CHAPTER XXX
THE FOES AT REST
To-day, the two Royal Foes sleep in the two famous mausoleums of the Continent, Queen Louisa at Charlottenburg, Napoleon in Paris. Beneath the dome of "Les Invalides" is the sarcophagus of Bonaparte. On the mosaic pavement the names of his battles are inscribed within a wreath of laurel. Sixty flags that he captured adorn the tomb decorated with reliefs and lighted by a glow which falls, most golden, about the coffin of the conqueror.
With him sleep his faithful Duroc and the Bertrand who brought his message to Queen Louisa and so offended the old Countess with his bad manners.
The words above the entrance are Napoleon's own:
"I desire that my ashes repose on the banks of the Seine in the midst of the French people I loved so well."
On each side is a figure of Atlas, one bearing a globe, the other, a sceptre and crown.
All is of earthly glory and victory.
Queen Louisa sleeps in a spot where she once loved to walk with her husband and children. A quiet avenue of pine trees leads to a grove of black firs, cypresses and Babylonian willows, bordered with white roses, lilies, Hortensia, the favourite flowers of the Queen, and at the end stands the mausoleum which Frederick William erected to her memory.
A flight of steps leads through the iron door to the interior, where, in a violet light, sleeps the Queen, the King, and the Emperor William and the granddaughter of the Duchess of Weimar.