XXXIV. CHAP prevailed over the representations of his Council, and Darmès, after being convicted before the Chamber of Peers, was sentenced only to imprisonment for life. 1840. 86. Disinter ment of the bones of Napoleon. Oct. 15. The frigate Bellepoule, despatched to receive the remains of Napoleon, made a good passage, and arrived in safety at St Helena. The officers intrusted with the melancholy duty were received with the utmost respect by the English garrison, and every preparation was made to give due solemnity to the disinterment of the Emperor's remains. The solitary tomb under the willow-tree was opened, the winding-sheet rolled back with pious care, and the features of the immortal hero exposed to the view of the entranced spectators. So perfectly had the body been embalmed that the features were undecayed, the countenance serene, even a smile on the lips, and his dress the same, since immortalised in statuary, as when he stood on the fields of Austerlitz or Jena. Borne first on a magnificent hearse, and then down to the harbour on the shoulders of British grenadiers, amidst the discharge of artillery from the vessels, batteries, and all parts of the island, the body was lowered into the French frigate, and England nobly, and in a right spirit, parted with the proudest trophy of her national glory. The Bellepoule had a favourable voyage home, and reached Havre in safety in the beginning of December. The interment was fixed for the 15th of the same mouth-not 1 Précis des at St Denis, amidst her ancient sovereigns, but in the Evènemens, Church of the Invalides, beside the graves of Turenne, xxiii. 305- Vauban, Lannes, and the paladins of France; and every 292, 293. preparation was made for giving the utmost magnificence. to the absorbing spectacle.1 Ann. Hist. 308; Cap. x. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm and excitement which prevailed in Paris when the day fixed for the august ceremony arrived. The weather was favourable; the sun shone forth in unclouded brilliancy, but a piercing wind from the north blew with such severity that several persons perished of cold as they were XXXIV. 1840. 87. Reinter and ment of NaSo the Church poleon in of the Inva waiting for the funeral procession. Early on the morn- CHAP. ing of the 15th, the coffin, which had been brought by the Seine to Courbevoie the preceding evening, was placed on a gigantic funeral-car, and at ten it began its march, attended by an immense and splendid military escort, amidst a crowd of six hundred thousand spectators. dense was the throng that it was half-past one when lides. the procession reached the Place de la Concorde, from whence it passed by the bridge of the same name to the Church of the Invalides, where it was received by the King, the whole royal family, with the Archbishop and all the clergy of Paris. "Sire!" said the Prince de Joinville, who approached at the head of the coffin, "I present to you the body of the Emperor Napoleon." "General Dec. 15. Bertrand," said the King, "I command you to place the sword of the Emperor on his coffin." When this was done, he said, "General Gourgaud, place the hat of the Emperor on his coffin." This also was done, and the King having withdrawn, the coffin was placed on placed on a magnificent altar in the centre of the church, the funeral service was performed with the utmost solemnity, and the Dies Irae chanted with inexpressible effect by a thousand voices. Finally, the coffin, amidst entrancing melody, was Ann. Hist. lowered into the grave, when every eye in the vast assemblage was wet with tears, and the bones of Napoleon Chron.; "finally reposed on the banks of the Seine, amidst the 292. people whom he had loved so well.”1 xxiii. 311, 313, Cap. x. 291, manifesta occasion. Such was the excitement produced by this heart-stir- 88. ring spectacle that it seriously shook the Government, Political and revealed the depth of the abyss, on the edge of which tions on the they stood when Prince Louis made his descent at Boulogne. Not only in the countless multitudes which issued from the faubourgs, but in some battalions of the National Guard, were heard the cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" No one exclaimed "Vive le Roi." One only thought, the recollections of the Empire, absorbed every mind. With these cries were mingled others of more VOL. VI. F XXXIV. CHAP. sinister moment for the present times, as "A bas les Ministres de l'étranger!" "Vive M. Thiers!" "Mort à 1840. l'Europe!" The "Marseillaise" and the "Parisienne” were vociferously sung in every street, the whole multitude joining in the chorus. These demonstrations of public feeling were eagerly adopted and commented on next day in the Opposition journals, and from them acquired an importance in the eyes of other nations, to which they were scarcely of themselves entitled. "The opinion of France," said they, "has caused itself to be heard throughout all the legions: the Ministry stands reproved; nothing remains for it but to give in its resignation." Such, in the words of its ablest supporters, was democratic government, represented as the perfection of human reason, the only secure foundation for general re1 National generation!