The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24

case and sodered up for all time. Madam Bertrand, wife of the French General Bertrand then on the island as Napo- Icons friend and sharing his exile, had expressed her determination to possess i the heart that had once throbbed with the impulses of the high tides of am- bition and that had triumphantly exalted at Jena, Austerlitz and on many another field of glory. The surgeon, fearing that Madam Bertrand in some surreptitious way might take possession of the heart, kept it all night in a wineglass in hls room, so that at any hour he might be assured that it was safe As the night wore on and no intruder appeared, the surgeon began to yield to the gentle in- fuences of drowsiness and half slept. He was, however, suddenly awakened in the night by the noise of crashing glass. He looked toward the wineglass. It was gone. and the heart of Napoleon with It. Quickly springing up, he found frag- ments of the glass on the floor, and to his horror he saw a huge rat with the heart in his teeth mal<ing-for hole In tho floor. He frightened the rodent into dropping the heart, which was taken up and finally soldered securely in a silver urn by one Sergeant Millington It was then placed in the coffin with the body and buried. When the body was exhumed and taken to Paris in the reign of Louis Philippe, to be laid at rest In Des In- valdes, the heart in the silver caslIet was still in the coffin and now rests in the dark brown sarcophegas under the droop- ing battle-rent flags of the old wars If the surgeon had not been awakened by the rats overturning the wine glass the heart of Napoleon would have been carried off and the world would have believed that Madam Bertrand had stolen it. But think of it! The heart of Napo- leon clutched by the teeth of rat
 To think of Napoleon is naturally to re- call the name of Josephine. While her heart had no post mortem -vicissitudes, having had enough in her sad life, yet, tn the second volume of the Memoirs of Josephine" issued in 1S29 there Is an extraordinary fact related. The Duo de Laura gnois was called to mourn the death of his beloved wife. He then had her heart taken from the body and by some chemical process he had 1t re- duced to small dark brown object with the quality of stone. It was then set into a finger ring, which he always wore. Yes. my dear young lady, he wore his vife's heart as a set to his finger ring. What, you say you Don't believe it?" Neither do l, but you will find it related in the memoirs.
 now give two facts widely separated in time and space. and a suggestion that might make the hearts referred to. one in fact Upon the approach of William and Mary to the city of London. James II of England fled. He next appeared in Ireland where the people loved him and espoused his cause. The last stand that he made for his rights was at the Battle of the Boyne" He then sought refuge in France as the guest of Louis XIV. and remained in France till his death. Before the burial his heart was taken from the body and deposited in little church a short distance out from Paris. This occurred in September. 1701. During the French Revolution, 17S9-9S. the Sans culotte had no more respect for royalty dead than for royalty living. They, there fore barbarously desecrated sacred