NAPOLEON'S LAST WORDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6090, 29 January 1898, Page 7

NAPOLEON'S LAST WORDS.

DYING THOUGHTS OF THE MAN WHOM EUROPE FEARED On his death-bed Napoleon expressed his conviction that England would end like the proud Republic of Venice. With perfect composure, he gave his last directions : — " I desire that you will take my heart, put it in spirits of wine and, carry it to Parma to my dear Maria Louise ; you will tell her that I never ceased to love her, and relate to her every particular respecting my death upon this miserable and dreary rock. You&will tell my mother and family that the great Napoleon expired in the most deplorable state, deprived of everything, abandoned to himself and to his glory, and that he bequeathed with his dying breath to all the reigning families of Europe, the horror and opprobrium of his death." The second codicil of his will contained the direction which was afterwards complied with : "It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I love so well." On May 5,. 1821, he who, had for years ! kept all Europe in a state of feverish exj oitement, terminated his earthly career. I After lying in state two days, the body

i was deposited in a coffin composed first of tin lined with white satin, which having been soldered, was enclosed in another of mahogany, a third of lead, and the whole- ' in a fourth of mahogany secured with iron screws. After the ceremony, an j enormous stone was lowered over the body, j resting on a sbone wall so as to escape the • coffin. I On May 12 Louis Philippe commanded that the ashes of Napoleon be conveyed to France. In his communication he said: \ " Henceforth France, alone, will possess all that remains of Napoleon; his tomb, like f his fame, will belong to none but his country." I At eleven o'clock on Dec. 15 the first cannon was heard announcing that the remains of the Emperor had reached French ground. Amid the vast assemblage the body was borne by twenty-four seamen to its last resting-place in the Hotel des lnvalides. So closed the eventful career of the great Napoleon, whose memory can only J perish with the records of the world.