“It was proposed,” says the before-quoted author with his usual felicity, “to consecrate the Madelaine to his exiled manes”—­that is, to his bones when they were not in exile any longer.  “He ought to have, it was said, a temple entire.  His glory fills the world.  His bones could not contain themselves in the coffin of a man—­in the tomb of a king!” In this case what was Mary Magdalen to do?  “This proposition, I am happy to say, was rejected, and a new one—­that of the President of the Council adopted.  Napoleon and his braves ought not to quit each other.  Under the immense gilded dome of the Invalides he would find a sanctuary worthy of himself.  A dome imitates the vault of heaven, and that vault alone” (meaning of course the other vault) “should dominate above his head.  His old mutilated Guard shall watch around him:  the last veteran, as he has shed his blood in his combats, shall breathe his last sigh near his tomb, and all these tombs shall sleep under the tattered standards that have been won from all the nations of Europe.”

The original words are “sous les lambeaux cribles des drapeaux cueillis chez toutes les nations;” in English, “under the riddled rags of the flags that have been culled or plucked” (like roses or buttercups) “in all the nations.”  Sweet, innocent flowers of victory! there they are, my dear, sure enough, and a pretty considerable hortus siccus may any man examine who chooses to walk to the Invalides.  The burial-place being thus agreed on, the expedition was prepared, and on the 7th July the “Belle Poule” frigate, in company with “La Favorite” corvette, quitted Toulon harbor.  A couple of steamers, the “Trident” and the “Ocean,” escorted the ships as far as Gibraltar, and there left them to pursue their voyage.

The two ships quitted the harbor in the sight of a vast concourse of people, and in the midst of a great roaring of cannons.  Previous to the departure of the “Belle Poule,” the Bishop of Frejus went on board, and gave to the cenotaph, in which the Emperor’s remains were to be deposited, his episcopal benediction.  Napoleon’s old friends and followers, the two Bertrands, Gourgaud, Emanuel Las Cases, “companions in exile, or sons of the companions in exile of the prisoner of the infame Hudson,” says a French writer, were passengers on board the frigate.  Marchand, Denis, Pierret, Novaret, his old and faithful servants, were likewise in the vessel.  It was commanded by his Royal Highness Francis Ferdinand Philip Louis Marie d’Orleans, Prince de Joinville, a young prince two-and-twenty years of age, who was already distinguished in the service of his country and king.

On the 8th of October, after a voyage of six-and-sixty days, the “Belle Poule” arrived in James Town harbor; and on its arrival, as on its departure from France, a great firing of guns took place.  First, the “Oreste” French brig-of-war began roaring out a salutation to the frigate; then the “Dolphin” English schooner gave her one-and-twenty guns; then the frigate returned the compliment of the “Dolphin” schooner; then she blazed out with one-and-twenty guns more, as a mark of particular politeness to the shore—­which kindness the forts acknowledged by similar detonations.