As we came out, the air and the buildings round about were tinged with purple, and the clear sharp half-moon before-mentioned was still in the sky, where it seemed to be lingering as if it would catch a peep of the commencement of the famous procession.  The Arc de Triomphe was shining in a keen frosty sunshine, and looking as clean and rosy as if it had just made its toilette.  The canvas or pasteboard image of Napoleon, of which only the gilded legs had been erected the night previous, was now visible, body, head, crown, sceptre and all, and made an imposing show.  Long gilt banners were flaunting about, with the imperial cipher and eagle, and the names of the battles and victories glittering in gold.  The long avenues of the Champs Elysees had been covered with sand for the convenience of the great procession that was to tramp across it that day.  Hundreds of people were marching to and fro, laughing, chattering, singing, gesticulating as happy Frenchmen do.  There is no pleasanter sight than a French crowd on the alert for a festival, and nothing more catching than their good-humor.  As for the notion which has been put forward by some of the opposition newspapers that the populace were on this occasion unusually solemn or sentimental, it would be paying a bad compliment to the natural gayety of the nation, to say that it was, on the morning at least of the 15th of December, affected in any such absurd way.  Itinerant merchants were shouting out lustily their commodities of segars and brandy, and the weather was so bitter cold, that they could not fail to find plenty of customers.  Carpenters and workmen were still making a huge banging and clattering among the sheds which were built for the accommodation of the visitors.  Some of these sheds were hung with black, such as one sees before churches in funerals; some were robed in violet, in compliment to the Emperor whose mourning they put on.  Most of them had fine tricolor hangings with appropriate inscriptions to the glory of the French arms.

All along the Champs Elysees were urns of plaster-of-Paris destined to contain funeral incense and flames; columns decorated with huge flags of blue, red, and white, embroidered with shining crowns, eagles, and N’s in gilt paper, and statues of plaster representing Nymphs, Triumphs, Victories, or other female personages, painted in oil so as to represent marble.  Real marble could have had no better effect, and the appearance of the whole was lively and picturesque in the extreme.  On each pillar was a buckler, of the color of bronze, bearing the name and date of a battle in gilt letters:  you had to walk through a mile-long avenue of these glorious reminiscences, telling of spots where, in the great imperial days, throats had been victoriously cut.