New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-03-13
The TOmbs of the BOnapartes.


Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power,
could not think of having his family sepul-
chre in A accio. He determined to build
mausoleum in the church of st. Denis, where
a dozen dynasties sleep in the grave. How
he succeeded and what came of it is told by
the London NerS, which says that he had
splendid vault built in the old cathedral, I'M
der which linger associations of Dagobert, St.
Louis, Charlemagne, and Joan of Arc. He
gave out by imperial decree that "St Denis
was to be the place of sepulture of the Ma
polconic dynasty" and, as was his energetic
wont, set about repairing the place, after the
ravages of the revolutionists, who, at the in
stgation of the amiable Barrere, had smashed
the monuments and tombs of the kings, and
made bullets out Of their collins. But the
stately old resting place of the old royalty of
France would have none Of the COrsican par
venu. The roof fell in and smashed the Bo-
naparte vault with stern crash of remOn-
STRANGE, and although the indomitable little
corporal set his face, as was his wont in such
circumstances, to thwart the repugnance of
st. Denis, other crashes came, which toppled
down, not vault, this time, but himself and
his dynasty. His dust, after its long exile
under the willow tree of st. Helena, rests
now in the Invalides and the Commune, if
it dragged down the Vendome column, at
least contrived to hold its hand from desc
Grating the tomb of the man who won the
victories which that monument commence
rated. Josephine lies among the orange
trees of Malmaison, and that Inflated youth
whom fortune Knocked by the title of king of
Rome, but whom such of the world as cared
to know anything of him at all knew better
as the Duke of Reichstadt, lies in the vaults
of SchOnbrun. OF Joseph, of Lucian, of
Charles, Of Jerome, the brothers whom no
~
coax or hustle into standing alone as royal
or Napoleonic personages, who cares to
know the resting places? Suffice it to say
that when the man Of December shot and
intrigued his way to imperial power in 1851
=, the "Napoleonic dynasty remained still
without a place of sepulture." Like his I'M
Gle, he, too, tried to make one for it within
the walls of the cathedral of st. Denis, but
again the conservative old place revolted
against the attempt, and sent piece of its
roof tumbling down upon the stone masons.
st. Denis, it was clear, would have none of
dead Bonapartism.
But long prior to this failure, the ashes of
some of the Bonapartists, in an informal and
quite an imperialistic manner, had come to
live under the same roof. About six miles
due north from Montmorency, there rises the
church spire of Napoleon St. Leu. On the
slope above the village there once stood a
chateau, now demolished. About the year
1903 there came thither to reside, first at in |
teryals, afterwards permanently until 1915, |
lady whose maiden name had been HOrtense |
Beauharnais, and who had been welded, as |
it was said, unwillingly, by Louis Bonaparte,
a younger brother of the great Emperor. |
Her husband had been made King of Hol- |
land-with as much reluctance, it was said, |
as he had taken Hortense to wife. But Hor- |
cd Iar
such flying visits as he made TO Holland, and |
preferred to remain in or about Paris, living |
now at the Tuileries, now at st. Leu, now at |
now at Malmaison. 1t was |
at ST. Leu that the eldest boy, Napoleon |
Charles, died in 1907, year before his |
brother, he who died on Thursday, was |
born. Napoleon Charles, the little Prince |
ROYAL Of Holland, was buried in a mausoleum |
in the park of the chateau of st. Leu.
Thither, too, King Louis had fetched from
where the old follower of Paoli
had died in 1885, the body of his father. old |
Charles Marie Napoleon Of Corsica, the
father of the whole stock. After the second
the Chateau of st. Leu passed /
INTO the hands Of the duke of Bourbon, who
yrudged house room in his park to the rela-
lives Of him at whose instance the duke of
Enghen was shot. So he bundled the cof-
ins outside, and pulled down the mauso-
cum; but charity interposed no obstacle in
.he way of the cure of st. Leu, when that
worthy man would find refuge for the out
,asts in the vaults of his church-vaults not
unworthy Of any ashes, for they were the
burial place Of the Montmorencies. The two
BOnapartes, dead already in st. Leu, were
oined later by two more. Louis Philippe,
although he would not tolerate in France the
living frebrand, Louis Napoleon, did not
n he int in en- n
lead Louis Napoleon, his elder brother,
when that ardent young republican died at
7orli in 1881, after the abortive rising in the
oapal States. In which the two brothers took