CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1900-06-21
THE FUNERAL OF NAPOLEON.
cold Favorite series.)

(Old EavOrite Serfes.)
TAT the time of the second burial of
Napoleon the following poem appeared
In the Maple Leaf, Canadian publica-
tion of that day. 1t has been popular
ever since. and can be found in many col
lections of poetry credited to an anony-
nous writer. 1t was written by Sir John
II, Hagarty, late Chief Justice of the
Province of Ontario, then young law
yer IN Torontol
Cold and brilliant streams the sunlight
on the wintry banks of Seine,
Gloriously the imperial city rears her
pride OF tower and fame
Solcmnly with deep voice pealeth, Notre
Dame. thine ancient chime.
Minute-guns the death-bell answer In the
same deep. measured time.
On the unwonted stiffness gather sounds
of an advancing host.
As the rising tempest chafeth on st. Hell
ems far-off coast
Nearer rolls a mighty pageant-clearer
swells the funeral strain.
From the barrier arch of Neuilly pours
the giant burial train.
Dark with eagles is the sunlight--darkly
on the golden air
Flap the folds of faded standards. elo-
quenhy mourning there
Der the pomp of glittering thousands.
Tatter'd fig of Jena, Friedland, Arcola
and Austerlitz.
Eagle-crowned and garland-circled. slow
ly moves the stately car.
Mid the sea of plumes and horsemen-
all the burial pomp of war
Riderless war-worn charger follows his
dead masters bier
Long since battle-trumpet reused him
he but lived to follow here.
From his grave. mid oceans dirges.
moaning surge and sparkling foam,
Lo, the Imperial Dead returneth; 10. the
Hero-dust comes home!
He hath left the Atlantic island. lonely
vale and willow tree.
Meath the Invalides to slumber. mid the
Gallo chivalry.
Glorious tomb DER glorious sleepers! gall
liant fellowship to share
Paladin and Peer and Marshal-France.
thy noblest dust is there!
Names that light thy battle annals
names that shook the heart of earth!
Stars in crimson Wars horizon-syno-
nyms for martial worth!
Room within that shrine of heroes! place.
pale spectres of the past!
Homage yield, ye battle phantoms! Lo.
your mightiest comes at lastl
from prophetic trumpet's lips?
Was his type the ghostly horseman sha-
dowed in the Apocalypse?
Gray-haired soldiers gather round him.
relics OF an age of war.
Followers of the Victor-Eagle, when his
flight was wild and far:
Men who painted in the death strife on
Rodrigo's bloody ridge.
Hearts that sickened at the death-shriek
from the Russians shattered bridge:
Men who heard the immortal war-cry of
the wild Egyptian fight
Forty centuries o'erlook us from yon
Pyramids gray height"
They who heard the moans of jana. and
the breach of Acre knew
They who rushed their foaming war
Gteeds on the squares of Waterloo
They who loved him-they who feared
him-they who in his dark hour
hed-
Round the mighty burial gather. SPELL
bound by the awful Dead!
Churchmen - Princes = Statesmen-War-
riors-all Kingdoms chief array,
And the Fox stands-crowned mourner-
by the Eagles hero-clay!
But the last high rite is paid him. and
the last deep knell is rung-
And the cannon's iron voices have their
thunder requiem sung
And. mid banners idly dropping. silent
gloom and mouldering state,
Shall the Trampler of the world upon the
Judgment-trumpet walt.
Yet his ancient foes had given him nobler
monumental pile.
Where the overlapping dirges moaned
around the burial isle
Pyramid upheaved by Ocean in his lone
Hest wilds afar,
For the War-King thunder stricken from
his fiery battle-car!