The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-19 00:00:00

THE FUNERAL.

We take the following extracts descriptive of the mourn-
ful ceremony from The Times of Monday :

The Prince Imperial on Saturday had a soldier's
funeral, as befitted one who, in the words of the
Princess of Wales, written by her own hand on the
card which accompanied her wreath of violets, "died
a soldier's death, fighting for our cause." The whole
of the inscription on this wreath is well worth quota-
tion, since it indicates the spirit in which the Royal
House of England did such ungrudging honour to the
memory of a cherished and lamented guest of this
country. But first the words of the Queen, thought-
fully written in French by her Majesty and attached
to the wreath of golden laurel leaves which she laid
upon the coffin, should be given. Written in the
Queen's own hand the words are :
" Souvenir de viva affection, d'estime, et de profonds
regrets de is part de Victoria Reg."
The Princess of Wales wrote :

"A token of affection and regard for him who lived the
most spotless of lives and died a soldier's death fighting for
our cause in Zululand.

_
" From Albert Edward and Alexandra, July 12, 1879."

chief

When the coffin containing the remains of her lion,
placed in it with a crucifix blessed by Pius IX..
and brought from Rome two years ago by her
chaplain, Monsignor Goddard, was brought to
Caroden•house on Friday night the Empress was
anxiously awaiting it, and a cry which those
who were present thought came from some of the
ladies of the Court was uttered by the widowed
mother herself. All that night, with but sight
intermission, the Empress passed beside the body of
her son; outwardly calm, for the most part. Very
early in the morning, at about four or five, when the
tall candles burning beneath a silver cross In the little
white chapel had not long paled in the light of the
dawn, the Empress heard mass. It was said before her
there and before the dead by Monsignor Goddard, who
had kept the vigil with Monsignor Las Callas, Bishop
of Constantine, and two of the aides•de-camp of the
Prince. Afterwards the Empress retired to her room,
which she did not leave during the day. At nine, the
white hangings with the letter "N." were affixed by
the Pompes Funebres to the outer gate, and many
mourners were then arriving. - - -

Print

By the Queen's repeatedly expressed desire, great
care had been taken in preparing the mind of the
Empress for the funeral ceremony, of which she could
not but be conscious, although she took no part in it.
The Queen left Windsor South-Western Station at
nine o'clock,accompanied by Princess Beatrice.. • The
Queen arrived at Chislehurst Station at 10.25 and im.
mediately drove to Camden-place. Lord Sydney,
Lord• Lieutenant of the county, and Lady Sydney were
present at the station on the Queen's arrival. The
Queen was conducted by the Due de Bassano, Grand
Chamberlain of the exiled Court, to the chapelle
ardente, where Her Majesty knelt for a little while
near the kneeling priests and then placed upon the
coffin her wreath of laurels in gold. Princess Beatrice
placed a cross of violet porcelain flowers upon the
coffin. Many flowers and wreaths had already been
deposited in that sacred place. The Queen gathered
two or three flowers in her hand. In the reception.
hall Prince Napoleon with his two sons, Prince Victor
and Prince Louis Bonaparte, advanced to do Her
Majesty homage. The Queen was received also by
Princess Mathilde, Prince Napoleon Charles Bona-
parte, Prince Murat, Princess Eugenie Murat, the
Duchene de Mouchy (Princess Annie Murat), the
Due de Baesanno, and M. Piet&
_ . _

The Prince of Wales's special train left Charing.
cross soon after ten, and arrived at Chislehurst at
10 30, five minutes after the Queen's train. It carried
the Prince and Princess of Wales and a very brilliant
company of Royal personages, members of the Diplo-
matic Body, and officers. On the previous day, at
Woolwich, the Prince of Wales and his illustrious re-
latives had been dressed as civilians, but now the
Prince cf Wales wore an Artillery uniform with
spiked busby (the uniform of the Prince of Wales's
Own Norfolk Artillery, of which His Royal
Highness is hon. colonel) and the Grand Cross
of the Legion of Honour, with the French
military order founded by the late Emperor, and
other Orders on his breast. Similar uniforms
and decorations were worn by the other Princes, the
Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Connaught, and the
Duke of Tech. Prince Leopold wore the Windsor
dress. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Edward
of Saxe-Weimar were in scarlet, against which the
bars of crape on the arm which, like all the officers,
they wore showed the more distinctly. The Crown
Prince of Sweden was conspicuous in his handsome
light buff cavalry dress; Prince Leiningen was in naval
uniform. There were also in the train Prince Chris-
tain, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Baden, Prince
Louis of Battenberg, and Count Gleichen.
[The Times then gives a long list of military officers and
others who were present on the occasion.]

