Fair France once drooped beneath the feeble rule,
A blighting reign, of many a Bourbon fool,
Until Napoleon rose, her natural king,
And crushed the Bourbon, as an abscess thing.
Great Heaven decrees, that Greater still must reign,
Or else the weaker must exist in vain.
Fair France seemed conscious of this grand design,
And hailed Napoleon as a man divine—
Bedecked his path for many a flowery mile,
And claimed her monarch with a beaming smile.