The expedition passed Havre the same night, and came to anchor at Val de la Haye on the Seine, three leagues below Rouen.
Here the next morning (10th), it was met by the flotilla of steamboats of the Upper Seine, consisting of the three "Dorades,"the three "Etoiles," the "Elbeuvien," the "Pansien," the "Parisienne," and the "Zampa." The Prince de Joinville, and the persons of the expedition, embarked immediately in the flotilla, which arrived the same day at Rouen.
At Rouen salutes were fired, the National Guard on both sides of the river paid military honors to the body; and over the middle of the suspension-bridge a magnificent cenotaph was erected, decorated with flags, fasces, violet hangings, and the imperial arms.Before the cenotaph the expedition stopped, and the absolution was given by the archbishop and the clergy.After a couple of hours' stay, the expedition proceeded to Pont de l'Arche.On the 11th it reached Vernon, on the 12th Mantes, on the 13th Maisons-sur-Seine.
"Everywhere," says the official account from which the above particulars are borrowed, "the authorities, the National Guard, and the people flocked to the passage of the flotilla, desirous to render the honors due to his glory, which is the glory of France.
In seeing its hero return, the nation seemed to have found its Palladium again,--the sainted relics of victory."At length, on the 14th, the coffin was transferred from the "Dorade"steamer on board the imperial vessel arrived from Paris.In the evening, the imperial vessel arrived at Courbevoie, which was the last stage of the journey.
Here it was that M.Guizot went to examine the vessel, and was very nearly flung into the Seine, as report goes, by the patriots assembled there.It is now lying on the river, near the Invalides, amidst the drifting ice, whither the people of Paris are flocking out to see it.
The vessel is of a very elegant antique form, and I can give you on the Thames no better idea of it than by requesting you to fancy an immense wherry, of which the stern has been cut straight off, and on which a temple on steps has been elevated.At the figure-head is an immense gold eagle, and at the stern is a little terrace, filled with evergreens and a profusion of banners.Upon pedestals along the sides of the vessel are tripods in which incense was burned, and underneath them are garlands of flowers called here "immortals."Four eagles surmount the temple, and a great scroll or garland, held in their beaks, surrounds it.It is hung with velvet and gold; four gold caryatides support the entry of it; and in the midst, upon a large platform hung with velvet, and bearing the imperial arms, stood the coffin.A steamboat, carrying two hundred musicians playing funereal marches and military symphonies, preceded this magnificent vessel to Courbevoie, where a funereal temple was erected, and "a statue of Notre Dame de Grace, before which the seamen of the 'Belle Poule' inclined themselves, in order to thank her for having granted them a noble and glorious voyage."Early on the morning of the 15th December, amidst clouds of incense, and thunder of cannon, and innumerable shouts of people, the coffin was transferred from the barge, and carried by the seamen of the "Belle Poule" to the Imperial Car.
And, now having conducted our hero almost to the gates of Paris, Imust tell you what preparations were made in the capital to receive him.
Ten days before the arrival of the body, as you walked across the Deputies' Bridge, or over the Esplanade of the Invalides, you saw on the bridge eight, on the esplanade thirty-two, mysterious boxes erected, wherein a couple of score of sculptors were at work night and day.
In the middle of the Invalid Avenue, there used to stand, on a kind of shabby fountain or pump, a bust of Lafayette, crowned with some dirty wreaths of "immortals," and looking down at the little streamlet which occasionally dribbled below him.The spot of ground was now clear, and Lafayette and the pump had been consigned to some cellar, to make way for the mighty procession that was to pass over the place of their habitation.
Strange coincidence! If I had been Mr.Victor Hugo, my dear, or a poet of any note, I would, in a few hours, have made an impromptu concerning that Lafayette-crowned pump, and compared its lot now to the fortune of its patron some fifty years back.From him then issued, as from his fountain now, a feeble dribble of pure words;then, as now, some faint circles of disciples were willing to admire him.Certainly in the midst of the war and storm without, this pure fount of eloquence went dribbling, dribbling on, till of a sudden the revolutionary workmen knocked down statue and fountain, and the gorgeous imperial cavalcade trampled over the spot where they stood.
