His name shall beat the alarm like Ziska’s drum.
—Byron, in The Age of Bronze.
On May 12, 1840, Louis Philippe being king of the French people, the Chamber of Deputies was busy with a discussion on sugar tariffs. It had been dragging somewhat, and the members were showing signs of restlessness. Suddenly the Count de Rémusat, then Minister of the Interior, appeared, and asked a hearing for a communication from the government.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “the king has ordered his Royal Highness Monseigneur the Prince de Joinville[[2]] to go with his frigate to the island of St. Helena, there to collect the remains of the Emperor Napoleon.”
A tremor ran over the House. The announcement was utterly unexpected. Napoleon to come back! The body seemed electrified, and the voice of the minister was drowned for a moment in applause. When he went on it was to say:
DEATH MASK OF NAPOLEON, MADE BY DR. ANTOMMARCHI AT ST. HELENA, 1821.
Calamatta, 1834. Calamatta produced the mask from the cast taken by Dr. Antommarchi, the physician of Napoleon at St. Helena, in 1834, grouping around it portraits (chiefly from Ingres’s drawings) of Madame Dudevant and others.
“We have come to ask for an appropriation which shall enable us to receive the remains in a fitting manner, and to raise an enduring tomb to Napoleon.”
“Très bien! Très bien!” cried the House.