceremony, Paris being finally decided on; the scene of the event to be the Champ de Mars. Napoleon himself proposed the Champs de Mars, with a threefold ceremony there—the taking of the constitutional oath, the actual coronation, the presentation of the Emperor to the assembled people. A brief discussion followed on the form of the coronation ceremony, whether it should be accompanied by religious rites. It was put forward that, as Charlemagne had received his authority from the Pope, might not the Pope now be induced to visit Paris and personally crown the Emperor? Napoleon, intervening in the discussion, made a strong point of the necessity of some kind of religious service on the occasion. He did not care much, he cynically remarked, what religion was selected; only it must be in accordance with the views of the majority of the nation. It would be impossible to do without some sort of religious observance. In all nations, said he, Ceremonies of State were accompanied by religious services. As to asking the Pope to take part, from his point of view, at the moment, the attendance of a Papal legate would be preferable. If the Pope himself came to Paris, his presence would assuredly tend to relegate the Emperor to a secondary position: “Tout le monde me laisserait pour courir voir le Pape!” The matter, however, as the discussion proceeded, seemed to present so many difficulties, that the Council, after declaring themselves generally against having any religious ceremony at all, decided to leave the question for further consideration.
On that the Council turned to deal with the selection of the heraldic insignia and official badge of the Empire.
THE GALLIC COCK PROPOSED