Every regiment at Aldershot and all arms of the
service were represented.
- -

The cadets of the Royal Military Academy, Wool-
wich, commanded by Major Van Straubenzee, about
200 in number, were stationed under the tall trees at
the end of the avenue nearest Camden-house, and pre-
sented arms as the Queen and the Princes arrived.
Beyond them, on the left of the principal entrance, the
officers and the other mourners massed themselves.
The gun-carriage on which the coffin was to be placed
was drawn up before the door. The Queen took up a
position on the gravel walk at the side of the
house nearest the lodge till the ten young cap-
tains and lieutenants of the Royal Artillery,
to whom the like duty had been confided on the pre-
vious day, had borne the coffin from the chapel to the
bier. The drums beat with a muffled sound, the first
minute gun was heard, and the bearers carried their
burden to the gun. It was now ten minutes past
eleven. The Queen, followed by the Princess and the
ladies in waiting, was conducted by the Marquis de
Castelbajac, who had been placed in attendance upon
Her Majesty, along a path marked out by black cloth
to the raised black-draped pavilion, and from which
she saw the passage of the funeral procession across the
common to the church. The Princess of Wales had
already driven to the church with the Comtesse
d'Otrante and Lord Suffield, way being made
for this improvised movement by the personal
exertions of Captain Baynes. A battery of artil-
lery just without the lower gates fired the first
of a series of mourning guns, and the gentlemen
cadets stepped slowly off with arms reversed, while
the Royal Artillery band played the "Dead March"
which is always hear,d at a soldier's funeral.
The Sahedul
drummers beat a monotonous funeral roll upon
drums bound with black crape. The cross was borne
before the gun by an Alsation cure. The Abbe
Koenig, vicar:of St. Eustache, followed, with the Abbe
Lame, Almoner to the Emperor; the Abbe Meteirie,
canon of St. Denis; the bearded Bishop of Constan-
tine, dark brown horses,
Monsignor Las Casas, wearing his golden mitre.
The gun was drawn by six
besides each pair of which rode a mounted artillery-
man one on the right, one on the left. The
The Unionfrulion
jiclc
above
and
rwrenaschrollleridcolionr.
e sword
of of the Prince, his belt, and his aabretsche were



placed above. On a cushion were the great
cross, the plaque, and the riband of the Legion of
Honour, founded by the Emperor. The dismounted
men carried the largest of the wreaths. By the side of
the coffin walked the pall bearers, the Duke of Con-
naaght, the Duke of Cambridge, the Crown Prince of
Sweden and Norway with M. Rouher on the left; the
Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Leopold, and the Prince
of Wales with the Due de Bassano on the right. The
Princes and Princesses came to lay their wreaths upon
the coffin in the chapel, and as they passed into the
saloon reserved for the Queen and the Princes of the
various Royal Houses, they had each received a
few violets or other flowers from the chapel. The Princes
who walked as pall-bearers still carried in their hands
the flowers they had received. At the side of the
pall-bearers walked the Ambassadors. Behind the
coffin came the Prince's brown horse "Stag," capari-
soned in white and silver starred trappings of
Imperial State, led by Mr. Gamble, the faithful
retainer who attended the baptism of the Prince and
now followed his funeral. _ This also was the place

