Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/283

 RETURN OF THE ASHES OF NAPOLEON.

��WE considered ourselves fortunate to have been in Paris at the time of the return of the ashes of Napo leon ; a pageant which so many came from distant climes expressly to witness. Twelve of us, Americans, obtained, by seasonable negotiation, an apartment, with large windows, in the Champs Elysees, near the Arc de Triomphe, from whence to view the scene. Thither we drove, immediately after an early breakfast ; yet even then it was difficult, and almost alarming, to ven ture through the immense crowd.

It was on the morning of Tuesday, December 15th, 1840, that this unparalleled event took place. The atmosphere was intensely cold. That night the Seine froze entirely over, bridging with crystal the last march of the silent conqueror. The streets were lined by soldiers, standing immovable as statues. Through their avenue, came in procession, hundreds of thou sands of the finest cavalry and infantry, in all the daz zling hues of costume and military pomp. The ab sence of martial music, and the rapidity of their move ment, on account of the singular severity of the weath er, produced a strange illusion, like the rushing of some

�� �