-a government dependent entirely on popular favour, expressed by a vociferous mob of ignorant and x. 294,295. impassioned men chanting popular airs in the streets, with bayonets in their hands!1 and Siècle, Dec. 16, 1840; Cap. 89. state of af East. But the French Government at this period was enThreatening gaged in a more arduous undertaking than even its fairs in the maintenance against the fickle caprices of the Parisian multitude. It was threatened with an European war; preparations were making for defending the national independence, even in its last stronghold, the streets of the capital. The progress of events in the East, coupled with the disposition, at once warlike and democratic, of M. Thiers, had brought on a crisis in the Levant, from which it seemed impossible to find an exit except by drawing the sword. M. Thiers, equally enamoured of the ImpeAnte, crial as the Revolutionary spirit, saw in the distracted state xxxii. §§ of Turkey after the battle of Nezib, already recounted,2 a fair opportunity for regaining the French influence in the Levant, and realising, by pacific means, the dream of Napoleon for the permanent establishment of French power in Egypt. By supporting Mehemet Ali, its rebellious pasha, against the Sultan, he hoped to bind him irrevocably to the interests of France, and thus 56, 64. XXXIV. 1840. achieve by the pen what the Emperor had failed in CHAP. effecting by the sword. Great would be the éclat which such an achievement would give to French diplomacy; and it was the more attractive to the French minister that it promised to avenge the cause of Napoleon on the very theatre of his former defeat, and to interrupt the communication of the English with India by that very route which steam navigation has again rendered the chief 196, 197. line of transit to the shores of the Ganges.1 1 Cap. x. account of the East. The views of the British Government, which were 90. shared with those of Austria, Russia, and Prussia M. Guizot's on this subject, were justly stated by M. Guizot, the the British French ambassador in London, to M. Thiers, on the 15th policy in April 1840. "The British Government," said this saga- April 15. cious statesman, "conceives it has in the East two interests, unequal, without doubt, but which have both got possession of it. The one is terror of the Russians at Constantinople; the other, of the French at Alexandria. It would willingly prevent at Constantinople, by the force of the Government, or by the regular intervention of Europe, the presence of Russia, and at the same time weaken the Pasha, lest he should become too important a power in the Mediterranean. It flatters itself it has attained, by its present policy, this double object; for Russia appears disposed to abandon, or at least to adjourn, her pretensions in the East, and even her claims to an exclusive protectorate, and as much inclined as England to weaken the Pasha. Prussia adheres to that view. England sees in these dispositions not an embarrassment, but a precious opportunity to seize. Nevertheless, a double set of apprehensions have seized upon her. On the one hand, she fears that, by a sudden attack, the new government at Constantinople may be compelled to seek for safety in the protection of Russia; on the other, that the alliance with France, to which she, with reason, attaches so much value, may be disturbed, or even broken, by the diverging views of the two powers on the Eastern question. These two considerations hold her in suspense, XXXIV. 1840. CHAP. and may even lead her to make some concessions to France in Egypt, to avoid complications which may threaten the French alliance. To what point will this disposition to concession go? It is impossible at present to say how M. Gui- far it may be carried, or how it may be modified by ulteThiers, rior combinations; but these dispositions appear to me sufficiently pronounced and advanced to indicate to the 192, 193. French Government that it should apply itself to remove existing difficulties, not to create new ones." 1 zot à M. April 15, 1840; Cap. x. 91. answer. 1840. On the other hand, the views of M. Thiers, who, howM. Thiers' ever much inclined in secret to espouse the cause of the Pasha, was yet fearful to commit himself openly with Europe, and break with the English alliance, were unApril 25, folded in his answer to M. Guizot of 25th April. "Limit yourself to acknowledging the reception of the note proposing a conference, but avoid saying anything which may seem to imply a recognition of its necessity. Say that the French Cabinet regards such a step as calculated to complicate, rather than unravel, the affairs of the East. Avoid expressing any general opinion; confine yourself to limited and detached points. I do not wish to tie my hands; I have had enough of the collective note of last year. I cannot bring myself to conceive measures against Mehemet Ali, which is the point to which the four powers are evidently driving. At the same time, I am not entitled to prevent other powers from following their own inclinations, and I shall oppose no obstacles to their doing so, as long as the interest and honour of France are not wounded. But the project of having recourse to violence against Mehemet Ali appears to me chimerical: in the first place, because his power is more solidly established than is generally supposed; and in the second, because England alone is in a situation to employ these coercive measures, and the risk of doing so would more than compensate the advantage.2 At the same time, I am not irrevocably wedded to my opinions; and if you perceive that they think otherwise in London, 2 M. Thiers à M. Gui zot, April Cap. x. 195, 196. 25, 1840; |