reserved for the English soldiers, Lomas and Biown,
who served as groom and valet to the Prince, and
Uhlmann, his own body servant. Next came the
mourners, Prince Napoleon and his sons,
ice Victor, and Prince Louis, Prince Lucien
Bonaparte, Prince Joachim Murat, Prince Napo-
leon Charles Bonaparte, and Prince Louis Murat.
These Princess of the Imperial house were followed
by other personages of princely rank, but not
so nearly related,. the Duke of Teck, Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Edward of
Saxe-Weimar, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Baden,
the Due de Rivas (representing tersonally the King
of Spain), the Price of Monaco, tice; [The Times then
enumerates the great officers of the Imperial Crown
who took part in the procession.] The gentlemen
nearest after the chief mourners bore wreaths in their
hands, the violet wreath with the Princess of Wales's
card, which she had placed with her own hand on the
coffin, a wreath of white roses from "Albert Edward
Prince of Wales," a white wreath from "Louisa,
Victoria, and Maud of Wales," and one "from Edward
and George of Wales," sent by the young princes to
the friend whose daring and skill in manly exercises
were specially calculated to attract boyish admiration.
Prince Leopold's offering was an immortelle with the
words written by him on the card.—
" Hommage d'affeetion et d'estime de la pert de Leopold."
There followed so many Deputies and political friends
that it is impossible to enumerate them. [The Times
then mentions several French Deputies, officials, and
delegations who also formed part of the funeral
cortegel Draped eagles, wreaths, and tricolors set
with golden bees were borne aloft by the deputations;
an immense and confused concourse of French mourners
followed. All, even the Princes of the Imperial house,
were in ordinary French mourning (evening dress), not
in uniform, as so many of the English mourners were.
As the several portions of the procession reached
the park gates a change was made in its composition. A
troop of the Royal Irish Lancers from Woolwich, with
pennons flying on their lances bound with crape, and
with green plumes nodding as they rode, placed them-
selves at the head, coming out from their station under
the trees by the side of the common. Captain Paley
was here in command. When the mourners had passed
on, the dull rattle of the guns of the Royal Horse
Artillery, wheeling into the line of the cortege, was
also heard behind. The whole of the military display
was under the command of General Turner, command-
ing at Woolwich, with his staff, Colonel Markham,
Colonel Wrottesley, and Captain Loraine. So
mournful a ceremony was not looked at from the
point of view of a spectacle, and the dull sky was
utterly unfavourable to military display. There
was no sun to flash back from the helmets of the
Lancers or linger on the gold of the splendidly-mounted
Horse Artillery. But it was a most unusual and im-
pressive sight to see that strangely and variously com-
posed line of soldiers on horseback and priests and
mourners on foot moving slowly on the serpentine
road across the great uneven plain of the common with
thousands of spectators stationary on each hand. To
those who had suddenly lost a dear friend and a
cherished hope, or to those who thought of the child-
less Empress in her lonely house, and knew that the
chief mourners were Princes and that the Queen was
watching the procession from her black tribune unless
she had left it to console the sorrowing mother, the
sight was much more than impressive.
The head of the procession moved slowly on to the
mournfully swelling and diminishing cadences of the
Funeral March in A flat from the 11th sonata of
Beethoven. The common was thickly lined with
silent rows of spectators standing on the grass or in
carriages. Many stands had been erected and were
partially occupied. At the old church the Ist Kent
Administrative Battalion Rifle Volunteers 380 strong,
under Major Bristowe, were formed up slid presented
arms. Most of the ladies who attended the service
had gone beforehand to the church; but half-way
across the common M. Henri Chevreati brought
Madame Ferdinand de Lesseps, who is nearly related
to the Empress, to join the mourners and enter with
them. Abreast of the Catholic schools a lady
tottered forward with a wreath, which she handed to
the nearest person in the procession, begging him to
lay it on the coffin, and as she drew back she and a
younger lady with her burst into floods of tears. The
day was full of the like affecting sights, and it will
always be impossible for any one who saw those pas-
sionate outburts of grief to think of them without pain.
It was twelve o'clock, nearly an hour after leaving the
house, when St. Mary's Church was reached and the
gun wheeled round to allow the officers to raise
its load. The cadets formed in rows each side of
the way to permit the coffin to pass between them.
The little bell of St. Mary's Church tolling for
the soul of the departed was answered by the deeper
note of the bell from the steeple of the Anglican
church. The priests came out to meet the dead.
The Bishop of Southwark, in full pontificals, was pre-
ceded by Monsignor Goddard, in violet robes, and the
rest of the clergy. The officers. placed the coffin on
their shoulders. The Bishop sprinkled the coffin with
holy water and recited De Profundie, and then, pre-
ceded by the cross -bearer who had come from Camden
and by the whole of the clergy, he led the way for
the bearers into the church. The officers placed
the body on the catafalque before the sanctuary.
The mourners passed in. The high mars pro-
ceeded. When the eyes grew accustomed to the
gloom of the darkened little church, hung through-
out with sable cloth, on which the Imperial "N."
In gold glistened, while the cross and the figures of
the Virgin stood out in bold relief, it became possible
to see how illustriously it was tenanted. The Eng-
lish Princes who had borne the pall sat to right
and left of the coffin; the Imperial Princes on the
left. The Princess of Wales was in the gloom on the
right, Princess Yiathilde eat beside her brother and
nephews on the left. The only daylight came through
the Napoleon Chapel, just behind them, and lit up the
studious face of the young Prince Victor. Behind
stood a few gentlemen within the Napoleon Chapel
itself. Not many years ago, when the Emperor who
lies in the great sarcophogus there was brought to the
church, his fate seemed very tragic; but it was impos-
sible now not to feel that he was mercifully spared a
worse sorrow than any he experienced. Full of
despair, indeed, would be the answer if he could ask,
as the great modern English poet imagines another
dead chieftain asking when a new inmate is brought to
his place of burial—
"Who is he that cometh, like an honour'd guest,
With banner and with music, with soldier and with

