The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-11-17
Napoleon's Carriage.
ILoncon Telegraph


 l, is quite ia accordance with the .osx of fate thatthe state carriages of the Th.t: Napoleon should be exhibited in Eng land at six pence a head. Not for :he hrst time has the genial snowman made money out of the carriages of a Bona parte. More than sixty years ago ar e.- terprising gentleman named Bullock. the founder of the London museum, no. - Egyptian hall, Piceadilly, wrote to NJ. William Jerdan. afterwards well known as the editor of the Lii<yayy Ga-fti.. telling him that he was about 10 offer his collection for public sale, bu, that he Ra, resolved to be his own auetioneer. ana asking Mir. Jerdan to write some k,-G of little introductory address to be .e- livered on the occasion. |. especially as regarded a certain Bonapartian relic the famous imperial travelling carriage. which was captured by a party of Ftus. sian dragons, commanded by hiroa kohler, on the night of Waterloo.
 The history of this carriage is of the most curious nature. When it was los; Napoleon and his staff fled from the field on horseback, but the emperor was n wretched health and could scarcely keep his saddle. A, Phillippeville search vas made for carriage to convey the irn- periA fugitive and his suite, but nothing was found available for the purpose oe- yond an old post-chaise, half broken :o pieces, and in this dilapidaied chariot the vanquished usurper was about to resume his flight when some carriages belonsing to Marshal Soult entered the town and these the emperor's servants immedia a.ely seized for their masters use. Soul, los: his carriages and was prescribed into the bargain by the Bourbons for his adher- ence to Napoleon, but fate. always ironical, compensated him by permitting him 10 live long enough to be presen: as the ambassador extraordinary of France at the coronation of Queen Victoria.
 In order 10 attend that memorable pageant the marshal caused 10 be built one of the grandest state carriages ever seen. the model of which was for many years familiar object in a coach-trin- mer's window in Longacre. Napoleon $ travelling carriage was built at Brussels for the conveyance of the then master oi Europe on his fatal expedition 10 Russia. It carried him ts Moscow and back to Dresden and Paris. In iSil il bore him to the shores of the Mediterranean and was shipped with him to Elba- In March. 1915. the carriage was reshipped 70 Cannes. Napoleon's triumphal journey 10 Paris was made in this carriage nor would he quit it, although state carnage had been dispatched from the French capital 10 meet him.
 IL bore him. hnally, to Waterloo and destruction. With this heavy but admir- ably nlled "berline" a greater literary interest IS associated than turks in the fac, iha, MT. Bullock asked NIT. Jerdan 10 write an auc;ioneer's puff abou, ,t.e |" Bonapartian relic" It's roominess and oommodiousness appear 10 have a,trac,ed the attention of an illus,rious English poet. In any case. MT. ]. (. Jeafrreson. in The Real Lord Byron" tell US ;h 4, when the Noble Childe, af,er his separa- ton from his wife. repaired to the Cont nen,. he had built for him at Brussels a travelling carriage which was an eNac, replica of the imperial "oerline" cap tured al Waterloo. Mir. Jeaffreson adds tha, Byron. characteristically enough. quarte,led with the Brussels eoachraker about the bill.