Fig. 51.—Funeral Procession of the Emperor Napoleon I., December 15, 1840. The Cortége descending the Champs Élysées.—From a contemporary engraving.
OUIS PHILLIPPE, who, by the way, had neglected no opportunity to render justice to the genius of Napoleon, obtained, in 1840, the permission of the British Government to remove his body from St. Helena; and on December 15 it was solemnly interred in the gorgeous chapel designed by Visconti, at the Invalides. The Prince de Joinville had the honour of escorting the remains of the Emperor from the lonely island in the Indian Ocean to Paris. Words cannot paint the emotion of the inhabitants of the French capital, as the superb procession descended the long avenue of the Champs Élysées, or that of the privileged company which witnessed the striking scene in the chapel itself, as the Prince de Joinville formally consigned the body to the King, his father, saying, as he did so, "Sire, I deliver over into your charge the corpse of Napoleon." To which the King replied, "I receive it in the name of France," and then taking the sword of the victor of Austerlitz, he handed it to General Bertrand, who, in his turn, laid it on the coffin. Many years later, when another Napoleon reigned in France, a Lady who had not yet reached the mezzo camin di nostra vita, stood silently, with bowed head, before the grave of the mighty enemy of the glorious empire over which she rules, and it was observed that there were tears in the eyes of Queen Victoria when she quietly left the chapel.
Fig. 52.—The Tomb of Napoleon I. at the Invalides, Paris.
The earliest year of the last half of this century witnessed another funeral of much magnificence, that of the great Duke of Wellington. It was determined that a public funeral should mark the sense of the people's reverence for the memory of the illustrious deceased, and of their grief for his loss. The body was enclosed in a shell, and remained for a time at Walmer Castle, where the Iron Duke died. A guard of honour, composed of men of his own rifle regiment, did duty over it, and the castle flag was hoisted daily half-mast high. On the evening of the 10th of November, 1852, the body was placed upon a hearse and conveyed, by torchlight, to the railway station, the batteries at Walmer and Deal Castles firing minute-guns, whilst Sandown Castle took up the melancholy salute as the train with its burden swept by. Arrived at London, the procession re-formed, and by torchlight marched through the silent streets, reaching Chelsea about three o'clock in the morning, when the coffin containing the body was carried into the hall of the Royal Military Hospital. Life Guardsmen, with arms reversed, lined the apartment, which was hung with black and lighted by waxen tapers. The coffin rested upon an elevated platform at the end of the hall, over which was suspended a cloud-like canopy or veil. The coffin itself was covered with red velvet; and at the foot stood a table on which all the decorations of the deceased were laid out. Thither, day by day, in a constant stream, crowds of men, women, and children repaired, all dressed in deep mourning. The first of these visitors was the Queen, accompanied by her children; but so deeply was she affected that she never got beyond the centre of the hall, where her feelings quite overcame her, and she was led, weeping bitterly, back to her carriage.