The Court of the Empress Josephine | Page 9

court of German Princes. The Princess of the House of Hesse, the
Duke and Duchess of Bavaria, the Elector of Baden, who was more
than seventy-five years old, and had come with his son and grandson,
appeared as if vassals of the new Charlemagne, the second Théâtre
Français had been summoned from Paris, and played before this public
of Highnesses. Every one was struck by the celerity with which this
crowned soldier had acquired the appearance of a sovereign belonging
to an old line, while he still preserved the language and appearance of a
soldier. One day he asked the hereditary Prince of Baden: "What did
you do yesterday?" The young Prince replied with some embarrassment
that he had strolled about the streets. "You did very wrong," said
Napoleon. "What you ought to have done was to visit the fortifications
and inspect them carefully. How can you tell? Perhaps some day you
will have to besiege Mayence. Who would have told me when I was a
simple artillery officer walking about Toulon that I should be destined
to take that city?" It was at Mayence that the treasures unjustly extorted
from the German Princes were restored to them. It was at Mayence that
Gutenberg's name for the first time received formal homage.
General de Ségur, In his Memoirs, narrates an anecdote about
Napoleon's stay in this old German city. The Emperor had gone
incognito and without escort to an island in the Rhine, not far from the
town. As he was walking in this almost deserted island, he noticed a
wretched hut in which a poor woman was lamenting that her son had
been drafted. "Console yourself," said Napoleon, without letting her
know who he was, and giving her an assumed name: "Come to
Mayence to-morrow and ask for me; I have some influence with the
ministers and I will try to help you." The poor woman appeared
punctually. With delight and surprise she saw that the stranger was the
Emperor of the French. Napoleon delighted to tell her that her house
which had been destroyed by the war should be rebuilt, that he would
give her a little herd and several acres of land, and that her son should

be restored to her.
A letter in the Moniteur thus described the departure of Napoleon and
Josephine: "Mayence, 11 Vendémiaire (October 3). The Empress left
yesterday for Paris, by way of Saverne and Nancy. The Emperor is just
leaving; he means to visit Frankenthal, Kaiserslanten, and Kreutznach;
then he will take the road to Trèves. The stay of Their Majesties has
been for us a source of lasting pleasure and advantage. The most
important interests of our department have been favorably regulated.
We have nothing now to wish for except an opportunity to show our
gratitude, our devotion, and our fidelity, and the sincerity of the good
wishes our citizens expressed by their unanimous cheers. The Electors,
the Princes, and the many distinguished strangers who have given our
city the appearance of a great capital, are now taking their departure."
This journey on the banks of the Rhine made a deep impression in
France and throughout Europe. It must be confessed that no one has
ever equalled the Emperor in the art of keeping himself picturesquely
before the public. Napoleon in the crypt at Aix-la-Chapelle, face to face
with the shade of Charlemagne is a subject to inspire a painter or a poet!
At Brussels, in the church of Saint Gudule, Napoleon evoked the
memory of Charles V.; at Aix-la-Chapelle in the Cathedral vault he
questioned the shade of Charlemagne. And as he meditated on the tomb
of the Carlovingian hero, so now do monarchs on their way through
Paris meditate in their turn over his tomb beneath the gilded dome of
the Invalides. They go down into the crypt, look at the porch upheld by
twelve great statues of white marble, each one commemorating a
victory, at the mosaic pavement representing a huge crown with fillets,
the sarcophagus of red granite from Finland, placed on a foundation of
green granite from the Vosges. Then they enter the subterranean
chamber, the black marble sanctuary, which contains, among numerous
relics, the sword that Napoleon carried at Austerlitz, the decorations he
wore on his uniform, the gold crown voted him by the city of
Cherbourg, and finally sixty flags won in his victories. The church of
the Invalides Inspires the same thoughts as the Cathedral of
Aix-la-Chapelle. In the two temples kings and great men may make the
same reflection about glory, about death, about the handful of dust
which is all that is left of heroes.

III.
THE POPE'S ARRIVAL AT FONTAINEBLEAU.
The time for the coronation was drawing near. Napoleon, who had
already received the official recognition of foreign powers, was anxious