Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/541

 HOW TO READ 517 LADY OF QUALITY A COAT-OF-ARMS By LADY HELEN FORBES Continued frotn pai;e 222, Part a The Creatures of Heraldry— Eagles — The History of the Eagle and of Empire — The Downfall oJ Caesar^s, and the Rise of Other Eagles — Mystery of the American Eagle In heraldry, the noblest of all beasts is the eagle. It is the cipher of Empire, and in heraldry it spells Caesar. The Romans marched to victory carrying an eagle as their insignia. Some of the Roman eagles have been dug up and can be seen in museums ; very strange-looking fowls they are, not much like one's usual conception of the bird. The eagles to a Roman legion had the value that the colours have to a modern regiment ; a Roman soldier accounted it as glorious to die rather than cede his eagle to a foe, as his modern counterpart gladly falls in the defence of his colours. The Holy Roman Empire When the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire devolved upon Charlemagne, or, rather, was by him revived out of the oblivion into which it had fallen, he, too, adopted the eagle as his badge, together inseparably with the name of Caesar. The Empire, so-called, of Austria has inherited the eagle of Charle- magne. In the course of the centuries, however, it has become double-headed, but, although it spreads itself on a gold field, and has gradualW acquired several accessories, it still remains black. SWabia, which supplied its present Royal House to Austria, also bore an eagle. Certain of the Electors of the Holy Roman Em- pire — but not all — had an eagle to their arms, possibly to mark their connection with Caesar. Thus, Brandenburg bore a red eagle on his silver shield (there is to this day a Prussian Order of the Red Eagle), and the Palsgraf, or Elector Palatine of the Rhine eagle gold on a black shield. For more than seven centuries the King of the Romans remained alone in the world, " The " Emperor. He and the Pope were God's viceroys on earth — the Pope the spiritual, the Emperor the temporal. This mediaeval ideal, however, imposed too much strain on the self-seeking arrogance of Europe, and Europe fell away. It was, however, from a country scarcely considered as Europe at all that the first assault on the traditions and symbol of Caesar came. Russia, under Michael Romanoff, the grandfather of Peter of im- mortal memory, rose out of barbarism and erected itself into an empire, an empire which forthwith arrogated to itself both the insignia and the title of Caesar. Some modern writers assert that the Emperor of Russia is not Czar, or Caesar corrupted, but Tsar, an ancient Muscovite title ; but whatever may be the truth, he borrowed the imperial eagle, and with it the name of emperor. Austria inherited the Eagle of Charlemagne, but in the course of centuries it became double-headed had his Since those days, to be an emperor has ceased to be an unique distinction. Any upstart conglomeration of countries can style itself an empire. It is true that until the Moslem stormed Constantinople in the fifteenth century, there was always an Emperor of the East, but his dominions did not count as Europe in those days ; besides, he began by being, and always was, theo- retically, the partner of the Holy Roman Empire. There were emperors, again, all over Asia, emperors in partibus, so to speak. But the successor of Charlemagne and Augustus was "The" Emperor, the carrier-on of the traditions of conquering and civilising Rome. Russia may possibly have considered herself the successor of the Byzantine potentate, even as she adopted his religion, and this may explain her craving after Constantinople. Napoleon's Eagle Thus the Empire, properly so-called, died a lingering death through many centuries, falling to pieces by degrees, like an ancient ruin, until Napoleon, with an extra ebullition of arrogance, abolished the Em- peror of Germany and put in his place the Emperor of Austria. It seems probable that even this shadow of what the Holy Roman Empire once was will scarcely last out time. Napoleon, moreover, having donned his brand new imperial crown, must needs have his eagle too. No modest blackbird on a silver or gold ground was good enough for him ; his was a golden eagle on a blue field. In this, whether on purpose or inadvertently, he reverted to the ancient colours of France when she was yet a kingdom and bore her golden lilies. But a newer Caesar has arisen. The five- and-thirty-year-old German Empire bears the eagle too, the old symbol of world-wide conquest, and the name of Caesar as well, which once stood so magnificently alone. Mystery of the American Eagle Why the United States of North America should have taken the eagle as their badge is a profound mystery to heralds, since nothing in the world is further removed from Repub- lican ideals than the old one of Caesar, absolute Lord of the World. There are many other animals, heraldic and zoological, which would have been infinitely more appropriate to the great nation over the sea. Why not the phoenix, the undying bird which rises ever renewed from the ashes of the dead past ? To be contintud