The Peace of Tilsit closed the war within a month of Friedland.
The welcome-home of Paris to the Old Guard, and public decoration of the Eagles with crowns of gold, was the curtain-scene and grand finale of the Jena-Friedland drama. To all the regiments of the Grand Army under fire at Jena, Friedland, and Eylau, wreaths of gold, to be affixed round the necks of their Eagles, were voted by the Municipality of Paris. The wreaths were to be publicly presented to each regiment on its return to France.
The Guard were the first to receive theirs, and their arrival in the capital was made the occasion of a series of civic fêtes; announced officially as being “offered in tribute to the Glory of the Grand Army.” Wednesday, November 25, 1807, was the day on which the Guard were due to reach Paris. All had been made ready to accord them a magnificent reception.
The Prefect of the Seine, at the head of the City magistrates and the Municipal Councillors of Paris, all in their robes and chains and glittering insignia of office, escorted by a mounted cohort of National Guards, met the returning veterans at the Barrier on the Strasburg road. Marshal Bessières led the Guard, who marched up with bands playing and resplendent in their full-dress uniforms, horse and foot and artillery—12,000 men in all. A gigantic triumphal arch was set up beyond the Barrier, wide enough for twenty men to march through abreast. It was the approach to a wide arena on which the troops drew up, massed in front of a lofty platform, decked out with flags and wreaths of evergreens and bright-coloured hangings. There the Prefect took his place with his entourage as the soldiers drew near. Grand-stands to accommodate a crowd of sightseers surrounded the arena.
The Old Guard marched in and drew up in close order, on which the proceedings opened with the civic address. “Heroes of Jena, of Eylau, of Friedland,” began the Prefect, “conquerors of a splendid peace, immortal thanks are your due from France! We salute you, Eagles of war, the symbols of the might of our noble-hearted Emperor! You have made known throughout the world, with his great name, the glory of victorious France!” So, in grandiloquent style, the address commenced. At its close the regiments of the Guards defiled past the platform in turn—Carabineers and Cuirassiers, Chasseurs, Dragoons, and Hussars, and the battalions of veteran Grenadiers. Round the neck of each Eagle, as its corps came up, the Prefect hung a wreath of laurel-leaves in gold.
Then came the triumphal march through the streets of Paris to the Tuileries, amid cheering crowds, nearly beside themselves with excitement and enthusiasm, and with difficulty kept back from breaking through the rows of National Guards who lined the pavement, to hug the grim bearskin-hatted warriors. The Eagles deposited with ceremony in the Imperial Guardroom of the Palace of the Tuileries, the horsemen dismounted in the Square of the Carrousel, muskets were piled, and all marched off to the Champs Elysées. An immense banquet awaited them there, under vast marquees—shelter that the men appreciated, for it turned out a miserably wet afternoon.
BANQUETED BY THE CITY OF PARIS
The banquet in the Champs Elysées was the first in the round of festivities with which Paris welcomed home the “Victors over Europe.” The fêtes lasted over three days, and terminated in a grand reception given by the Senate to all ranks of “Our Invincible Guard” in the Gardens of the Luxembourg.[18]