priest,
With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?"
The black drapery barring the rest of the windows
made it difficult to see except near the Napoleon
Chapel, but the places reserved for the Ambassadors
contained the Turkish Ambassador, the Italian Am-
baseador and the Marquise de Menabrea, the German
Ambassador, and many others.
Within the sanctuary stood the mitred Bishop of
Southwark, who sang the solemn requiem mass, as-
sisted by Canon Bamber, with Father Reeks, as
deacon and Father Delaney as sub-deacon. Monsignor
Goddard read an English prayer at the end after the
Bishop had finished the one absolution. The Rev.
Father Crook was master of the ceremonial, with Mr.
Louis Clovis assisting. " Napoleonia Ludovici Engenii
anima" was the soul prayed for in the Latin
of the ritual. The Baronne de Caters-Lablache
sang a beautiful Ave Maria, by M. Saint-Saens,
the French composer who has written the new
cantata for the Birmingham Musical Festival.
She also sang "Pie Jean," by Faure. Other
solos were sung by Dr. Crookall, Mr. Doyle, and
a young French chorister. The chant was plain
Gregorian. M. Serpette accompanied the Baroness
Caters-Lablache. Miss Danvers, the usual organist,
accompanied most efficiently the remaining part of
the service, Monsignor de Las Cases, the former
Bishop of Constantine, was present, together with
Canons Crookall, Bamber, Doyle, O'Halloran, Wenham
and North. The last words of the English prayer
said by Monsignor Goddard were—" To Thee, 0 Lord,
we commend the soul of Thy servant Napoleon, that
being dead to this world he may live to Thee; and
whatever sins be has committed in this life through
human frailty do Thou in Thy merciful goodness for-
give, through our Lord Jesus Christ."
The beautiful words of the introit, "Requiem
mternam dons ei, Domine," were many times repeated.
The triple peal of the bell above the church told the
great crowd of mourners who were perforce excluded
from the little building and stood in the churchyard of
the elevation of the Host and chalice, and the
worshippers within heard with a sudden shock the
cadets fire their three volleys to the memory of their
comrade.
After the mass, which lasted till one, the procession
did not return to the house. Many remained at the
church, and the public flocked in to walk round
the corpse, to sprinkle it with holy water, and to add
wreaths to the many upon it, It was visited by
several thousands in the course of the day, and
so great was the pressure that at one time the palings
and the police were nearly swept away together
by those anxious to enter. The coffin, mean-
while, was vigilantly guarded by a watch of four
gentlemen at a time, chosen from the che-
valiers of the Imperialist cause, who relieved each
other from hour to hour. From twelve to one the
aides-de-camp to the Prince and M. Bachon were ap-
pointed to be on guard. At one the duty began of the
Marquis de Bassano, Comte Louis de Turenne,
Marquis de Castelbajac, and Colonel Brady, From
two to three Capitaine Bizet, Lieutenant l'Espinasse,
Sons-Lieutenant Conneau and Sous-Lieutenant Fleury
held their watch, and next came the tarn of the
Marquis de Massa, the Baron de Bourgoing, Pierre de
Bourgoing, and Cyprian Corvisart. They were suc-
ceeded by the Comte de Lab4doyere, M. Russo
Billaut, Due de Conegliano, Baron Tristan Laubert.
The last and longest duty fell at five to the Due de
Tr4vise, the Comte du Bourg, the Baron Tascher de
in Pagerie, and the Comte de la Poeze. At seven
the Princes of the Imperial house arrived again with
M. Pietri. A brief service was held by the clergy,
headed by Monsignor Goddard, and the coffin was
removed from the catafalque to the ante-sacristy in
which the Emperor's body to fora year till the side
chapel was built for his remains. In the ante-sacristy
it now lies, with the Queen's wreath, and those from
the Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Leopold
and Princess Beatrice's cross upon it.
The Queen returned at twelve, and the Prince of
Wales at 1.15. About 1,400 police were in attend-
anc.e. The South-Eastern Railway ran 32 special
trains to Chialehurst, and nearly as many hack. It
conveyed by these and the ordinary trains 11,000
passengers to Chisiehurst and carried from Chislehnnt
12,500,